Julius

From the game's page on the Japanese Nintendo Store: Guess it's time for me to make like Switzerland and go find that fence I was sitting on before. And then probably jump over it and not look back. I feel really sorry for any fans - especially any kids - who don't have dependable / easy / any access to the internet for such an update. As if there wasn't enough here to be absolutely, belligerently indifferent already, with this game setting the bar at the floor for what we should now expect from Pokémon remakes moving forwards. Game Freak clearly wanted to take a next step into 3D with Legends: Arceus, felt like they needed to make a remake for these games, and so outsourced them, but in turn completely misread the situation in giving us remakes which are quickly adding up to not even be the definitive way to play through Sinnoh. I know myself and many others wanted remakes, but if we knew it'd end up getting this treatment, I'd much rather they didn't bother. You might try to be super optimistic and say "hey, maybe they've done this so that those who get access to the game before it's meant to launch don't get access to Episode Platinum / post-game stuff / etc., so it doesn't leak!" To which I say: if that were the case, that's somehow even worse for those unable to update the game. I don't get how you end up that tight on time when you are pulling off the lowest effort and most "faithful" pair of remakes to date that a Pokémon game isn't being shipped in a complete form. It's not on ILCA, heck it might not even be on GF at this point (it probably isn't, it's probably TPCi), but it seriously feels like ILCA were only approached about this project last year. Maybe they were approached in 2019 and things being delayed due to COVID is what makes me feel that way, but if you're needing to ship a Pokémon game which needs a day 1 patch that isn't to do with a bug picked up very late in QA and is of a noteworthy size, potentially replacing temporary MIDI tracks on shipped copies? It will genuinely be the most embarrassing thing Pokémon has shipped since the franchise started. I don't think there's been a project anywhere near as objectively messed up - not talking about the quality of the game, but I genuinely mean from a technical and development perspective - for them as this appears to be right now.

The IMAX enhanced versions of select MCU films are coming to Disney+ this Friday as part of Disney+ Day. The list of films getting IMAX Enhanced editions added are: Also, for anyone who has been holding out on picking up Disney+, new subscribers can pick up their first month at £1.99 / $1.99 / €1.99 in an offer which will be running until 14th November, as part of the platform's two year anniversary celebrations.

PlayStation Direct has gone live in Germany, with the UK, France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg set to follow soon. Took them long enough

No, it's exactly that. With the number of copies that Pokémon games need available at launch globally to be in excess of demand, the logistical nightmare probably means they're shipping to retailers up to a full month before launch. Typically these copies which have been sold before release have been sold at smaller chains or local stores (typically stores not dedicated to gaming) rather than supermarket chains or larger dedicated gaming chains like GAME, GameStop, etc., where the smaller chains have very little reason to hold out on selling the game until launch (such as not having the technology to report stock in a timely / accurate manner automatically, or simply because they need the business / are doing a friend a favour). Rarely if ever are these smaller chains going to come under much scrutiny from TPCi and Nintendo because they aren't even on their radar as needing to be watched. Unsurprisingly I think it's got a lot, lot worse since the transition to 3D, as X and Y were the first mainline games to be available simultaneously worldwide and the language options have been expanding each gen. Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire and Sun & Moon both got datamined big time after their demos, and while the former was delayed in Europe (some still believe due to many of the X & Y leaks originating from this side of the pond, though I remember there being some in Canada too, so it may genuinely have just been due to shipping or localisation), the simultaneous worldwide release has been pretty consistent since. That means a whole lot more smaller stores where the street date can be broken. It is what it is, it's like how we get leaks during the trailer cutting process for some massive films, or even see very small chains have screenings before they are supposed to of the latest blockbuster. In terms of these games, though, nothing of note has leaked so far (unsurprisingly), and I've been following them a bit. There's nothing to spoil, the UI looks like a nice modernisation of the original, and that's pretty much all there has been to say in terms of additions and improvements that we haven't seen too much in the marketing. What seems to be unforgivable - if accurate - is that some of this early footage sounds like it has a MIDI soundtrack which doesn't really match up with what we've been hearing in the trailers, which makes you wonder if that will be patched in on day 1, which would mean that the game is shipping in an incomplete form.

