Glen-i

South Park could have helped it's case by actually including the DLC. Very cheeky of them to sell it separately, given how late it was.

Remember to keep your thoughts on this in Spoilers.

I'm starting to see why nobody cared and why they didn't continue with this feature. Yep, absolutely idiotic to lock it behind that. So close and yet so far. I'm reminded of when my younger sister got a DSi for her Birthday. So I decided to get her Pokémon Black for Christmas. For some reason, despite never actually playing Pokémon before, she actually came with @Dcubed and me to a midnight launch and got her copy signed by Masuda. He doodled a little Tepig on hers. So naturally, she chose Oshawott as her starter. Cuteness trumps everything with an 8 year old girl. It took her quite a while to make her way through the game. I'd give her little tidbits like "try not to bunch up same types" but I mostly left her to discover everything herself. I'll never forget how excited she was to tell me she caught a Reshiram and how hard the final battle was. She called that particular trainer a "big, mean, stupid head" which is appropriate, I guess. Anyway, anecdote over. Here's one of my favourite tracks from this game. So good, it got an amazing remix in Smash 4. (I also really like the Zekrom/Reshiram battle music, that's my favourite Legendary battle music.)

Interesting. I wouldn't mind playing Black or White if they re-release it on the Switch. Should point out that it's the sequels (Black 2/White 2) that have the harder difficulty option. And in a stupid move, you need a friend who's finished Black 2 to even play it.

Golf Story uses HD Rumble to actually make sounds. And not just a vibrator sound. (No, stop it) Hitting your golf ball off of the map causes the rumble to make a kind of falling object sound. It's really cool. Labo also makes use of it in it's remote control car setup. EDIT: I vaguely remember the Octopath Traveller demo using rumble to emulate the sound effect of a door opening whenever you enter a building as well.

They did, along with other tweaks to make it more difficult. No-one cared. So it never came back. Like almost everything Gen 5 did.

Funny thing is, Black 2/White 2 does have a harder difficulty mode. It buffs Trainer's Pokémon Levels, gives them hold items and improves the AI. Unfortunately, it's locked behind a stupid requirement that means you need a friend with Black 2 to even play it. Congrats on finishing Gen 5 @Hero-of-Time, it's a game that I think was a bold step in a series that is criticized a lot for playing it safe. Which makes it an absolute shame that as far as games that start off a generation go, Black/White is the worst selling of the whole series. In a way, I feel that this started Game Freak's current trend of doubling down on the nostalgia factor of Pokémon games these days. And once X/Y and Sun/Moon beat Black/White, the writing was on the wall. Pokémon fans don't want much change. Best case scenario, Let's Go is being made because Game Freak is gonna give the risky Gen 5 mantra another crack and they want to help with any losses Gen 8 might get because of that. ...I hope. EDIT: @Goron_3 makes a great point about Set Mode. While it probably wouldn't have made a difference to the way Hero-of-Time played it by using only one Pokémon, it does make a noticeable difference if you use a team of 6.

So I finally started Adventure Mode. It's OK so far. Haven't run into any roadblocks that a lot of people seem to be talking about yet. Well, actually, that's not completely true... As far as I can tell, I think the ball hit the propeller on the mast right after I activated the Special Shot, so I never hit it because it gets whacked away before I swing. This caused the game to become very confused and wait for me to hit a ball that I can no longer hit because it's on Blooper's side of the court and he's also waiting for me to hit it. I couldn't pause the game to quit out of the stage, so I had to close the software. Very weird, and a little funny.

I still wouldn't classify that as very pocketable, not without ruining your screen over time. It's still gonna be a tight fit. A travel case is pretty much mandatory for the Switch, what with it not having no clamshell design. No Switch case is gonna be designed for carrying it without the Joycons attached.

Now, now. Let's not get ahead of ourselves. I have the most humongous pockets and there's absolutely no way of getting a Switch in there. Not without it poking out and serving as a "Please mug me" sign.

Wow, everyone's late? Makes a change from just me. Happy Birthday @S.C.G

Fair enough. Action puzzle games have been a bit of a niche genre for a while now, so I never expected this to light the world on fire. But it's a pity that it's flopped. I'm really liking it. It's good for those short 30 minute sessions.

Can I ask how far you got? Because I think the game does a decent job of introducing new twists the game as you progress. I just did a stage where you had 60 seconds to blow up a gun turret by linking up bombs in 4-chains to deal damage. And if you let them roll by, you take them damage. Of course, if you don't like the base action puzzle gameplay, then yeah. You're not gonna like this. Also, technically, indiezero made this.

So I take it I'm the only person playing this, huh? That's a shame, because this game is great fun. It's pretty easy normally, but very early, you get an item that effectively halves your HP. This turns the game from a simple action puzzle game to one of incredible tension. I'm on Chapter 5 and I'm surprised how many new things it keeps throwing at me. Not to mention the "totally not Pokémon" Sushi Sprites allowing lots of different strategies. The only downside is that trying to select a specific dish with the Joycons is... Problematic. If you play with those, I recommend going to the settings. There's an option that assists Joycon players to choose plates that have matching colours nearby. But yeah, great game. Highly recommended for action puzzle fans.

