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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.

Baby girl #2 due on Monday..! We're both wishing she were here already given how tough a pregnancy it's been. I'll have even less time to visit NE!

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!

Extreme-G and Iggy's Reckin' Balls are joining N64 NSO...today!

Deadpool & Wolverine trailer:

Banjo-Kazooie NA release: 29th June 1998 PAL release: 17th July 1998 JP release: 6th December 1998 Developer: Rare Publisher: Nintendo N64 Magazine Score: 90% Banjo-Kazooie is possibly my favourite game, something I utterly love. I play it around Christmas every year and never get tired of it. But why is this? What makes Banjo-Kazooie such a lovable game to play? For starters, Banjo-Kazooie has a lot of character, from Banjo-Kazooie themselves to the worlds, settings and music. Even characters like Colliwobble (a giant cauliflower with googly eyes) has a magical style and charm to it. I think it’s Rare’s love for googly eyes, so much stuff has it, including boulders, blocks of ice and boxes of TNT. The world of Banjo-Kazooie is just alive in a joyful way. Then you have the heroes Banjo and Kazooie. Banjo is a fairly straight character. For the most part he’s kind and gentle and wants to do good. If he was completely on his own, he may be a bit bland, but luckily his trust friend Kazooie lives in his backpack. Kazooie is rude, sassy and will mock anything. Together, it makes for great banter between them and other characters. And all dialogue is text with grunts, which helps make their world remain unique. I really hope any (if there are any) future games keep this as I’m not sure how I’d feel about proper voice acting. Banjo-Kazooie is a 3D collect-a-thon platformer, which doesn’t go overboard on its collectibles. Banjo and Kazooie have a lot of moves crammed onto a controller, but they all work really well. There are some slight niggles, like trying to change the camera while aiming an egg can activate your golden feathers, but the platforming itself feels extremely precise, with any missed jumps never feeling like the game’s fault. The camera also functions fine for the most part, but there’s a couple of areas with some forced angles that don’t work, such as the path to Mad Monster Mansion which is a narrow walkway that can be difficult to see. There are 9 worlds in Banjo-Kazooie. These each have 10 jiggies to collect, 100 notes, two honeycomb pieces (which increase your health). One jiggy in every level will be finding all five Jinjos hidden in each level. The levels will be considered small by today’s standards, but I think that they are ideal. It’s a size where you can search for everything without tedium or growing tired of it. Each world has its own charm. Mumbo’s Mountain is a great introductory world. It’s a great introduction to how jiggies are hidden. Some are out in the open, some given to you by characters, some by activating switches and some by smashing things or just trying to shoot eggs into any hole you find. It sets you up for handling the later levels. It also introduces the important Talon Trot move, which allows you to use Kazooie’s legs to traverse steep slopes, and the layout of the level encourages heavy use. Also here is the first Mumbo Skull. Enter here and you’ll find the crazy shaman Mumbo Jumbo. If you’ve found enough Mumbo tokens, he’ll cast a spell on you and you’ll turn into a termite. These transformations are another wonderful thing about Banjo-Kazooie. They’re not in every level so aren’t overused, but they turn you into different animals (or objects), which is required for certain jiggies. They’re all wonderful to use and are simply a joyous thing to have in the game. After Mumbo’s Mountain, we get Treasure Trove Cove, a beach level filled with crabs. Mambo’s Mountain also introduces you to a pound attack (using Kazooie’s beak), which is used here for enemies and tasks. Flying is also introduced, as Kazooie can use red feathers to fly around the map. Treasure Trove Cove is quite open, with a jiggy that encourages flying around it. There’s also a very scary shark in the water. It’s a really wonderful level. Next up is the weakest part of Banjo-Kazooie: Clanker’s Cavern. It’s a murky underwater level, and looks fairly dull. I do like Clanker – a big whale that has been turned into a horrifying trash disposal monster, but is actually a nice but depressed individual, but there’s a lot of swimming in this level, including a very deep dive that terrified me as a kid. That said, I grow more and more fond of the level each time I play the game. Bubblegloop Swamp swiftly returns to form, especially because of adorable crocodile Banjo. This level is split up into segments, and then croc Banjo can traverse new areas, including a fairly difficult minigame with Mr Vile, sneaky crocodile (although a move from a later level can make this easier if you wish). Then the wonderful wintery world