Glen-i

Oh man, I pulled out the clutch performance there though. Something just clicked and I got in the zone. All those Classic Mode attempts really paid off there. That mode loves throwing you into matches where you're outnumbered.

In order to not fall into the trap of having to bump this thread once the new year rolls around, I'm bumping it now when it's still relevant. A mad concept! Here are a couple of games I replayed recently. Bug Fables: The Everlasting Sapling is a turn-based RPG developed by Moonsprout Games and released on PC in 2019, and then Switch, PS4, and XBox One. The reason I replayed it is because it recently got a hefty free update that added features, including a fishing minigame. She's right, you know? The game follows Vi the Bee. She wants to be an explorer, but the local association doesn't accept solo applicants because it's too dangerous. Kabbu the Beetle overhears this, and seeing as he also wants to become an explorer, suggests to Vi that they form an exploration team together. They do, and go off to explore Snakemouth Den, a dangerous cave that supposedly houses a great treasure. While in the cave, they save a moth called Leif from a monstrous spider. Leif has magical ice powers, and is all sorts of mysterious. He also isn't entirely aware of what happened to him. The three of them then go across the land of Bugaria to solve these mysteries. Look at any screenshot of the game, and you'll immediately peg that this game is heavily inspired by Paper Mario. Specifically, the first two entries. It's not subtle. And this applies to the gameplay, as well. Each of the three playable bugs have various techniques that help with exploring the world. Battles are turn-based, and revolve around action commands to fight more effectively. Bug Fables does try to put it's own spin on things, mind you. Paper Mario tends to have Mario himself be the de facto fighter in those games, with various partners he meets along the way taking the role of a second, smaller party member. Bug Fables have all three playable bugs play equal billing, and unlike Mario, who can do most everything, each of these bugs have a specific kind of enemy they excel in fighting. Vi can hit flying enemies and make them plummet, Kabbu can pierce defenses and flip certain enemies over, but can only hit the frontmost opponent, while Leif does more damage to plant-based monsters, and can hit anyone who has burrowed under the ground. You need to think about the order everyone attacks in to fight effectively, because it's not easy to actually raise the amount of damage you do. There's no equivalent of Boot and Hammer upgrades in this game, so 2 damage is pretty much the base damage the three bugs will do throughout the game. We've all been there There are some things you can do to tip the odds in your favour. You can freely change the position of each bug, the one in the front does 1 more damage, but is more likely to be targeted. You can also have one bug donate their turn to someone else, so they can act twice. Handy if a particular bug is not effective for the situaton, but any bug that attacks twice will do less damage on the second attack. Much like Paper Mario, when you level up, you can choose between improving the team's health, Teamwork Points that are used to perform special abilities, or Medal Points, which let you equip more Medals. Badges to you Paper Mario fans, they're badges, and the biggest issue with this game! If you're more of a hardcore Paper Mario fan, you'll likely agree that Badge Points are by far the most useful thing to invest in, and if anything, Bug Fables' equvialent is even more so. If you were to choose to upgrade HP or TP on a level up, the amount you get is so piddly and pathetic (1 HP per bug, or 3 TP), that you may as well go for the 3 Medal Points every time. The max level in this game is 27, and there's no limit to how many times you can choose MP, and the Medals you find are really effective. They're the only reliable and flexible way to improve attack and defense, for starters. Not to mention many other very powerful passive effects. The "Danger Mario" strategy isn't just a fun way to exploit the system, it's basically required in this game. When bosses can get into the realm of 80 HP, you need all the boosts you can get. You can really tell that Paper Mario fans designed this game, but they seem to have forgotten that not everyone who plays Paper Mario is looking to utilise these meta tactics, and Bug Fables ends up punishing those who try to balance things out. If anything, this latest update only doubled down on that. There are new medals, and some of them even come with new mechanics, which means there's even less reason to choose anyhting else. Despite that, the game is a lot of fun. Incredibly inflexible, but play along, and you'll find a enjoyable, and very funny game. A lot of love is in this game, even if it clouded the developers from the bigger picture. Bayonetta is a character-focused action hack and slash game developed by PlatinumGames. It originally released on the PS3 and XBox 360 back in 2010, before getting ported to the WiiU alongside it's Nintendo exclusive sequel in 2014. I played the 2018 Switch version, which is effectively the same as the WiiU one, but not the same as the PS4 and Xbox One version, due to it featuring numerous Nintendo based bonuses. Bayonetta is the last Umbran Witch, a pretty much extinct clan of women who makes contracts with demons in exchange for great magical powers. Part of these contracts means they have to fight angels to feed to demons. Bayonetta has been asleep for 500 years, and she wakes up with no memories, but an inexplicable urge to find "The Eyes of the World" Things get complicated when she runs into another person with similar powers to her. Bayo ends up following this person to Vigrid, a place quite close to Angels. That previous paragraph sounds somewhat serious, but it's not. Bayonetta is an incredibly dumb game, and it plays it up to the extreme. Taking this game seriously is a fool's errand. And let's face it, the plot is not important. What is important is the gameplay. It's a lot like Devil May Cry, but I think it's better, mostly down to Witch Time. If you can dodge an enemy attack at the last moment, then you activate Witch Time, and slow down time for everything except Bayonetta, letting you wail on enemies freely, and get extra combo points. There's something immensely satisfying when everything flows together and you end up looking incredibly skillful, even if deep down, you're likely making some clutch decisions out of panic. Yes, she's dressed up as Daisy. Yes, it's incredibly silly. The Nintendo costumes are lots of fun, they have special mechanics, like Bowser replacing the big fists she normally summons, and the currency being replaced with coins (complete with Mario World sound effects). I can't believe Nintendo OK'd them. I can't believe they're the reason the Link one is more revealing then the original suggestion PlatinumGames made! That said, as much as I enjoy this game, it has some flaws that make it my least favourite of the three Bayo games. The visuals are really drab. Very much of it's time, the whole PS3-era "Realistic is Brown" mindset is in full effect here. There are also some absolutely BS QTE moments that will kill you because they happen so quickly. Not to mention that Witch Time is weirdly inconsistent, some attacks just do not trigger it, and it's never clear why that is. Future games would fix these issues, so Bayo 1 will likely always be my least favourite, but I still like it.