Performance specs: I guess the trend of me only playing these games at 60 fps will be continuing

New teaser poster: Sets reminder for 1st January 2024

A bit surprised that this visually looks quite a bit compromised compared to what we've seen in the trailers and other promotional images? Is it just me? Some of those textures and the lighting just looks really flat, like the resolution has been reduced (you'd hope meaning a pretty solid frame rate). Probably not the best composition for promo images in general, though. Interested to see what the differences are exactly if Digital Foundry cover the release, because going off these images (and how little has been shown of the Switch version so far), unless you really want the portability the version releasing on dedicated home consoles and PC will likely be the definitive Definitive Edition. Which I guess shouldn't be very surprising?

I fully expect to see a sign at the end of Spear Pillar after you see credits roll which says The Distortion World Project Has Started!

Yep, for better or worse! And wow, yeah it's crazy because I don't think I've seen a PS5 other than my own in-person at this point, but it seems like stock might - slowly - be getting there!

Haha yeah, that's true! Actually pretty crazy thinking back that me and my friends all got to that point in the same week...just to rub it in my face that I hadn't seen a Burmy. But speaking of transferring Pokémon, I wonder what the plan is for Pal Park now? Seeing as I imagine the Safari Zone is going to end up like the one in ORAS? Maybe that'll be where they have the swarm Pokémon turn up instead to save you running around or something.

Japanese overview trailer and two commercials: Getting excited but still very nervous for this one. The look I'll probably get used to after a few hours (even if the hands continue to serve as prime nightmare fuel) but it's mostly the music, it seems so up and down in quality based on what we've heard in the marketing so far compared to the originals, and even other compositions. The Route 209 composition for Smash sounds better to me than what we hear glimpses of in the above... Might go through the original soundtrack and pick out my favourites to do a comparison with their Brilliant and Shining counterparts. I'm curious to see what events eventually look like for this game, especially with Legends: Arceus on the way. I'd very happily just take the Key Items we got back in Gen IV and have those small events over just doling them out haphazardly like they do these days. Also curious to see how the Battle Zone island is going to be handled this time around, as I remember before you had to see every Pokémon in the Sinnoh Dex - in both Diamond & Pearl, and then in Platinum - to go beyond the Fight Area. I remember being able to help my friends find the Pokémon they needed to see (more often than not it was telling them to see Dialga or Palkia in Celestic Town through the book) and all I needed to see was some lowly Burmy. Somehow I hadn't come across one in the wild, and eventually I found a trainer hiding in Eterna Forest who fought with one. That was not fun. Let's hope we don't need to do that again

Ah okay, that makes sense! Just has me nervous seeing that jump onto that narrow ledge, I know where I'll inevitably end up... looks down at giant chasm Oh yeah, I don't care much either, like you say so long as the gameplay - and game by extension! - are enjoyable, I'll be more than happy. I'd argue that most of the greatest achievements in entertainment stand tall on the shoulders of what came before, which is just as true for games as it is films, so I love to see it. For example, Star Wars is a mish-mash of what was going on in the industry during George Lucas's formative years as a storyteller in the East (samurai films of the 50's and 60's), the West (cowboy westerns of the 50's and 60's), the Flash Gordon serials he grew up on, what was going on in Vietnam and had happened in World War II, the progression in film technology from 2001: A Spacy Odyssey and a heavy smattering of influence from Dune and Eastern philosophies. I just found it hilarious watching the preview because that's immediately where my mind went, imagining that Souls is the realistic take on these funny looking Dragon Quest monsters and yeah, the Berserk references have been very liberal in what I've experienced so far in Demon's Souls and Dark Souls, and seen of the other games, which is great because Berserk is awesome. Elden Ring in particular through its trailers I feel has had more Berserk references than some of the marketing campaigns for the earlier games. Kind of hoping we get a nod to Kentaro Miura in this game somewhere, the mangaka for Berserk, as he passed away earlier this year. And yeah, actually now that you mention it, that's something I forgot to mention before: I love what they're picking to bring over from Breath of the Wild. In particular, waaaaaay more open world games need to have pins you can drop on a map and then see in the distance, I've no doubt other games have done this too, but nearly not enough. I'm also glad they basically just said "haha yeah, NOPE" to traversing up difficult terrain with the spirit springs, because it's something of an inconsistent nightmare in many open world games these days not called Breath of the Wild (Horizon and Ghost of Tsushima, for example).