of Freezeezy Peak, a level revolving around a giant snowman. One slight niggle for me with this is that you can’t finish the level initially, so I’d recommend a quick trip into the next level to grab the speed trainers, but it’s only a minor hassle. In Freezeezy Peak you get to climb the giant snowman’s scarf, have aerial fights with aggressive smaller snowmen, turn into a Walrus and take part in races – WAHEEEY! From the snow straight to the sand of Gobi’s Valley. This is one of the more challenging levels, with pyramids, temples and sphinxes holding challenges you need to complete. One of these requires a perfect run with the speed boots, and still takes me multiple attempts each playthrough. That said, there is still a load of fun and charm. Up next is for some halloween fun in Mad Monster Mansion, a haunted house and grounds. Initially, I found this level to be incredibly daunting, but traversal isn’t as difficult as initially seems, and getting around the level is quite fun. There’s lots of rooms to explore and even a toilet to explore. Brilliantly, the toilet itself is also a character called Loggo. Oh, one thing I forgot to mention is that Banjo-Kazooie loves puns. Some people may pretend to groan at puns, but everyone loves them. Rusty Bucket Bay is the penultimate level, with some very tough challenges. The water in this level drains your air much faster than previous levels, so even though there’s a lot of water, you only spend small stints in it. There’s lots of hidden rooms to find, with some fun and cute details hidden in them. The transformation in this level is also super adorable. And last is the seasonal Click Clock Wood. This is split into four “sections” that you open up over time, each is the whole world in a different season, and some jiggies require doing parts in each season, although if you fully explore each season before moving on, you don’t have to go back and forth. It’s lovely to see all the changes throughout the seasons. Connecting these together is Grunty’s tower. Grunty is an evil witch who wants to make herself beautiful (by stealing the beauty from Banjo’s sister, Tooty, who became a staple of all future Banjo games…either that or she was relegated to a missing person’s poster and forgotten about). You explore the tower, finding jigsaws to fill in with the jiggy pieces you collect to open the main worlds. There are also 10 jiggies hidden here, which require you to hit a switch in each level to reveal (except for one, which is given to you at the start of the game). And once you get past all the levels and go to defeat Gunty, it doesn’t go straight into a boss battle (that comes later), instead you have to complete Grunty’s Furnace Fun, a trivia board game where you have to answer questions about the game (or complete some mini games from previous levels). These questions could be about Grunty herself, pictures of places in levels to identify, trivia about characters or identifying sound and music. Music. That’s a very important part of what makes Banjo-Kazooie work. Composer Grant Kirkhope did an absolutely phenomenal job of creating some tunes that you will be humming for the rest of your lives. They also work with the levels extremely well, adding to the magical experience. The music will also vary slightly based on different locations of each level or going underwater, all with perfectly smooth transitions between them. The music to Banjo-Kazooie is simply heaven for your ears, and will put a smile on your face for the entirety of your playthrough. Even other people in your house will start humming the tunes. Replaying Banjo-Kazooie takes between 6 and 10 hours, although this will be a lot longer the first time. It’s a great length for annual revisits and is an extremely well-contained piece of media. You can follow it by its sequel, Banjo-Tooie (as I do every few years), but it works extremely well on its own. The entirety of the game is just full of joy, accompanied by very happy tunes and a sense that everyone working on the game was enjoying themselves. There are two versions of this game, the original on N64 and a remaster version on Xbox. I highly recommend the Xbox version, as the better controller design helps a lot, and the widescreen HD image is much nicer to see. The main other difference between the two is that the Xbox version is easier, as it saves what notes you have collected. In the original, you need to collect all 100 in one go, which I believe was mainly due to memory limits on the N64 and not the original intention. Banjo-Kazooie is my perfect game. Remake or remaster? The Xbox remaster is pretty great, although releasing on more platforms and a few fixes and refinements would be great. Official ways to get the game. Banjo-Kazooie is available on Xbox One/Series and is included in Rare Replay. You can also rent it on Switch via Nintendo Switch Online Re-releases 2008: Xbox Live Arcade 2015: Rare Replay 2023: Nintendo Switch Online (Subscription Only)

