Nicktendo

Just picked up Habroxia (60% off), Super Punch Patrol (50% off) and A Short Hike (with a few gold coins) for under a tenner! Great value to be had this week in the e-Shop.

Just blasted through the first world. What a game this is - by far the best aesthetic Nintendo has come up with for a Mario game. OST is God-tier. Surprised by just how fast it feels now, almost too fast even! Grinning from ear-to-ear. I'll also give Bowser's Fury a go later, but really enjoying going through 3DW again.

I spent a good 10 or so hours over the past week finishing Super Mario Galaxy to 100%. A game that is definitely better in the back half than it is in the first, much like many modern Mario games, I suppose, but there are still a few annoying stars that were tough to get. I think I can come to the final conclusion that Galaxy is the best Mario game when it's at its best - i.e. 2D like levels that are liner and play around a lot with gravity. Some of the more open levels suffer from serious issues with the camera, when it is sometimes controllable, and sometimes not. Frustrating. The swimming is also terrible in this game, especially after Sunshine. I was constantly fighting the controls and the camera to get Mario where I wanted him to go. Overall, I'd put this game firmly behind Odyssey, 3D World and even Sunshine, I had a better time with that game as a whole. And so the Mario 3D All Stars collection is done (bar the Blue Coins in Sunshine, but shhhh). Excellent value for money from the £37 I ended up playing. Lasted me a good few months and it was super fun revisiting all these classics. Almost 60 hours of gamepley is nothing to be sniffed at considering the price I ended up paying. Would have liked it physical, but at least it's sat on the Switch for when I decide to go back and do a Luigi run of Galaxy in a couple of years or so. All finished just in time for Super Mario 3D World which I'm picking up on Friday. Parting ways with my Switch copies of DOOM, Wolfenstien II and Civilization VI, but I have them all on PC now, where they all play infinitely better so no loss, I suppose. Two dungeons to go in Link to the Past, so I'll probably finish that off this weekend before starting one of the Oracle games.

The market is funny now. Small studios are getting eaten up all over the place. It's a worrying trend, but a necessary one if Nintendo, Sony and MS want to shield themselves from other players like Google, (oops) Amazon and Tencent trying to get some of their pie. Nintendo would do right to fully acquire or take majority stakes in trusted second and third party developers. Hopefully they'll retain a good degree of independence, while getting more support and bigger projects in return. Sharing the load around a little might actually be in (what seems to be a slightly struggling) NPD's favour. The industry is definitely changing though. After the indie revolution of the previous gen, I'm interested to see where we'll be in 5 years time, though I do think it's absolutely vital for the long-term sustainability of the entire industry that there are a wide-range of small and medium sized developers for the indie and ever-decreasing AA market.

I got rid of Facebook in 2017, VKontakte in 2018, Twitter last year, and finally Instagram a couple of weeks ago. I'm 100% social media free right now. Instagram was the hardest one for me as I'd been on the platform for almost 10 years and it was a good way of looking through personal memories. I set it up when I went to Russia in 2012 and had some great photos from my first year there. However, over the past couple of years (since FB took over basically) it had become really, really shit. It started with the News Feed being changed to a FB style one with nothing being shown in order, littered with ads and "suggested posts" that I didn't give two shits about. The final nail in the coffin for me was when the "shop" become one of the five quick link buttons at the bottom of the app. Absolute garbage. The "suggested posts" in the search function were all idiotic TikToks which is a completely different platform of which I have never had interest in. In 2014 it was great, free of ads and free of clowns trying to make money. Deleting social media is pretty tough. It feels like you're kinda stepping away from the real world in a way and moving back into some sort of void, deprived of meaningful contact. That said, it is wonderful for your state of mind. You genuinely feel so much better when you're not spending minutes or more a day reading content that does nothing but rile you up or make you mildly annoyed. I spend a lot more time here as a result, where long-from communication is encouraged and appreciated, I also spend a lot more time actually listening to podcasts when commuting rather than flicking through social media with one on in the background. The most important thing though, is that I actually started speaking to people. I text and call family and friends more regularly than I did before as I don't have a window into their world which I can simply throw a meaningless like to. For example, when I deleted Instagram, one of my old mates from Uni, who I haven't spoken to in years, sent me a "u ok hun?" style message and we ended up texting for 3 hours. I actually found out how he's doing and how his relationship of 8 years had recently ended. I would never have know that just from Instagram. I'm buying him a beer when I go home and gonna spend a couple of days in his country house in sunny Scarborough! I don't think that would have happened had we just continued to 'exist' as friends on social media. I really want to get rid of my YouTube account too, but that's proving more difficult. I've unsubbed from a lot of content over the past year or two. Anything that I feel isn't giving me meaningful content, playing off politics or simply chasing the algorithm. A lot of my favourite content creators are shifting to new platforms or setting up their own websites. It's not ideal, and means you have to move around the Internet a lot, and it's particularly bad on mobile devices. There is definitely convenience when it comes to having everything in one place, but if you want the rainbow, you have to put up with the rain. Any social media or video platform I choose to be a part of in the future will be a paid one. There's a reason all these services are free. Social media does absolutely nothing for us. Get rid of it all, I guarantee life will improve.