Following on from yesterday's quarterly report, Nintendo have shared some more details (and graphs!) with us. First off, 32 million paying subscribers for Switch Online! That's pretty incredible considering how much the quality of the service is questioned, though of course that's typically the vocal minority of the gaming community compared with the average user. For reference, the number of PlayStation Plus subscribers was sitting at 47.6 million subscribers as of March 2021. PlayStation Plus didn't surpass 32 million subscribers until around the end of December 2018 (back when they reported having 34.2 million subscribers), with the service starting back in 2010. Not to argue about which is more successful (they launched in very different circumstances, especially in terms of accessibility to the internet!), but Switch Online is going very strong considering it only launched in 2018. Think this is pretty incredible too, that the number of people to play their Switch in the first half of this financial year (and I would assume this is only those with internet access, so it's probably even higher) isn't far off the total number to play their Switch in the last financial year. I think seeing the demographics is always interesting too, you can see the dip in the teenage years before you see that massive spike at 21 (after people are graduating from university and getting into their first jobs I assume?). Anecdotally I also feel like hitting your 20's makes you a prime candidate for nostalgia-based purchases, not just because of the access to cash, but because of the way you can now use your free time (and typically have more of it). There's not really much to say about this one that yesterday's figures didn't. Just kind of killing it in software and hardware sales. And it's always good to see Nintendo putting the pile of money back into the machine to make more piles of money. Yay capitalism.

So I watched it again a few hours ago, and I've got to ask: am I the only one concerned about the jump? It looks...incredibly floaty, especially when they were trying to sneak around the side and jump onto that small ledge. Also, maybe I've just managed to blank it out the two times I've watched the preview (so please correct me if I'm wrong!), but we haven't seen the character falling inside yet have we? I'm really curious about that as we see ambitious leaps from great heights and it seemingly does no or very little damage, at least based on the animation used when this is executed (or rather, the lack thereof?). It makes sense in the open world for traversal and stealth reasons, as seen in the trailer, but I just wonder if fall damage is going to be more prominent in these dungeons/castles/etc., seeing as shots we saw here (such as the several storeys of wood plank floors) or in previous footage, because a potential lack of / reduction in fall damage could drastically change how you approach dungeons. I feel like it's been a big part of the dungeon traversal so far in what I've experienced from From is all, so it was something I weirdly latched onto; I'm curious if anyone else feels the same? Do find it funny how even though the earlier From games I've played clearly have points of inspiration from Zelda and Ueda's games, just how on the nose a lot of it is here, the underground dungeon we saw in the preview immediately gave me a Zelda vibe from what I've experienced of the first Zelda on NES: very cramped and seemingly very direct dungeon design (oh, and also the above-ground entrance). It's funny though, because even though I've heard Dragon Quest has inspired From games before, I can really, really feel it with the spirits you can summon; it's like they took some of those designs and throwed an ugly, gritty, freaky From-made coat of paint all over them. For instance, the pot dude really reminds me of a Dragon Quest pot (urn?) mimic (which I find kind of funny because he has the appendages of a Dark Souls mimic!)... ...and the hefty guy we see summoned to face the boss really reminded me of a Hood, just the way he awkwardly lumbered around and swung his weapon. And now that I mention it, Asylum Demon, Stray Demon and Demon Firesage from Dark Souls are all a dead ringer for Clubbers! I feel like this is a rabbit hole I'll never escape from

As they did last year before the launch of the PS5, Sony are chartering some planes to help get the consoles distributed ahead of Christmas. And this time it's three Boeing 747's... I don't know what they're doing speaking to The S*n, but hey-ho. Anyways, has anyone else noticed or seen more PlayStation advertising around than normal as of late? I was out in Birmingham earlier today and there was a massive billboard with Nathan Drake, Aloy, Atreus and Kratos plastered over it. Cool to see out in the wild, they're definitely gearing up for Christmas!

It's entirely possible that it will fall just short (20 to 22 million maybe), but there are remakes of the Pokémon Diamond and Pearl out in just two weeks too, and mainline Pokémon is always a system seller. Mainline Pokémon games releasing two months apart like this has never happened before, one being remakes of the fourth best-selling pair of Pokémon games and the other one being much closer to an open world Pokémon game than we've seen before, releasing in consecutive quarters, and not to mention the fact that they're bookending the Black Friday and Christmas period, where the majority of console sales go down anyways? I think they'll be fine. I'd argue the second half of their last financial year only had two massive games too, neither of which were ever going to do Pokémon numbers when it comes to software, being Age of Calamity and 3D World + Bowser's Fury. It's worth remembering too that these projected sales are almost always low balling things so that they can turn around to investors and say they outdid themselves. Will be an interesting one to watch for sure!

