Glen-i

Here comes another competitive Pokémon. This time, it's a Gastrodon used by the European Champion. The code is ER1CSGASTR0D0N This is only available until Monday, so get it now.

It was also smack bang in the middle of the SNES Vs Mega Drive console war. Anything to do with Sonic was hyped up to the extreme because, well, it was the Mario competition. I keep having to remind myself that Sonic 3 & Knuckles came out after CD. The first time I was aware of it was when I saw the animated intro on Sonic Mega Collection, and you're right, there was a certain mystique about this hard to find Sonic entry that developed. But then when I finally got a chance to play it? Bleurgh! The level design looks like someone just threw things in there with no rhyme or reason. And trying to get a good ending is far too difficult with the whole past and future gates being frustrating to use. Which becomes a kick in the face, because making a good future is pointless when collecting all the Time Stones is what you need to do to get the best ending. The good future nonsense is a waste of time. It's just a big mess.

Nah, got other games to play. Shin Megami Tensei III is similar enough to Snap, right? Pokémon Puzzle League is the better N64 Pokémon game anyway.

Well one of those songs got into Smash Bros, and it certainly wasn't any songs in the Japanese OST.

It's cool, we had a group of six tonight anyway. So it was still good! Only one clip from me, and it's not even proper gameplay, but it did make me laugh.

But you don't get Sonic Boom then...

@Ike, I'm ready to borrow your Kubfu now. The link code is 1534 4444 EDIT: OK, gimme 5 minutes, tops, and I'll come back to trade back. Same code.

Naturally, you lose the insanity multiplayer provides, but even on your own. It's a solid beat em up. Be warned though, some achievements reuire multiplayer, but you can always do local multiplayer for those.

If you don't mind waiting to 9:15, I'll be there.

Well now! That's probably the closest we've ever gotten to official confirmation that MJ was involved in the soundtrack. I mean, yeah, everyone knows that already, but... He definitely let something slip there! That tweet's gonna be deleted soon.

Another Player's Choice night tonight at 8pm.

OK, yeah, that was definitely just you. I guess it happened because the two of you grabbed the same enemy at the same time and the slight delay online play had made the game freak out. You can see Mikey do the Down Y throw animation, so to everyone else, it looked normal. (Dcubed and I were obviously busy with other stuff)

That's one of those times when I was looking at the credits, saw the name of something, and thought "Wow! Really!? That's so cool!" For anyone curious that hasn't got the game for some reason, it's the music that plays on Episode 15's boss.

Oh no! I was playing Turtles! If you're not free now, then 9pm tomorrow would be best.

A certain level transition image has been making the rounds with editing shenanigans. I laughed. Our session might wait a little depending on Dazzy's schedule. Dcubed is also joining in, so we have 4 people now.

The two swords on the side of that artwork are the Monado from Future Connected, and the Aegis Sword from Xenoblade 2. Gee, I wonder who the 2 hero characters are!?

Alright, @Ike. I'm available for the next 4 days. So let me know when you're free to lend me the Kubfu.

Granted, I've not played enough of Three Houses to know this firsthand, but isn't she one of the most effective units in that game by far? I recall a lot of people using her to beat an enemy you're really not supposed to fight. Lorenz is my least favourite so far. He would totally be a Tory in real life.

Figures. Everyone wants a medic, but no-one ever wants to be the medic. Mokong and I have played together so much at this point, we basically have an understanding that I keep health and stamina topped up thanks to SnS and it's quickness (and getting a couple of stuns in), leaving him to focus more on dealing mad damage with his usual slower weapons. In return, I can rely on him to use Demondrugs, etc, for buffs on particularly difficult quests. As well as luring other monsters to get a ride in. Another thing I've noticed is that random people tend to make a beeline to monsters, only to get one shotted, because they didn't take some detours to gather some Spiribirds for a longer health bar and more defense. The irony there is that the time they might have saved is then wasted healing more then they'd need to, or getting carted easier.

It's the stuns. It always is with hard electric monsters. People can't be bothered with negating it, and I bet no-one bothers with Wide Range for emergency healing for anyone who's about to get combo'd with it.

Oh snap! I need to get to Era and see the meltdown on how it's not a regular Direct! Anyway, neat. I'll probably give it a miss though. I'm already sold, so want to go in as blind as possible.

Because of the rail strikes, I'll be making my usual visit to @Dcubed's house on Wednesday instead of Thursday. And I'm thinking with a little forewarning this time, we can get an N-E session going. Probably should mention we have the Switch version. @BowserBasher and I are already in for it, so if you want to join in, just post here with what character you want to play as. I'm thinking an Arcade run on Okay difficulty would be best, but if you'd rather do something else, go ahead and suggest so. Or if the time isn't quite right. Time: Wednesday, 7pm Glen-i - No Preference BowserBasher - No Preference Dazzybee - Mikey, but is fine with anyone. Dcubed - Not chosen yet

@Mokong was having a similar issue with the Apex Rathalos Emergency quest where the random people kept carting. And then I hopped on and the two of us did it first go! Quality over quantity, baby! Not without a tense fight, though. Those Apex Emergency quests are proper tough!

H-o-T's comment on the visuals of the original made me laugh. It might look like a mobile game, because it is one. Extinction is a game made for consoles, and I imagine it shows. You know with this sudden interest in these games, I'm gonna take the opportunity to plug the review for Extinction I did almost two years ago for any onlookers curious. It's certainly rough around the edges at times, but it's a great old-school take on a Pokémon clone.

Real talk, I don't agree that's always the case. If an RPG isn't balanced around how it dishes out EXP, you can get an unsatisfying difficulty curve. It's my biggest issue with Shining Pearl. They added mandatory EXP Share to that game, but didn't rebalance most of the opponent's Pokémon, so even without grinding, you were constantly above the level of what you were fighting. Until the Pokémon League, when a 10 level jump accompanied by giving the Elite 4 and Cynthia a proper competitive team made for a sudden difficulty jump. Tee hee, the inspiration for Nexomon is so blatant, you couldn't stop your subconscious! You know, if it was anyone else, I might have taken offense by the fact that I wrote an entire positive site review for the sequel, and no-one tries it, but @drahkon posts a few about the original game, and you immediately give it a go. But then, it's you, so it's more likely that you use my opinions as a red flag for what not to play. Which is fair. Oh well, good to know that this game still had the self-aware writing that Extinction has. Because it's my favourite thing about that game. Well, that and Domigator, which is such a blatant, brazen, knock-off of Krookodile, I kinda love it! Anyway, I'll give you the same advice that I gave drahkon, if you still enjoy Nexomon by the time you finish the game, give Extinction a go. It seems to be a more refined game.