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Yeah. Is it the right or left foot?

I think you may need to say more.

Diddy 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).

It'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 (TREE-ko) 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 (GROW-vile). 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 (SEP-tile). 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 (TOR-chick) 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 (com-BUS-ken) 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 (BLAZE-uh-ken) 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 (MUD-kip) 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 (MARSH-stomp) 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 (SWAM-pert) 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.

Did I say Minions? Autocorrect. I meant Moomins of course.

Honestly, I think Gen III might be my favourite overall when it comes to starter designs? Not counting Mega Evolutions (to make it a fair comparison) I really like/love 6 of the 9 starter line designs this time around. As a quick aside - because I hadn't thought of tracking it that way before - for Kanto it would be 4 of the 9 (Bulbasaur, Squirtle, Wartortle and Charizard), and for Johto it would be 4 of the 9 again (Bayleef, Totodile, Feraligatr and Typhlosion). I'll try to keep on top of this list to create a mini-rankings for myself as these go on! Anyways favourite line of Gen III is the Treecko line. PMD aside - which is a pretty big thing to put aside, all things considered - I just have a pretty unique history with the line in the games. I've mentioned it on here before, many years ago (holy cow, six years ago?!), so I'll just quote myself from that other awesome Glen-generated thread So Treecko is definitely the coolest one to choose off the bat of the bunch for me, and I'm sure that Ash's always having a twig in its mouth in the anime only upped the coolness. Grovyle is again the coolest of the first evolutions, and in terms of final evolutions, I think Sceptile is on par with Blaziken for being the coolest (and as a Mega Evolution, too). After that, for me, it's the Mudkip line. Mudkip and Marshtomp are adorable. I mean just look at lil barista Marshtomp here. Idk what happened with Swampert - definitely the line to suffer from ugly final evo syndrome this time around, yet it's not even cool! - but Mega Swampert looks hilariously jacked and I love it. Torchic looks dumb. Combusken looks even more dumb. Blaziken and Mega Blaziken look awesome. Real ugly duckling thing going on here for a Pokémon based on a chicken... I'm not too sure about Treecko leaving - if he did, it certainly wasn't for very long, as it felt like Ash had it in his team a good amount of the time, and as a Grovyle even longer! He also ends up becoming a trusty Sceptile, too, but yeah, he certainly could've left at some point...a lot of Ash's Pokémon do choose to take a sabbatical or go AWOL at some point May getting Torchic was so...strange, in hindsight. Just doesn't suit the idea of a contest Pokémon at all (at least in the way that May approached contests) after being a cute little Torchic and going into an ugly and streaky Combusken, and then into the cool as hell Blaziken. Beautifly always felt like it was more appropriate as a contest Pokémon for May, and so it felt like her starter got shoved off to the sides a lot of the time The coolest use of the line in the anime was actually Harrison turning up with a Blaziken towards the end of Ash's journey in Johto, felt like a great tease for what was to come next I'm Hoenn. Really loved whenever the anime would do that sort of thing. And then yeah, you're right, Mudkip - and then later Marshtomp - was just kind of...there, and Lotad/Lombre/Ludicolo certainly got centre stage as his main Pokémon in Hoenn. Again, just another really strange choice for that one.

Rare saved Nintendo again with this one. Nintendo had nothing prepared for the 1997 Xmas season in the west as all of their internal titles got delayed (Yoshi's Story just barely squeaked out on Dec 21st 1997 in Japan, but would have to wait until March 1998 in the US and May 1998 over here), and Rare once again swooped in with this surprise release to save Nintendo's hide. And it would go on to be a massive success, selling more than 4.5 million copies (making it the 8th best selling game for the console). I won't bother going into all the development history, because you probably all know it already (started as RC Pro Am 64, morphed into a Timber Racing game, Diddy got shoved in at the last minute etc), but it's an important release not just because it helped save the N64, not just because it was a huge influence on the genre as a whole, but also because it was the start of Rare's Cinematic Universe. Banjo and Conker would get their starts here, and other characters would go on to cameo in other games. In fact, Dinosaur Planet was originally going to be based in the same universe, before being retrofitted into a Starfox title (yes, Tricky in Dinosaur Planet is supposed to be the same dinosaur that you race against here as a boss in Dino Domain!). But alas, the Rare buyout happened, the once great ship began to tear apart at the seams, and the studio's plans for the rest of the DKR cast would eventually be cast asunder... (and the less said about what happened with Bumper, the better...) But yeah, DKR is a masterpiece of a game. It's the best racing game of its generation and one of the best racing games ever made. Bloody tragic that Donkey Kong Racing on the Gamecube would never end up happening... and oh, what happened to you Bumper...

