Glen-i

Eh, a one month NSO Expansion Pack will likely be cheaper. Then you can play 2 better ones!

Documentary Tetris? I'm intrigued...

I would've paid for that. But I'll take free.

I do, I played Zero, it was boring. EDIT: Woah, hold up? Pizza Tower!? Oh HELL YES! Day freaking one! Anyone who likes Wario Land 4 has to play this game. It's amazing!

Power Stone? OK, that's interesting. Finally get to see how incredibly wrong those who think Smash Bros should play more like that are!

Oh, bloody hell, he's talking about PMD again... Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team is a dungeon-crawling roguelike for the Game Boy Advance. It's developed by Spike Chunsoft and originally released in 2006. It recently got added to the GBA NSO app, which is funny, because the GBA only had 2 Pokémon spin-off games, yet Nintendo decided to choose the one that actually has a remake on Switch. Sorry, Pokémon Pinball... Now, ignoring the Switch remake, there's two versions of the first entry in the PMD series. Red Rescue Team and Blue Rescue Team, each have 6 exclusive Pokémon, but the actual big difference is the console they're on. Blue is on the DS, and utilises the dual screen, as well the better resolution and audio capabilities. Because of that, I've never actually played the GBA version, and seeing as DS games aren't on Switch, this was a good opportunity for me to try it. You play as some human who has been transported to the "World of Pokémon" That's not the World of Pokémon from the mainline games, BTW. A different one that only has Pokémon living in it, because of this, said human is transformed into a Pokémon. How? A personality quiz, naturally. Shout out to @S.C.G Why does this happen? Fun fact, that gets explained in a completely different game! Anyway, I totally didn't game it and got to be a Cubone. However, said Human/Cubone has lost all of his memories other than his name. He meets up with another Pokémon (you get a selection of Pokémon, I went with Treecko), and immediately meet a distressed Butterfree who has lost her kid in a Mystery Dungeon. After rescuing the Caterpie, the Treecko asks this human it just met to form a "Rescue Team". A string of natural disasters have been wracking the Pokémon world recently, so the rescue business is quite busy. Probably not related to this random human showing up... I know I've said this to death, but the PMD games are notable for having storylines that are surprisingly good for Pokémon games. This one is a tad on the simple side compared to later entries, but it has its moments once it gets going. Also, great ending! Snubbull is weird! Anyway, the game revolves around travelling through Mystery Dungeons, special places that make no sense, because they have random floor layouts every time you enter them. If any of the main two Pokémon faint in there, you're kicked out of the dungeon, and lose all the items and money you're carrying, and fainting is surprisingly easy to do here. It's a bit trickier then you'd expect from a Pokémon game, it's not as hard as some other Mystery Dungeon games (Especially Shiren the Wanderer), because you keep any experience points, but you need to really think about your actions before doing them (Enemies don't move until you do). Anyway, I love Pokémon Mystery Dungeon. I know this, you know this, that's not the reason I played this, I wanted to see the compromises that the GBA version had to take. And there are a few which I will copy and paste from the other thread. The obvious one is that there's no second screen, so you don't have somewhere to put the map or your team status. If you want a map, you have to use an overlay, and you have to open a menu to see other Pokémon's HP. There's no X or Y button, so there's some interesting compromises for some controls. In every other PMD, you rotate your Pokémon on the spot by holding Y and choosing a direction. Here? You press Start! It's so bizarre! And you don't hold it, pressing start toggles "Rotate Mode", and pressing it again deactivates it. Thankfully, I found out that tapping R does the same thing (Holding R lets you move exclusively diagonally, as usual). But my muscle memory is messing me up because the Pro controller has a Y button, so I instinctively press it and then accidentally take a step because Y does nothing! GBA NSO actually button maps the X button to function as a B button, which in a lucky break, means that it opens the menu, just like the DS version. Unlike the DS version, pressing X twice doesn't open up the move menu quickly, it just backs out of the menu like a B button would. Oh man, the music! I was obviously expecting a downgrade here, but some of the songs get utterly mangled by the GBA sound chip! The amazing soundtrack does not deserve this! The game tends to start struggling when around 8 enemy Pokémon are on a floor at once. The poor GBA is trying to program all the AI of those enemies, and it causes frame hitches when you take a step. To be fair, the DS version also has this problem, but it tends to happen when there's, like, 30 enemies at once. The lovely little conversation portraits Pokémon have are the same size as the DS version's. They obviously didn't want to do two different versions of all those, but it means they take up a lot more of the GBA screen space. Not really a bad thing, just an interesting quirk. So yeah, it's a fun curiosity for me, but now that the credits have rolled, I'm satisfied. The GBA version has too many concessions for me to carry on playing it, especially with the truly excellent remake, Rescue Team DX, available on Switch as well. Kind of a hard sell when this one is available on NSO though, just know, it's the worst way to play the Rescue Team games. Anyway, enjoy an incorrectly coloured Grovyle! Not a NSO glitch, it's like that in the original game!

It's my favourite thing about it! The big fist spawns just a bit behind her, so if you're practically touching her with a decently sized character, it'll still hit. And as a bonus, Bayonetta's actual fist does have a hitbox as well, it doesn't do much damage, but it does confirm the proper hit if you nail it. Downside is that characters with low crouches (Kirby), can dodge it by standing right in front of her and ducking. Ultimate styling there, if you pull it off!

