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Yeah, great little game. Glad to hear you also enjoyed it. Been a while since I posted an update, hmm... let's see if I can remember what I've played... Well, February got pretty much completely taken over by one game, a controversial game that a lot of people loved to hate, I am of course talking about: Palworld: While I wasn't exactly sold on it at first, I ended up getting hooked on the damn thing and then couldn't stop playing it! As an early access game (and one made by an inexperienced dev team at that) it obviously has quite a lot of issues, and it's not exactly the most original game ever made *cough* but you know what? Neither of those things stopped it from (eventually) being a lot of fun! Played it for around 100 hours in total and in that time I caught the majority of the Pokém-err... Pals, defeated all bosses and unlocked every achievement. It was the base building aspect that ended up appealing to me the most though, it's super simple to use yet pretty flexible in what it allows you to build. But me being me, I went and made a 15 storey Baby Face tower for my main base: Yep, it was just a bit big: So yeah, base building was really great, and alongside being able to make essentially any shape base you like, there's an assortment of furniture items available to craft for decoration. It's cute how your Pals also help out with constructing stuff and can be assigned to various tasks within the base itself, like planting/harvesting food, manufacturing items or weapons, etc. And depending on the type of Pal/skills, they'll be better suited to certain tasks, it makes collecting and levelling them up feel a lot more worthwhile as a result. Unlike in Pokémon, where I always focus on my team and all remaining Pokémon are just left gathering dust in the storage box, in Palworld you want to have a load of different Pals trained up and then set to your base/s. Another aspect where Palworld seems to make an improvement over Pokémon is in the online play department, although it's not something I personally tested, as far as I'm aware the entire game is playable in co-op. No doubt a contributing factor to the crazy success of this game. Despite Palworld one-upping Pokémon in some areas though, it still needs work, it's an ambitious title with a lot going on and all in a huge open world, Pals can get stuck on parts of the environment, characters will randomly T-pose, all that sort of fun stuff. There were already a few updates back while I was still playing that fixed up some bugs, including a major one where it was possible to capture bosses! That's right, not just the Pals, but their NPC trainers too! Luckily I managed to "catch 'em all" before the fix arrived, an unusual advantage of playing via Game Pass, where patches would be delayed over the Steam version. Oh, quick mention on the music before I move on. For the most part it was basically non-existent, as they were going for that BotW vibe just some light piano here and there. So I'd come to the conclusion that the game wasn't going to offer much in that regard, but then I was hit with this!: Crazy good! It's basically the only memorable track from the entire game (for me at least) but yeah, what a belter. Anyway, I stand by what I said about Palworld originally, in that I just hope its success will snap Game Freak out of their rut. It's quite frankly embarrassing how a small rookie studio (regardless of how they went about it) has been able to produce a more entertaining "Pokémon" game than any of the recent titles in that series. Game Freak needed a wake up call, and hopefully this is it. While subbed to Game Pass I noticed Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night had returned to the service, it's a game that I'd previously played through on there and really enjoyed, so I decided to download and check it out again. A couple of hours into it and I was having such a blast once more that I realised I should probably just buy it, so picked up a copy on Steam. It's rare that I replay games, but this one is so good that I simply couldn't resist. I absolutely love it! The visuals, the music, the flow of the game and huge variety of weapons and movesets all make it super replayable. There's only 1 thing wrong with Bloodstained, and that's the atrocious font they used for the dialogue text. Yuck! What were they thinking with that!? I tried searching for a mod to change it to a serif style, something a bit more... Gothic, but there was nothing. I know, that's such a trivial thing to complain about, but it still really annoys me. On the plus side, I discovered other mods that helped distract me from the horrible font at least. @Jonnas, I see this is one of your games to play this year, hope you get around to it. Very briefly revisited Stray to check out a mod that let's you play as Garfield: Game is now 11/10. No More Heroes III: This also popped up on Game Pass, having already played 1, 2 and Travis Strikes Again, I figured I should finally give 3 a go as well. But apart from the combat (which was really good) and the humour (that's so unbelievably stupid it made me laugh, a lot ) it's probably the weakest entry in the series, I just wasn't a fan of the way it's structured. You have several large areas with pretty much nothing in them that are just like hubs for mission markers, you then have to do a number of these repetitive missions to open up the boss battles, that was ok initially, but towards the later stages of the game it got pretty tiresome. I would've preferred some proper levels to explore with a greater number of enemies to progress through occasionally. Anyway, the boss battles and ridiculous story/cutscenes were enough to keep me playing through to the end, but were it not for those things I would've struggled to finish it I reckon. Dead Rising: Where the hell has this game been all my life?! So I randomly purchased this on Steam as I was in the mood for even more silliness after NMH3, and let's just say that this game did not disappoint! Playing this for the very first time in 2024 was quite the experience, a fantastic blast from the past, back when big developers were still relatively free to make highly entertaining games without needing to worry about political correctness and all the other constrictive nonsense they have to deal with now. Anyway, won't go into details on what I liked about this game, because that's basically everything! So I'll instead comment on the single aspect that I truly hated and that stops Dead Rising from being absolutely perfect, and that's its boss battles. My word, frustrating doesn't even begin to describe how awful they are. Damage sponges that can destroy you within seconds using attacks that are so damn cheap it feels like encountering a cheater in an online game. You need to either possess super human reflexes, or cheese the AI in some way to create a window of opportunity to attack. And even then they can just pull a completely unpredictable move which will be impossible to react to. Infuriating. Terrible bosses aside though, this game is gold. The setting, the freaky characters, the OTT (non-boss) gameplay ... so much fun. I was also super impressed by the amount of zombies on screen simultaneously and the multitude of ways they react to attacks too, that must've been so impressive back in 2006! It still holds up really well today. I completely lost it the first time I threw a metal pipe at one and it got stuck inside them. "Let off some steam, Bennett!" I've come to realise that apart from some indie stuff I actually have a lot more fun playing older games now than modern ones, so I'm going to try and catch up on other classics that I might have missed out on over the years, provided they can be found on PC. Hopefully I'll be able to discover some other wacky gems like Dead Rising. Well, that's my gaming diary up to now, I think. The only other thing I've been playing regularly alongside everything else is Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, N-E online battles on Saturday's and creating custom stages the rest of the time I'm on it. Yep, still addicted to making those, here are some screens of my latest creations:

I’ve played a few GameBoy games on NSO recently: Kirby’s Dream Land It was nice to see where the pink (err… white) puffball started, but ultimately felt this was pretty underwhelming. I appreciate the inhale technique was improved in future games with the ability to take on abilities. Here you can suck enemies in and spit them out. While this created the unique attacking concept for defeating many enemies, the fact that you can simply inhale air and spit it out as an attack nulled a lot of the need for me to use enemies as projectiles instead. Yes this would’ve been impressive and likely fun at the time, as far as early handheld platformers go, but really feeling its age now for me. Super Mario Land 2 The bulky sprites make this look like a Mario game and add character to the cast. However, the compromise of having large characters on a small screen meant the gameplay is really slowed down to allow for the subsequent small viewing area. Not as good as I remember. Just so slow with a low difficulty level. It’s not a tricky game. It was fun finding the hidden exits, but even though I hadn’t played this in around a decade (as a download on 3DS) I was able to blast through it in just over an hour, finding most of the hidden routes. I can imagine most people getting through it faster.

Princess Peach Will Star As The Main Character In A Brand New Game is effectively a spiritual sequel to the DS title, Super Princess Peach. It's an action-adventure game developed by Good-Feel for the Switch that released quite recently. Peach gets an invitation to the Sparkle Theater. Of course, trouble follows Peach like a bad smell, and the theater is almost immediately overtaken by the evil witch, Grape, and her Sour Bunch minions. The performers of the Sparkle Theater are missing, so it falls to Peach to team up with the guardian spirit of the theater, Stella, to utilise the power of Sparkle to take over pivotal roles of various plays and use those abilities to fight back. The big selling point here is the various transformations that Peach gets throughout the game. Normally, Peach has a somewhat limited ribbon attack as her only action other then jumping, but when she finds some Sparkle, what she's able to do changes depending on the setting of the play she's in. I don't think that's a real horse? This provides a decent amount of variety to gameplay, it's still very simple and an absolute breeze to get through (Good-Feel aren't exactly strangers to that mantra), with the only possible challenge coming from optional things, like finding all the Sparkle Gems dotted throughout the game. There's nothing inherently wrong with an easy game, and I enjoyed my time with it. The aesthetic style in this game is great! Loads of nice touches that sell the idea of everything taking place on a stage. Another nice detail is Peach herself. Her animations all change to reflect the costume she's in, and it's really impressive. It can't be faulted, in that regard. That said, the frame rate of this game takes a noticable dip at times, this only seems to happen in the hub area, and cutscenes, so it doesn't affect actual gameplay, making it merely a minor annoyance. I swear, it was like this when I got here! The music is... fine. Doesn't really stand out to me, though. So yeah, this is a fun game. Doesn't set the world alight, mind.

Wrecking Crew '98, Amazing Hebereke, and SUPER R-TYPE are landing on the service...today!

As it happens, I was buying some N64 carts for the shop, and one of the cart-only games I picked up was Wetrix... I might give it a try this week before someone buys it.

Just got the first couple of hours tonight and am creeping up to the inciting incident – taking much, much longer than both Suikoden and Suikoden II to get there, but we're certainly getting there. So, anyways, to cover the obvious: the game looks gorgeous. New areas/dungeons also get a bit of a feature, reminding me a bit of some of the special art we'd get to see entering a new spot in some of the older Pokémon games: With that out of the way, I'm enjoying it so far. Having first played and written at length about Suikoden and Suikoden II on here back in 2021 for the Gaming Diary thread, and coming away from those games a very big fan of them, I'll admit, I'm going into this game with very high expectations, and so far I'd say - time taken to get to the *actual* inciting incident aside - it's meeting those expectations. My biggest hope is that once it's done and dusted, I'd like for it to fall somewhere between the two. So it looks gorgeous (it's worth repeating, I mean just look at it!), the addition of voice work is a welcome one in a game with this much dialogue, there are little tweaks which aren't at all going over my head like having access to the inventory as a whole during battle rather than needing to assign items to individual party members that only they can access during battle, your protag has an actual voice and isn't just a blank slate which I'm a big fan of, there's a lot of silliness to go around, I'm not the biggest fan of 2.5D and HD-2D games because they can feel a bit floaty but this feels great to move around in, and heck, there's even a wonderful world map to look at and a handy list of objectives with some super clean UI to boot: Also worth highlighting is the wonderful character art you get to see when a new character joins your party, such as with Mio here: Combat is just as snappy as it was during my time with Suikoden and Suikoden II, and works in a very similar way, but there are some very welcome additions which seems like they'll keep things fresh, namely in the form of special boss gimmicks, seeing the full order of a round of combat adding another layer to your strategy, and something I'm still figuring out where you can use one character to defend another who is nearly downed. The way SP charges work and function for Rune-Lens use by filling up with a charge as they go a round of battle unused should add a nice element of risk-reward. The Rune Attacks of Suikoden return rebranded as Rune-Lens attacks, while the Unite Attacks return rebranded as Hero Combos, and they both look suitably awesome: Sword Rain is 100% the coolest move available from the start of the game. But Friendship Combo looks great too! As for nitpicks at this early stage, I've seen the loading screen in brief flashes a lot more than I honestly expected to when joining and leaving battles (maybe it'll get patched, who knows?), but there is an upside - and that's a lovely Suikoden carryover in the form of the protag running while things load up! It's the simple things connecting the two which are really making me smile this goes the other way too, though, such as Dux Aldric looking like an older Luca Blight with a bit of facial hair... ...and of course there's Cassandra, the innkeeper with a portrait (almost certainly meaning she's recruitable and will be managing the inn when we get a base) being a huge step down from Leona from Suikoden II Anyways, final little nitpick: 'Enter' being the text that shows up to enter and exit a building, so I've just been viewing it as entering the outdoors but it feels WEIRD... The music so far is also just...kind of fine, so far? We'll see how it turns out but I won't lie, that's where my expectations were probably lowest going into this game, given the crazy quality of the first two Suikoden OSTs. Anyways, not wanting to go out on a low but instead on a high, one last thing I want to though: the geopolitics of a fictional JRPG world, as was front and centre in Suikoden and Suikoden II, just feels great. Even after Final Fantasy XVI built a great world and political intrigue, the first two Suikoden games are the absolute height of this for me in JRPGs, and I already feel the tension creeping up over the smallest of things, just with how certain characters say ambiguous things, carry themselves, or correct people in a petty way. It hasn't quite made up for the lack of an inciting incident in the first 30 minutes, but I'm sure it could do by the time credits roll around. Been in a proper gaming rut of late, so I can't help but feel this has arrived at the perfect time – super excited to get back to it already!