Right then, we might as well get the second half started now! Yeah! Clean Slate! If you've been put off by having a low attendance, now's the time to join! 50% attendance will get you in the final results! Oh, but before I post the first theme. I have an announcement... For this second half, we're doing things a little different. Because I'm mental like that. I present to you... What is the Random Task Edition? It's the Mario Kart League, except I'm gonna dish out Random Tasks to the players that declare themselves IN early-ish each week. Successfully pulling off the week's task will net you bonus points. Fail the task however, and you get docked points. How does it work? Every player who declares their IN-ness before I post the Theme reminder on Thursday will get a Private Message with their random task. If the player successfully performs the task, they will have 10 bonus points added to their race score. Fail the task, and they lose 10 points. That doesn't sound so bad, if everyone has to do it, then it's fair. Oh, did I forget to mention that not everyone gets the same task? Your task will not be the same as everyone else's. There will be 3 different tasks that you could get. You must also keep your task secret. No blabbing. Can I abstain? Sure you can, just tell me so when you declare yourself IN. Or declare yourself IN after the Thursday reminder. But you're throwing away precious points. So you probably want to just go for it. Wait, what about you? I'll get Dcubed or Ugh First Aid to delegate a task for me. This is stupid. Yeah, I don't care! We're doing this. I'll post the rules in the first post so you guys can easily look through it. Next League Night: 5th July 8pm Room 1: @BowserBasher is host @Glen-i @BowserBasher We're starting with a nice simple theme to get your head around the new Random Task aspect. Declare yourself IN before Thursday's Theme reminder to get your random task. If you want to be in the Always IN! List, let me know. (@viceview51 you'll need to reapply for this if you still want in) There's also a list for people who always want to do the Random Task. If you want in on this, let me know. Sign up Now!

And that's the end of the first half of this year's League. So, it's time to acknowledge the top 3 best utter Jerks who play Mario Kart too much! (Remember, you need at least 50% attendance for your score to count) Their profile pictures shall be forever immortalized in our hall of glory... ...with pastel drawings... done in about a minute... and with not much care... or backgrounds... 3rd Place BowserBasher Our resident room host clearly rigged the odds in his favour. But unfortunately, I can't prove that, so he nabs 3rd place with an average of 31.4 and a Top 3 Percentage of 47%. Which is impressive, given his high attendance. It's remarkable consistency that helped him triumph. He did get the highest amount of 3rd places. BowserBasher is the player most likely to not actually pick Bowser, given the option. 2nd Place RedShell Last year's mini League winner could only manage 2nd this time. I say that like it's a bad thing, but it's not. Maybe he just couldn't handle the Blue Shells this time. Still, an average of 38.3 is quite the comfortable lead over 3rd place. His top 3 percentage of 73% was pretty damn good as well. He's also the only player to get at least 10 GP places in 1st, 2nd and 3rd. Nice. He also got the highest sheer amount of points (2529) and the highest amount of 2nd places. (No Blue Shell award yet. That's only at the end of the year) RedShell is the player most likely to throw a Red Shell backwards in 6th place. 1st Place Glen-i Woo! I did it. My first League win! I'd like to thank you lot, but then I remember you all tried to stop me. I got an average of 41.9 and a top 3 percentage of 80%. Will I be able to pull it off again for the second half? Eh... Maybe. It might just be a fluke. I do use those darn Motion Controls and those wacky inward drifting bikes. I'm the player most likely to get my Red Shells blocked by a wildly thrown Green Shell. Here's the official final placing. And here's the final placing with the low attendees. @BowserBasher, @martinist, @Vileplume2000, @Nintendo Fan, @S.C.G and @viceview51 are all players who made no bloody difference. That's remarkable. 2 thirds of you decided, "Nah, I'm happy with my score, I'll stop there" @Vileplume2000 couldn't quite pull away from @Dcubed in the end. Leaving a rather unsatisfying draw between the two... Thanks for taking part!

Before I get started on the final results for this half. Here's a hell of a lot of highlights! And now for a special section that I like to call... People who should really stop ramming into me

Yeah, good games tonight guys. I'll just leave this here. You guys are jerks.

@VsPhoenix I've got my 2nd Superbonus, but I'm happy to help you get yours as well if you need it. Let me know when you have it.

@Ike, you still going or are you done?

Shall we do Salmon Run then? I'll open a room and wait (4444)

@RedShell That moment of pure hopelessness there was priceless!

The three of you didn't need to gang up on me!

@Ike, @VsPhoenix and @Kounan. Join via the Friends Option.

I'm not keen on 2 Vs 2 to be honest.