I ended up making an account on an investing site and dumped a bit of spare cash I had into Nintendo and AMD. I also took a much smaller punt on UK and European companies affected by Corona. I'm hoping that with a bit of time, they'll bounce back to respectable levels once the vaccines start getting distributed and lockdown ends. Ignored all the companies that were being shorted, but I did buy 20 shares in Nokia just to see what happens GME has been rising again today, but I thought better of it. I'm in it for the long term, not looking to make a quick buck and have been watching and researching for the past few weeks. I haven't put in a lot of money, just some stuff I had lying in Pounds doing nothing, so we'll see how it goes. It can't be worse than 0.02% interest! Thinking about investing a little in Crypto as well, but I've been advised not to do that on trading platforms, so may look into sorting out Coinbase in a few days.

Going through LTTP now. Have been playing Zelda 1 and 2 on the NES app over the past few months and made little progress. Doubt I'll see them through to the end. On 3DS I've got OOT and MM3D as well as both Oracle games, which will probably be the next ones I play. Wii U I have the two HD remasters, but will put them off until Nintendo announce their 35th Anniversary plans. I have Skyward Sword physical, but it's stuck in Russia. Will either download it from the eShop if I have to (wink, wink, Nintendo) or maybe get it posted in the Summer. I also have the Minish Cap on Wii U VC, which I've never played, so I'll definitely go through that. Depending on how fed up I get as time goes on, I could be tempted to download the DS games on Wii U, but we'll see. I'm not desperate to play either. Link's Awakening on Switch of course. I beat it in 2019, and may run through it again and go for a 100% run with all heart pieces and seashells. So plenty to play! Definitely going to start with the 2D offerings and hope Nintendo drop some news soon.

Yeah one of them is for 100 hours in-game. There’s a method on PC to speed it up but I’m not going to bother. I think the achievements are the same as the trophies, yes.

It still moves and clicks, just doesn't register. I think I should try the first method. I'm considering taking my 3DS apart and trying to fix it that way. Really don't want to spend 150 euros on a new device. My screen is also scratched to hell, so a new machine might be the better option... but I plan to play through OOT and MM and I don't want to lose the 3D function. I also have the Capcom Zelda games on here so I really don't know what to do... I'll try a self-fix and see how it goes!