After the Triple-i event, I decided to play through some indie games. I played and enjoyed Coffee Talk a year or two back and figured I would give this a go, given that it's pretty much the same kind of game. I wasn't that big of a fan of it. The narrative wasn't as interesting as Coffee Talk and I really didn't get on with the UI when it came to making the drinks. It felt very clunky, although I imagine it would be fine using a mouse and keyboard or a touch screen. There was at trophy for completing a mini game that you end up unlocking. Its a good job I had been playing Cotton over the past couple of weeks because otherwise I would have struggled with it. It's a ripoff of that and pretty brutal as well. Such a weird thing to put in a VN game. This was a fun little game. You have to collect pieces of map that are scattered around the area and then place said pieces to create a bigger world for you to explore. For example, if you come to a dead end, place a map piece down so you can move forward. Want to reach a cave that is out of reach? Pick up the map piece, rotate it so it fits and place it down. It's very, very clever and surprised just how well it works. I LOVED this. I vaguely remember @RedShell enjoying this a couple of years back and now I can see why. It's a massive love letter to Pikmin and plays exactly how a top down, 2D Pikmin game should. Instead of a whistle to call your creatures, the main character rocks what is essentially a Proton Pack from Ghostbusters. You suck up the little creatures to get them back to you. The development team knew what they were referencing because when you fully upgrade it this is what the trophy us called. Yeah, loved this to bits and it's up there with Bat Boy and Tinykin as some of my favourite indie games I've played this year. I also played through the GBA WarioWare game. This was due to Nando posting about his adventures on the more recent Switch version. Its been years since I played the original game and so set about fully completing it. This required me to unlock every mini game and also beat the high score on each of them. This took some doing and so I was just tackling a few at a time, in between other games. It was fun playing though it again and reminded me of when it was first released. I would take my GBA to work with me and during our lunch break, me and the lads would take turns trying to get the high scores.