Dezaemon 3D JP release: 26th June 1998 NA release: N/A PAL release: N/A Developer: Athena Publisher: Athena N64 Magazine Score: 82% For the N64’s first sci-fi scrolling shooter, this is a bit of an odd one, as it isn’t a specific game, but rather a creation kit for making you own sci-fi shoot-’em’-up game. The software itself is quite complicated and isn’t easy to use, even with a translated manual and Google Lens – although I don’t think it’s the game’s fault. There is a whole host of editing features, you can modify textures, modify models, modify the level layouts with effects and enemies and even design your own music. There are a bunch if icons and I imagine you can do a fair amount with it once you got used to how it worked. The best I could do was do was some kind of takeaway food (the model is already in the game) shooting above water that moves around in waves. I did try to do a bit more, but I somehow accidentally reset all the custom data. Dezaemon 3D does come with a couple of built in games, presumably made using the creation software of the game as examples of what you can do. This is a vertical scrolling shooter and near the start you come across a boss and an immense amount of bullets, but the detail is quite impressive. The second game changes viewpoint depending on what stage you’re on, with a top down view on stage one and a side view on stage 2. This is rather fascinating software, and it seems like it could do a lot. Remake or remaster? I don’t really know enough about games creation software to see how this sits now of if there’s anything similar available. Official ways to get the game. There is no official way to get Dezamon 3D

Finally tried out the demo: it's pretty fun! Only did Level 1-1 and half of 1-2 (I originally intended to stop at the end of 1-1, so there's some proof of fun) The controls need some time to adjusted to (as with most 3D platformers, admittedly), but it's definitely aiming for that sort of platforming that's fast and pleasant. Like, it feels like it scratches that "Super Mario 64" itch, but with moves that have nothing to do with SM64. Penny's grounded moves are a typical dash and a sonic-style spin-dash. Her aerial moves are a double-jump, an air-dash, and a weird swinging motion that serves as a longer-reaching double jump. She also has a regular attack and a spinning yo-yo attack to fend off penguins (and solve certain obstacles). Level design reminds me of Kirby & the Forgotten Land: very linear, no camera control, some set pieces here and there, but there's always space for occasional exploration and side-objectives. Feels like a fast-paced platformer in 3D, done right.

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.

Added another party member to the team. Dude clearly wanted to join us. I mean, just look at what happened to him when he ventured off on his own... I'm happy to have him on board though. It's about time I had someone who can heal on my team.

That’s Falcon Mk2 unlocked! Just Fighting Comet left to go now…

I suppose Pokémon is an RPG with more than 100 playable characters (150 even!), and that still works, so just choose the characters that look cool. You can always change your mind later and release them back into the wild.

Most fun on VC in a log time.

As if chess wasn't complex enough...

A demo is out now.

@Darren , you might find this thread interesting:

It's time to complete your collection! Over 100 amiibo have been restocked on My Nintendo Store! You can get yours now! While Stocks last. : https://ntdo.com/6019425UL https://ntdo.com/6010425U0

Nintendo eShop new releases (week 16) The sixteenth 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... Corn Kidz 64 Launches This Friday Super Kiwi 64 Gets N64 Controller Support Keanu Reeves is Shadow the Hedgehog One Piece Odyssey Announced for Nintendo Switch Grounded Out Now Konami Code Discovered in Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness After 25 Years Indie World 17/04/2024 Showcase Airs Today Planet of Lana Launches Today! Indie World Showcase 17/04/2024 Roundup Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door New Trailers A Tale of Paper: Refolded – Out Now! Endless Ocean Luminous – Overview Trailer Octopath Traveler Returns to Nintendo eShop See you next week!

The offside law needs to be changed. How does it improve the game to get so forensic about offside decisions? Haji Wright gained no appreciable advantage from his foot being millimetres ahead of the Utd defender - there was no legitimate reason to rule out Torp's goal. Such a shame that football fans have been robbed of a historic extra time winner because the VAR quibbles over a couple of millimetres. Just seems so petty.

Crazy thing is I bought it for dirt cheap back when it was first released and I've yet to play it. That's weird, I also started playing it last week. I took a photo for when I was finished and ready to talk about it. I'm halfway through at the moment but clearly you and I are having different experiences with it. I don't think it's enjoyable at all.

