Glen-i

You'll need to hop online and start card popping with people and hope you get the two cards exclusively from there. I'm gonna take this opportunity to put a PSA out there. Because it's very easy to get into a situation where 100% completion gets really difficult. There's an NPC in this game, who at some point, will ask for all your unused energy cards, if you refuse, he'll leave and you won't get the Promo Slowpoke. (You can totally cheese this with the rewind feature, rewind, make a deck with nothing but 60 energy cards, as long as you have at least 1 unused, you can still get the card). Whenever you get a club medal, for the love of all that is holy, save your game immediately! Your rival, Ronald, has an annoying habit of ambushing you for a Children's Card Game Duel, and if you lose to him, you miss out on a card. As well as Ronald, make a habit of checking the Challenge Cup Venue after each club medal you get. Challenge Cups in progress will go away if you get another medal, and they have some promo cards too. If you do miss any of these, you can still get them after the credits, but it's a long, slow, and random process. Just get them the first opportunity you get, trust me.

Yeah, a bunch of us need to get together and Card Pop around. Hopefully, some combinations of players will get those 2 cards, and then we can trade the eventual duplicates around. I can't start until Thursday though.

Wow, they actually chose the best Game Boy Pokémon game to put on NSO? Good on them! I think we should have a TCG knockout tournament for this! Of course, give people a chance to collect some cards first. Would a month be enough time? Or maybe two?

Yadda, yadda, yadda. Obvious Miyamoto quote. These days, I'm always gonna be fine with delays. Wish more games would do that. My god, I've turned into a Stanley Parable fan!

Hate to bust your bubble here. But Genius Sonority, the developer of Trozei, are the ones who do Café Remix, so for all intents and purposes, that is the new Trozei, and it still gets updates today. That series was one of the spin-offs that got sent to Mobile shadow realm.

This is a really great example of how to make a game that appeals to casual and hardcore people alike. Lethal League is immediately understandable. "Hit ball really hard at your opponents". You can go in completely fresh with 3 other friends who are also new to the game, and the chances are, you'll get the basics down really quick and have a blast just learning the ropes while playing together. The game is hectic, and prone to moments when one person can start accidentally doing some crazy shenanigans, which serves to heighten the fun. There's a decent variety of side modes that add a twist to the gameplay to help stop it getting too stale as well. But underneath the basics, there are some more advanced tricks that help to flesh out the game, It nails that "Low skill floor, high skill ceiling" that Smash does so well. Mind you, it doesn't nail everything that Smash does. The single player options are pretty sparse (That's another issue lots of Smash Likes fall into, focusing purely on Multiplayer). That said, I don't think I agree with Dcubed that Smash Likes shouldn't try to emulate Smash. I mean, Playstation All-Stars tried to distance itself from Smash gameplay quite a bit, and that game absolutely blows chunks as a result. Developers just have to realise that's it's not just one aspect of Smash that makes it so successful.

Obviously, I haven't done any unreleased DLC yet, but I doubt they'll be any harder then the song above. Didn't have to resort to 4 White Mages in the end. I maintain my "Use characters from the song I'm playing" streak! OK, I used 1 White Mage, but Lenna's from FFV anyway, so it still counts. That song is pure hell, I'm dreading getting to it on Supreme... Ah, who am I kidding? I'm dreading every song on Supreme!