Good guess It is the anniversary month. But I didn't mean a game from the pledge, I meant another April release... ...But before I ever explain whatever that means: A Jonnas NSO Update Watching Sakurai's channel has been a treat, he's got a lot of insight into a myriad of details. One thing I noticed is that he seems to be a big Shmup* fan, having referenced quite a few titles from this genre throughout his videos. I was never really into the genre, so I did feel a tad alienated whenever he made any such reference. With the NSO carrying quite a few titles from this genre, I figured it would be a good idea to delve a bit deeper into it, try to find something to connect with. *(For the record, "Shmup" is short for "Shoot'em Up". I insist on using this abbreviation, because... we western gamers have somehow called two distinct genres the same thing: "Shoot'em Up" refers both to the genre with auto-scrolling ships (like Gradius) AND the genre with run&gun marines (like Contra). Thankfully, they both have alternative, distinct names, so "Shmup" it is!) The 8-bit Shmups I knew I wanted to start with Xevious. It's the oldest one, and often mentioned as a reference in the genre. I didn't actually like it much, though. I did think that the bombing mechanic was interesting, but between the endless level, the boss with a time limit (and also a difficulty spike), and the generally slow pace, I got bored quickly. I will give its due as an impressive game for 1982, but that's it. On the brighter side, I finally know what was that Bacura thing in Tales of Symphonia. Next, it was Star Soldier. Sakurai explicitly mentioned this one as a good title in the genre. It's faster and feels more fun, but... what is up with this level design? There's so much metal all over the place, and it blocks your bullets, but your ship can run through just fine? If it wasn't for these weirdly artificial barriers, I'd like it a lot more, but as it stands, it just feels like my shots disappear no good reason. I moved on to Gradius. This is a particularly famous title, almost synonymous with the genre. A bit slow, but plenty fun. There's an element of strategy, with the player having some control on which power-ups to unlock, pretty creative stuff. Sadly, the game got really dang hard from Stage 3-ish onwards: those Moai heads just fill the screen with bullets, and if you die, your power-ups reset entirely, and now the bullet hell is unbeatable. Shame, the game was doing pretty well up until that point. And then there was Twinbee. All I knew about it is that it's a lighter and softer take on the genre. Hated it. There's a power-up system that doesn't seem to function properly, it has the same bombing mechanic as Xevious (but not the slower pace that makes it work, nor the precision that made it fun in the first place), and the game is just too damn hard for what was supposed to be a "lighter" title. I'd say my ranking of these goes Gradius > Star Soldier > Xevious > Twinbee. Can't say I was hooked on any of them (though Gradius came the closest). Probably because they all feature a ship that dies in one hit. The 16-bit Shmups For some reason, my instinct decided to start with Super Earth Defense Force. Might've been the generic look and title, made it a good base starting point. Right off the bat, I'm actually having a lot of fun with it! Music is good, graphics look impressive, it feels super pleasant to simply move and fire shots, and the selectable weapon system made me try a bunch of playstyles. Then I carried on with the game, and found out that the Homing weapon ought to be the default for 80% of the game, because goddamn, so many tiny enemies surrounding you all of the time! But there's a couple of bosses that render Homing useless, which was cool, forced me to adapt my gameplay. Ended up depending on Photon to deal with the final level. I've seen this game get criticised for being too difficult, and I can see why: even though your ship can take 3 hits before dying, you only get 3 lives/credits total for a whole playthrough (no extra lives whatsoever). Plus, despite a sensible difficulty curve, the game gets pretty hard in the later half. Thankfully, if I use the NSO to create save states only at the weapon selection between levels, I can effectively make this game have infinite lives, while still making the challenge count. This ended up being the first NSO shmup I've beaten. 3 stars Looking at the other titles, I really wanted to go for MUSHA. This one really, truly clicked with me, right off the gate. Game looks hectic, game-feel is super fast, but still smooth as butter, and the aesthetic direction of this game (sci-fi with a lot of traditional Japanese iconography) is impressive. I played for several levels without understanding what the heck was going on, or how the power-up system worked, but I was having a blast. I eventually figured some parts of it out, restarted the game, and went on to beat it in full. The last level/boss was a bullshit difficulty spike, but other than that, it was a fantastic experience. 4 stars. I might play it in Hard Mode in the future. Then I went for Thunder Force II. What a downgrade. You command a ship in overview perspective and you go around shooting other stuff. I had no idea when the level was supposed to end, I just... flew around for a long time, blowing up ships and bases, until I got literally too bored to try to dodge anything. I would later learn that this game has more typical side-scrolling sections, but it's not winning me back. How are you gentlemen !! Someone set up us the bomb. What you say? Get signal, all your base are belong to Zero Wing. I was really happy to see this classic 20+ years old meme show up in the NSO, for great justice Legendary opening aside, the game itself felt pretty rote, and overly slow as well. As soon as you get some fully upgrade homing shots, I just kept my finger on the firing button all the time, while waiting for those interminable slow levels to end (Is this what CATS meant by "Make your time"?). I just stopped at some point, looked up the final level, and... I'm sorry, you don't even fight CATS!? Zero Wing, you have no chance to survive on your way to destruction! After the NES disappointment, I kept delaying this one, but I needed to tackle Pop'n Twinbee. Thankfully, it is considerably more fun than the NES game. The colourful aesthetics work a lot better here, the power-up system works properly now, and it is very fun to control and play. I still dropped it quickly though, as the game is insanely hectic. The bombing mechanic is still here, but it doesn't fit the fast pace of the game, and grounded enemies generate an oppressive bullet hell. Meanwhile, you're juggling colourful bells, while still doing the usual loop of shooting airborne enemies and dodging bullets. I actually breathed a sigh of relief when I reached the first boss (a simple, single enemy to deal with, huzzah!), but then the next level was more of this crazy game, so I stopped. I can see this being a hit with hardcore shmup fans, but not me, clearly. What is it with "cutesy" games that fail at being simple and/or easy? (At this point, I was convinced that MUSHA totally spoiled my expectations for the genre, as I wasn't enjoying any of the other 16-bit titles) Finally, another Sakurai recommendation, and one I've seen from time to time: Super Fantasy Zone. I wanted to finish on this one, because it looked to be the most unique and interesting. And in many ways, it really was. One of the few titles to not be an auto-scroller, you just command the ship in a looping corridor (and you can turn left and right!), your mission being to destroy 10 specific objects while tiny enemies respawn infinitely. After that, you face a boss in a more traditional fashion. There's also a cool upgrade system where you collect coins to buy power-ups and weapons, it's really cool (except for the part where new guns have a time limit to be used, that's silly). Overall, a really creative and fun game. Sadly, it's not one I could finish, because... the ship dies in one hit. The enemy bullets are really tiny in this game, and though you can buy extra lives, they get expensive. At one point, I reached a level that was just too difficult for me, and I dropped it. A shame. My ranking goes MUSHA > Super EDF > Super Fantasy Zone > Pop'n Twinbee > Zero Wing > Thunder Force 2 ------------------- This is not the end of my Shmup journey, but it is a good place to pause. I still don't think the genre is a good fit for me, but there are a few occasional aspects here and there that do end up resonating with me. Like being able to survive more than a single hit