The credits have rolled and my adventure is over. As you can see, there's still a stupid amount to do if I want the platinum, which I probably wont go for. It would take another 3 runs through the story and this is because of the amount of extra characters you can team up with. Your team can only hold 4 extras and so thats where the multiple playthroughs come in. Apart from the difficulty spike, as well as the lack of fast travel, I really enjoyed playing through this. It's about time I finally dipped my toe into this franchise and it was fitting that I started with this one. It goes to show how bloated games have become. This game offered around 20-25 hours of play time and it just flew by. There were no pointless fetch quests or countless cutscenes that waffled on for ages but said very little. The game was straight forward and to the point, just like a lot of games that were made back then. The SP system is very interesting when you start delving into it. There are an abundance of options at your disposal. Sure, you can break the game but it also allows you to play the game how you want. It's also one of the best ways to get the best gear. Kinda reminds me of Dragon Quest and the melding pot. Very happy to have experienced this and I'm now set to pick up the next game when the time is right.

This really is a very special game. One of the N64's absolute finest and arguably one of its most important titles. It's basically the quintessential Rare game and it exhudes quality from start to finish. It's also perhaps the N64 game steeped in the most mystery, owing to its protracted and tumultuous development cycle. As most of you probably know, the game started out as Project Dream, beginning development shortly after DKC2 shipped, moving over from the SNES to the N64, then eventually changing from a pirate themed action RPG into a 2.5D quadscrolling platformer and then into a full 3D platformer modelled after Super Mario 64 in response to that game. As such, there is a lot of cut and unused content, including perhaps the most famous example of unused content in gaming history (and the one that sparked my own interest in development changes/cut content in general), Stop N' Swop. The TCRF page for this game is a veritable treasure trove cove of facinating info that is well worth a peek! I can't overstate how much this game facinated me as a kid, and the countless hours I spent trying to explore and discover all of the secrets and mysteries in this game and its sequel are ones I'll forever treasure. It's kind of a shame that the whole Stop N' Swop thing wasn't allowed to happen, because could you even imagine what utter magic could happen if Rare were allowed to go ahead with it and allow all of their various N64 games to link together and unlock stuff in each respective cartridge? The amount of broken cartridge ports would rival even the amount of control sticks broken by Mario Party 1! I mean, I don't really need to wax much more poetic about this game. You all know it and you all love it, and for good reason. It's a masterpiece spawned from chaos. I do prefer the sequel for its ridiculously ambitious, almost Metroidvania like interconnected world design (an idea so good that Metroid Fusion stole it wholesale ), but I can see why people might prefer the first game. It's much smaller and much more approachable, far less overwhelming (I mean, BT expects the player to have already played BK so much that it outright gives you BK's entire endgame moveset from the outset!) and also more digestible. You could easily 100% this game in less than 10 hours your first time through and that's a nice length, not too much of a good thing; while BT is easily 20+ hours your first time through. I have to be careful not to spend too much time talking about BT here when we're supposed to be talking about BK, but really, you must play BK first before touching BT, I can't stress this enough; the sequel fully expects you to have at least rolled credits on the original BK first (to the point where BK's secret ending outright announces that a sequel is coming, and even gives it its final name of "Banjo Tooie" right there and then!). Oh yeah. Did you know that Banjo Tooie hadn't even been announced yet before Banjo Kazooie launched? What an incredible mindblowing thing to hide the announcement of a sequel with full title and even items and areas shown that would tie into the next game shown off in a secret ending! It was the Back To The Future Part 2 Ending of the video game world, only far more well received and exciting, instead of being the blatant cash grab that BTTFP3 was Sadly with the advent of the modern internet, things like this can't possibly have the same impact that they once did back in the late 90s, but it really does just exemplify how amazing the sense of discovery and secret hunting was in this game. Like the Sandcastle Cheats, remember those? Most of them weren't even released by Rare until 2-3 years after the game came out, with some not even being discovered until decades later! This game provides a better sense of mystery, wonder and discovery than any modern open world title could ever dream of doing. Ok. I'm gonna now take a bit of time to rant about the Xbox 360 version and why it's a terrible bastardisation of the original game. First off. What in the ever loving fuck have 4J Studios done to the font and HUD!? AHHHH!!!!! THOSE JINJOS PIERCE INTO MY SOUL!!!! Ok, admittedly a minor gripe in the grand scheme of things, but holy shit is the new font and HUD so unbearably ugly! Utterly artless. A bigger issue is the new "modern" camera. Holy shit have they fucked it up something fierce! Why!? The original game's camera was near enough flawless! Now it's just lazy and requires constant babysitting, and also requires constant feathering because the original game was designed around the camera angle being moved in 45 degree increments instead of being fully analogue. This makes precision platforming a total nightmare now, as the camera constantly fights you (especially in The Engine Room, you KNOW which room I'm talking about). The 360 version of BT would rectify this to some degree, making it at least tolerable there, but it's still not as smooth to control as the original. Speaking of 4J Studios fucking around with things that they had no business touching, or any real understanding of the original game design intention, they changed how note collection was handled. In the original game, you had to collect all 100 notes within a level in a single run; and each time you either died or exited the level, the game would save your best note collection score. 