Glen-i

If Microsoft puts its foot down on the utter disgusting behaviour the company is ripe with, then for once, I'm completely fine with a company getting bought out by a console maker. But then again, it's the gaming industry, so I'm not exactly getting my hopes in that regard. BTW, I only found out about this because the best Twitter account decided to make a reappearance for this news. Always on the mark!

It did though?

It's an interesting dilemma, isn't it? Me personally? I don't particularly like having a % indicating main plot progression (assuming the plot is an important aspect of the game). It's hard to hide twists or surprises when you're aware of how much game is left. TV Tropes refers to that as "Interface Spoiler". Now full 100% completion progression? Yeah, I definitely want that.

Any Pokémon fan worth their salt has gone to Serebii for info at some point, the games have a lot of hidden complexities to them. I see it as similar to that example I mentioned above about underlying mechanics.

RPG's are the only time I ever consider doing this. And it's normally only to make sure I don't miss some items that might not be available if I progress too far. I'm playing through Final Fantasy XIII-2 at the moment, and it turns out that the way you level up can be used to exponentially increase the power of the two main characters (I'm talking 25% stronger if done right). This turns out to be very necessary if you're aiming for 100% completion. The best weapons in the game are also sometimes dropped from a random boss. (Lots of RPG's do that)

No, but I only recall me getting Shulk last night. So it was probably Hero's Acceleratle (Which is like Shulk's Speed and Jump in one uncontrollable package). I remember that because @Dcubed got Lucina in the same match and we spent most of it reciting quips about "changing the future" from their respective games.

In all fairness, they are easily the most complicated character to use in Smash. With characters like Shulk or Kazuya, you can still do relatively decent without knowing the underlying mechanics, but with Steve/Alex, you need to understand how they work to do anything with them. But if you manage to keep on top of getting a supply of material, and upgrade their weapons, they can be devastating. Shield + Special summons that crafting table at any time. Then holding Standard B in front of the table will create weapons with whatever material you have on hand, prioritising the strongest stuff first. Get a diamond weapon going and the damage they can do is legit scary. Stronger tools will also let you mine faster, so I normally try to immediately make some weapons with the iron you start a match with, and then use that to try and get some diamond during any down time I get.

Oh right, I've been meaning to say this, because I noticed it happen whenever @Ike gets Steve/Alex. You gotta hold B to mine stuff. Tapping it won't do you any good.

That's a big shrug on that front. That said, there are ioS versions of those games, so it wouldn't be difficult to port them. Just depends on if Capcom feel like it.

Bunch of highlights from past matches up until 2 weeks ago.

Stamina matches tonight at 8pm!

And that's why I don't buy the idea that the next entry will have anything close to the cosmetic options Tour has. There's no need. You'll get a handful of options like in MK8 at best.

I just don't see it happening with Mario Kart. The majority of costumes tend to be sold separately these days. And I don't see why Ninty wouldn't use it to make more money.

I'm gonna repeat what I said before. You're not getting the costumes without the Gacha mechanics. They're in Tour solely to sell the Gacha.

The next three Online Competitions have a participation gift that some of you might actually want. Shiny Galarian Articuno, Zapdos, and Moltres. Registration for the February International Challenge (which gives you Articuno) opens up on the 3rd of February. Don't worry about doing well, you only need to complete 3 battles, win or lose, to qualify for the gift.

Ruby/Sapphire are positively tame compared to how you get Yamask and Farfetch'd to evolve in Sword/Shield. I feel Game Freak have leaned into the rumour mill that revolved around the Game Boy games.

Being able to unlock Sonic in Smash Bros Melee was a popular one at my school, what with Sonic Adventure 2 being released for GameCube at the time. Naturally, I knew it was BS because the game tells you when you unlock every character, but loads of people insisted on it. The irony was not lost on me once Brawl rolled around though.

Funny you say that! Actually, no. This is new ground for Pokémon. It's very similar to how Final Fantasy 10 works though (Stronger abilities make that character's next turn come around slower). I mean, you can blame Pokémon Go for that, because that kind of gameplay loop smacks of Go shenanigans.

Well yeah, it's pretty much the same then. For what it's worth, the Grand Underground has a bunch of Pokémon that you can't get normally.

When you played the original games, was it Diamond/Pearl or Platinum?

The way Kirby just casually walks up to those caged Waddle Dee's and cheerily shouts "Hi!" was really funny for me! Looks solid, nice to see some co-op action in there as well.

Didn't @Ronnie already post a similar article? Because any bozo could guess that the next Mario Kart will have a new twist. They've had new twists since Double Dash!

It's the only redeeming feature of the battle system. The idea of having a "deck" of role setups has potential. But it all falls apart because of the frantic pace, necessitating auto-battle to keep up. You can really tell that this is when Square wanted Final Fantasy to be more action packed.

I wasn't gonna mention it, but seeing as you bought it up. The monster designs in this game are... Let's go with "out there". Behemoths (pictured above) stand upright and wield various weapons, Shiva is a motorcycle made up of women, and I am being completely accurate when I say that Goblins are best described as "unicycle donuts with boxing gloves" Seriously, Google the Final Fantasy 13 Goblin, it's astonishes me that it looks like that. At least Chocobos and Tonberries look correct.

Do they not? Huh, must have gotten it mixed up with Ranked Battles. My bad.