Argh! So many people not going into the NSO options to remove the buttons on the bottom of the screen! I hate it! Star Ocean: The Second Story R is an action RPG developed by Gemdrops, and was released on the Switch, PS4, PS5, and PC last year. It's a remake of the PS1 game, "Star Ocean: The Second Story" The game follows two characters, the first is Claude C. Kenny, an ensign of the Earth Federation (Think of it as the Federation from Star Trek). He's on a mission of some sort, when weirdness happens. Said weirdness transports him to the planet Expel, where he meets the second protagonist, Rena Lanford. Expel isn't aware of intergalactic life, so when Claude whips out a Laser Gun to save Rena from the local wildlife, she mistakes him for a hero in the local legends that wields a "Sword of Light". Word of this gets out quick, and the town mayor asks Claude to investigate the Sorcery Globe, a meteorite that has spawned monsters all over the planet. Claude agrees to look into it, but only so he can find a way off of the planet (he doesn't tell them that). Rena tags along because she wants to find her real parents, she's adopted. The framing device is interesting, you choose between Claude and Rena as the main character, and this tweaks the plot a little, as there's a number of scenes where the two are separated and you only see what happens to the character you chose. So there's naturally a few gaps in the plot. The general plot is fine, but my big issue is that for 75% of the game, the game kinda forgets that it's in a Sci-Fi setting. The planet Expel is for all intents and purposes, a medieval planet, and Claude's laser gun breaks in the first half hour, so he's stuck swinging a sword for the rest of the game. It does remember that the game is called Star Ocean in the last 25% of the game, but it's kinda too late, and it feels like a missed opportunity. The game plays similarly to the "Tales of" games, in that battles are all real time, with you controlling one character, and the AI handling the other members of the party. They're pretty dumb though, with them running towards enemies with no regard for how dangerous that might be. Luckily, there are a veritable smorgasbord of ways to become incredibly powerful, and they all come from the Speciality system. As you play the game and level up, characters accrue SP, which can be spent to improve various things, such as "Aesthetic Sense" or "Penmanship". Some of these provide immediate benefits, but with the right combination of stuff, that character develops a speciality that can be used for certain benefits. For example, leveling up Penmanship allows that character to write books that help other characters level up specialties. As well as that, there are "Super Specialties" that require mutliple party members. If multiple characters develop a talent for writing, then they can work together to write an excellent book that you can get published and start collecting royalties for, which is an excellent way to amass loads of money. It's not limited to that, you can do other stuff like doubling your EXP gains, calling some weird rabbit monster to help you travel over mountains, or even flat out steal from NPC's (Yes, @Dcubed, Octopath Traveler got that idea from this game)! It all snowballed into hilarity for me as Claude accidentally forged the best sword in the game halfway through it, and went on to apply a HP draining effect to said best sword. Add to that an accessory that triples the amount of times he hits an enemy, and he was literally invincible! For comparison's sake, the second highest ATK in my party was 2,100 I haven't played a game that heavily encourages the player to utterly demolish it like this since Bravely Default, it's loads of fun! Anyway, the second unique aspect of Star Ocean is how you build a party. Claude and Rena are the only mandatory characters in the game, but there are 13 other characters you can get, and they are all optional. You can finish the game with none of them if you want. I don't recommend it, but you can. The problem is that you only have space for 8 characters, so you can never recruit everyone in one playthrough. The ending cutscenes are determined by who is in your party, and how much they like each other. There's 99 different cutscenes you can see in the ending (!), so multiple playthroughs are encouraged. Good thing this game only took me about 30 hours to beat then. The game looks drop dead gorgeous, utilising the 2D-HD look that Team Asano games have popularised in recent times. You probably know by now, that I love this style! If only the Final Fantasy Pixel Remasters looked this good. The portraits that show up in cutscenes also look great. Incredible detail that makes the PSP versions look positively amateurish. The music is also great. You have the option to use the original PS1 soundtrack, or an arranged version. I preferred the arranged version, but I've not played the other versions before, so I don't really have any nostalgia for them. This is a fantastic remake, the only problems I have are small nitpicks with the structure of the original game, but it's not enough to affect my enjoyment. Highly recommended! Dragons, Sci-Fi, that whole connection!

Most fun on VC in a log time.

It's indie time! Everyone probably melting down after the recent Silksong ratings haha

This looks utterly bonkers. *adds to wishlist*

I picked this up just a few days ago from a local game store by me! I had no idea what it was but at £7 I thought I'd give it a try. I really love it but I'm in the same boat as I can't figure out how to do well at the game I'm LOVING it though so I will endeavour to do better!

What have we here? In what feels like a rare event these days, the reverse is suitably gorgeous too – look at all that character art! Very excited for this going to start the install now, and I'll be back with some impressions later/tomorrow!

Sorry Cube, but if I’m quoting this line, it can only mean one thing… As it turns out, there is a way to get it officially… one way. And it’s a pretty ironic way at that… Piko Interactive currently hold the rights to the N64 and GBC versions of Wetrix (and presumably the other versions too), and they just so happen to have set up a deal with Krikzz (the creator of the Everdrive line of flash cartridges for various retro systems) and the Stone Age Gamer online shop… If you buy an Everdrive 64 flash cartridge from Stone Age Gamer, you get a free pack of N64 game ROMs licensed officially by Piko Interactive… and wouldn’t you know it! One of those games just so happens to be Wetrix! So, in a hilarious twist of irony, the only way to officially buy Wetrix on the N64, and not resort to either the second-hand market or piracy, is to buy a piracy device

Thankfully I'm not forcing myself to fully complete every single one. I'd go insane, Wetrix PAL release: 29th May 1998 NA release: 16th June 1998 JP release: 27th November 1998 Developer: Zed Two Publisher: Ocean (NA/PAL), Imagineer (JP) N64 Magazine Score: 74% As Tetris set the standard for puzzle video games, other puzzle games try to have names similar to it. A water-based puzzle game? Of course it has to be named Wetrix. Wetrix is all about keeping water from falling off your square “island”, raiding the environment to keep it contained. Different “blocks” will fall down from the screen. Most of these are upwards arrows which will raise the land in that shape, along with water to fill up the enclosed areas you make. The goal is to keep as much water contained as possible, as if to much falls off the sides, you’ll get Game Over. There are other kinds of “blocks” as well. Down arrows will reduce the level of the land, bombs will blow up holes in the island that you’ll need to repair (on that note, don’t try to launch a bomb down a hole, the game will punish you for it), ice to freeze water and fireballs to get rid of some water. I can definitely see the appeal of Wetrix, but I really could not figure out how to do well at the game. There’s a bunch of different modes, including one where you can change settings to make the game even more difficult. It’s not for me, but it’s a solidly made game. Remake or remaster? A new version would be nice, alongside a collection of the various Wetrix games on N64, Game Boy Color, Dreamcast and PlayStation 2. Official ways to get the game. There is no official way to get Wetrix.

Fixed it, cheers @bob

Gio Corsi, former head of 3rd party relations at Sony, has just joined NOA in a similar role! Big get for Nintendo. Bodes well for 3rd party support on Switch 2

Bayer Leverkusen have now gone unbeaten for a stretch of 44 games in all competitions – breaking the previous record (43, set by Juventus in 2012) for the longest unbeaten run by a team in one of Europe's top five leagues. Actual insanity; they're less than 10 games away from an invincible treble. (& I've totally just jinxed them, haven't I?)

Finished MediEvil last night. It's ridiculous that this was added to the service when both the PS4 and PSP remakes are already part of it. There are countless other games that could have been added first. I can see why the game got a remake. Playing this version was a pretty rough experience. The controls aren't that great for a platform game and the camera was very ropey, with what little control you do have over it not being much help. Having now played all 3 versions of the game, this is easily the worst. I suppose it makes sense given that it was an early PS1 game and the other two versions were able to build upon what came before them. I'll probably go for the double plat and play through it again over the weekend. It's short enough to knock out in between playing something else.