Today's gameplay preview: Yeah, I'm definitely going to be saving my From appetite for this.

Collector's edition has leaked through a Twitch ad, and it looks real nice (well, minus the digital OST). Pretty sure a 40 page book isn't going to be quite that thick, either would imagine that we'll see confirmation of this after today's stream?

Daniel Dae Kim has been cast as Melon Lord Father Lord Fire Lord Ozai in Netflix's upcoming adaptation. It's not Kim's first Avatar rodeo, either. He actually voiced Hiroshi Sato in Legend of Korra!

Nintendo's Q2 2021 earnings report is out, which covers the period from 1st July 2021 - 30th September 2021. The Big Takeaways - 3.83 million units sold this quarter between the Switch (3.14 million units sold) and Switch Lite (6.8 million units sold), bringing the total for the midway point of this financial year up to 8.28 million units sold. This brings the overall lifetime tally for the Nintendo Switch to 92.87 million units sold. - as reported earlier this week, the projected number of Switch consoles to be sold for this financial year ending in March 2022 is now 24 million units. This is due to the ongoing semiconductor shortage, which has seen Nintendo reduce their sales forecast from 25.5 million. - worth noting, the Nintendo Switch passed the lifetime sales of the PS3 last quarter, when lifetime sales were at 89.04 million units sold, compared with the approx. 87 million units sold for the PS3. The next console in its sights is the Wii, which it will likely surpass over the holiday season, standing at 101.63 million units sold. - in game sales news, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe has finally overtaken Mario Kart Wii, with lifetime sales of 38.74 million units sold compared with its Wii counterpart's 37.38 million units sold. This makes it the best-selling Mario Kart title to date, and the third best-selling title in Nintendo history, behind Super Mario Bros. (approx. 40.24 million units sold) and Wii Sports (approx. 82.9 million units sold). It will more than likely have sailed by Super Mario Bros. by the end of the year. - Pokémon Sword/Pokémon Shield are within touching distance of becoming the second best-selling pair of Pokémon games, with 22.64 million units sold to date, just behind Pokémon Gold/Pokémon Silver at 23.1 million units sold. It will likely claim that second spot by the end of the year. - Ring Fit Adventure has sold 12.21 million units to date, which leaves it within touching distance of Splatoon 2, which is at 12.68 million units sold. Who would've thought that was on the cards when it first launched? - when it comes to titles that launched this year, Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury unsurprisingly leads the way with 7.45 million units sold. It is followed by The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD at 3.6 million units sold (which made its debut this last quarter), New Pokémon Snap at 2.19 million units sold, Mario Golf: Super Rush at 1.94 million units sold, and Miitopia at 1.37 million units sold. Top 10 Best-selling Switch Games as of 31st October 2021 1. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe - 38.74 million 2. Animal Crossing: New Horizons - 34.85 million 3. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate - 25.71 million 4. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - 24.13 million 5. Pokémon Sword/Pokémon Shield - 22.64 million 6. Super Mario Odyssey - 21.95 million 7. Super Mario Party - 16.48 million 8. Pokémon: Let's Go Pikachu!/Pokémon: Let's Go Eevee! - 13.83 million 9. Splatoon 2 - 12.68 million 10. Ring Fit Adventure - 12.21 million

15 minutes of gameplay coming tomorrow at 14:00 GMT.

Nikkei are reporting that Nintendo will be making 20% fewer Switch consoles due to the current chip shortage through to the end of the fiscal year in March. Not exactly the news I imagine they want coming out just days ahead of the next quarterly report and Investors Meeting, so I would have to imagine that we'll be hearing more about this there. But it's not like 24 million isn't a pretty crazy number anyways, and it should more than comfortably cruise by the 100 million mark after the holiday period.