The one constant, recurring, biggest problem with these Smash clones is that they always seem to be designed with the hardcore, competitive people as the intended audience. But that's not the majority of the Smash audience. The majority of the Smash audience are people who buy the game because "I can make Mario, Sonic, Pikachu, and Steve fight each other, and that's super cool!" Sure, some of the latest ones like Nick All-Star Brawl have some of that star power backing them up, but a lot of people quickly realise that the game doesn't really accomadate the more casual kind of people who would play Smash with items on, and will happily play most of the stages because of the crazy and imaginative obstacles, not despite them. So they quickly bounce off of them. The other Smash-likes just don't seem to understand this. It's quite impressive that Sakurai has become so synonomous with "High Quailty Games" that even Disney and Microsoft feel comfortable letting him handle their IP's. Sure, he's got Nintendo's budget and a top development team backing him up, but it's safe to assume that if some third party developers got that call telling them they want to use their character in Smash, they'd seriously consider it. I can't think of another developer with that much clout. He's clearly passionate about games (To a fault at times), and he's stated that getting to work with that much gaming history is a dream. And I totally believe him. Of course, unless we get a port of Ultimate (Which I would also be totally fine with), we're not going to get a Smash with that big of a roster again. Hell, even a port with every character might be a pipe dream because of the sheer massive hurdle of getting some 3rd parties to co-operate. If Nintendo can get it to happen though, then yes, port Ultimate as long as possible (Add a few extra characters and stages, naturally). I usually hate the idea of "Games-as-a-service", but Ultimate is so much of a miracle, I'd be fine with it in this case. Smash Remix is the one exception here. Because unlike other mods to Smash games, this one understands that yes, people like items and wacky stages. Most people find "Tournament Legal" stages a bit dull. So the mod accomodates all sorts, while maintaining the spirit of Smash Bros. Limiting their roster to only video game characters that existed during the N64 era. (Except Dark Samus, which is admittedly weird, but I imagine that was before they had the skill to make truly unique characters in Smash 64)

After nearly 5 years of playing this with you lot, we've finally managed to get Jigglypuff killed with a shield break! Congratulations, @BowserBasher! And yet, I still think your death in Figure-8 Circuit was funnier! Anyway, I think half an hour of nonsense in Custom stages at 10pm seems to work, so we'll stick with that?

I guess there is no need if everyone agrees to sticking with random stages for the initial session, and then switching to choosing once 10pm rolls around. I could signify this by using the "Changing rules" shoutout in the arena.

Well then, I guess at 10pm, I'll back out, make a new arena, and we'll go on for an extra half an hour then.

Well, he can't make it for 7:30, but I guess I never asked him if he'd be willing to play some custom matches at 10pm instead. Well, @RedShell, what do you say? Because I don't want to cut anyone's time down from the standard 2 hours. That wouldn't be fair. But I'm sure @Ike won't mind if we faff about with stuff outside the two hour window.

Yeah, I'm defo adding this to the wishlist now. Cheers for the footage!

Right, I'm back. Stamina format tonight at 8pm.

This isn't said enough, but I appreciate the tireless work you put into news coverage. I know I couldn't do it. Ta!

There, there. I feel ya. In this era where Pokémon spin-offs have a 50% chance of being free-to-play rubbish, I'll take anything that has an actual price.

Like I did way back, I'll kick off this generation with the titles that aren't really substantial enough to warrant their own dedicated post. Pokémon Smile is a mobile phone app developed by The Pokémon Company. It released in 2020. The purpose of the app was to encourage children to regularly brush their teeth through collecting Pokémon. The game utilises your phone's front facing camera to track how you are brushing your teeth, following the in-game guide accurately will remove "bacteria" from the screen. Do it well enough, and a Pokémon covered in this bacteria appears, and when you've finished cleaning your teeth, you're given a chance to capture the Pokémon. The better you do, the easier it is to catch them. Don't actually brush a Gyarados' teeth. Dealing with it's bad breath is far preferable to what it'd do to you if you shoved a brush in it's gob. The game features the first 251 Pokémon, as well as Ludicolo, Mime Jr., and Dedenne, for some reason. It's impossible to know how many downloads it got because of how Mobile apps work. Pokémon Café Remix is a free-to-play puzzle game for mobile phones and the Switch. It was originally called Pokémon Café Mix in 2020, but it got a rebranding to it's current name in 2021, alongside a large array of mechanic changes. It's developed by Genius Sonority, the developers who made Pokémon Colosseum, in case you forgot. The game puts you in the role of the owner of a Café that caters exclusively to Pokémon. Amazingly, this doesn't result in the place being quickly demolished by the first hungry wild Pokémon that's the size of a building and spews fire everywhere. They're strangely well-behaved. They do want stuff though, and you fulfill their desires by matching Pokémon icons. Doing well enough will encourage said Pokémon customers to become Pokémon staff, and each of them provide various abilities to help with icon clearing manuevers. The game still receives updates to this day, the Gen 9 starters were added if I remember right. That said, I've never touched the game. It's free-to-play, and has all the exploitative trappings that come with it, and I've already made my point about how I feel about that. Free-to-play games are impossible for me to determine how well they do in terms of sales, so no info there. Next time, I'll be looking at two bigger mobile games, despite not playing either of them, so you probably have an idea of how they work already.

Awww yeahhhh! Time for me to bust out the Revive! And a whole host of Full Restores to fix all of the images that broke in this 4 year lull. Generation 8 has come and gone, and with Pokémon Sleep kicking off the ninth generation of Pokémon spin-offs, it's time for me to cover the 8th generation of spin-offs. Before I get stuck in, I want to point out that while I was getting images to replace all the ones that Wikipedia broke, I stumbled upon this. 3 years ago, some nutjobs made an English translation for the WiiWare Pokémon Mystery Dungeon titles. It's really impressive, because WiiWare is notoriously difficult to work with. Might have to badger @Dcubed to get this one. The first proper post will be up shortly.

Yes! If only the Switch had a microphone...

Mandatory posting now.

The last one was the first time we got no reveal of any new game in these, don't let me down this time, man! Expect Sca/Vi DLC updates, possibly a release date for the first batch, maybe some Detective Pikachu Returns, and loads of updates to mobile game guff. Going in with any more ambitious dreams then that is futile. Especially new mainline games, because they're not gonna reveal a new mainline entry when Gen 9 DLC is still yet to be released. Of course, that won't stop me from hoping and praying for other things. For the love of Arceus and his ridiculous stat spread, give me anything Mystery Dungeon related. Remake, new game, don't care! I've been itching to play Explorers of Sky again, and it'd be nice to know whether I should dive in or hold off! We're due one at this point. Game Boy Pokémon games on NSO would be nice, but honestly? If they can't get Transfer Pak support with Stadium working, then I'd rather they just didn't bother and skip Gen 1 and 2, and release FireRed/LeafGreen instead. It's still the best way to play Gen 1. Of course, there's always the possibility of releasing a completely different spin-off. Which I'd be fine with if it's not free-to-play. Which, unfortunately, is a bit of a coin flip these days with Pokémon spin-off's.

Hey, at least it's authentic to the game! Might as well go the extra mile and make Crocodile villagers rarer then Gold Dust. But yeah, this is an obvious series for Lego to expand to after Mario. Animal Crossing is stupid big now, and the customisation the game is known for lends itself very well to Lego.