Haven't beat any games in the past few days, but I thought I'd provide a little update. I'm 12 hours into XC2: Torna and struggling to beat Malos in the city square, need to level up a bit more I think. I preferred the battle system in the base game, truth be told. No progress to report in Final Fantasy IX, what a surprise! I've been achievement hunting in Panzer Dragoon and I'm finding it more enjoyable. Gearing up for a run though on hard mode! I went back and 100%'d The Gardens Between using a guide. I'll probably play thorough it again some time soon. Second Steam game "Platinumed". I've done the third Dark World dungeon in Link to the Past and am having a whale of a time. I still want to try and beat every Zelda game (that I own) this year. I've finally remodelled my town in Animal Crossing: New Horizons and have quite a bit of free space, currently buying everything for the "Festivale" and making a zone for all that garbage. I switched on my 3DS for the first time in almost a year the other night, my R button is broken, looking into getting a 2DS (clamshell), they're about 150 Euros I'm now at 90 Stars in Super Mario Galaxy and may have to revise my podcast assessment. The later half of the game is considerably better than the first half. That's all, peace out.

Next week will be 63.2 (or 63 and 1/3 if you prefer 😁) we’ve already recorded it I just need to edit and because I need to work on Sunday and we can’t record we’ll push back 64 and the podpals episode.

Nintendo Digital sales: Animal Crossing is about to become the best selling Nintendo game of all time in Japan:

Yeah, I get a similar feeling. I may go back and try and "platinum" it as a lot of the levels are short. So short, in fact, that by the time I'd got my stuff together and realised what type of level it was, it was already over. I liked the "retro levels" and got gold on all of them first time. I felt like the aesthetic was overkill TBH, and it was only on the third or fourth level that I clocked that it was basically a rhythm game. The controls are far too loose for my liking, especially on the floating / flying sections. I missed a lot of hearts due to the floaty nature of them. I also felt that a lot of the danger that came up was poorly telegraphed and you basically needed lightning reactions to avoid hazards, especially in the later levels. I guess learning the layout will mitigate that somewhat, but I'm still not impressed overall. I think this game tries a little too hard to be something it quite clearly isn't.

My ninth(!) and final game of January is done. Yes, I had a lot of these games close to completion and some of them are shorter indie games, but I thought I'd give myself a nice big headstart on my quest for 35 games in a year. I might even hit the coveted 52 with any luck. This is another one that I'd started and only put 10-15 mins in to. Not much to say really... I've started Link to the Past and I've decided to run through every Zelda game in honour of the 35th Anniversary. Aiming for one a month, but obviously won't keep it that rigid, especially with the 3D variants. Hope I manage to get through the bulk of them before BOTW2 drops. I also really hope Nintendo reveal a Skyward Sword remake on or before E3 or I'm going to download the Wii version on the Wii U eShop. 480p warts and all.

Yeah MS completely ballsed-up Rare but the writing was on the wall. Nintendo got out just at the right time. Many of the N64 crew went on to form Free Radical who gave us Second Sight and Timesplitters, which were all more critically acclaimed than any 360 Rare game. A lot of them are at Playtonic now and doing Yooka-Laylee. I don’t want Sega to go to Microsoft, but if the have to go somewhere, that would be the least worst option IMO. Nintendo would be better but it’s not gonna happen.

NOOOOO!! Do the right thing MS. If anyone is going to buy them, I hope it's MS.

GameStop, AMC, BlackBerry and Nokia stock can no longer be bought on the Robin Hood app. The whole goddamn system is rigged. You will take your anal COVID swab, you will give up your land and home for the greater good, you will accept the Great Reset. You will own nothing and be happy!

“Please wait next game of MegaPixel Studio” probably wasn’t in the original I didn’t know they were such a poorly funded studio. Having read what @Dcubed wrote above, I can see how this might have happened. However, now that the game has been out for a while and has been on sale multiple times, it’s a shame they haven’t reinvested that money in trying to fix the problems.