4J Studios decided to mess around with the game by changing this so that once a note is collected, it stays collected forever. Now this sounds like a good change on paper, but in practice? It ruins the intended challenge of the game. Rusty Bucket Bay and Click Clock Wood are supposed to be endurance challenges where you try and survive long enough to collect all 100 notes in one go, but this is now completely trivialised thanks to this change, ruining the intended level design. This change also introduces a rather nasty bug that can lock you out of 100% completion too... if you tackle the Bottle Bonus Challenge before 100% completing Mad Monster Mansion, when the onscreen Banjo collects the notes in the Mad Monster Mansion puzzle, the game treats them as being already being collected; making it impossible to collect them within the level itself. It's an awful change that 4J Studios had no business making. Oh but it gets even better... because all of the game's cutscenes are also completely broken. This is immediately obvious from the moment you start the game, as animations go out of sync and don't play properly (with some animations just being outright missing even) in every single cutscene in the game! Timestamped for your viewing displeasure (but if for whatever reason it doesn't work, just skip to 00:48 to start the intro cutscene and watch how it breaks almost right away) Banjo Tooie on 360 also suffers from the same issue (and it's worse there because the sequel has a lot more cutscenes) and it's so utterly maddening. This is not some sort of obscure bug that could easily have been missed, no, it pervades across every single cutscene in the entire game and it's painfully obvious. It's mindboggling that not only that this issue happened in the first place, but that even 15 odd years after this re-release came out, it has still not been patched in ANY of the 360 version's subsequent re-releases across Rare Replay or when it was given the Xbox Series X 4k enhancement treatement. It is so utterly amateurish that it outright disrespects the original game, and when you're talking about such an important milestone of a release within the gaming industry as a whole? These kinds of issues are just utterly unacceptable. But wait! There's more! Because 4J Studios are a bunch of hacks that seem to think that technological superiority automatically makes a game better, they also pushed out the game's draw distance to infinity. Again, another change that sounds good on paper, but it's also one that ruins the game's intended level design as collectables that are scattered around the stages are now always in clear view. Things like Sharkfood Island, or the Empty Honeycomb out at sea in Treasure Trove Cove are supposed to be hidden from plain sight and fade into view as you get closer to them as you explore the sea in TTC, but now? They're just in razor sharp view at all times, making finding them trivial. Same goes for the hidden notes at the bottom of Bubblegloop Swamp. Again, a change made with no care, understanding or respect for the original game's level design. Yes I'm nicking your screenshot to demonstrate this @Cube, but Sharkfood Island and that crate floating out at sea are not supposed to be visible from here. Notice also how it fails to obscure the boundary of the ocean across the horizon too? There's supposed to be a layer of fog that's just missing here Oh, and did I also mention that they ruined the cheats too? Unlike in the original N64 game, enabling any sort of Sandcastle Cheat now completely blocks saving of any kind; making the cheats utterly useless and pointless to even mess around with (Wanna be a washing machine and still be able to save? Well too bad, you can't in this version!). This is bad in BK, but it's a hell of a lot worse in BT, which not only has a lot more fun cheats to mess around with, but it's also a much bigger and longer game; and worst of all, this makes using the SuperBanjo cheat utterly useless!! A travesty! Now, there is some good about this version I do have to give credit for and it's that its widescreen implementation is mostly well done and that it now runs at a solid 1080p/30FPS on Xbox 360 (4K on Series X), which is certainly quite a nice image quality improvement over the blurry 240p and somewhat unstable 30FPS of the N64 original. It also adds some neat online leaderboards that track your best speedrun through each game and level, which is neat I suppose. And it even allows you to carry over the Stop N' Swop items to BT, though the way that this was handled was also rather cackhanded, as 4J Studios handled this by removing the SnS items from BT (meaning that the areas that used to contain those items are now just... empty) and having them just straight handed to you at the start of BT, with the two additional eggs that were not previously obtainable in BT now granting you (rather insultingly, and not in a funny Rare humour kind of way) two Xbox 360 Gamerpics. For all the hype surrounding the reintroduction of this feature, it's soul-crushing to see it used to grant you two useless JPGs for your Xbox 360 Live account; it feels so wrong. I will give them props for the Stop N' Swop 2 joke though, that was actually pretty funny. There's plenty of other minor issues that pervade throughout the 360 version of BK (such as numerous glitches with the music not working correctly, especially when going underwater, and of course all references to Nintendo's IPs were removed), but those are the biggest gripes I have with this version. It just feels so sloppy and disrespectful as a whole, and really that perfectly encapsulates Microsoft's entire tenure as Rare's owner. Thankfully, we were blessed with the original N64 version being made available via Nintendo Switch Online and that version is everything I could have ever asked for. It's a flawless recreation of the original N64 ROM, with all of the original references and everything intact; now running in HD and with a smooth and unwavering 30FPS (and no broken cutscenes either!); it's even portable, and can be played with the original N64 controller! It took over 20 years, but we finally got the ultimate version of BK. Thank you Nintendo, Microsoft and Rare for finally making it happen. I cannot wait for Banjo Tooie to get the same treatment, good lord it needs it badly... because the 360 version is a mess and the original N64 cartridge runs like an absolute dog, with one of the worst framerates on the platform (it really says a lot though how much I love the N64 game despite its dreadful performance, and it also says a lot about how terrible the 360 version is when I'd rather play the N64 version with its 240p resolution running at around 10-15FPS over the 4k/30FPS version on Series X ). Ok, rant over. I fucking love this game, please don't play the awful Xbox version though. Get the good one on Switch

