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Knowing how much of a fan you were of the SNES version, seeing you as an opponent recently and repeatedly witnessing "Manolito ✘KO'd another victim" display on my screen was a terrifying time. [Audible panic noises as RedShell attempts another murder on my falling apart machine at the finish line] I did manage to win a Grand Prix when he wasn't in my lobby, though! (Having the player that was 30+ points ahead of me crashing out in the final race helped.)

I'm typically not a fan of Battle Royale games for a number of reasons, some of which F-Zero 99 includes, but outside of such gripes I've been having a good ol' time just enjoying the ride. I hope that this game gets long-term support that goes beyond the content of the original SNES game, and that it's successful enough for Nintendo to consider more F-Zero games in the future. Also Golden Fox is pretty good. Please ignore that wonky looking 1 for Silence.

Shin Megami Tensei V is a Turn-based RPG developed by Atlus for the Nintendo Switch in 2021. Best known as that franchise that would eventually get eclipsed by the spin-off series it created, Persona. The SMT games' defining trait is that the majority of your party consists of a constantly revolving set of progressively stronger demons. The game follows a nameless Japanese student whose path back to his dorm is blocked off by a rather grisly murder investigation. Upon taking a detour through a underground tunnel, an earthquake occurs and knocks him out. When he wakes up, and emerges from underground, he discovers Tokyo has been reduced to ruins, with nothing but destroyed buildings and an exorbitant amount of sand. Well, until a group of demons attacks him. This random student is rescued by a Terminator knock-off and given a choice, stay as he is and inevitably get killed, or fuse together with Terminator dude, and have a hope of survivial. He naturally accepts and becomes a "Nahobino", a human-demon hybrid with demonic powers, laser sword hands, and incredibly fabulous hair! It's an SMT game, so inevitably things escalate to literal biblical proportions as you discover the responsibilities and decisions a Nahobino will have to take. The game presents you with a number of choices throughout, and the actions you take, as well your responses to questions, determine your alignment and which of the four endings you get. The gameplay revolves around the various demons you encounter along the way. You can beat them up, but you're going to have to negotiate with them to come to an agreement and help you out instead. There's a staggering amount of dialogue you can see with these demons, and it's easily my favourite part of the series. Demons are prone to asking for bribes and philosophical questions and are fickle to the extreme. But sooner or later, you're going to realise that fusing Demons is a more efficient way. Fusing 2 demons will usually get a stronger one. Thankfully, you can use money to recreate demons you already had in your party in the past, so you eventually get a large roster of demons for fusion fodder. It can get pricey though, making SMT a strange RPG where money is always useful and scarce. Oh... Bugger... Yeah, I didn't have the buffs, he destroyed me The game, like other SMT games is brutal! The game has no qualms with ending your game if you're unprepared, which happened a lot. This isn't helped by being one of those RPG's where the game immediately ends if the Nahobino cops it. It's the other negative I have to say about this game, I don't particularly care for that in a game with multiple party members, especially when there are instant death spells. Unlike Shin Megami Tensei III, almost all instant death spells only trigger if it hits a weakness, so as long as you don't leave the main character weak to Light and Dark, then it's fine. Still a BS way of increasing difficulty, and I don't know why they went back to this after SMT IV ditched it. Also like other SMT games, battles utilise the Press Turn System, where you get extra turns if you hit an enemy's weakness, or land a critical hit. But you can also lose turns if your attacks get nullified or miss their mark. It's a very cool system that rewards good strategic plays, and enemies can use this system against you, so making sure they can't exploit this is the key to survival. The gimmick of this fifth entry are "Essences" Every demon has one, and if you find one, you can use it to teach the Nahobino and demons skills, or change the Nahobino's strengths and weaknesses, so if you're struggling with a certain boss, you can use this to shift your weaknesses around to give you the upper hand. It's a cool feature that allows for a lot of customisation. There's also the Magatsuhi meter, lovingly stolen from Tokyo Mirage Sessions and rebranded, which lets you perform incredibly potent abilities without using up a turn. Which ones you can use depend on what race of demons you have with you. Not even the most ridiculous demon this game has SMT IV was a 3DS game that used 2D sprites to depict the demons in battle. SMT V goes back to having fully 3D models for everything, but despite this, and the jump to HD, there's actually more demons in the game then IV had (Not as many as the 3DS sequel, IV: Apocalypse, mind you). It's honestly quite impressive, and the game runs relatively well. Fast loading times with the only slight framerate drops occuring after you fast travel. It's an absolutely solid game and I enjoyed it throughout, even if it does kinda faceplant on the landing. The music is unnerving and unorthodox, which fits the tone of the game very well. And like most other modern Atlus games, the UI is slick and cool. Not as ridiculously stylish as Persona 5, but still good. Shin Megami Tensei makes for a great alternative to Persona. The turn based battles are great, yet I don't have to deal with the social rubbish Persona forces you through. But as far as western regions go, I'm in the minority here. The credits revealed that Nintendo themselves localised the game to English, which further reinforces the impression that Atlus have no faith in Shin Megami Tensei outside of Japan. It's a real shame, because the 4 games I've played are all very good. Wonder what that vague description could be? The description claims it still powers on. Good ol' Nintendium!

Kirby & The Amazing Mirror comes to the service on September 29th!

@lostmario is now the proud recipient of my best ever Suddenly Bananas moment.

This game was one of the first games I bought with my own money for my own GameCube after The Legend of Zelda: The Windwaker. 'T was a simpler time where I had decided to sell my PS2 and its games, and switch to Nintendo consoles and games only (the big reason at the time was because of Mario Party) Knowing very little about Nintendo's history and franchises, I picked up this game half price near the end of the Cube's lifecycle, thinking it could be interesting. I ended up diving deep into this (just like with The Windwaker), with multiple playthroughs and discovering as much secrets as I could. In a time where I didn't really go on the internet if I got stuck on a game, Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door was one of the greatest adventures of my life. With each chapter having it's unique charm and theme, Bowser's silly escapades, and Peach's philosophical and futuristic storyline, I had to shed a tear seeing Nintendo bringing back one of my beloved games. I still own the original.

Finally got the damn KO a rival badge: That was actually more difficult than winning a race. Interesting stuff. As I mentioned before, I had no idea that the F-Zero series had sold so poorly, knowing the reality of the situation now though I'm even more grateful for the existence of F-Zero 99. But yeah, hopefully it will be a success (however the success of a NSO "freebie" is measured) and there will be more to come from this series in the future. I'd say ignoring all other players can be a good strategy (well, unless you're trying to KO a rival ) it's easier said than done, but if you can focus as much as possible on the track/racing and less on the absolute mayhem that's going on, then it should lead to a much better position. At which point it naturally becomes less chaotic and is more a matter of just holding your nerve around the CPU obstacles and a few players. Good timing of the Skyway can help a lot too. Holding on to it until there's a tricky section of a track approaching, or sometimes even until the last couple of turns on the final lap can make a big difference.

I think some of you might like this, someone has made a website and a magazine that covers old video game magazines that a lot of us grew up reading: https://www.forgottenworlds.net/ one of the most recent articles is about Ngamer, which was the follow up to N64 magazine with an interview with the editor at the time. It's quite interesting hearing about being in games journalist during the height of the Wii and DS and also making a magazine as the internet side of game coverage becomes more established: https://www.forgottenworlds.net/ngamer-magazine

Wii Music let me make a depressing version of Happy Birthday, and for that, it was worth every penny!

Going for another sesh tonight. One more before Kirby takes over my Friday evening online N-E segment. @Helmsly, if you're interested, it should be at around 8pm, but time might shift to accommodate Clownferret if he can make it.

Kirby & the Amazing Mirror added to Nintendo Switch Online September 2023 Now up on the main page. Overview and trailer. - - - - - Finally, another decent NSO game to play in online multiplayer mode, and a great Kirby game.

Yeahhhh, @lostmario wasn't exactly having the greatest night...

Another Mario themed building set for @BowserBasher to consider shelling out more dosh on. Who knew getting into Smash got you that premium Lego merchandising?

How dare you suggest that Xbox are money-hatting to keep the Octopath games off of the Ouya!

Title says it all really. Which universally panned games have you gotten your hands on and what did you think of them? Zelda CD-i, Mario is Missing, Superman 64 etc. You be the judge on what games are notoriously bad.

The map of the depths tells its own story..

I'm gonna raise this thread from the dead Properly started this and I think I'm nearing the end of the first character's journey. It's Yakuza alright Mainly doing the story bits because this is supposed to be the longest game (aside from 7) and because I hate the fact that you have 5 different characters to play as. Didn't enjoy Yakuza 4 that much for similar reasons. Still, there's intrigue, there's mystery, there's typical Yakuza stuff. It's fun. Can't wait until I eventually get the 6th installment. Been hearing only great things about it and it's apparently not a nightmare to get 100% completion.

Finally won my first race. I’m enjoying this in short bursts. 30 minute sessions tops.

I finally gave this a fair shake and... it's absolutely marvelous I think I have a new daily activity, playing this game is so fun! I am very partial to Wild Goose right now. It's also exciting, the idea that this game is creating a whole new generation of F-Zero games out of the (big) blue. Build that fanbase!

Huge leaks coming out of this case with certain items astonishingly left unredacted. • Phil Spencer in 2020: getting Nintendo would be a career moment for me. • Xbox mid-gen hardware refresh (digital Series X @ $499, haptics and quieter buttons controller @ $69.99) • Phil Spencer: Game Pass at 25 million subscribers, no growth since Activision Blizzard acquisition announcement (note: this is from late 2022): • Bethesda release schedule leak (from 2019?): • next-gen version of Red Dead Redemption II: • early plans for next-gen Xbox (2028, cloud-hybrid games, potential switch to ARM). • Ninja Theory's Project Ara is based on an existing IP. Holy. Hot. Damn. These are some spicy ass leaks!

I think the bigger issue than raw sales is the fact that F-Zero is typically positioned as a bit of a tech showpiece franchise for Nintendo. Much like its sister series Pilotwings, F-Zero was developed as a tech demo for the SNES' Mode 7 tech, and then used to show off advancements in 3D technology. With Nintendo moving away from pushing graphics horsepower, and the Switch not exactly being much of a powerhouse itself? F-Zero is in a bit of a bad spot from a creative perspective... Though that being said? It would certainly be a great fit as a launch title for Nintendo's shiny new Switch successor Anyway, thoroughly enjoying F-Zero 99 myself. Though the physics don't really feel quite right here, and it does feel a bit sluggish as a pure F-Zero racer, the sheer chaos of fighting against 98 other racers on the track is always fun. It's always funny seeing like 20 other racers all explode right as you come to the end of the final lap Haven't managed to win a race just yet, but I haven't had much time to play it yet. I'm sure my time will come soon enough though!

I don't particularly enjoy being the doomsayer when it comes to F-Zero (Just ask the N-E Discord), because despite the fact that I don't enjoy the series, a more diverse range of genres from Ninty is a good thing. (Unless it's open world, that's never good) But you see this a lot on ResetEra and the like, people shouting "Metroid Prime and Paper Mario are getting Switch remasters, now's the perfect time for F-Zero GX!" And it's bordering on delusion, because GX is nowhere in the same league as far as success goes. If Nintendo came out and said we don't see the profit potential in remastering GX. People would riot and declare them out of touch, but I'd be in the back thinking "Yeah, I totally get that." F-Zero GX is in the awkward spot of being a GameCube game, a GameCube game that sold poorly for the GameCube. Because of that, a remaster is quite the risk, and you can't really put it on a hypothetical NSO GameCube app, because GC games would take up far too much space digitally. It's why we see other F-Zero games get re-released digitally constantly, but not GX. Now of course, never say never, but I don't believe F-Zero 99 is a litmus test for future F-Zero titles, I just think someone pitched the idea, and the higher ups thought "Yeah, this is a cool new idea that F-Zero hasn't done before". It lines up with the reasoning why Ninty haven't done a new entry for so long. They just didn't have any ideas for new ways for it to go, because "F-Zero, but for GameCube" clearly wasn't good enough.

Speak for yourselves. Anyway, perhaps we could just do a Mii only setup during the 30 min custom stage finale sometime.

Thanks for the games. A decent amount of X2 and X3 matches this time. And I got Samus as a random pick twice... once I called it, and the second time, I just asked for a decent character... ...though, even with my favourite character to play as, it doesn't always work out, but there were some good moments. I think something cool happened in the stream at the... 1 hour, 18 minute and a half mark, but I can't remember what it was. Here's a link to this week's stream... - - - - - N-Europe Saturday Smash! (16/09/2023) - - - - -

It's a pity that you can't join friends. I know this is an issue with all 99 games, but I feel like I would possibly enjoy it if I could reliably join other people and see them racing against me.

My Hero Rumble announced for the Switch but sometimes feels like livin' down in a ditch. Mortal Kombat 1 wasn't quite as it seemed, like some kinda horror films bad movie scene. But then out comes Sonic, like some kinda tonic, to save the day and chase our hybrid fears away. All I'm tryin't say is this week on Switch, has been both rich yet also a bitch.

This is £37.49 with the code WONDER25 at Currys Just got mine pre-ordered

You are in for a treat! You get to play Amazing Mirror without having to deal with the brain-dead AI! And you also get to deal with the possibility of you calling everyone for help and being completely blanked because no-one wants to leave where they are! We'll need to figure out which of us will be Player 1, because only they make progress in the file, and consequently gets all the neat spray paints. The others would have to play through their own file separately to benefit from those. Because he's never played it, I suggest @BowserBasher be player 1.

Gameplay deep dive shown off at TGS: Looking good!

Release date announced during Capcom's TGS showing: January 25th 2024.

I've just picked it up from GAME, I think it's the only store in town now, so made a beeline straight for it.

Totally agree, I didn't even personally come across many glitches, but the loading times, especially in the town area, did piss me off greatly. That said, the online reaction is probably one of the biggest over reactions ever. I especially love this game for Silver, some incredible music, gorgeous cutscenes and some cool ideas. I would love it if they remade the title, but from what I've seen on YouTube, I'd be just as well playing the fan remake. I kinda agree with Glen-i and RedShell, Wii Music didn't deserve the level of hate it got, but it DID lack content and Nintendo completely dropped the ball. They spent so much time and effort making the gameplay fun, the Mii's were endearing, I loved the little extras like the ability to make album covers, the layering you could do on songs was also great. In fact, the game would have been PERFECT for me (and I still had hours and hours of fun when it came out) but the song list was just SO inadequate. They really could have spent more money getting more songs, especially as they'd have been licenses for the songs only, it's not like they were getting full recordings with the original artist vocals lol. It also had great Wii Connect 24 capabilities, you could send completed songs to your friends! and the SECRETS! being able to make your Mii's do the secret high 5 thing with the nunchuk. That's another game that, like Sonic 06, could be really incredible with a remake. There's an idea, why keep remaking good games?! Developers should go back and remake flawed games into what they always had the potential to be! NiGHTS Journey of Dreams on the Nintendo Wii is one of my favourite games ever. I LOVE the world and settings, the levels are great fun to traverse, the music and story are SUBLIME. I still have the soundtrack playing regularly to this day, the game was honestly pure magic for me. I think it's a tragedy it was so overlooked and somewhat panned at the time. I loved the My Worlds section of it too, a big liminal field which slowly populated itself with Chao things (the NiGHTS version of which I can't remember the name right now lol) and enemies you'd encountered in levels. It also connected to the Wii weather channel and was especially impressive on rainy days, when even little ponds could form from the rain. You could also visit one another's My Worlds online, and I fondly remember going over to F00had's place a few times. Oh and the My Worlds music was so nice and relaxing, and also changed with the weather. Damn, take me back: You could also race people online in levels! A flying 2D NiGHTS race, damn, 2007 really was a time to be alive. I especially just can't wrap my head around classic SEGA fans who also don't like it. It's head and shoulders above the Saturn NiGHTS, which honestly I find passable at best. Balan Wonderworld is another one I have played recently which I think is okay. It's not great or anything (though I did play up my love for it for comic effect occasionally on Twitter lol) but it is an absolutely fine and enjoyable game and I can't quite understand the insane hate it gets either. Especially obvious in-game jokes like the Box Fox which people lost their minds over. They're the only real big, obvious bad games I have played. I have played plenty of other 'bad' games but they're not especially well known lol. I enjoy Cobra Kai on Switch which is just a dumb side-scrolling Streets of Rage-type game, I had a decent time with it and thought it was fun, despite it obviously having frame-rate issues and pretty ass visuals lol. Then again, I haven't played Cobra Kai since getting sober, so maybe it isn't as fine as I remember lol.

Mortal Kombat 1 Available Now Now up on the main page - - - - - Check out this excellent article put together by @Josh64 which highlights all the key points surrounding the less than favourable Switch port of the game. "Mortal Kombat 1 is available now for the Nintendo Switch, but should you buy it? Head inside to see what players, the media and the creators have been saying."

My journey will begin soon Downloading now and will give it a go after lunch Can't wait. I've only heard good things. Thankfully, I'll go in without any information about the plot whatsoever (aside from mechs being involved ).

Xbox hardware roadmap from 2022 - 2029 There it is. So the decision about ARM vs x86 should already have happened by now. OHOHOHO! Next console should be launching in November 2028 in this case.

I've had to check so many times over the months on the spellings, Shin is right but it seems like they've gone with Baylan (source: Star Wars Databank); don't think it helped that they said their names on-stage well before spellings were confirmed in printed press. As for expectations, I don't really have many, but what I hope... Very excited for tonight's episode, whatever it may bring!

Xbox wanting to buy Nintendo isn't a revelation in the slightest, hell; they tried to buy them multiple times before, as far back as 2000. This is fully public info, even appearing in the Xbox 20th anniversary documentary and museum website! I bet Jim Ryan would also love to buy Nintendo... it's never gonna happen though

Yeah, none of their plans are doing anything for me And the industry can only hope that Microsoft will never decide to just say "fuck it" and use their ridiculous spending power to buy pretty much everything... Phil Spencer saying buying Nintendo would be "a career moment"...it's actually a pretty sad thought...capitalism in full swing. And while they will (probably) never buy Nintendo, he really wishes to go for a monopoly...disgusting.

Really nice to see, and great to have the 40 fps option as a middle ground seemingly from the get-go this time around? Think I'll see what the trophies are saying for the Plat, if a second playthrough/NG+ is required then I might go Quality (30 fps) for my first go and then Performance (60 fps) for my second, but that will only be if Photo Mode doesn't auto-change to Quality (which it did in Miles, at least, and I imagine Remastered too). Exactly the type of game I want to play in 60 fps, and considering how Insomniac have been this gen, I doubt there are going to be any major hiccups in going with that option. Plus, Miles was an absolute delight my second time around at 60 fps! Also, looks like we can slingshot ourselves from pretty much anywhere we can reasonably find this time around, which is super cool! Honestly, it's really hard to disagree. We're still a good bit shy of the midway point for this gen, but in just under 3 years they'll have launched 3 all-new current/next-gen games, and heck, if we want to be pedantic, 4 in total if we're considering Remastered. They're the best PlayStation has to offer at the moment for my money, as I'm struggling to think of any other studio with their combined quantity and quality of output this gen; heck, off the top of my head, I'm struggling to think of any other team under the PlayStation Studio who have put out more than one new game this generation. Guerrilla with Forbidden West and Call of the Mountain, maybe? I know COVID will have been a factor in delaying some projects, of course, and that knock-on effect likely meant it took longer for some teams to even get their first PS5 game out there...but that still doesn't change the fact that Insomniac have had the output that they have. It would have been something praiseworthy in a world without COVID, but in a world with? Kudos to them. And we already know Wolverine is on the horizon, as well as probably another R&C game or something else completely out of left field. It's just wild!

Same here, I placed 2nd once and I have no idea how I did it lol. Other the that I generally place in the top 50 as well. On the one hand I am enjoying this, just as you said it's been a nice surprise. On the other hand, i have no idea how to improve and get better

While the tracks are limited in number right now, by picking the easier tracks to start with it is at least making it accessible to so many more. F-Zero tracks, especially the later ones, I thought really do get tough. I enjoyed F-Zero GX but never got close to opening up the Arcade tracks. This is a great surprise, runs smoothly, and while I’ve only managed a top 10 finish once so far (I’m usually only finishing top 50) it’s been a blast and a really positive move for the series.

I've come to the conclusion that random character select hates me. Also, what's the reason again why Miis aren't included when you choose random? Anyway, cheers for the games. Here's a fun moment: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1927348308?t=1h32m8s "If I'm going down, I'm taking you with me!"

"I've got gold plated toilet tissue, money never is an issue, TV people call me as their guest" - Funky Kong's reaction to being added to Mario Kart 8

A few I've played of the very notorious bad games: Big Rigs: Over The Road Racing This is just a completely broken game, just extremely unfinished. The thing is, though, the unfinished nature is pretty much why it's bad.:If finished, it would just be a very boring and dull racing game. I played it during a charity session. Ride to Hell: Retribution Now this is a finished game that is utterly terrible. I also played this during a charity session, until a glitch stopped me from playing more. The gameplay itself is atrocious, the level design is bad and the story is laughable. Sonic 06 With a couple of simple patches, it's a decent game. The fan remake of is extremely enjoyable - it shows that the core concept and level design are quite good. The game was just horribly rushed. Sonic Heroes is a much worse game. Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric This is...just fine. It's mindless, extremely average but quite enjoyable. It's not a good game, but it's nowhere near as bad as people make out. Games that I think deserve to be notable bad games: Doctor Who: Return to Earth My review of this was the first to be published. The game is strange: you have to collect orbs from pedestals (avoiding their "view cone") and shoot them at matching colours to activate actions. To shoot enemies, you fire a matching orb at the orb floating above their head. Aiming was immensely stiff and there's no actual challenge or interesting puzzles. Naughty Bear A silly Hitman clone with violent but cuddly bears. This could have worked if it was funny, with diverse objectives and interesting ideas. This had none. It was also extremely short and each level just felt like a slight variation, with you just doing the exact same thing over and over. One thing I noticed was that the menu button was very similar to every XBLA game, so I'm pretty sure this was supposed to be a cheap downloadable game that was thrown onto a disc at the last moment. Underwurlde One of the Sabreman games form Rare, this one is just horrible with massive falls everywhere, a confusing map with a ton of dead ends, difficult to hit flying enemies and a terrible jump. Hello Neighbour Apparently this is a horror game. To me, horror games completely fail when there's nothing to fear. I actually found it more efficient to get "caught" than to actually try to escape the neighbour, as you instantly respawn with all your items. The game relies entirely on moon logic and pressing buttons that activate things you can't see. I ended up using a guide and found two solutions for the first level. One involved using a fan to push something towards a button, but the fan would not push the item, so that was broken. The second was finding a hidden magnet gun, but then I accidentally hit the drop button and it fell through the ground. 12 Minutes This is a point and click "time loop" game, but it lacks the ability to just do silly things or have fun. Even if you figure things stuff, the main difficulty is activating things so that the main character figures it out. It's mainly dialogue based but nothing you actually want to say is an option. The voice acting sounds like everyone is bored (and this is James McAvoy, Daisey Ridley and Willem Dafoe). What makes it truly terrible is the plot.

Well, let's start with the obvious ones, seeing as you mentioned Zelda CD-i... as I've played all three games, from when I used to own a Phillips CD-i and all the "Zelda" titles. Link: The Faces of Evil This is the one which probably has the most infamous cutscenes, and opens with... well, you know how it goes, if not... check the intro videos online. As for the gameplay? It's a side-scrolling adventure game, with platforming elements, often it will be unclear where you are supposed to be moving between, and the combat is... mostly functional. The inventory system isn't great, though this is similar for a lot of CD-i games, especially if you're using the infamous 'wand' controller with the console... I'd say it's best played on the conventional controller... or however else you can get to play it, with your controller of choice... or maybe not at all. But if you're curious, check this game out. Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon Much the same as the first game, instead here you are playing as Zelda instead of Link, and I seem to remember there being more spells, in addition to some light swordplay, though don't go expecting the refined combat of the mainline Zelda games, but for the novelty of playing as Zelda... you know, before she was sidely playable in anything, it's worth considering. Zelda's Adventure This is the main one, mostly because it's the rarest of the three titles, and it's definitely not worth the asking price now, I was just "fortunate?" enough to buy these titles when I got a good deal on them. This is the last title, and the one which shifted the gameplay perspective from side-scrolling to overhead, plus the animated cutscenes were replaced with live action sequences which are... yep. I seem the recall the inventory system being particualy cumbersome this time around, and the screen-scrolling... yeah... I probably stuck with all of these games longer than most would, but Zelda's Adventure certainly sticks out as being the least enjoyable, mostly down to the hardware and controls. Overall All three of the Zelda CD-i games have some interesting ideas in them, and they turned out better than anyone could have hoped for, given the hardware etc and the development circumstances, plus as aforementioned by Dean, some of the music in the games is really good. So maybe just listen to the OST's? Alternatively, there is that new game announced Arzette: The Jewel of Faramore which is touted as a spiritual successor to the Zelda CD-i games, so maybe wait for that? - - - - - Perfect Dark Zero I don't share the same thoughts on the prequel to the original Perfect Dark, as at the time, I definitely recall enjoying elements of the game, and I appreciate what was done in an attempt to flesh out some of the backstories to the characters. Some of the elements work, while others don't, and there are some legitimately decent weapons and items that you get to use in the game. Yes though, some of the objectives in the missions, and the level design as questionable, but it's really not surprising being that the game started out on the GameCube... then onto the Xbox and finally releasing when the Xbox 360 launched. What I remember from the game, is blasting through the campaign, which had some really enjoyable moments, even if the overall graphical style is overdone, the soundtrack has some great music in it, maybe not as subtle as the original, but it has its high points (as well as its lows) but yeah... after spending a reasonable amount of time in the single player, I spent many hours playing the multiplayer mode, which is really fun to play, especially at its time of release, as it's an online FPS which doesn't take itself too seriously, something of a rarity today in a sea of Call of Duty clones etc. Overall Would I give Perfect Dark Zero another go in 2023? Yes, and being that it's available as part of Rare Replay, which you can pick up for next to nothing, I'd say that it'd worth at least giving a try, especially if you've never played it. Just don't go into it with any expectations, and you might just be surprised. - - - - - There are other games, I'm sure but those seem to be the obvious ones, as for Superman 64... I've not played it for any serious length of time... and I'm fine with that.

Funnily enough, I just so happen to already have a Your Gaming Diary post ready to go for Wand of Gamelon and Superman 64! In short? Wand of Gamelon and Faces of Evil are actually not totally awful. They’re really both victims of the horrible console that they were made for, and the terrible circumstances that they were made under; but they’re honestly nowhere near as bad as their reputation makes them out to be. They have some good ideas with some questionable execution, but they’re genuinely entertaining; both in spite of, and because of, their limitations. And any game that can offer legit entertainment value can’t really be all bad. Also, their soundtracks are banging… I haven’t actually played the fan-made remaster yet, but I can honestly imagine these games becoming genuinely decent if it manages to address the big technical flaws with the original CDi release. Superman 64 though? Nah, that actually does deserve its reputation. It’s utter trash, with no real redeeming features. It is at least fun to point and laugh at though… unlike Perfect Dark Zero (ugh…). Honestly, Perfect Dark Zero might actually be a genuine contender for worst game I’ve ever played. While it’s perfectly functional as a piece of software (unlike Superman 64), it’s just so utterly mind numbingly boring to play; with some of the absolute worst level design I’ve ever seen. It’s just so shocking that this was the follow up to Perfect Dark of all games; you know, one of the very best games ever made. And it’s also just so disrespectful to its predecessor as well! Fuck that game!

Classic. I see you've been playing this quite a lot too, it's great, huh? Anyway, nice to see you again. Join us for Smash Bros. sometime. You could do it on Tetris 99, with a password IIRC. But yeah, shame they haven't implemented something like that with this game.

Insomniac are just above and beyond any other devs

Star Trek: Dark Remnant Original Release: 2019 Developer: VRStudios Publisher: Dave & Busters. Platform: VR Ride Not played: Cost of getting to location and playing too expensive. Star Trek: Dark Remnant is a VR ride arcade game that was available in Dave & Buster’s. Up to four people sat on the ride, which would tilt and turn to emulate the feeling of the ship moving. You were a member of the USS Galileo, a science ship investigating a decaying neutron star with the Enterprise. A Klingon ship arrives, wanting to destroy the Enterprise. It’s up to you and your team to defend the Enterprise from the Klingon ship. Your control a small handheld device which is linked to the Galileo’s weapons, enabling you to aim and shoot as objects fly across your view. Star Trek: Conflick in the Neutral Zone Original Release: 2019 Developer: Mike Elliott Publisher: WizKids Platform: Board game A board game with a fun pun title. This is a flicking game where the goal is to collect 10 Control Points, either from destroying enemy ships or mining them from the central planet. There are two kinds of ships: round discs are collectors. They mine dilithium or points from planets if they are still on one at the start of their turn, but are destroyed if they are knocked off. Attack ships are used to push other ships off planets or off the board to destroy them. While it sounds simple, there’s a bunch of fiddly rules that have a lot of holes, like how asteroids work. There’s also a lot of trying to remember the location of discs in order to reset them, which makes the game a pain to play and you’ll have to agree with house rules on the fly to carry on. Each payer starts with basic Federation or Klingon ships, but can buy ships of any faction. This means you’ll have a mixture of colours, and the names and pictures are absolutely tiny, making it a big pain to identify which ships are yours. Each non-starter ship has its own power, although these are quite random and don’t have much to do with the ship – the Defiant, for example, can move asteroids with a tractor beam. This game could be replaced with any theme whatsoever and it will make zero difference. Flicking games can be a lot of fun, but they need to be the right kind of simple. The designer of this game has made a load of great games, but this seems like a rush job. Star Trek Chrono-Trek Original Release: 2019 Developer: Looney Labs Publisher: Looney Labs Platform: Board game Star Trek Chrono-Trek is a Star Trek version of Chrononauts. It’s a game all about manipulating the timeline to achieve your goals. Each card has an alternative event on the back, which players can use inverter cards to flip. Some of these can cause a ripple effect and flip over other cards – some changes need multiple prior events to be altered to impact. Each character has a list of goals on their card, which are certain timeline events (regular or alternative) or artefacts, which are found in the main deck. Each turn you draw a card into your hand of three and then play a card – although some are events which happen by default, such as the Devron Anomaly, which moves backwards in time, wiping out humanity if it reaches the beginning. The planning you need to make to win is unfortunately limited by the few cards in your hands. You can also only win during your turn, which means nobody can accidentally trigger a win for someone else – although if everything is right at the start of your turn, you can declare the win straight away. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Fluxx Original Release: 2019 Developer: Looney Labs Publisher: Looney Labs Platform: Board game The Deep Space Nine version of Star Trek Fluxx. This one has no “Ungoal” and only has three creepers, half as many as the TOS and TNG versions, so it’s (usually) a quicker game. It also contained rules for combining the different Star Trek Fluxx games without needing an expansion. Star Trek 1971 Original Release: 2020 Developer: Making Games Per Year Publisher: Making Games Per Year Platform: Browser This is a browser remake of the 1971 Star Trek game by Mike Mayfield, offering both touch and typing interfaces. The experience is streamlined massively, especially in terms of navigating and firing weapons. It’s a very nice version to play, and a very simple way to experience the game without needing to use emulators. It does lose a little bit of its charm due to how automated everything is, moving is as simple as clicking your destination and firing torpedoes just has you selecting from a menu, which means you can’t miss, but it’s still a nice way to see what the original game was aiming for. You can also play a Mirror Universe variant, which changes a few things. The objective of destroying all Klingons makes a bit more sense. Play Here Star Trek: Voyager Fluxx Original Release: 2020 Developer: Looney Labs Publisher: Looney Labs Platform: Board game The Voyager version of Star Trek Fluxx. This has a few more creepers than the DS9 version, but no Ungloal. There were two more expansion packs for the various Star Trek games. The Archer expansion had cards for Archer, Daniels and the Temporal Cold War while the Porthos expansion added some random things like Porthos, Spot, Phlox and Kor. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Red Alert Original Release: Cancelled (Due 2020) Developer: GameCo Publisher: GameCo Platform: Gambling Machine Not played: No demo units known. Developed as a “Video Game Gambling Machine”, this provided a mixture of both luck and skill to possibly win (but almost certainly lose) money on. It was going to be some kind of tower defence game and will pit the gambling addict up against “against antagonistic aliens and dangerous stellar phenomena”. The game was cancelled in order to be rebranded as a Voyager gambling game. Note: Unfortunately, there are a bunch of Star Trek slot machines. I have decided to not cover these, this cancelled one is an exception as it has an actual game element to it. Star Trek: Legends Original Release: 2021 Developer: Tilting Point LLC Publisher: Tilting Point LLC Platform: Apple Arcade Not played: No compatible device for playing. Star Trek Legends was a game that was originally designed as a free 2 play game but is now subscription-based as part of Apple Arcade (which means I have no way to play without spending an obscene amount of money) similar to the Star Wars game Galaxy of Heroes. While it’s no longer a free to paly game, the elements are still there, with lootboxes and a lot of grinding for new characters. The game is a turn based combat game, but because it’s all about how much you’ve grinded and levelled up your characters, strategy doesn’t really seem to matter – the game even has a button to play for you. This one uses the Nexus as the reason why characters from all timelines have ended up together, with Burnham, Worf and McCoy being the main characters in the story.

Haha, I particularly enjoyed the Nenji bit during the credits.