Is it Vyse they're ripping off? On a more serious note, I'm loving these impressions, @Julius. The game looks gorgeous, too, in a way that's distinct from other 2D-HD games.

As if chess wasn't complex enough...

The goo was just too thick and viscous to fit through the May hole... August 2nd it is.

A demo is out now.

Virtual Chess 64 NA release: 10th June 1998 PAL release: July 1998 JP release: N/A Developer: Titus Publisher: Titus N64 Magazine Score: 76% I wasn’t expecting much from Virtual Chess as it’s just chess, but at least you can’t mess up chess – or so I thought. Against all odds, Titus have managed to achieve the impossible and create a chess game that looks bad and controls poorly. The analogue stick or d-pad move the cursor, but way, way too fast so you need to perform the quickest tap or move the stick immensely slightly. With the 3D view, you expect the c-buttons to control the camera and they do – at least two of them do. c-right spins the board right while c-left spins the board up. It’s impossible to find a good camera angle and adjusting is itself a big pain. When a piece is taken, you see the pieces fighting (similar to Battle Chess), only the designs of al the characters are absolutely hideous and carry no charm whatsoever. As it doesn’t happen with the other pieces on show, it also feels completely disjointed from the main game. You can choose a 2D board. I turned it on and was presented with a really baffling design. I checked the options and found no way to change it – although I eventually figured out that c-left and c-right can change the the look of the board and pieces. Now, there is one aspect that Virtual Chess is competent in, and that’s playing chess. The problem is that it’s too good. While it’s got 17 levels of difficulty, the first beginner level will trounce most people – especially if they’re using the 3D view that makes it very difficult to judge how pieces can move. There are plenty of good chess games, but this is just trash. I’m amazed that it got good reviews Remake or remaster? You can get much better chess games on your phone for free. Official ways to get the game. There is no official way to get Virtual Chess 64

Also neither of them can do sound mixing for shit!

Had sort of planned to get to this around a year ago when I was hoping to develop some open-world chops for TotK. Didn't happen so I'm on it now for something different. Enjoying it a lot. It's great fun. Brimming with personality. It's like Police Academy, Hot Shots and plenty more rolled in. I like that it drops you in whether you have knowledge or not of what transpired previously and has the confidence to unabashedly bring you up to speed and make sure you get on board with what's going down. As an open-world game, it's going well for me. It tells you clearly where to head next and makes sure to nudge you in that direction every so often. I find myself poking around and going on little detours (mostly to find I don't have the required ability yet) but it's still fun to nosey around and doesn't take you too far out of your way. Probably helps that you're always getting blocks so it never feels like time wasted going on these little excursions. I'll admit I've been getting a sinking feeling in my stomach each time I've been sent to a new part of the map because I don't really want to comb through the length and breadth of all these areas as it's becoming a lot to hold in my head, but so far it seems grand if you just hit the story objectives and ignore the rest as you please. As long as it stays like this without becoming overwhelming or so big it's a chore to get from one spot to the next, I think I'm in for a good time. In fact, it's already in the "have I really been on this an hour already?" category so it must be doing plenty right. Reminds me of Burnout Paradise at times. Which I don't know if that says more about the game than it does about what I know about this genre. Minor gripe is the initial load time and the camera control is back to front for my tastes. Yes, I've driven the train. And loved it.

Nintendo won't be at Gamescom this year. Per VGC: Not too surprising given the context of previous reports that the console's launch got moved back to Q1 2025. I'm really curious to see when they decide to actually announce/reveal this thing, maybe even more so than I am to hear about its launch plans. I genuinely think if it doesn't launch until late Q1 (as in, March) similar to the Switch, they could get away with waiting until January, so as to not potentially hurt Christmas sales and cause confusion. The only real argument I can think against doing that would be potential leaks from the production line, but so long as they aren't stupid and pulling a Wii U and they don't get too gimmick-heavy, I think you could absolutely blast out a 2-3 month marketing campaign for this thing and have it over with. You could even tease an event for Jan with a console silhouette and a bit of a teaser trailer at The Game Awards if you really wanted to, I think you could get away with that much, because as big as that is for the gaming space, I don't feel like TGA news and a console silhouette would permeate through to the Switch demographic without the console before Christmas was over and done with. Nintendo basically turned water into wine with the marketing and release of the Switch last time around compared to how they and competitors had done it before, so yeah, I can't wait to see if they've got any of that sort of magic up their sleeve this time around

Really wishing I had one of the NSO N64 controllers right now as Super Kiwi 64 gets an update to add N64 controls, and upcoming title, Corn Kidz 64, will have it when it launches this Friday! https://www.n-europe.com/news/super-kiwi-64-gets-n64-controller-support/ https://www.n-europe.com/news/corn-kidz-64-launches-this-friday/

Quest 64 is remarkable in just how unremarkable it is. Almost as if it's a parody of the genre really. As for ISS 98? It's a reletively minor refinement over the already excellent ISS 64, which means it's pretty excellent. That's not to say that there aren't some pretty significant additions though, such as the ability to curve your shot by holding down Z while inputing a direction for the curve, the ability to now adjust the height of your free kicks and corner shots by pressing up and down before you shoot, the ability to make broad formation changes mid-game and, best of all, keepy uppies! You can now perform keepy uppie moves by holding c-down while not moving. There's a bit more of an emphasis on player expression in general as well, with lovely (and pointless) little touches like being able to do dummy shots and little spin dribbles with your character by rotating the analog stick while running. The control is a bit smoother overall than ISS 64, but overall it plays very similarily. It's fast, fluid and fun! About the only real complaint I have with ISS 98 is that the commentator isn't nearly as fun as the one in ISS 64, that and the music isn't quite as good. But this is pretty much as good as arcade style football gets really. An absolute cracker