Yeah, I definitely got the sense going through that there were areas you could make it through earlier with different items, not to the extent that both of you mention though! Also had no idea I wasn't supposed to get that Super Missile first, especially as I'm pretty sure I didn't come across any until coming to the green doors on Norfair, but I think that just goes to highlight my point about the sense of discovery in the game being really intuitive. I do wonder if going in knowing that this was a remake of an NES game is what made me pay attention at points like that, as I know that some of those games can be very archaic to return to in their original forms. No doubt I'll return to the game at some point for those other ending screens, I had a hunch there might be something like that after seeing the ending screen I got in the Gallery after beating the game, but didn't expect there'd be a few! No plans to yet, think it was more I wasn't quite ready to move on from the game so quickly wanted to check it out, but will definitely keep that in mind if I ever play it in the future. I'm not totally against the idea of playing the original before Samus Returns, as not only is the latter a bit expensive to get your hands on these days (~£60 secondhand), I can appreciate what you mean Dcubed about it being different to the remake just considering things like the parry and modern QOL improvements. I think my biggest concern over playing the original would be that I imagine the map is either very basic (or it lacks one completely), which wouldn't be too bad. If that's the case, though, is it a bit more linear, or would I be best off looking for a map to accompany me through the game? Oh, and completely unrelated... ...my Wii U Pro Controller has arrived! First impressions are that it feels very nice in the hands, I'm looking forward to giving it a whirl. Probably needs a bit of a clean, but is in by far the nicest condition of any of the secondhand controllers I've bought over the last 18 months. I should have a few Wii and Wii U games arriving over the next few days, so will probably give an update on my first wave of pickups and Virtual Console raiding once they're here

Got back to Metroid: Zero Mission yesterday to wrap up my first game on the Wii U! Finished the game with 7 Energy Tanks, 150 Missiles, 18 Super Missiles and 4 Power Bombs, and (I think?) every unlockable suit upgrade. This being the first Metroid game that I've played through to the end, I've got to say...this has set the bar impossibly high for what I now expect from the other games. I gave myself the night to sleep on it so that I wouldn't say something over-the-top while running on fumes, and I'm glad I did, because now I can earnestly say that this is an instant favourite. If it wasn't for the glut of other games I want to experience for the first time, and now having a serious desire to get to other Metroid games, I would have instantly started playing this again immediately...and heck, in a way, I kind of did, spending about an hour playing the copy of the original Metroid for NES that you unlock after the credits roll. It definitely felt slower and much more laboured in ways compared to Zero Mission, but it was still a good bit of fun to try it out. I do have some criticisms of the game, but I think they just become glaring in the face of everything else I enjoyed about the game. I think my main criticism of the game remains the same, being that the bosses don't really come close to matching the depth of the rest of the game, and I say this realising that with this being a remake of an NES game, perhaps my criticisms are also in part aimed at the original. I think I feel this way because there were far fewer puzzles than I expected when facing them, with only one (the giant larva / centipede looking thing hanging from the ceiling) really matching what I wanted to see more of from the bosses, as you needed to freeze a turtle flying around before jumping on top of it, landing two missiles on the boss, before trying to freeze the turtle again, all the while doing your best to evade a spray of shots from above. It's challenging enough to feel rewarding, designed well enough to be engaging, but not anywhere near as silly as the bullet hell fights you see from most of the other bosses, especially the final two, which seriously boil down to brute forcing your way through and hoping your dodging is up to snuff. On the topic of criticisms, I do have some other minor ones, the first one being that while I really enjoyed the upgrades you got throughout, as far as I could tell there was no way to turn individual upgrades off? This resulted in me going from extremely confident with my platforming in the game, to a bit less confident when learning how long to hold and not hold A down to use Hi-Jump, and flat out "okay now there's only a 70% chance I jump the way I want to" once getting access to Screw Attack. Space Jump also just felt way too unreliable - though this probably down to getting access to it late on and not having time to get used to the timing for it - to the point that I genuinely resorted back to my Bomb-bouncing ways a couple of times. Less a criticism and more of an observation: I might be wrong, but it looked like there was some slowdown towards the end in that final area when things got a bit hectic? I do want to talk about exploration (mainly some of the my favourite moments of discovery!) and the rest of the game some more, but given how much I enjoyed it, I'm sticking those points in a spoiler tag. Masterclass in level design and discovery; great music which helped perfectly set the tone and atmosphere throughout, along with some amazing sound design; and some really great puzzles and platforming sections. I have my criticisms of certain aspects, absolutely, but they don't get in the way of this game being a tremendously lean but expansive experience. One heck of an introduction to Metroid, and I can certainly understand and agree with the excitement for Zero Mission...they need to hurry up and bring GBA games like this to the Switch! For now, though, I think I'll take my time before I get to the next one, partly as my expectations really are astronomically high for the next Metroid that I play now, and also because it will involve tracking down a copy of Samus Returns -- I don't want to miss whatever happens next!