Excuse me!? Speak for yourself! Seriously though, you make an interesting point here. 10 year old me would've probably be floored by that kind of worldwide interaction. Then again, if I told 10 year old me that Banjo would get into Smash in 2019, he'd probably ask why the hell it would take so long. 10 year old me doesn't have the benefit of future sight, and that makes him an idiot.

Stock format tonight from 7:30.

This Tetris would be utterly demolished by The Tetris Guidelines if it came out today. Also, the music sucks.

Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island is an absolute mouthful of a title developed by Spike Chunsoft and released on Switch at the beginning of this year. It just got a PC port a couple of days ago, but I didn't play that one. It's a roguelike dungeon crawling game that's not quite as well known as it's spin-off, Pokémon Mystery Dungeon. Not many games with that dubious honour, at least Shin Megami Tensei has company. You know? Pokémon Mystery Dungeon? I might have mentioned it a few times. This is Spike Chunsoft's original IP version of their Mystery Dungeon games. Despite my absolute love for PMD, I've never played a Shiren game before. So why not start with this newest installment? The game, shockingly, follows Shiren, and his ferret friend, Koppa. They wander around some vague Japanese setting under a severe drought. They've both had dreams about Serpentcoil Island. This place has many rumours about a great treasure inside a monster's stomach. Shiren decides to investigate and debunk this stupid rumour. However, in between him and this monster is a "Mystery Dungeon" spanning the entire island. The game then abruptly jumps straight to the final boss. Technically, you can win this, and you even get to see the ending if you do. But you'd have to be extremely skillful, and extremely lucky. I was neither, so Shiren was punted back to the beach town at the bottom of the island. He's not one to give up, so he sets off again. He'll get it next time, right? ...Right? He must be playing Dream Drop Distance Because I'm lazy, here's my synopsis on what the Mystery Dungeon games are about, copy-pasted from the Pokémon spin-off thread I did. In order to see the credits, you need to get through a 31 floor "Mystery Dungeon". Mystery Dungeons are places whose layout is randomised each time you enter it. On each floor, you need to find the stairs or exit so you can progress to the next floor. Succeeding comes down to levelling up by fighting enemies, scavenging items along the way, and using them well, and maybe a bit of luck as well. That said, Shiren is an exceptionally hard game. If Shiren runs out of HP at any point, and you don't have a revival item, you're booted out of the dungeon, lose all your progress, all your items, money, and even the levels you gained. Back to square one! Tough luck, try again. (Yes, @drahkon, for once, you can't complain that I called this a Roguelike, it's completely accurate) To really hammer the point, the game lets you see the completion rate of dungeons. The first dungeon? Around 5%. I don't feel so bad that it took me 20 attempts to do it now. A lot of things are against you in this game, you have to juggle equipment (Which some enemies can weaken for the rest of the run), item management (Which some enemies can use against you, even ones you currently have on you), keeping Shiren well-fed, hidden traps. Seriously, everything is out to kill you. But this game seems to have taken a cue from the game, Hades. As you inevitably fail, and traverse through the dungeon again, there's a number of side stories that play out. Seeing them to completion by reaching various points on the map will eventually add new items and events to dungeon spelunking. You're still starting off at level 1, but at least you have more flexibility. The music is pretty good, definitely a more Japanese vibe compared to PMD, for obvious reasons. But I'm still not sick of it, which is good. Amusingly, I recognised a lot of sound effects from Pokémon Mystery Dungeon. It probably originated from Shiren in the first place, but I'm not gonna bother finding out. Anyway, the credits rolling is only the beginning, a veritable ton of different modes and dungeons come along. I most certainly will not be 100%-ing this game, it's far too difficult. But I'll be playing a lot more.