Holy Magic Century / Quest 64 NA release: 10th June 1998 PAL release: 30th September 1998 JP release: 9th July 1999 Developer: Imagineer Publisher: THQ (NA), Konami (PAL) Imagineer (JP) N64 Magazine Score: 71% There’s a lot of curious things about the Quest series. This game was given different names in different regions. In North America, it was the very generic Quest 64. In Europe is was the rather meaningless Holy Magic Century and in Japan it was Eltale Monsters (I think Eltale Book would have worked better). Despite being a JRPG, it also came out in Japan last. Quest got a spin-off in the form of a Mr. Do clone on Game Boy Color called Quest: Fantasy Challenge in the USA and, oddly, Holy Magic Century in Europe (it wasn’t released in Japan) and then a remake of the original game on Game Boy Colour (with an expanded story) called Quest: Brian’s Journey in the USA and Elemental Tale – Jack’s Great Adventure: Satan’s Counterattack in Japan (this one wasn’t released in Europe). As for Quest 64, the game itself is also interesting as it seems like a great starting point for a game, but it feels like it isn’t finished. It works fine and isn’t glitchy, it’s just there isn’t a lot to it. The idea behind the story is interesting, but it isn’t told well. It’s very easy to lose track of what you’re supposed to be doing due to lack of context, and NPCs rarely have anything interesting to say. The combat has some interesting ideas, too. It’s turn-based but you move around in the actual game world. You can move around within a circle (which is more of a circle in the Japanese version) to position yourself and select an attack. When enemies attack you have a bit of movement to try and dodge. You collect spirits in four elements: fire, wind, water and earth (no heart) and as you get more, you unlock more abilities. There are three “levels” of attack but in each new “level” you can mix in another element for a wide variety of spells. Unfortunately, there are just a couple of attacks that are far better than others. By far the biggest issue with the combat is the random encounter system, as the amount you get is extremely overboard. You can be drawn into a new battle immediately after one ends and, other than trying to break the game by hugging walls (or using a Gameshark code), there’s no proper way to avoid battles. What doesn’t help is that a lot of battles won’t reward you with anything, as the game won’t give you an item if you already have one of them in your inventory. You’ll get tired of the random encounters before the end of the first area. There’s plenty to like about Holy Quest Monsters, but also a lot to hate about it. It feels like the developers had a lot of ambitions but had to tone it back during development. It has a lot of interesting ideas, it just doesn’t fully use them. Remake or remaster? Quest 64 definitely deserves a fresh attempt. Refine the combat system, add more context to the story and give NPCs more to do with side quests and other activities. Official ways to get the game. There is no official way to get Quest 64

Zone 3 done with Aria. I'M A GOD AMONGST MEN and definitely didn't need heavy glass armor to tank 2 hits during the boss fight

Nintendo eShop new releases (week 15) The fifteenth 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... Stardew Valley Ver 1.6 Still in Progress Botany Manor - Launch Trailer Sega Announces Year of Shadow Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble - Adventure Trailer Moonglow Bay Launches Today! My Time at Sandrock Goes Cross-Platform Risk of Rain 2 - Free Content Update Vampire Survivors: Operation Guns DLC feat. Contra Tchia Announced for Nintendo Switch Pac-Man Mega Tunnel Battle: Chomp Champs – Pre-Order Trailer Fashion Dreamer – Future Fair Update Shadow’s Colourful Past Let’s! Revolution! Available Now! Wrecking Crew ’98, Amazing Hebereke and Super R-Type Added to SNES NSO Play Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising for Free with Nintendo Switch Online! See you next week!

Ok then, note to self: Do not throw Beetle into Piranha Plant's Poison Cloud: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2119049352?t=0h47m20s Yeah, it took me way too long to realise that though.

I can remember buying Wetrix from Curries as a child (11 apparently) from Curries for £19.97 with birthday money. I really enjoyed that game.

International Superstar Soccer 98 JP release: 4th June 1998 PAL release: 1st September 1998 JP release: 15th September 1998 Developer: Konami Publisher: Konami N64 Magazine Score: 92% ISS vs FIFA was a big debate for a while, with 1998 probably being the biggest year for the argument. N64 Magazine clearly preferred ISS, but for me, I enjoyed FIFA 98 more. I do think I know the main reason why people prefer each one, as while they seem the same from a distance, they both have slightly different targets. FIFA is more about casual fun, while ISS is more geared towards providing a more tactical experience. Which means that it isn’t a case of which one is better, but rather what kind of game you want. ISS 98 is a marginal improvement from ISS 64, focusing on the World Cup. In Japan, it had an official World Cup branding, but still not player names (other than the Japanese squad), but is the same game. You do get a new set of scenarios, so if you liked those, these are the main new thing in this version compared to the previous year. Remake or remaster? Other than Konami looking back to move forward, not really. Official ways to get the game. There is no official way to get International Superstar Soccer 98 I'm sure @Dcubed can say a lot more about this one.

Thanks for the games. I might as well retire as Terry now, I'm not sure anything will top a "Are you OK? B-" *cancels into final smash* in the last minute there. Here's a link to this week's stream... - - - - - N-Europe Saturday Smash! (13/04/2024) - - - - -

I like to think I'm incredibly impartial when I say this. Best stage ever, @RedShell. No notes. Might as well retire.

what a coincidence. Thab is on the same game.

I kinda want these... Yes, these grips are merch from the team behind this game. Japan only, it seems like.

Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising is available on NSO Game Trials. Well... I've not played it, and seeing as I am getting Hundred Heroes, it'd be rude not to!

Yeah, i think GB1 is objectively a better movie but i enjoy GB2 more because of the age I was when it came out and the overall feel of it. I had both GB1 and 2 on VHS as a kid, i'd rewatch them many times but i think i rewatched GB2 more, it's just a more enjoyable feel good movie for me. Funny you mentioned the ending of GB2, I recently found out the original ending was for Vigo to walk out of the painting, rather then just materialize out of no where. They had created and filmed everything: But in the end, Ivan Reitman wasn't happy with it an changed the ending: https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/71284/creating-vigo-carpathian-and-ghostbusters-ii-ending-you-never-saw

I can understand why people choose GB2 (the courtroom scene for me will be the greatest and the outbreak scene too) but for me, 1984 has me in a chokehold with its quotes, charm and humour. The second one does have its moments, don't get me wrong, but I feel like 1984 has this perfect blend of comedy which both kids and adults can enjoy, supernatural horror and wit. For me though, GB2's ending kind of ruins it. It just didn't feel much like a fight. I don't know. It was a bit underwhelming in that respect but I do love the movie anyway because it's Ghostbusters and it's nice seeing the gang together. But if I had to choose between the two, 1984 all the way. Actually, for me, having rewatched all of them, if I had to rank them... 1984 > Afterlife > Frozen Empire > GB2 > 2016

So...it's just like real life.