So, I hit a massive difficulty spike earlier this afternoon. I figured I must have wandered off the correct path but that wasn't the case at all. A quick search on the internet and this was indeed the correct way and it was a difficulty spike that many players before me encountered. Simple level grinding wasn't going to cut it and so I decided to learn all about the SP skills that @Glen-i mentioned when playing the second game. Once I got to grips with these skills I completely broke the game. There's a skill that allows you to make exp cards that give you double experience points after a battle. There's then a skill that gives you the ability to replicate items, these cards included. Next, there's an ability that allows you to improve/create your own weapons. Finally, another ability is available that gives you the opportunity to fight a super boss at any point in the game. Linking all of these things together gave me some fantastic results. I created two of the best swords in the game. These deal critical hits and also cause the enemy to be dazed. Having these on 2 characters was the first step. Next, I created the experience boosting cards and replicated a whole bunch of them. This took a while as its down to RNG and so a bit of reloading of the game was required but totally worth it. After that, I summoned the super boss, used a card and then proceeded to beat the Hell out of it with my new weapons. The amount of experience I get from the fights in the area I'm in usually give around 1000-1500. This gave me... It took around 3 hours of prep to get everything in order but the results have been worth it. I jumped from level 37 to 80+ in the space of half an hour of battling. I got an exp farm on tap. Love it. With Glen doing something similar in the sequel, it must be a common thing in this series.

Fine, I'll give this game another go...

Right, bored with Smash. Let's play a funnier game! PlayStation All-Star Battle Royale I've done this theme before, but it's gotten 4 new characters since then, and they're pretty heavy hitters! So yeah, in case it wasn't obvious, every character here has appeared on at least one PlayStation console, and none of them appear on the actual PS All-Stars Battle Royale, because it's forever funny to point and laugh at that game's roster! Mii characters are allowed, but they must be wearing a costume based on a character that has appeared on PlayStation (Goemon, Cuphead, Sans, etc.) There are also a couple of costume restrictions Cloud - No Advent Children costumes Bayonetta - No Bayonetta 2 costumes (Short Hair) Items are either from specific games from PlayStation titles, or are generic enough, you can get away with it. Except the Fake Smash Ball, that's there because I'm making a point. Format - 3 Stock FS Meter - On See you at 7:30!