It seems I wasn't subtle enough...

Banjo-Tooie it is then!

ANYWAY! Enough about crummy games people say they want, but don't actually want. Trust me, you don't. It's for your own good. @S.C.G, @BowserBasher. DCubed is free, so we have a full room, any particular 4-player game you want to play at 8:30.

Cheap wordplay? That's your excuse?

Ugh, your complete lack of Pokémon nerdery offends me. Growlithe? No, incorrect. Wallace would clearly have a Boltund. It's from Galar, has crazy fast paws, and any inventor would appreciate the free electricity.

Is it even Okami then? This game will have to one up the first and have 8 fights against Orochi, one for each head. Except all 8 heads are there for every fight, and the fights are always the same. The true Orochi experience. That will get you nostalgic!

Creepy... I just bought this during the Black Friday sale, and I'm also a guy who became disillusioned with most PS1 3D platformers because he played Crash (and Croc) as a kid and rightfully declared them to be crap. I should probably give it a go then.

Deep down, I knew it would just be the Donkey Kong Land games. The big giveaway was that DKC montage to promote Returns HD. None of the N64 games are 2D sidescrollers. That said, I'm totally expecting Nintendo to release something next week just to make me look dumb. So what I'm saying is Tetris is given room to take the spotlight, and you can look forward to DKC GBC next week.

Oh, I am very much up for that! We already got a taste of stop-motion Pokémon before, but Aardman? Sign me the hell up!

Come on, man. Everything? You know that's not true. Gyro controls are magnitudes better then aiming with the N64's stick. Bottom Screen map, as well as the touch screen item buttons. And the Bomber's Notebook has a very handy alarm feature, and is easier to read. It's also expanded to include characters tied to Pieces of Heart, which is very helpful for going for 100%. As for actual gameplay stuff, the Twinmold fight is wayyyy more interesting, and the Troupe Leader Mask actually has a use now. Goron Link doesn't completely suck in a fight. The double magic meter is given after the first dungeon, which is much appreciated, seeing as Snowhead is heavy on the magic. And you can fish, as Fierce Deity Link. Don't get me wrong, there are absolutely faults, but this claim that everything is worse in the 3D version is just dumb.

Eh, Majora's Mask is better. Wait...

Not all of them. You'll have to wait for the next batch.

@BowserBasher styling on me like I'm some random mook from a Bayonetta game. No, seriously.

That was a spectacular Sudden Death to end on!

Time format tonight from 7:30 with custom stages at first.

The more I think about it, the more I realise that Robobot is an excellent candidate to explore more Deep Kirby Lore, which might be why they would skip over Triple Deluxe. The implications around what happened to Susie before the game's events would make for excellent extra modes, ala Magolor Epilogue. Or maybe it'll go into how the Final Boss came to be? That's a big unanswered mystery.

They do not. It's the one thing keeping me on Twitter. If this forum ever implements it, I am so out of there.

It's ongoing now, gonna go for this one. Mostly because actual Type B acknowledgment in 2024! That said, it's the 10 player left music... So I'm almost never hearing it.

Super humongous ending spoilers!