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Found the other guy who wants the Banjo franchise to die again!

Picked this up from my local charity shop for 10p on Saturday. Apart from the crack on the front of the case, it's in fantastic condition. Also got these two off eBay last week, I was looking for World Driver and came across it with Ridge Racer 64 for £70 including P&P. Managed to get £5 knocked off which seemed a fair price for the condition of both. https://i.imgur.com/xOJMx4H.jpeg[/img Added bonus, he included box protectors for both for free. I keep meaning to take some photos of my N64 collection as its grown significantly over the last 12 months but it means taking all the games off the shelf and they are alphabetised. I don't want to do it!

I do agree it would be disappointing, but it also suggests to me that the Switch 2 announcement might come before the next Direct proper? There are still absolutely games for them to put windows and dates to releasing this year on the Switch, but with their financial year end just seven weeks away at the end of March and their fiscal report typically dropping at the end of April/start of May, I think you could bundle a lot of those announcements into a Switch 2 event eventually, assuming that there's some backwards compatibility going on ("and here are the games coming to both Switch and Switch 2"). Wouldn't be the first time someone's announced a new system only to double back in a following event to their current one. Remember that PS4-only State of Play towards the end of the summer in 2020? Not saying it's a good idea and that Nintendo is going to be that silly with it, mind you I'm imagining a scenario with Banjo popping up to confirm a Nuts & Bolts port and that being it from Xbox, would love to see the fallout from that But yeah, I'll be shocked now if they don't turn up in a Direct (mini?): Partner Showcase, that was a good shout @Dcubed! Man, it's hard to imagine what that could look like. Over/under 70% on the odds of a Phil Spencer cameo in the Direct if Xbox do turn up?

Now that we've more or less reached the 1 year anniversary of the US launch of the N64. I think we can get a decent picture of how dire the post-launch software drought really was. A grand total of four non-sports/non-Mahjong Japanese developed 3rd party games for the console across the span of an entire year. Four. And of those four, the first one took an entire 5 months to come out after the Japanese launch (and remained Japan only). Tetrisphere is a fine enough puzzle game, but it ended up coming across as underwhelming at its release because the console was running on absolute fumes at this point, and people were desperate for a meaty, good quality action or RPG title. Unfair expectations, true, but expectations nonetheless. It's a decent puzzle game, but it was the wrong game at the wrong time for the console.

All the hubub about Xbox being about to pull a SEGA has got me feeling sentimental about the ol' Dreamcast once more... I still stand by what I said in this thread earlier about SEGA's last console. What a machine that machine was! I'll never forget just how much of a gut punch the news of its discontinuation was; it was a console that really should've been a runaway success. But much like the Xbox Series, it had to pay a dear price for the sins of its fathers... Me thinks it's time to fire up the ol' dog over the coming week...

I started reading that last year after it was getting a lot of buzz. Didn't get too far into it but I need to go back to it at some point.

Happy birthday old boy. Make it a great one.

Tetrisphere NA release: 11th August 1997 PAL release: February 1998 JP release: N/A Developer: H2O Publisher: Nintendo N64 Magazine Score: 69% If you thought that Tetrisphere is a Tetris-like game that is played on a sphere then, surprisingly, you would be wrong. It didn’t even start out as a Tetris licensed game, but rather a game called Phear on the Jaguar, before ended up going to the N64 instead and published by Nintendo with the Tetris branding. I remember playing it as a kid and being confused, but the tutorial explains the game quite well and it’s quite simple. You’ll see a shadow of your next piece. You have to line it up so it connects to two or more matching pieces, they’ll disappear – get rid of large amounts and you’ll get power ups. There are different modes, but the general goal is to clear enough of the inner sphere. While the starting pieces need lining up exactly, the more complex just seem to need one part touching a matching piece, which ends up making them much easier to score combos with. The power ups come in different types, but seem to be just different animations for removing large amounts of blocks. To help with combos, you can also drag pieces around by lining them up with the shadow and holding B. Tetrisphere is quite relaxed for a puzzle game, and the failure state is making three mistakes, although the shadow showing your target handily shows if your placement is good or not. It’s an entertaining puzzle game, although while it has a lot of modes, they all still feel like the same game. The game doesn’t mix things up enough, so ends up feeling a little bit basic. Remake or remaster? A re-release is fine for Tetrisphere. Official ways to get the game. There is no official way to get Tetrisphere.

Yeah, I just renewed on Monday (thanks again to @RedShell for pointing out the price on Shopto) and need to start digging into the GBA stuff. I'm still hoping for some more Mega Drive titles to show up. Annoys me that Shining in the Darkness has yet to hit the service. I still need to get around to playing Soleil/Crusader of Centy as well.

