RedShell

Tonight's Smash games... Yeah... items on high + custom stages might be a bit crazier than I thought. Also, I need to play as King Dedede more. Cheers everyone.

Cheers for the games everyone, I've missed the insanity of N-E Smash Bros.! That one is still a WIP, as I cobbled it together this afternoon. Think the motion of the arm might be perfect already though. Oh yeah, despite blowing the dust of my GameCube controller earlier (it really was quite dusty ) it didn't bloody work when I connected it to my WiiU/GCN adapter. So I ended up using an old Wii U Pro Controller instead. It's so weird playing Smash on a controller that doesn't have an octagonal gate.

Well, just because I wasn't subbed to NSO for a while, doesn't mean I wasn't tinkering with Stage Builder... It was a contributing factor (not sure why as I own both games already ) along with the new F-Zero 99 content, plus the fact I was in the mood for Saturday Smash Bros. again!

💨 *blows dust off GameCube controller* Any chance you could make it 7:30? No worries if it's too short notice, in which case, see you at 8.

A new documentary series from NHK. The first episode is available now: https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/shows/3025132/

That's because: I'm glad more people will get the chance to play these games (especially F-Zero Climax for the track editor) and experience the overly enthusiastic race announcer. Need to find a GBA so I can get my custom track passwords. Actually, it'd probably be quicker to just recreate them in the editor!

Ever since the emergence of cloud gaming I've always thought to myself that Nintendo of all companies would be very keen to incorporate it. Not only does it fit perfectly with their preference for lower-end hardware, but if they were to (eventually) use it exclusively to distribute their games, wouldn't that finally solve the ongoing problem they have with piracy/emulation? Not to mention the added bonus (for them, anyway ) of ending recommerce of their games. If so, I wouldn't really be surprised to see Nintendo fully utilise cloud-based gaming at some point. Probably not with Switch 2, but they could certainly get the ball rolling with it. So yeah, the theories you mentioned don't actually seem that crazy to me, in fact, the second one (original Switch streaming Switch 2 games) is straight up genius!

I see weird Nintendo is suddenly back for some reason. Had they not ludicrously overpriced this I may have got one for the novelty value (and the potential to perhaps customise it... Baby Face alarm? ) but as it stands, no way! Would love to know what the actual cost to produce these things is, feels like Nintendo will be making a repugnant amount of profit at that price though.

I'm far from an expert on the topic so don't take this at face value, but I reckon you'd struggle with recent stuff (other than simpler/less demanding indie titles, perhaps ) on that setup. From what I can tell it should be ok for the Tekno Parrot thing though. Never actually heard of that until now, looks like it's possible to play Mario Kart Arcade via it though!

Don't give them ideas like that.

Nice! What's the deal with all this F-Zero stuff though? Is there anything else you want to announce soon, Nintendo? ...Please.

So now Dragon Quest is getting mixed up with this nonsense too? Great. Feel bad for the elderly creator having his work pissed about with for no good reason. Don't believe these modern alterations have ever been shown to improve sales, in fact, they tend to do more harm than good to a game's success or even put studios out of business, so it's irritating how this kind of stuff keeps getting relentlessly recommended to developers, not to mention baffling that most of them just give in and accept it. Weapon Shop de Omasse predicted this:

Smart move. The only reason I played it already is because it was available as a freebie on PC via the Epic Games store. Anyway, I recommend switching to the 8-Bit graphics when you do play it, as while the HD graphics look like the cartoon, the pixel art is a much better fit for the gameplay style. I had fun with it for what it is, but I certainly wouldn't want to replay the game. Especially not it's final level, which let's just say has some very authentic NES era enemy placement. Might be different for others though.

Well, I definitely won't be playing this at launch now. These guys are to blame:

Very quick update to my list seeing as I probably won't be playing anything else but Dondoko Island- I mean... Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth for a while now. New Denpa Men Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy Call of the Wild: The Angler Bakeru Tinykin Pac-Man Museum+ Rugrats: Adventures in Gameland Thanks again @Hero-of-Time for the recommendation of Tinykin. Great little game that, I enjoyed it immensely. BTW, not sure if you've played it or not, but Rugrats: Adventures in Gameland would be a super easy platinum trophy for you to add to your collection. I say this with confidence because even I managed to get all the achievements in a couple of hours: I don't recommend the game at full price as it's very light on content, and nothing special either, but one to keep an eye out for on sale maybe. 2024 list:

I finally started playing this last week. At first it wasn't grabbing me quite like previous games in the series, the pace is unbelievably slow (even by Yakuza standards) and the writing seemed a bit off too. Fast forward a few hours though and I'm loving it of course. The part with Ichiban getting dating advice from the boys was the turning point, absolutely hilarious! Then the main story stuff really started getting good. Then I got hooked on the Sujimon aspect. I'm currently on Chapter 6, but I've hit such a massive brick wall that it might actually prevent me from being able to ever finish the game! And that brick wall is... Dondoko Island! 🏝️ Now I always knew from the initial reveal trailer this would be something that I'd really love and get way too invested in, but even so, my expectations have been well and truly surpassed. I mean it's literally an entire game, a glorious Yakuza infused version of Animal Crossing. Absolutely loving it! I haven't had the slightest urge to return to the main story since arriving at Dondoko Island, and I don't think I will for a very long time. Seriously, the dolphin they got waiting to take Ichiban back to the main island is probably going to die of old age at this rate. Send help! BTW, it's interesting how many little cues there are to the upcoming Majima Pirate game in this.

Oh wow. Very much looks like my cup of tea, yeah. Cheers for bringing it to my attention. Looks like it's also available on PS4, so I might check it out at some point.

