Glen-i

Geoffrey's worst nightmare, See-saw Lifts.

Seriously, Wolf!?

I've done it.

@Ugh first aid is having some difficulties getting into the arena.

That's not fair @RedShell You can't use my lovely face to deter me from hitting you!

OK, yeah. I'm available tonight. EDIT: @Ugh first aid will probably join after she eats dinner.

Maybe zoner is the wrong kind of word I'm using. But I find that when I go up close and personal with Inkling, I come out worse off. Meanwhile, the better Inkling players I've fought against tend to use Splattershot and Splat Bomb to try and keep me away and use Splat Roller whenever the opportunity arrives. Not really my kind of playstyle. I like to pile on the pressure and get uncomfortably close. That said, Inkling is a great addition that brings something new to the roster with the ink mechanic. Yes, I do use Incineroar's side B, mostly to stop the momentum from getting launched. Unfortunately, it's got no momentum itself, so it's effect is minimal at best. At least Little Mac's Side B keeps him going a bit. Couple that with Incineroar's rubbish horizontal air speed, and it doesn't take much to prevent him getting back.

Righto, time to remember what I got. Ummmm... I got physical copies of Miitopia as well as Dillon's Dead Heat Breakers, which I'm well chuffed about. 100 quid worth of eShop vouchers. I used them to get the Xenoblade 2 DLC, a Wonder Boy and Monster Boy double combo, Undertale and SEGA AGES Phantasy Star. Chocolate, naturally. Including a large tube of pink Smarties. It's totally Christmassy, because it has a cartoon penguin lazily slapped on the packaging. A bunch of clothing. Including 2 Boo shirts. One modern and one with retro Boos. Now I can dress for any occasion! @Ugh first aid also got me a Lego (But not actual Lego, mind) style buildable figurine of Kecleon. No, I have no idea what kind of audience that's aimed for, but I guess I'm part of that. Although, she ruined that by getting me nightmares in physical form. A creepy elf doll with a pervy looking face and legs so long, they make Bayonetta look short. So yeah, thanks for ruining Christmas.

Why isn't there a hamster Pokémon yet anyway? Dedenne is the closest we've got, I guess. But that's more gerbil, really.

Put me down as a maybe, it depends on if anything turns up that would take me away from it.

I don't know how you lot cope with Cruel Smash. That mode is just frustratingly unfun. I'm not a big fan of Home-Run Contest, but I'd give up Cruel Smash in a heartbeat for that. Hell, I'd give up Cruel Smash for any cut mode. I golden hammered that one immediately. The only challenge I think I'll have difficulty with is the "Meteor Smash LV 9 CPU's 4 times in one 3- minute match" I'm really struggling with that. Although, it has enlightened me to the fact that having an 8-player, Final Destination CPU fight with 8 LV 9 CPU's is hilarious to watch. All it takes is one person to go off the stage and all of the other 7 CPU's will rush over there and try and prevent everyone from getting back on the stage! Highly recommended viewing.

OK, spending binge from eShop vouchers done, I guess I'm ending the year with 1,571 gold points.