N64 is all caught up now, GBA only has F-Zero Maximum Velocity left to go out of the previously announced games. They seemed to stop following their specified order of releases a good few months back though, so they’re just releasing whatever they feel like at this point really.

More Spirits are to be added this week.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts @Jonnas and @Ike, think you've convinced me that watching Z is probably the best way to go about it for me got to imagine if I ever rewatch it that going from Z to the shorter Kai would help too. Let's be honest though, this was the real turning point: So, I hate that I already knew about the driving lesson episode, and I hate even more that it sounds EXACTLY like it's up my alley. It being exclusive to Z seals the deal I think

I'd say just go for whether you want to experience the full thing or save some time. Kai has a better dub if you prefer dub, although I'd recommend watching the sub. Kai cut the driving lesson filler episode which is required viewing so you need to go watch that separate. They did (eventually), I don't think they cut that much, if anything at all, except the Japanese release which had fewer episodes.

Completely agree. I think most of it all it shows a lack of care for actually creating games and game development in general. There's very little new they've developed from scratch over the last two generations that has been on a big scale - i.e. not just games released from studios they recently acquired and weren't involved with from the start. They are a company that pretty much subtract and we've seen with their acquisitions that they're actually walling off content and making things worse for people who just want to play previously multiplatform games. Spencer has been at the helm for so long and has ample opportunity to reverse this. The most bizarre thing for me has been to see that he's had supporters over the past decade. I suppose when people see Game Pass, which has been heavily subsidised by Microsoft in terms of the promotional £1 upgrades and subscription stacking, people have attributed that great value to him? The costly subsidising will no doubt have been a decision for Microsoft to sign off on rather than him, just like the decision to (likely) go multiplatform is probably out of his hands, too. The real decisions he's actually been able to make, like starting game developments from scratch, or supervising game development closely - clearly he never made those decisions.

Excellent choice! OG Dragon Ball is so fun to watch. Regarding Kai, the filler doesn't just extend to episodes or mini-arcs, there are full minutes of silence, flashbacks, or even imagine spots, in the original Z that just... fill episodes with nothing. Sure, sometimes there's proper tension, but the pace is far slower than what anybody remembers. On the flip-side, the mini-arcs and episodes of filler that DO exist in the original are actually very entertaining. That said, the original Z does have the original score, as well as uncensored violence. Those are pretty important, too. Finally, I don't think the entire Buu arc was ever adapted to Kai, so there's that (and to be fair, the Buu arc is far better about those Z issues I mentioned. It's a much brisker pace, that arc)

Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon JP release: 7st August 1997 NA release: 16th April 1998 PAL release: 18th April 1998 Developer: Konami Publisher: Konami N64 Magazine Score: 90% I remember seeing the scores for Mystical Ninja in N64 magazine, but it didn’t seem like my kind of game. I was very wrong about that – Goemon’s first N64 game is kind of a hybrid of Super Mario 64 and Ocarina of Time, mixed with edo era Japan and a gloriously absurd plot of musical performers trying to turn Japan into their stage. The game starts out in a Zelda-style town, but what’s impressive is that this is from before Ocarina of Time. You can swap between Goemon and Ebisumaru (plus more you meet along the way) at any time, each with their own set of weapons and abilities. These are uses sparingly throughout the game, so for the most part you can play as who you prefer. Connecting each town is a large overworld with some nice locations. The first one I encountered brought back strong childhood memories as I recognised the music from Krazy Konami Racers, but the rest of the music in the game is also great, with lots of great tracks throughout the game. I was bopping my head to quite a lot of the music which mixes classical and modern instrument sounds. Dungeons also play a big part in the game. While there are map/compass items to collect and keys to find, they’re a lot more platform-oriented than Zelda dungeons. One downside is the game’s camera (which can be turned holding R and using the c-buttons), but it’s something you get used to. While there are some bottomless pits, other areas just have you fall to a section where you work your way back – although one handy thing is that there’s no fall damage. There’s also a variety of other sections, including multiple giant robot boss fights, which treat you to a song each time you use your giant robot, Impact. Each starts off with an arcade-style section to build up your health and ammo before taking a first person perspective as you shoot and punch your opponent. It’s a lot of fun, although they do become more frustrating the longer they go on. Goemon is an incredibly charming game that’s still a ton of fun to play. Some of the puzzles do have a sign flat out telling you what to do, although these mainly relate to Ebisumaru’s camera item, which reveals hidden things, so I would probably get stuck without being reminded that the object exists. Even with that, the main story is amusingly silly and the game likes throwing new things at you. It’s a great game. Remake or remaster? An updated version of Mystical Ninja would be great, with a better camera and fine tuned controls. A bit of extra side content would also be welcome. And perhaps a quest log as instructions are a but unclear at times. Official ways to get the game. There is no official way to get Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon.