Nicktendo

Have to say, I'm very impressed with the traditional controls in this game. Having the sword on the right stick works so well and is very intuitive. My only complaint is that it can be a bit awkward moving the camera while holding L. The motion controls have impressed me as well - they feel much better than the WiiMotion+. If finding the Joy-Con is able to replicate my movements very accurately, the curser is smooth when required and it is blindingly quick to recalibrate when tapping Y. I'm halfway through the first temple and absolutely loving it. Such a far cry from BOTW but still a superb "traditional" Zelda game. Movement, climbing and jumping off ledges feels a bit janky after BOTW, but the swordplay is so much fun, so I'm happy to ignore it. Graphically, the game looks much better than I had expected. A really lovely HD update. 60fps feels great and everything is just lovely and smooth. Kinda disappointing that the watercolour effect, especially for stuff far in the background, has been vastly reduced, which kind of makes the game lose a fraction of the charm it had back on the Wii. Very pleased I picked this up.

I've been on a bit of a roll this month and have already managed to beat a few games. The first one was Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker, which I bought on a whim when Greg simply said "do it" after I told him it was on sale. Surprised at how difficult this game gets in the third chapter. I've managed to do the first two to 100% competition, but I can see it taking me a long time to do the third. I had a great time with this game. The gameplay is unique and the almost 100 mini challenges give it the perfect pick-up-and-play appeal. The only thing I really had an issue with was the camera, which always seemed to be cumbersome and awkward at the game's most tense moments. Like I said with Box Boy, I really like how difficulty is implemented into this game. Beating it (which is what I did) is relatively straightforward, but getting all the diamonds, doing the level's challenge and finding the hidden Toad take a lot of work. Probably not quite worth the £30 I paid for this, but there is a fairly good amount of content + the DLC which comes with the gold version. I'll be going through that soon. I had gone through the majority of Eliminator Boat Race last year but couldn't do the final couple of races. Well, I finally did them the other day. Not easy at all - took me multiple attempts and probably around an hour of trying. This game is great to be honest, a really fun NES game. However, I much prefer the top-down Micro Machines style racing over the mode 7 style racing, which is hard to control and frustrating when your opponent starts ramming you. Give it a go on the NES app if you want something a bit different with fun dialogue. At the start of the month, I got convinced to give Super Metroid another go after a group of lads from a discord I'm in started talking about it and replaying it. Having never beaten a Metroid game, I thought it was time to finally put this game to bed, especially with Dread on the way. After about 6 hours, I got stuck. Spent an hour trying to figure out what to do next and then gave up... So I started playing Metroid: Zero Mission instead, which I had on Wii U for some reason! Turns out that just buying stuff that's on sale can work out sometimes! Anyway, I played this handheld with the Wii U plugged into the power supply in the corner of the room. Amazing how nice this game looks, I love the sprite work here and how colourful everything is. The first few screens were familiar as someone who's started Metroid on NES no fewer than 10 times, but I'm so glad they made this remake and I don't have to put up with horrible slowdown in the original. I managed to beat this in about 3 sittings. Took me around 5 hours. I absolutely loved it! I really found the ability to hold down R to access the missiles useful as it became annoying to constantly be pressing Select on SM. The exploration is great, especially because the map is not that big, though I did start to get a little tired by the end, but I think no one really likes heavy amounts of backtracking in these types of games. Once I was done with Mother Brain I thought the game was over. However, I was pleasantly surprised by Space Pirate ship at the end of the game. Completely changed up the gameplay from quiet exploration to intense battles and chases in a much more linear fashion. Great stuff! Accidently stumbling upon upgrades and secrets and the boss battles were highlights of this game for me and it was super comfortable to play in bed on the Wii U pad - much better than on a small GBA screen I imagine. But that's not all... Yesterday I did finally beat Super Metroid! Went back to it on Monday evening and worked out what I needed to do pretty quickly. I have to say, the final boss and escape sequence puts many modern 2D games to shame by way of how goddamn epic it is. I honestly couldn't believe I was playing a Super Nintendo game. Had I played this game back in 1994, there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that it would have easily taken the top spot as my favourite game on the system. As a product of it's time, it is absolutely perfect. The map is obscenely large for the time, but not too big (even if I did get lost a couple of times). What I mean by that is in 1994 we all had more time. This type of game design doesn't really work today because people don't have the patience for getting lost or getting stuck. However, being sat on the bedroom floor on a Saturday afternoon, you could easily just spend three, four, five hours wandering through the world, finding secrets and trying to work out what to do next. It was acceptable back then in a way it isn't in 2021. I can really appreciate that, but still occasionally used save states anyway The atmosphere in this game is unrivalled. What they've achieved with the feeling of loneliness and isolation in this game is just unmatched. I've always read people saying this and thought it was hyperbole. It isn't. The way the music, level design and superb graphics blend together to create that feeling is something I haven't experienced to such an extent in a SNES game. I think it does environmental storytelling very well as you move between the different worlds, enemies and bosses and kind of lets you make up your own mind about what's going on. Very cleverly done, especially as I'm someone who generally likes to be told the story and walked though it. Here, I found myself interpreting stuff and enjoying that process. I love the way the game doles out power ups, the feeling of becoming more powerful is explicit and engaging, and being able to go back to previous areas when you saw something that looked a little off is probably one of my favourite gaming tropes. Here it is done to a masterful level. Spending 20 minutes trying and failing to understand wall jumps was extremely frustrating, but then it suddenly clicked and became second nature. No explanation. No hand holding. No text. Just - "haha, try and get out of THIS!". A feeling of accomplishment I very, very really feel in modern gaming. 5 minutes later I was wall jumping everywhere and finding new areas and power ups all over the place. Superb game design. The bosses, also, deserve a special mention. I don't think I managed any of them first time, but kept going back and working out when to attack and when to avoid. Again, just excellent design. Nothing ever felt impossible, I just needed to get better, faster, take my opportunities at the right time. The way Samus moves seems clunky at first, but does feel much more natural once you've spent a bit of time with the game and got used to the various differences between this and other side scrollers. I think the game still holds up very, very well. Amazing that this game is almost 30 years old because it certainly doesn't feel like it is. My only niggles were getting lost for long periods of time (but again, that's a 2021 complaint) and I really hated when you get stuck in sand or an enemy which swallows you and can't jump out of it. Seems entirely random, but that's a minor complaint. I'm so glad I finally gave this game a fair shot. I've started it so many times and never made it further than the beginning of Brinstar. At the risk of annoying H-o-T, I have to say that this game also made me appreciate Hollow Knight on a whole new level. The inspiration from Super Metroid is obvious, but they've taken what works from this game and built and interesting and vibrant world with superb modern combat and movement. The foundations and philosophies in game design and worldbuilding are the same though, and finally playing through the "blueprints" of Hollow Knight has impressed, engaged and entertained me in a way I never thought possible for a Super Nintendo game. Metroid Fusion is next on the list.

Sony should make a 3rd Person Action-Adventure game out of that redemption arc.

Luke Shaw is proof that Mourinho lost it years ago. Far and away our best player of the tournament. Absolute hero.

The slightly bigger screen should not make it look any worse from a resolution point of view. It's a very small increase in screen size, much less so than the jump from 3DS to 3DSXL. If anything, the OLED display should look considerably better both in terms of colours and black levels. Lag should also be reduced to a tiny extent. I'm honestly looking forward to seeing it in person - a video on an LCD TV or PC screen cannot do it justice. Definitely going to upgrade my base model and pick this one up.

Altano has been one of IGN's main faces of Nintendo for almost 10 years, he should be better than this considering the amount he gets paid. It's also nice to know that Gary Whitta considers Bloomberg to be "internet bullshitters". He, of course, is not. So fresh, such superiority. Twitter was the biggest mistake humanity ever made. That doesn't make them wrong about leakers though. It's just a bit cringe seeing them trying to count this as win. On Twitter, nobody wins and society loses.

Oh great, our daily dose of "Trust the REAL games journalists!" The lack of self-awareness is hilarious. Part of a mainstream industry that is hated by the large proportion of its consumers. Peddling their own lies and clickbait non-stop and he has the gall to attack independent people doing exactly the same thing. I hate leakers as much as the next guy, but Altano and his other "journalist" friends are cut from the same cloth. Gatekeepers and political warriors that couldn't actually give a damn about games or their audiences anymore, desperately trying to shine a light on anything and everyone that doesn't conform to their narrow world view. This supposed "Nintendo expert" also conveniently forgot that the DS and the 3DS both received GPU clock-boosted models faster than the Switch received this OLED update. Pitiful attempt at sarcasm for someone who can't even get basic facts right. Gary Whitta - Another clown who loves the smell of his own farts and sense of superiority. "Get mad at the Internet bullshitters for feeding you a bunch of unfounded rumors and speculation" Replace unfounded rumours and speculation with "faux outrage" and "imaginary problems" and you have Mainstream Media Games Journalist™ 2021. If people actually trusted and respected the games media, they wouldn't need or want to go to YouTube idiots.

That design is majestic. Absolutely love the new dock + kickstand + ethernet port. Good job, Nintendo. Now about those internals... What do we think? Just a new screen + dock or is it hiding something more? Surprised at the 3 month lead time from reveal to release. Seems like a good way to kill the OG and Lite momentum. It'll be interesting to see how news trickles out for this before Oct 8th. Obviously I want a bit more power, but with my Switch being 4 and a half years old now and showing signs of wear, I'm glad I held off on the V2 revision.

I think this is the issue. They’re clearly a great team and a have a long history with good sports games and RPGs, especially on weak hardware like the GBA and GBC. Their three HD games have been very low on content and have lost a lot of the “magic” which made their older games special. I think it’s clear they are not up to modern HD development with the likely very small team they have. It’s a shame, but I don’t see it changing unless they expand or get much better support from Nintendo.

Yeah, I'd struggle to disagree with any of this. Not a big fan of the new swing meter. Courses are uninspiring so far. Game seems a little bare-bones (I'm sure that will change with free updates). It's okay, but not up their with typical Mario Golf fare. I had similar feelings about Tennis, but the gameplay in that was so good, it was much easier to overlook some of the drawbacks and I ended up putting a ton of time into the game. There is nothing in this game that I feel can really match 64 / Toadstool Tour so far.

They were both superb today. Grealish changed the game to be fair, but Shaw was our best player for the 90.

Kane needs to come off at half time. Useless for the entire tournament so far.

Painstakingly close!

Transition tunes proving tough this week. Lee and Greg both stumped as well. It's an N64 game and one we mentioned on the show.

Amazing that Hungary managed to get two points from that group. Played brilliantly in all three games and can go home with their heads held high. Bring on Germany. Feeling better about our chances after that performance.

Ah. A man of NO culture, I see.

Hendo is from Boro. Google Middlesbrough Parmo and see the ultimate takeaway delight.

Who needs pizza or curry when you can have a heart-attack size fillet of chicken with cheese and mayo?

OK give me 2 minutes

I'll take it if no one else has!

Ristar is my favourite Mega Drive game. I first played it on Wii VC and went in completely blind. Very solid platformer with great visuals, music and level design. Glad you enjoyed it. I've played Nights briefly on PC and enjoyed what I've played of it. I know it's not the Saturn version, but you can definitely appreciate what it was doing at the time. Will need to go back.

I've been spending some time with the old Switch this week. Picked up a few games in the sale, Guacamelee, No More Heroes 2, and in a much-needed role reversal, @nekunando persuaded me to part with my cash and pick up Captain Toad at 33% off. I've been playing the latter quite a bit and got onto the second world. In a cruel twist of fate, there's no hope of me regretting my purchase, I'm really enjoying it. Sorry, Greg. Maybe next time you can exact your revenge. Will probably spend the remaining eShop cash on the Cadence of Hyrule DLC as I have just enough left + gold coins to cover it. I'm also probably going to pick up Mario Golf next week and Skyward Sword with a voucher. My hunt for a decently priced physical copy has been unsuccessful so far. The game I'm going to gush about today though is Box Boy + Box Girl. Picked it up in a sale a last month and have been working my way through it in handheld mode. Anyone who's familiar with the series will need no introduction to what's on offer here. 16 worlds and over 100 levels of puzzle-based joy. Each world introduces a new mechanic and 6-8 levels of gradually more challenging set-pieces based around it. As someone who only played the first 3DS adventure, it seems there is a lot new here, but I cannot say if it's all new to the series as I skipped the later 3DS games. It was, however, a refreshing experience coming hot off the Series S. The game is nicely designed with simple yet stylish graphics and a wonderfully pleasant soundtrack. There is a decent variety in the mechanics and the types of challenges you have to go through. Each world offers something fresh and never goes too deep into one type of challenge. The cutscenes after completing each world tell a cute story where some nice effects and a bit of colour is added to the games black-and-white look. These are done really well although the game does seem to chug at times during cutscenes which was... surprising. It took me about 5-6 hours to get through the main quest. I'm a long way from finishing the game though. I need to give praise to HAL and their implementation of difficulty. While there are no difficulty options, per se, the game clearly has an easy, medium and hard mode. Beating the game from start to finish is not that challenging (that's what I've done). Obviously there is going to be some kind of reward for beating each level using a set number of boxes and collecting the one or two collectable crowns positioned somewhere tricky in the level. I still have to go back and finish off 20 or so levels to get all the medals for doing this. Consider that medium. And then there's the rank you get for beating each level - where you do the all the above as fast as possible and using as few boxes as possible. Achieving an S rank on the first world was tough, so I can imagine there being hours and hours of gameplay if you attempt the rest of them. A lot more content than I could have imagined for a game with a £9.99 RRP. In addition, there's an extra quest that unlocks once you beat the game with a tall Box Boy. It seems there are an additional 9 or so worlds in this quest. There's also an unlockable balloon-popping mini game that has its own set of around 7 challenges, which adds to the already excellent price to content ratio. Really glad I picked this game up. Will definitely go through and sweep up all the medals in the main quest and try to do the unforgiving balloon challenge mode. As for getting the S ranks, I doubt I have the stomach for it. The additional quest can wait until I fancy playing again, I'm in no rush to do it now off the back of seeing the ending. A great eShop title, which really fills that 3DS pick-up-and-play hole. Highly recommended.

This game brings the nostalgia. I can’t wait.

What a shite game. England awful.