The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons and The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages are two action adventure games developed by Flagship (Part of Capcom at the time) for the Game Boy Color. Both originally released in 2001, but they just got added to the Game Boy NSO app last week, and those are the versions I played. The games follow Link. Specifically, the incarnation of Link from A Link to the Past and Link's Awakening. These two Oracles games take place in between those games, BTW. It doesn't really matter which order you play these games, in terms of plot, but finishing one provides you the option of using a password (or a Link Cable) to enhance whatever game you play second for a more complete experience. Of course, the smart thing to do is play Ages first. It's easier in the long run. And that's what I did. Ages's villain is Veran, a sorceress who posesses Nayru, the Oracle of Ages, and uses her timey-wimey abilities to travel 400 years in the past and mess around back there, with disastrous consequences. Seasons, meanwhile, has big walking suit of armour, Onox, abduct Din, the Oracle of Seasons, and send the seasons completely haywire. Despite it looking like a typical two-version thing that Pokémon made popular at the time, each of these games are distinct Zelda titles. Each game has 8 unique dungeons, completely different overworlds, and even it's own take on the multi-world gimmick Zelda titles like to utilise. The only real thing they share is that they use the same engine of Link's Awakening, and some items appear in both games, more on that in a bit. Weird way of saying I got a Switch OLED... Oracle of Ages has more of a focus on the puzzle aspect of Zelda, and is generally the harder game of the two. I also happen to think that it's the less good of the two. After the 5th dungeon, the game really likes to send you running all over the place in a very roundabout way that's more then a little annoying. Some of the items are neat. The Switch Hook being a stand out twist on the traditional hookshot. But then we have the Mermaid Suit, an "Upgrade" to the Zora's Flippers that serves to be less controllable and goes out of it's way to kill your thumbs. Good thing I wasn't using the D-Pad on the Game Boy Color, I guess. Oracle of Seasons has more of a focus on combat and is a lot more snappy as a result. You can see this in my play times of each game. I know each of them really well, but Seasons took me 3 hours less then Ages, even though Seasons had the second game extra content. Here are some of the reasons I prefer Seasons. Season changing is far, far quicker then traveling through time. I'm talking up to 5 times quicker depending on how many seasons you have to cycle through. And that's assuming you don't accidentally time travel into a wall and get sent straight back. Which will happen. Seasons has wayyyyy better items. The Hyper Slingshot, Roc's Cape, Magic Boomerang, and Magnetic Gloves are amazing Zelda items that remain useful and interesting even after the dungeon they debut in. Ages' last items consist of the aforementioned Mermaid Suit, a longer Switch Hook, and a Power Bracelet upgrade that adds literally nothing to the game. Seasons defaults players to getting Ricky the Kangaroo as their animal buddy. Apart from easily being the coolest one, his ability to jump up cliffs and punch with literal whirlwinds remains useful, even in the endgame. Ages players can easily get stuck with Moosh, who quickly gets made redundant. Some people might not know this, but you can actually get Ricky as your animal buddy in Ages. It's a bit obscure, mind. Anyway, all this to say that Ricky wasn't in Hyrule Warriors, and that's an utter travesty. Anyway, I do like both games. They may be elaborate Link's Awkening rom hacks, but they are rock solid Zelda games that introduce some very cool ideas to the series. But remember the most important thing of all... Well, unless you get insanely lucky and randomly get the Blue Ring, like I did. Anyway, next game! Persona 5 Strikers is an Action RPG developed by Omega Force. It's the sequel to Persona 5, but instead of turn based battles, the game is structured more like Dynasty Warriors. Weird to say the least. It released on the Switch in 2021, despite the fact that the original game wasn't available on the platform at the time. Seriously, Atlus are weird when it comes to the Switch. The game follows a Japanese secondary school student (No idea what his name is). He's the leader of the "Phantom Thieves", where he is known as "Joker". Some crap went down last year which Joker, his friends, and his cat helped sort out. No idea what, I never played Persona 5, and I have no plans on doing so any time soon. Anyway, more crap is starting to flare up, people are behaving very weird and some kind of metaphysical world has started forming. So the Phantom Thieves band together again, and utilise their "Personas" to find out what's going on. Going into this game with purely the knowledge I accrued from Joker's Smash Ultimate appearance, I was a little lost at first. The game just assumes you know these 8 characters well. Luckily, this game's plot soon seperates itself from the original game, and eventually stands on it's own well enough. That's not to say the plot is amazing, but it's servicable. Totally reasonable reaction Anyway, the game is structured very simlarly to Persona 5, with two, very distinct differences. Turn-based battles are replaced with Dynasty Warriors mixed with dungeon crawling style gameplay, and the social aspects Persona is known for are signifcantly toned down. This worked out great for me, because A) I really like games like Hyrule Warriors and B) I really don't like the social aspects of Persona. That's why I jumped straight into this, and I don't regret it. If there's one real criticism I have for Strikers, is that the game quickly throws 8 playable characters at you all at once, each with distinct movesets. It's overwhelming and can discourage experimentation, which is problematic when the game follows the same kind of weakness exploiting shenanigans that Persona (And better series, Shin Megami Tensei) is known for. Bringing the wrong character to a fight can quickly make them a liability, as they become effectively dead weight. The game really punishes those who stick with one setup. Anyway, this is a sequel to Persona 5, so I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the absolutely insane UI this game has. Absolutely ridiculous in how stylish it is! There's a damn good reason the Persona 5 stage in Smash Ultimate is based on the Menu UI of that game, and the sequel is no different.

Uhhh... Didn't expect my Bob-omb to be that effective @RedShell. Uhhh. Soz?