Glen-i

So, I've been meaning to mention this...

Wow, I'm genuinely surprised by this. Was expecting Mario Strikers Charged from you. But that would be my choice too. Advance Tour is ridiculously good. And the DLC makes it incredibly jam packed. Which brings me to a more important question... or

Correct me if I'm wrong, but so far it seems like no-one here has actually played all the entries in all three series? I guess it's to be expected, but I find it interesting. Mostly because along with @Dcubed, I have played every game, and I'd say... Mario Kart 8 Smash Bros. 3DS Mario Party 6

@Ugh first aid wasn't too pleased. She's been rocking a Kangaskhan in her team since Gen 5, so seeing it become actually awesome was a very awesome moment for her. Guess Kangaskhan is just the Bayonetta of Pokemon. Still, her Strategy uses Power-Up Punch. And that seems to still give her the desired effect.

Got the first Big Paint Star myself. The dialogue alone is worth the price of entry! Helps that I like the gameplay too. And I'm so glad they kept the "fail" version of Battle music when you're low on health from Sticker Star. Never fails to crack me up! Although it does make me want to stay at low health, which is kinda counter-intuitive...

It helps to have milestones to aim for, you know? 20:00 it is then, Mr. 24-hour Format.

Actually, that question was aimed at @RedShell. Should have made that more clear, sorry. I didn't forget that you're next free on Sunday.

At this point, the two of us have got Astalos down to an artform, huh? Still, we have higher defense than @RedShell now and have at least 1 maxed out weapon between us, so it was totally worth it. Speaking of, when are you free today? I need a few more things from Firebrand: Rathalos edition. And DCubed and Ugh First Aid would probably like to hunt some Glavenus/Get some Commendation G's for their armour upgrades.

Sorry, give me 15 minutes. I'll be there soon.

First of all, it was dark blue, purple is Ghost. Secondly, oh yeah, never noticed that. @Serebii, is that just a thing with the Japanese versions/CoroCoro? Or is that new to you?

Cool, I get the feeling I'm gonna need a Defense boost though. Some I'm gonna try and play with some randoms for the first time ever in Generations to get those Hyper Gammoth parts I need to upgrade my armour, and then use those 30 Heavy Armour Spheres (!) the latest item pack gave after that.

That's seriously creepy timing, because I have the weekend off and was just about to mention you and @S\.C\.G for some DLC questing and maybe some hyper Gammoth/Astalos/Glavenus hunting for Armour upgrades for S.C.G, Ugh First Aid and me. I'm definitely going for Marth's Falchion, that Dragon Attack and Base Attack is insane! Might go for the costume, depending on the skills. EDIT: Oh lord, I have to fight a Hyper Silver Rathalos? Why does life hate me? So, after Mario Kart tonight?

Wow, that backpedaling is going a mile a minute! As much as I like you, Serebii. You might have just dug your own grave with that one! You are so on your own!

Yeah, pretty much. Use the doubles to boost your other monsters. But keep in mind that some monsters have multiple branches in their evolution chain, so sometimes it's nice to have more than one. Just in case. As for any secret ones... I'm not sure you're gonna like this, but...

You forgot to mention the inevitable moment when one person decides to be "that guy" and gives an "encouraging little nudge" to another person. Don't claim it never happened, because it totally does! Wii Party U is an all-round more solid game for Gamepad usage, there's some nice, clever stuff there. Despite the fact that I never win because Wii Party and Wii Party U hates me. Totally cursed when it comes to those games, you would not believe some of the bad-luck stories I've had. In contrast, I tend to do really well in Mario Parties, especially those where you can play as Boo.

About halfway through is when I remember starting to die more often, then again, I tried to keep all my monsters around the same level. That might have something to do with it.

Wii Knee! Coming to your home soon! Perform revolutionary "Surgerii" to help patients get their legs better in time for the big race at Wuhu Island! What do you mean it's not a game?

It's official, NOE did it to annoy me. We all know they spy on me, so it's got to be the case. They just keep coming up with new ways to irritate me when it comes to game titles!

It's a lot of fun, there are plenty of opportunities to mess with your friends head in Bowser Party. The person playing with the Gamepad (Bowser) gets all sorts of opportunities to be an evil git with that Gamepad. Definitely some laughs to be had. The big problem is there were only around 6 or 7 Bowser minigames, so it got a bit repetitive really quickly. Missed opportunity there. But at least it tried to use the Gamepad.

There's 3 differences I'll mention. The key difference is the way skills are handled. So basically, in both games, each member of your team has a skill you can activate. There's a large variety, from changing the colour of orbs, to reducing damage you take, stuff like that. In Z, you have a kind of SP bar that fills up as you clear orbs. Using any skill will deplete this bar. This bar is shared between everyone you're using, so you could use the same skill more than once in one turn. In Mario edition, there is no SP bar. Instead, each individual character has a turn counter on their skill, once that amount of turns has passed, you can use that skill. Z's system rewards skillful play (Or blind luck sometimes), so I feel like it's better implemented. Another difference I'll mention is that the Mario edition has a RCV stat (affects how much health you recover when you clear hearts). In Z, this is replaced with a DEF stat. (It's defense, you can figure out what it does) And lastly, there's a lot of instances in Mario Edition where you're just flat out killed in one hit. There is a lives system in that game, you get a 1-up mushroom, and it lets you continue when you cop it. Unfortunately, this means that the best way to tackle a tough level is to grind lives, and that got tedious. With Z, there are no extra lives, because of the aforementioned DEF stat, meaning you can mitigate damage if you so choose.

You don't deserve it after that. Don't encourage the Americans! Paper Jam isn't a Paper Mario game. It never was a Paper Mario game and it never will be a Paper Mario game. If you bought it expecting the fifth Paper Mario, you only have yourself to blame. I also think it's brilliant, but that's just my opinion.

Absolutely, it is far more beginner friendly and has a difficulty curve that is pretty much perfectly made. The game does get pretty tough towards the end, so it's definitely not too easy. The monsters in Z also don't take an eternity to level up unlike in Mario edition. So you have much more freedom to experiment with party setups. It's also got a lot of neat little gameplay features going for it too. Sidequests, branching paths, optional tutorials showing you the basics of combos, etc. The only downsides Z has compared to Mario is that there is a chance you might not like the cutscenes and might end up just mashing A to get through them. Personally, I enjoyed them, the story is a stupid concept and the game plays on how stupid it is. The monsters also smack of "Pokemon knock-off" but it's kinda charming, and there's some "inspired" designs in there. The dragon with missile launchers all over it's body cracks me up everytime! Mario Edition's only playing card is the familiarity of the series. It really should have been the beginner's Puzzle & Dragons, but it fails in that regard.

Well, that explains why I've not been getting streetpasses from McDonalds... About 2 months ago, I wouldn't be that upset, but it's really bizarre timing now, considering that they just released 5 new Streetpass Plaza games...

That game has some of the best title cards I've ever seen!

Agreed with @FireMeowth, you can't recommend Xenoblade X and then not mention Tokyo Mirage Sessions. TMS dances all over Xenoblade as far as WiiU RPG's go. If you have a new 3DS and you're thinking of getting Hyrule Warriors on WiiU, I would advise against that. Hyrule Warriors Legends is way better value for money!