That's because it's so much better, it's not even funny. Can't wait for this to get on NSO! Online on this will be great. Especially Two Player Adventure! Show me someone who insists Plane is the the best, and I'll show you someone who loses to me in a car!

I had a quick go of it and had no idea what I was supposed to do. I was looking at the box art for the game and noticed the name of the enemies. Was Ben Elton a fan of this game?

So my Portal arrived earlier today, got a good chance to play a few games on it. It's really, really good. The input lag is almost negligible and the screen is really vibrant. The controller basically feels like a normal PS5 pad. I can see myself using this often when I can't access the TV.

You just can’t please people. And I bet that if it was a shot-for-shot remake, they’d moan about why did they make it like than when we have the cartoon. They should have tried something different. I haven’t started it yet but think I will be doing so next week. I heard the episodes were an hour long each.?

Well, well. This seems like it'll be a good one. Unfortunately, it's another of those that's a poor demo because it's the start of the game—I had it on for about 90 mins and the gameplay to watching scenes ratio wasn't the best. I'd rather it dropped you into a few scenarios minus the excessive storytelling. I could definitely get immersed in managing these troops. The menus and customisation look pretty overwhelming at first glance so there must be a good bit of depth to it. The knockbacks, stamina, toggling which of yours will act when you've more than one bearing down on an enemy, the way it forecasts the outcome before you commit, the valor moves. Not that any of this matters in the early going as encounters take care of themselves and it starts you off with a lvl 20 character to fall back on. I didn't use him as soon as I had more characters than I was allowed to deploy and they still waltzed to victory. I just plumped for the middle difficulty. I don't care about the story or setting but I'm sure I'd get into it as the game unfolds. Very interested in this from the small taste I got of how the gameplay works. My main question would be the length because I'd be worried it's going to overshoot the sweet spot by 100 hours.

Don't make him the victim, he knows what he did!

Don't listen to him, @EEVILMURRAY. Please say less. please

Heads up for anyone insane enough to pay LRG's price for a physical GBA copy, the pre-order page is up now. And a new mini trailer showing the GBA version... ... no? Just me? Ok then. Can't blame you TBH.

No, don't do that. This is Pokémon, that's a terrible idea.

I watched the first episode last night. Very pleasantly surprised. I thought it captured the feeling of the original pretty well, and didn't come across as a fan-made film or a parody or anything. It did feel a bit low budget in places, but that's always going to be the case for a TV show compared to a blockbuster film. My only real gripe with the first episode was the actress playing the old woman in Wolf Cove was pretty bad. Her line delivery was terrible. I'm trying not to read any reviews or reactions online (at least until i've finished it), but dear god some of the people on Reddit are unhinged. It's not a shot-for-shot remake of the cartoon and is therefore absolute garbage.

Good man They played it last night during the encore and it was a banger! What a concert. Aside from some power issues, which caused a mid-concert delay, City Haunts being aborted and two songs being played early, it was awesome. The two songs were Drawing Pins and Lover, Please Stay. The latter was sooooo good. Connor's voice is a marvel. After those songs, they finally played City Haunts and I did not expect Connor to hit all those notes live I should have, but that song is tough! Anyways, I cried during three songs: Tomorrow is Closed, as expected; Lover, Please Stay - did not expect that, but it's such a beautiful song; Impossible - how can you not @Julius go see them if you ever get the chance. Edit: Forgot to mention: They apparently didn't play Pop The Balloon due to the power issues But they played Trip Switch. It's kinda funny when you know the lyrics. Just found out that instead of Pop The Balloon they added Drawing Pins. During the tour they switch Drawing Pins with This feels like the End from concert to concert but they played both last night

Strange Journey Redux was a remake though, not released for the same console. The mainline SMT series has only ever pulled this stunt once before, with SMT 3 Maniax (and that was also a unique case of an enhanced international version being back ported to Japan; since we never got the vanilla version at all in the west). I can understand not expecting them to do this with SMT 5, especially with DLC now being an option too.

Thanks for the games. (for the less than half an hour that I played) Here's a link to this week's stream... - - - - - N-Europe Get Together! 22/02/2024)

Finished 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

Reviews are starting to drop, and while it's very early on and these numbers will probably come down a little in the coming days as more reviews release, currently sitting at 93 on OpenCritic and 94 on Metacritic! Obligatory Digital Foundry tech breakdown: Seven Days till the End [of this nearly four-year wait!]

Hell yeah, another true believer That dungeon slaps Glad to hear you enjoyed it so much This is the sort of game that sticks with a person. Well, I'm thinking the original, at the very least.

Polished 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

So trying the new Dread mode difficulty. Was try a tactic to keep distance and not even risk counters if I could help it ...how long did it take me to do something stupid? ...this long