OK, yeah. 10 minutes left. Not much point in trying again. It was definitely on our end, something up with the router. Sorry about that. EDIT: All that aside, @Ike and I were having some insane 1V1 finales!

Gonna try resetting the Switch. EDIT: Room's open again.

Stock format tonight from 8pm.

It was eight. Very bizarre Perfect Darking tonight. In the three player matches, @Dcubed was top left, @BowserBasher was top right, @S.C.G was bottom left. Once I joined, I took top left, and booted Dcubed to bottom right.

It won't be included, I can guarantee that. It'll be the same cost as everywhere else. Poncle have to make some money, you know?

Eh, par for the course with Capcom these days. They've been quite adamant about not bothering with PAL physical releases lately.

How in the world have you not played Pac-Man?

Loading is a tad long when it's loading up the overworld. Thankfully, not when exiting a battle. Other then that, it's solid. Can't notice much in the way of frame rate drops.

Oh man, I couldn't give a toss about the TCG, but the art on them have only gotten more amazing as time goes on! They are legit beautiful at times!

I've been waiting bloody ages for Cassette Beasts to go on sale. So this is great!

Not helped by this year's being at Hawaii. Spain's getting proper shafted, considering this generation's region is based on it.

Right. I'm watching the closing cermony live, seems there are multiple announcements (That's unexpected), so can't quite get the trailers up now. Even though it's entirely off-topic. I'll edit as it goes. Some kind of Pokémon GO teaser. The Pokémon GO account jumped the gun and posted it too early. Going by the visuals and the tagline "Something Big is coming" it's probably Dynamax. Also, Morpeko is being added. Pokémon Unite updates next, Amarouge, Darkrai, and Psyduck being added over the next three months. TCG Pocket trailer, as I expected. Basically, TCG Live with microtransactions. Mobile only. Some cards will be exclusive to it. Comes out October 30th. The actual physical Trading Card Game is bringing back "Trainer's Pokémon" cards. 2025. Next World Championships will take place in Anaheim, California. 2026's will be in San Francisco. And that's it, sorry to those of you waking up expecting something for this game.

Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion is an action RPG that released on all modern platforms in 2022. It's a remaster (Not entirely sure of that, the description claims it is, but, well, more on that later) of the PSP game, "Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII" BTW, I played the Steam version, because yes, it's playable in stereoscopic 3D. So no screenshots from my playthrough. The game takes place before the events of Final Fantasy VII, and follows Zack Fair, a member of SOLDIER. SOLDIER are an elite army force of the totally above board company, Shinra. He's sent on all sorts of missions to help the city of Midgar, but things start to look a bit dodgy when elite SOLDIER members, Angeal, and Genesis, start acting strange. Right, I wanna go into more details about the plot, but I'm afraid that means spoiling not only Crisis Core, but also Final Fantasy VII itself. So there's your warning. That's kinda my beef with the plot of Crisis Core, it undermines it's serious moments with sudden tonal shifts, or just awkward dialogue, or the character mentioned above. He sucks so much! There's nothing wrong with being silly. Final Fantasy is no stranger to that, and Crisis Core has loads of incredibly funny moments. But it doesn't know when to dial it back at times. This is the best summon in the game! So anyway, the gameplay involves guiding Zack through the various missions Shinra send him on. Battles are all in real time, but what's interesting, and what makes me think that this is more of a remake, is that the way you fight takes cues from Final Fantasy VII Remake. The viewpoint, Zack's basic attacks, even a completely new stance change mechanic that's similar to one that Cloud has in FF7 Remake. Obviously, it's not as radical a change as FF7 Remake itself, but it's a bunch of small tweaks that make Crisis Core feel more modern and fluid. Something that hasn't changed much is the DMW system. As you battle, a slot machine rolls in the corner of the screen. This slot machine has pictures of characters Zack meets as well as numbers. Lining up three characters/numbers grants Zack buffs and Limit Breaks. Weirdly enough though, this is also how Zack levels up. The slots get more rigged after you reach a hidden EXP point threshold, but it's still bizarre that character growth has a random element to it. The Buster Sword is so rubbish, an umbrella is just as effective! No, really. I'm not joking this time. It actually is! Much like Final Fantasy VII, Zack can equip materia, magical orbs that grant him abilities or passive buffs. Allowing for a degree of customisation, which is always nice. Do wish you could equip more then 6 though. It's worth remembering that the original Crisis Core was released on a portable console. It's the kind of game that's expected to be played in short bursts on a bus journey, or such. It readily becomes apparent that the game reuses the same few areas multiple times to make up the mission structure. Unfortunately, pretty much every mission is functionally the same, so it gets very repetitive, very quickly. The sound is fine. Music doesn't really stand up to the standard of Final Fantasy. And does every single fight have to begin with the same "Activating Combat Mode" voice clip? Apparently, that robotic voice had even more clips in the original PSP version, which I can't begin to imagine. So in the end, Crisis Core is fine, kinda wish I could forget the retcons to FF7 it does, but at least it's not as offensive as Chrono Cross was. So that's something.

I was looking at that tweet, wondering "Would they really have to clarify that this isn't game related?" And I scrolled down, and there it is, because of course it has to be. Because people are dumb.

Am I missing something? I could've sworn that I took over for that?

Soooo, a concept? I don't think you can put your life affirmations in the Gaming Diary thread.

What the hell is that!?

It will probably be this. TCG Pocket hasn't got a release date yet.