Glen-i

Stock matches tonight at 8pm.

Generally, I do Theme Nights on the first week of the month.

There is a way, but only offline.

Boy, I wish. But there's absolutely no way I can influence the game to pick a specific season. It's the reason I don't include it in the above theme, because the Winter one does take place at night, but it's far more likely that it won't pick it. EDIT: Gah! New page! Theme Night Tonight Blatantly nicking @Dcubed and @BowserBasher's casual suggestion for a night time theme, and luckily, there's exactly 12 tracks that fit! The other 2 Rainbow Roads explicitly take place in space, so... See you at 8! Also, shout-out to @martinist in the hopes that it reminds him to join.

That's a very interesting direction to take a 2D side scrolling beat-em-up. Colour me intrigued.

Theme Night Tonight Blatantly nicking @Dcubed and @BowserBasher's casual suggestion for a night time theme, and luckily, there's exactly 12 tracks that fit! The other 2 Rainbow Roads explicitly take place in space, so... See you at 8! Also, shout-out to @martinist in the hopes that it reminds him to join.

Ah, funny thing about Boo. The minimum amount of coins it can steal goes up as the game progresses. In the last 5 turns, it is absolutely brutal!

Oh wow! That's hilarious. But not unexpected. Insane lucky breaks turning the game around are part and parcel of the experience. I know it feels like it, but the CPU mostly doesn't cheat in the board section. Hell, they sometimes make completely bone-headed decisions. Now, button mashing mini-games? They totally cheat on harder difficulties. Some 2 V 2 games also have cheating CPU's, but only if they're paired with a human, weirdly enough. Any game where 2 people have to co-ordinate button presses will have the CPU match the human perfectly, which naturally, is unfair with 3 human players playing.

Oh wow! Could've sworn that was being used going by that screenshot. Mad props!

I'm up to Chapter 4 on Future Redeemed now, but I can say barely anything because it would spoil so much in both the base game and this! So I'll just say that Matthew is great. Thanks to this, I learnt that the phrase "I'm feeling full of beans" is not a phrase you hear in America. Xenoblade: Confusing Americans since 2012.

Time matches tonight at 8pm.

Ah, I missed that, I was assuming choosing the frame rate option would give a stable frame rate. Carry on.

Just barging in to point out that when given the option, always go for the framerate option.

Sorry for the lapse in posting last week, someone was playing Wonder Boy III incorrectly, and I had to play through the entire Switch remake to wash the bad taste out of my eyes and ears. Kirby: Planet Robobot Releasing on the 3DS in 2016, this game is very much a direct sequel to Triple Deluxe, but instead of the Hypernova ability, Kirby has a mech! The Mech has different capabilities depending on the enemy it scans. Also, one of the new abilities is a big massive nod to Ness from EarthBound. It's a lot of fun, but that's not what we're here for. The plot involves a massive spaceship called the Access Ark invading Dream Land and very quickly mechanising the planet, Dedede and Meta Knight attempt to fight back, but are promptly lasered. It falls to Kirby, who slept through the entire thing, to boot the mysterious invaders off of his planet. OK, strap yourself in, this game goes places. Starting when you reach this boss: This is Susie, she antagonises Kirby throughout the game by siccing bosses on him, but you do get to beat her up eventually. Corporations? Evil? No! Anyway, you eventually meet said president. Yeah, he has a company song about how great he is. Not very loretastic, but it's amusing, nonetheless. Still, Kirby wins because water is wet, forcing President Haltmann to take drastic measures and activate his company's latest project. When will villains learn that making computers self-aware never ends well? This is Star Dream, the final boss of this game. It's kinda nuts, because it's freaking massive, and Kirby has to scan the Halberd, Meta Knight's ship in order to fight it. One ridiculous pink paint job and lots of shooting later, it merges with the Access Ark, because of course it does. It's just a massive sphere now! Yeah, Kirby's fighting planets now. Seems about right, more constant shooting causes that outer shell to gradually break off. I think this was the moment when I realised Kirby lore was proper legit There's a lot to unpack here, but I'll get the special screen out of the way. OK, so I'll just say it. The Haltmann Works Company has constructed their own Galactic Nova. You remember that thing from Super Star Ultra, right? And in case you're thinking "Ah, they just pulled that out of their behind for cool points", I'll redirect your attention to something @Dcubed mentioned. Yeah, I never noticed it either until I posted the Super Star Ultra post. But specifically, he's referring to this. Notice how it's "A Nova" and not "The Nova". They've been planning to have another one since the DS! The implications of this are staggering! Are all Nova's manufactured? Who made the original? Are there even more out there? What the hell are they even for? Of course, this doesn't get answered, Kirby's more of the "Explode first, never think about it ever" kind of guy. And that's what happens. Finishing the game unlocks "Meta Knightmare Returns", a tweak of the standard Extra Mode where you run through the game as Meta Knight. Naturally, there are harder bosses with alternate special screens. One boss in particular, the Holo Defense API, which made Kirby fight holograms of previous bosses, has a particularly interesting screen when fighting the recreation of the Sphere Doomers from "Returns to Dream Land" It's worth noting that Sphere Doomers were only ever encountered in what RtDL called "Another Dimension" considering that the only things that could get into that dimension were a big massive spaceship designed to do so, and Kirby, it raises massive question marks about Susie's past. Speaking of Susie, here's her second screen! Blimey! I don't think we've had a special screen that candid before. It's pretty obvious what has happened here, This accident sent Susie to Another Dimension somehow, and then she escaped. The thing is though, the rematch against President Haltmann reveals an interesting wrinkle to things. With the information that Haltmann doesn't recognise Susie, it seems that a long time has passed since Susie's disappearance and her getting hired by the company. Why she didn't tell her dad is not really revealed. Anyway, final boss! Meta Knight can't use the Halberd though (No idea), so he gets a different set of final bosses. A whole bunch of clones that Star Dream made on the side. Specifically, it cloned Dark Matter and Queen Sectonia. Star Dream just happened to clone two different Dark Matters (If my theory about Sectonia is on the money, anyway)? Coincidence? Probably. Anyway, there's a true arena and you know the drill with those by now... OH, COME ON! CLOSE THE BLOODY DOOR BEHIND YOU! No wait, hang on, Galacta Knight is back. The game even refers to this boss as "Galacta Knight Returns". HAL know what they're doing. I suppose more then one game without Galacta Knight is too much to ask. Nothing actually new in the special screen here, but there he is, again, and harder... Man, the sooner we see the back of him, the better. Now for the True Arena, an absolutely brutal boss rush, even by True Arena standards, that culminates in Star Dream Soul OS. Each of the three phases have alternate screens. Well, that's bloody depressing, isn't it? Safe to say that President Haltmann is very much the most tragic villain in the whole Kirby series. Which feels weird to type, but to summarise... Susie gets sent to Another Dimension by a computer experiment gone wrong. Haltmann discovers a deactivated Galactic Nova His company reactivates it, and Haltmann wishes to see his daughter again. His wish comes true, Susie escapes from Another Dimension, but Haltmann doesn't recgnise her, likely due to her aging. Haltmann's soul gets absorbed by Star Dream when he sics it on Kirby, but eventually gets deleted by the time Kirby beats it up. So despite my initial impression, Haltmann's company didn't actually make this second Nova, so we're still not sure where they came from. That wraps up Planet Robobot. It's my favourite Kirby game for many reasons, one being that the lore is really kicking into high gear now. And it only gets madder from here. Next time, we will be looking at Star Allies. It might be half the framerate, but trust me, the lore makes up for that.