Pachinko 365 Days JP release: 29th May 1998 PAL release: N/A NA release: N/A Developer: Seta Publisher: Seta Original Name: Pachinko 365 Nichi N64 Magazine Score: N/A Another Pachinko game. While I still have zero interest in the Japanese hybrid of slot machines and 10p machines, this one at least seems competently made. You can properly walk around the three Pachinko parlours to find machines and they look alright. You can also talk to the guests, who have various things to say about Pachinko. The pachinko is still just pachinko, but the a and b buttons now increase/decrease the ball release lever, actually giving you control over how the balls are fired. There are five machines, one of them being an “old style” one. n this one, you manually launch the balls into the machine, instead of the standard autofire ones. It adds a bit of variety. The goal of the game is to play over the course of one year (with a day being sped up) to try and earn as much money as you can. Remake or remaster? Nothing, really. Official ways to get the game. There is no official way to get Pachinko 365 Days

Headed over to the Birmingham Gaming Market last Saturday and had a pretty good time (albeit a bit of a sardine-like experience). Going in, I'd done my research on retro games I wanted to get around to picking up a while ago, but I had a few priority items on my mind for this event: Silent Hill 2 - one of the horror games I want to get around to this year, in its original form rather than the remake. Armored Core games - I adored VI, so I'll be picking up most if not all of these as time goes on, I'm sure! Suikoden V - the only mainline Suikoden I don't own in some form or another. I also said I wouldn't be picking up any JP copies of games. My main tactic with our early access tickets was to take a quick nose around at high list items on racks/shelves closer to the vendor the first go around and then I'd dig into things truly on subsequent loops. So first game picked up was Armored Core: Silent Line, which I picked up on my first go around the place and spotted out of the corner of my eyes from several stalls away chuffed to pick up an Armored Core game, and this one went for £40, which is roughly how much it goes for elsewhere, too. The same vendor also had a PAL copy of Nine Breaker, too, but I didn't pick this up for two reasons: firstly, from my research it seems pretty universally loathed and rated as the weakest entry in the series, and secondly - and perhaps most importantly - it was going for £140. I was tempted (mainly because I know it'll probably go up in price by the time I get to it in the future), but kept my wits about me; I thought it was gone by our third go around which would've made it easier on me, but it had just moved shelf, and I'm glad I didn't pick it up then either. On my second loop I picked up Spider-Man 3 (specifically on PS3) and LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga, two items high on my PS3 wishlist, from the same vendor. While I've seen them around, I was watching out for copies iin nicer condition - and these would do! They were £18 and £5, respectively. And then...there just weren't any of my other priority items around. I did spot copies of Armored Core V and Verdict Day from a mile off, too, but unfortunately these were JP copies and so I wouldn't be able to play them (they were also £55 and £65, respectively, so not cheap for shelf-fillers). Wanting to make more out of the day and use some more of my budget, I lifted my rule on not picking up any JP titles, and headed back to the same stall (Sore Thumb from up in York) I got Silent Line from with one particular game in mind that I'd spotted on my first pass through... Chrono Trigger. Yes, I own it on DS physically and on Steam digitally, but I'd spotted a Japanese SNES copy a while back in great condition which had been put aside for someone at my local retro games store, and well, a JP PS1 copy of the game would take up less space and still looks quite nice, so why not? That set me back £25. I then also picked up Hunter x Hunter: Ubawareta Aura Stone (The Stolen Aura Stone) for just £10, a game I'd heard a little about and picked up because, well, Hunter x Hunter Which brings me onto my favourite pick-ups of the day, two games I'd actually been thinking of importing before I treated myself to their English ROMs... Suikogaiden Volume 1: Swordsman of Harmonia AND Suikogaiden Volume 2: Duel at Crystal Valley. These are spin-off titles to the Suikoden series which are actually text and picture-based adventures more along the lines of a visual novel, the first being set during the events of Suikoden II and the second being set following the events of Suikoden II, incorporating save transfers for character cameos or your player character name from II, and the games also introduce you to Nash, who I know turns up in III; notably, these never made it out of Japan. These are part of the 'Konami: The Best' line (even came with the spine sleeves, which I've popped into their respective cases), and though I was thinking of importing standard copies, getting to pick these up at a gaming market when I recognised their font while flicking through boxes felt special, and so I was happy to make an exception here. Definitely my favourite pick-ups of the day, big fan of the box art. These were £15 each. Overall, I was a bit let down in terms of finding priority items from my retro games list here - I thought Suikoden V was a bit of a long shot, but I watched footage of last year's event and there were 5+ copies of Silent Hill 2 floating around back at that event, and a good few more Armored Core titles, too. I "only" ended up spending £128 of the £300 budget I'd set myself for the event in the end, and half of that was from JP copies of games I didn't go in expecting to buy, but picked up to salvage the day for me a bit in terms of pick-ups. Cool for a first gaming market experience, but I honestly thought my pick-ups at Comic Con a few months ago felt more special (maybe free of the pressure of not being a gaming market), and I do wish they'd have some sort of traffic system in place with arrows on the floor rather than having it be a bit of a free-for all. No doubt I'll be hunting down my priority items in the coming months online, and I'll be looking forward to whatever gaming market I end up at next!

Yeah, i'll agree that the footage wasn't needed to be shown. I've no idea why they needed to show it either, lot of people have left the situation in the past. If anything, they should have released a statement after the CM Punk interview as a better way of dealing with the situation. Or do nothing, that would have worked as well.

Wrecking Crew has never been released outside of Japan, has it? Neat!