Oh wow! Haven’t heard of this one before. Looks quite cool and fairly robust for the time! Pretty early attempt in the “Maker” genre too. Surprisingly ahead of its time. I can see why this never made it out of Japan, what with the traditional shooter being a dying/dead genre by this time outside of Japan, but it’s still a shame that it didn’t get the chance to garner a wider audience.

Thanks for the games. Here's a link to this week's stream... - - - - - F-Zero Maximum Velocity on the Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack - N-Europe Multiplayer (19/04//2024)

Joke's on you, I'll be getting the Switch version! Unless the achievements are also in-game, like Rising... Oh God! What if they're in-game, like Rising!?

Hey look! Another arcade port! These are rare for the platform I swear!

Cruis’n World PAL release: 25th June 1998 NA release: 30th September 1998 JP release: N/A Developer: Midway, Eurocom Publisher: Nintendo N64 Magazine Score: 38% While still nowhere near a good game, Cruis’n World has significant improvements over Cruis’n USA. It’s still an arcade-style racing game with a lot of courses, although this time it’s based across the world instead of just the USA. This gives us a much bigger array of visual variety. The visuals of the levels are very stereotypical, but it means the locations are very easy to identify and they all stand out from each other. The track design is also much more varied and isn’t almost entirely 4-lane roads. With the amount of tracks – including one on the moon – it’s certainly one of the stronger N64 racing games when it comes to tracks. There’s also a really nice variety in cars, mostly knock-offs of real ones, but also fun ones like a double-decker. Unfortunately, it’s all let down by the handling. One slight touch of the analogue stick and you swerve wildly across the road, with a drift that makes it even harder to control your vehicle. Winning is also very difficult because the other racers are so bad – they’ll often crash and you’ll end up in the pile up (well, more a bunch of cars spinning wildly in the air) as they block the road, letting the cars up front get ahead in such a way that you can be perfect for the rest of the race and not be able to catch up. I got fed up of this pretty quickly and resorted to using cheats. Strangely, the only track I won legitimately was one of the “expert” ones. It’s a shame because with better handling, it would be a very enjoyable game. Remake or remaster? A collection of the tracks and vehicles from these games with some better gameplay and handling would be an interesting package. Official ways to get the game. There is no official way to get Cruis’n World

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?)

I've been watching the new Fallout series on Amazon and it's pretty good. I think its on of the best shows i've seen in a while. I know next to nothing about the games, as I've only played Fallout 3 for about all of half an hour. So I'd say its worth watching even if you know nothing about games series, as it stands on its own feet

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.

Mortal Kombat 4 NA release: 23rd June 1998 PAL release: 15th September 1998 JP release: N/A Developer: Midway, Eurocom Publisher: Midway (NA), GT (PAL) N64 Magazine Score: 84% The big Mortal Kombat game for this generation of consoles, and this one brings the graphics into full 3D. After experimenting with a few styles of graphics and gameplay with their earlier N64 fighting games, Mortal Kombat 4 settles on polygon models that manage to capture the spirit of the 2D sprites pretty well. The gameplay also feels quite solid to me. It sticks to working from a 2D point of view with some slight 3D movement from dodging. One new feature is the ability to use items like rocks to throw at opponents, and each person can bring out a weapon with a special move (which the opponent can also use if dropped). There’s a few modes such as an endurance mode fighting random opponents, the standard arcade mode and some tournament options for multiplayer. The practice mode also gives you a move list, but this is only on a static screen and you can’t pin one to try. This seems like the N64’s most solid fighter so far, although it doesn’t try to do anything special either. Remake or remaster? A Mortal Kombat collection would be good. Official ways to get the game. The PC version of Mortal Kombat 4 is available on GoG.

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.

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

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!

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/

A bit dark? Anyway, I can't actually remember. And I played through the whole thing with the NSO Game Trial, so I can't boot it up to check.