Well, @Jonnas has made me want to go into some detail on characters that I found notable. As far as the Ultimate newcomers go, I'm not really feeling most of them. Here's my opinion on each. Inkling is a more of a zoning kind of character, which I generally suck with. Her side special is great, her other specials? Not so much. Ridley feels awkward as hell, even if he has some nice range at times. But he just doesn't click. Plus, I gotta dock him a few points for looking off being that small. Simon/Richter are an interesting mix of Shulk's crazy range and Mega Man's projectile heavy specials. Unfortunately, I don't like projectile style gameplay in Smash. So they don't quite reach my peak. The slide kick is utterly godly though and a lot of fun. I mostly choose Richter, just because of tastes. King K. Rool is by far the best newcomer. That super armour he sports is total ridic, which makes a lot of rush tactics quite safe against other attacks. I expect a Bayonetta style nerf sometime in the future. So I'm not gonna get too comfortable. Isabelle is a cool alternative to Villager who sacrifices Villager's good ground attacks for some amazing specials. Fishing Rod and Gyroid Mine are incredible tools for controlling the stage. Her normal attacks are pretty bad though. Especially her jab, which is probably the worst jab ever. A lot of people kinda made jokes about how Isabelle would be OP because no-one would want to hit her. After being on the receiving end of that Fishing Rod, I will happily punch her face in at any opportunity. She's pretty fun though. Incineroar is the biggest disappointment for me though. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy it's the Gen 7 Pokémon rep and it oozes so much personality. But it is pretty dreadful. That awful recovery alone means it's never gonna be viable for me. Seriously, how do you have worse recovery than Little Mac? Such a shame. As for echoes, Daisy is basically Peach but more irritating, so that's fine by me. Dark Samus is Samus with a better dodge. Chrom has most of Roy's amazing moveset with Lucina's more stable hitboxes, so he's now my favourite FE character there. Even if Roy's new voice is hilariously over-the-top. Ken on the other hand is not quite as fluid for me as Ryu feels. Ryu tends to take a step forward when he attacks, while Ken likes to stay rooted in one spot. It's cool they're quite different, but Ryu wins out for me. Ken has the more entertaining personality though, even if his Side B sucks. Previously cut characters of note for me are Ice Climbers who I swear is easier to seperate the two and pull off some wacky shenanigans in two places. This is a good thing. Young Link is my surprise hit. I never liked him in Melee, but he's a beast in Ultimate! (Toon Link is nowhere as good as he used to be though. That Forward Smash is awful) I think Pichu might be better than Pikachu! It's electric attacks are stronger, it doesn't hurt itself nearly as much as it did in Melee, it's hard to hit and still has it's ridiculous dash grab. Also, it's voice is funny. Always a plus. Snake still makes me smile so much. I'm not too great with him, but he's definitely better than he was in Brawl. Pokémon Trainer is way better too. Squirtle and Ivysaur are leagues ahead of their Brawl selves and is right up there in my Top 5. My strategy with Charizard, meanwhile, is to immediately swap back to Squirtle. Wolf in Ultimate might as well be a different character to Wolf in Brawl. I really liked Wolf in Brawl, but new Wolf has the same issue I have with Ken. He sticks in one spot while attacking a lot more. I still like him best of the StarFox gang, but definitely a downgrade in my view. So after all that, my two mains are still the same as they were in Smash 4. Lucas and Shulk. But while in 4, I liked Lucas the best, in Ultimate, I can't really decide. This is because while Lucas is pretty much his same, awesome self, Shulk got a nitro boost to his aerial attacks and Monado Arts. His Back Slash allows a bit more control over where it lands and he generally has less ending lag. He got a solid buff and I'm really feeling it! This is a good result! Anyway, I'll leave you with this. Squirtle's German voice (Known as Schiggy over there) is the best thing ever and I wish I could use that particular voice in the English Language option. It's a thing of beauty and I love it.

I mean, I did say "Seriously though" straight afterwards. I was having a giggle.

Humble Brag! And I can call him out because he'll never know! Seriously though, I'm not too sure that a long game is such a bad thing. If a game manages to not bore me with it's gameplay loop, I can literally spend hundreds of hours on it. I mean, loads of you losers did the same for BotW. Which I guess is a prime example for me of a game that needed to end a lot sooner then it did. I'm not making much of a point here... Games be-ing long might not be a bad thing, Fa la la la la, la la la la!

Yeah, it's really bad. Funny how the 3DS pulled it off with little issue but this just falls apart at times.

Add Bowser to the list of characters I'm pretty decent with. It's my highest score so far. (At least in Solo, @Dcubed and I broke 2 million in co-op on Yoshi's route, I was Mario) This Classic Mode is definitely is the best one in Smash history. The routes are fun and creative, the end bosses are top-notch, the intensity mechanic is a great incentive and it's really cool that co-op scores are kept in their own seperate category. But anyway, this has been bugging me for a while... So when I don't know something about Pokémon, I go to the only person on N-E who's a bigger Pokè nerd than me. @Serebii, do you know where it's from? EDIT: Never mind, I found out.

Man, that's some lovely artwork there @Ike It's gorgeous.

So I check in on this thread, and no-one thought Smash Ultimate would be a good soundtrack to highlight? Guess I'm fixing that with some of my favourite new remixes. No, Lifelight isn't there. Because Lifelight isn't good. I think @GenericAperson might have been a bit hasty with his best soundtrack of 2018 declaration.

I knew you'd do some kind of Fresh Gif, @S.C.G Wait... YOU'RE NOT S.C.G! Also, thanks @Animal for teaching me that the Beast's name is Dazz. Good to know. Anyway, I literally know nothing about my upcoming gifts. Except that @Dcubed has probably got me another gift along the impeccable quality of "Imagine: Girl Band" on the DS.

Review copy, and that's all I can say on the matter.

Had to Google that... Wish I didn't...

Decent detective work, but it wasn't that.

For me, Smash Bros saved a pretty crappy year for me. But then again, any Smash saves any year for me really. Apart from that, Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate was my main game. Wouldn't nearly have played it as much if it wasn't for N-Europe Peeps, but still. I've only dipped my toe into Monster Boy, but it's already looking great, I'm looking forward to digging into that soon. Biggest disappointment for me was easily Pokémon Let's Go. Everything I dislike about Pokémon games these days without any of the redeeming qualities that would otherwise allow me to overlook it. It all came together to become an unbalanced mess that even this 19 year long Pokémon fan won't pony up for.

Sorry @Ike and @martinist. Something has come up and I'm gonna have to back out.