That's hilarious to me, because I'm playing Tales of Vesperia, and as quick as cooking is, actually getting some of the recipes is an absolute nightmare!

The second Nier pack is available now. Focusing on the first game, the three Nier songs from Curtain Call return, along with two new songs, and one from Nier Replicant. After "Calling" got it's length cut in half, I was concerned that "Shadowlord" would get the same treatment, but nope! It's still over 4 minutes long, and it is glorious! The long slow section before the hectic fourth minute makes for a really great rhythm game track! The new songs are solid too. A very good pack here.

Player's Choice tonight at 8pm. Don't forget @martinist

Thanks for that, all 4 amiibo lists I checked, including Nintendo's own one! EDIT: A pity @Sprout could only make it for the very last match of the night, I've somewhat missed the sheer panic when he can zero in on me with no distractions. Oh god, is this Stockholm Syndrome?

It's turned into lag city, so I'm gonna try resetting my Switch. Backsies soon!

Personally, I think that enemy got... The point! Original Ash, It's Veronica Taylor.

Again, it depends on the bike, some of them handle much like karts, while others handle close to how they do in Wii.

Yep. To be fair, the wheelie was incredibly OP in MK Wii. Some bikes (Such as the Yoshi Bike I use) have a very inward drifting line, making them efficient corner takers for certain tracks. SNES Rainbow Road and any track with traffic are ones they perform quite well in.

Damn it! ProZD snuck more voices by me! He must be the guy who has one of the most impressive ranges in voice acting. He keeps doing this to me! I swear, if they recast Professor Layton, and it's not SungWon Cho, then Level 5 have failed! EDIT: Speaking of voices, I wasn't expecting to hear Ash Ketchum's voice to return to video games through Andy, but there we are. Like, it's absolutely perfect casting for Andy, he's effectively the Ash of Advance Wars, but it's all I hear!

Time for a theme! No Need For Smash Amiibos! The 20 characters here all have at least one amiibo figure that isn't part of the Smash Bros series. Yeah, not as many as you'd think, huh? I wanna pre-empt some possible posts beginning with "Actually...". Yes, Zelda has plenty of amiibos, but none of them are of the Zelda from Link to the Past, and seeing as how that series handles legacy characters, she's not allowed. (Hell, that Zelda doesn't even have a Smash amiibo. So at least Sora will have good company) There is also a Pikmin one, but Olimar is not part of that, and that's who you control in Smash, so no. And no, the Detective Pikachu amiibo doesn't allow Pikachu in. That's a very specific character, while Smash Pikachu is just a random Pikachu. (It still baffles me that TPC didn't really jump on that amiibo train) There are some costume restrictions in effect tonight Mario - No Builder or Wedding outfit Link - BotW outfits only Wario - Classic outfits only Stages and items are all from series that have their own amiibo line. I'm also allowing Assist Trophies, despite being a Smash original item, because, well, come on. Format - 3 Stock, 10 mins FS Meter - On See you at 8!

Have a couple from me.