Trailer from tonight's event: Demo dropping in June, probably an Xbox Games Showcase shadow drop? Still so funny to me how they've got their name all over this game to the extent that they have, such as having them as the only console in the title for the above trailer: Box art is a bit busy, very art school-y with how it utilises the title I feel, but idk, I kind of like it? The top part especially. Think I'm going to need to spend this summer making sure I'm caught up on JRPGs ahead of this launching in October

Off Road Challenge NA release: 30th June 1998 PAL release: 15th September 1998 JP release: N/A Developer: Midway, Avalanche Software Publisher: Midway (NA), GT (PAL) N64 Magazine Score: 21% Developed by Midway and Avalanche (the ones who made the Tak games and Hogwarts Legacy) is another port of an arcade racer, this one has you driving large 4×4 trucks across some very bumpy environments. Off Road Challenge is very clearly an immensely ugly game. Everything looks low quality and messy and there’s a load of pop-in and gaps in the world. The game does mange to make its 6 tracks feel distinct (there’s also two bonus ones which look similar to some of those), but when none of it looks good, that doesn’t matter much. However, even though the game is nowhere near good, I found it to be rather enjoyable. The handling is surprisingly good – one of the most responsive I’ve encountered in a car game on the N64 and there’s such a great sense of fun with the game. Everything surrounding this is bad, but the core driving is just entertaining. One bizarre thing is that your car starts off as not good enough to win, you need to collect money found in the level (and awarded if you place high) to buy upgrades for your car, which then help you out in later races. One huge problem – if you leave the game to swap vehicle or turn the game off, all these upgrades are on and you need to do a few races to catch up again. It’s ugly and has some rather odd features, but it’s still kind of fun. Remake or remaster? Being another Midway racer, a collection of their racing games would be nice. Official ways to get the game. There is no official way to get Off Road Challenge.

It's still Steam Store exclusive... but of course there's nothing stopping that from changing when Steam Deck 2 inevitably launches. The first model has sold at least 2 million units as of November 2023, so while it's certainly not currently threatening Nintendo's marketshare, it's also not a super niche device like the Analogue consoles, or the Playdate either. It's not hard to see a successor console coming out with a wider retailer distribution starting to gain more of a mainstream audience. It's only gonna go up from here, as will the handheld PC space in general, especially if Xbox do end up stepping into the ring.

Thanks for the games. Here's a link to this week's stream... - - - - - N-Europe Saturday Smash! (20/04/2024) - - - - -

Oh wait, the weapon names get carried over? Welp, guess Garoo will be swinging "Big and Large" for a bit longer.

Easy to do when you release a fully functional game and you are confident in your product.

Sword Rain...pfft. Dude has clearly ripped off Vyse.

I do generally agree with what you're saying @Julius, but unless Nintendo are planning on putting out another Partner Showcase in lieu of what would've been their usual E3 event in June, there won't be another major Switch event until at least September (and any such event will likely be focused on Switch 2 at that point, rather than the current model; as I'd expect Switch 2 to be launching in March 2025). Nintendo are basically done with the current Switch as far as major original first party games go now; which is why their February Direct was a Partner Showcase, rather than your usual mainline Nintendo Direct. And given that Switch 2 has been internally delayed from November 2024 to (probably) March 2025? That's likely pushed back any announcement/event plans that they had as well... hell, they've already pulled out of Gamescom 2024 likely for this very reason. So it's either Indie World or nothing as far as Nintendo related events go, and I doubt that they'd want to shackle up with Xbox in their own event. They could do their own announcement at SGF I suppose, but it'd probably get somewhat buried underneath Geoff Keighley's mountanous ego and his hard-on for AAAA explosion fests, so probably not the wisest choice of events either. The Triple III Initiative event was actually pretty dang good and would likely be their best shot outside of Indie World when they inevitably do their next event; as the last one was surprisingly successful and well recieved (136k views for their first ever event is pretty impressive and will likely only increase from there, given how much positive coverage it got afterwards; by comparison, the last Indie World scored around 836k views). But that probably won't be happening for a long time from now...

There's a beta test for the newest INAZUMA ELEVEN if anyone's interested: https://www.n-europe.com/news/inazuma-eleven-victory-road-worldwide-beta-test-demo-available-now/