I finished Panzer Dragoon DEmake last night. Yes, you read the right. What a fucking travesty this game is. The PC port is bordering on embarrassing. I had a couple of crashes in my hour-long play through. Audio was dropping on occasion, and the screen tearing is unbearable, especially during the cutscenes. It’s a damn shame because the game itself is still very playable. I had fun going through each of the levels and there’s definitely some merit in trying to learn the levels and aim for 100% of the enemies killed. I was hovering around 85-95% on each of the levels. I died twice on level four as I couldn’t figure out how to kill the boss, and then once again on level 6 (which is set in a cool Venice like world). The music is decent, the levels are quite varied and the difficulty definitely ramps up over the hour. It made me take stock and think about the original game. 1995 and not too long after Starwing. In my book, that makes this game quite the achievement. I’d love to try the original and it’s a little disappointing it wasn’t included in this package (although I’ve heard the original source code has been lost). Can’t be too displeased as I got this in a Steam sale last year for around a quid. Money well spent on a unique retro-ish experience. Piqued my interest in maybe one day trying to pick up a Saturn. The developers of this remake are the worst though. Whoever thought “yeah, this’ll do” needs a trip to the job centre. Highlighted further by the awful translation. There’s barely any text in the game, but MegaPixel Studio are clearly just as confident in their English ability as they are in their programming skills. They shouldn’t be. Ultimately, it’s an attempt to fleece people using the IP of a huge cult classic which has been utterly ruined by incompetency and complacency. It IS playable, but the problems really sour the experience. And just to kick the sorry souls who were waiting for this game when they’re down... the final achievement is 100 hours in game. Yep. 100 hours. In a game that takes less than an hour to beat. Fucking comedians.

I heard about this a couple of weeks ago and didn’t bother jumping in as I’ve never invested before and setting everything up would’ve been a ballache. Have a few guys in a discord who have basically gone all in and it has been immense fun watching from the sidelines. Some of them are up tens of thousands of dollars. Of course Wall Street is livid because the man on the street has beat them at their own game. This is bigger than Occupy Wall Street ever was. Expect very, very heavy regulation to come in after this. No shock that Biden will sign off on whatever bullshit they dream up to keep their false wealth.

Technically that was last week. On Saturday I think... I posted about it in the Game Club thread. 2 hours 20 for 100% and all achievements. No one has any excuse not to contribute this time. OH shit. Wrong thread... Can a mod please move my previous post to the diary thread?

This week I've managed to beat two classics. Super Mario Galaxy is up to 60 stars and Bowser has been pummelled. And with that the 3D All Stars collection is done. Donkey Kong Country 2 has also been settled. I've taken third place on the podium with 20 DK coins. So exactly half. Still have a lot to go through in both games and sweep up if 100% completion is the goal. Thoughts on the Cafe next week.

You can't launch anything in China without a Chinese partner, hence Tencent. They're only helping local distribution, WeChat pay and cloud stuff for the e-shop in China. Bonus: They also get access to all your design materials so they can replicate the technology and release their own brand once you're surplus to requirements. Then you get booted out of China. Couldn't care less about a Pokemon mobile game. Nintendo shouldn't even be bothering with the Chinese market. Not worth the hassle and they have to give up a lot to get in. Any government that is fragile enough to ban Animal Crossing of all things should be mocked, ridiculed and boycotted until the end of time. Pathetic doesn't accurately cover it.

The money they invested in Platinum was essentially a loan so that Platinum could set up shop as an self-publishing developer and better retain their own IP. They're still 100% independent. Slightly different from the situation we have with Act/Blizzard, Epic and Riot games, for example, but not ideal. I'd forgotten about it too. I'll have to wait and see on Bayo 3. Might be one for the second-hand market. Just looking now I also had no idea they owned 20% of Marvelous, and therefore, No More Heroes... Damn. Seems like everyone wants a slice of dirty CCP money. @Dcubed - I've been hearing rumours that it's not WBIE, but 2K Games they're after. Which means Rockstar and GTA It's definitely something big though. Potentially industry changing the likes of which have not been seen since... ZENIMAX . Can't see the next four years being very kind to Western devs with Tencent swinging their big dick of unlimited money around, especially with Xo Bai-Den at the wheel. Maybe this is what's forcing all the conglomerates to buy up studios? Getting their cards on the table in preparation for war? Conglomerate wars? Might be time for me to go all in on Nintendo and indie games. My backlog is huge, I hadn't planned on buying anything outside of the big Nintendo releases this year, but I guess we'll have to see which way the wind blows. Either way, China ain't getting a penny off me.