If Nintendo's next system is priced at over £350 at launch then I'll definitely have some doubts about buying one. Can't imagine them going over 300 though as it just doesn't fit with their business strategy, plus I'm pretty sure they'll have been able to put together noticeably improved hardware over the Switch that can still be sold at a profit for around that price or less. Don't reckon Nintendo would be prepared sell at a loss on the hardware, but can certainly see them accepting a lower profit margin than usual (or just to break-even) if required, I mean even that still wouldn't be at all risky for them as they're guaranteed to print money from their software sales and they know it. It makes the most sense for Nintendo to have as many potential customers for their games as possible, so keeping the price of the console low should remain a priority.

Completed the game last night: Anyway, looks like it took me exactly 20 hours for 100% completion, all souvenirs, scoops, secrets and achievements. With the exception of a couple of stages (isometric auto scrollers ) I really enjoyed the game, but looking back on it without my Goemon goggles I'd say it probably won't have quite as much appeal to anyone who doesn't have an affinity to the Goemon series, or an interest in quirky Japanese stuff in general. I'd definitely still recommend it to anyone that's a fan of the 3D platform genre though, as it's a well designed game with lovely presentation and plenty of charm, just know that it's unlikely to be very challenging and the combat controls might be a bit marmite too. (Yeah, the L+R button thing never did entirely click for me, even found myself briefly mashing the X button to try and attack on a few occasions! ) You're also likely to learn quite a lot of funny, pointless or even (at times) surprising facts, mainly about Japan but also various bodily functions, so I guess the game can be considered educational as well. I actually had to look this one up afterwards (Scoop's Trivia #221): Bloody hell! No wonder I never noticed that change.

Lol @ trivia #150 from Scoop: I think Scoop might actually be my favourite character since Barkle in Rosy Rupeeland. Such a stupid yet somehow cool and cute design: They should seriously consider making a Scoop spin-off game. I'm also amazed there's so Scoop plush toy available from the official site: https://www.spike-chunsoft.com/bakeru/merch/ But honestly quite glad too, as I probably wouldn't have been able to resist importing one if there was.

This scene gave me a chuckle: Is Bakeru supposed to be like Goemon or Ebisumaru? Anyway, I've made quite a bit of progress in this now (up to stage 30) and have found all of Scoop's trivia and the 3 collectables in each stage so far. I really like how you can jump back into a level and grab anything that you might have missed the first time around, then quit to the world map but still keep whatever you just picked up. Especially as some stages can be surprisingly large. Turns out there's another thing to collect in certain areas too, which is really fun to search for... Unlike the majority of Scoop's hiding places and the standard collectibles, these can actually be pretty tricky to find, but it's super rewarding when you do. I love how everything that you collect then ends up... While I don't think the game is as easy as some people have made it out to be (I've managed to get Bakeru killed many times already ) there's no doubt that some of the Henge abilities you unlock are ridiculously overpowered! Especially... That thing completely destroys anything in your path! It's meant to be limited by the Henge meter (which depletes while using those abilities) but seeing as enemies also drop an item that replenishes the meter, and you can kill so many of them so quickly, you get to use it for way longer than it feels like you should be able to. Although I have to admit it's great fun seeing numerous enemies exploding into loads of colourful pieces and golden coins! Really satisfying. In a way I'm still getting to grips with the controls though, not entirely sold on the idea of using the L + R buttons for separate left and right attacks. It is kind of interesting, but as I mentioned before, it also comes at the expense of a way to recentre the camera. Have gotten a bit more used to it, but it does seem like I'm spending way too much time managing the camera during gameplay than I'd like. And while separating attacks does provide some cool opportunities for doing combos and other flashy stuff, I reckon it would've also been fine if both attacks alternated automatically and were simply mapped to a single face button in a more conventional control scheme. Plus, my index fingers weren't prepared for this amount of activity. Game is a lot of fun though, I love how vibrant everything is. Some of the stages have so much stuff going on there's a real festival atmosphere to them. My favourite so far has to be... Dig the music on it as well: Another cool aspect is how much humour they've managed to include via the gameplay itself. There are some enemies in this game whose sole purpose is to... I think the game probably has more in common with the 2D Goemon games than Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon. The presentation and humour (while not quite as wacky) is certainly very reminiscent of that legendary N64 game, but gameplay-wise Bakeru is a pure action platformer. Nevertheless, it's an incredibly entertaining and polished experience (you can tell Good-Feel have picked up a lot of their style from collaborating with Nintendo over the years ) and it's proving to be thoroughly enjoyable. I'm really glad that something this quirky and niche was given a chance overseas. Hopefully there's enough interest in it that we'll see more from Bakeru in the future, and perhaps it could also motivate Konami & Nintendo to get together and bring some of the Goemon titles to NSO, would be the perfect time to do so.

Oh no! Not a mobile strategy game. Oh well, I'll definitely still try it. Who knows, perhaps this'll be the one to finally make me enjoy that genre.

I picked it up on PC. Not had much opportunity to play it yet (just the first few levels) but based on the little I've played so far it looks, runs and sounds fantastic! The art style is great, the Goemon vibes are everywhere and there have already been some poo jokes. So yeah, I'm loving it. Only potential issue I can see right now is with the camera control, or rather, the lack of control. It's possible to rotate it with the right stick, but there doesn't appear to be any way to instantly recentre it behind Bakeru. Which is a bit annoying when sprinting as you have to hold down the X button, so no way to move the camera at the same time. Unless I'm missing something. Anyway, can't wait to properly get my teeth into this over the weekend.

So they go ahead and make arguably the best Felyne designs ever (that even get praise from H-o-T! ), bonus Palico armour sets for having MH World save data, but then they don't bring back Prowler mode? Damn it. It was such a unique, flashy and hilarious weapon type to use. Looks like it will forever remain exclusive to MH Generations. Well... I guess it's gonna be Hammer time again then.