Jonnas

Is this what that EMIO thing was about?

It's from the ResetEra thread that @Dcubed linked to earlier.

I'm afraid that's not it. That moment is actually the "Evac" spell, which is meant to be used indoors. No, it's actually this picture: It's the same animation as seen around the 21:14 mark in the video (it wasn't actually Zoom, it was the item with a similar use, but the principle's the same). Makes no sense: what's the point of Evac then, if even a starting town item negates it completely?

I love the concept behind the thread. I personally would've picked something other than a soufflé (I'm more of a Pastel de Nata guy myself, natch), but it's lovely. The thing is that I don't think I've played a single game from 2024, and that's likely to stay true for the foreseeable future. Regardless, here are my picks: The Soufflé Starting with the hardest category! There are a lot of upcoming games that would easily qualify as a Soufflé, but as I must pick only one: I mean, it's a brand new 2D Zelda game with an interesting new gimmick, and where we finally get to play with Zelda herself as a protagonist. I don't love the fact that this looks like the LttP overworld again, but other than that, the vibes are overwhelmingly positive. The Surströmming I don't usually like to be negative about upcoming releases, l like to believe every game I dislike has an audience, and that every flawed game can become unique fun under the right light... But the wariness pops up from time to time. I understand this is a very specific game for a specific fandom. A 3D arena fighter that feels more like a sandbox to go wild with some of the most obscure DB characters and scenarios. I understand nobody's expecting this game to get great review scores or anything... but I fear that this game might not even be good enough to do what it's supposed to do. If local multiplayer really is limited only to the one white featureless stage, that's actually dreadful. Furthermore, DLC and excessive monetisation out of a "sandbox"-style game like this feels inevitable. And when pessimism sets in, everything I see about the game feels like style over substance. The Stroopwafel So, I left this one for last, because... while looking through that wikipedia list of upcoming releases, I came across one that I didn't even know existed, despite it looking like it was made for me. It was apparently first revealed a couple of weeks ago too, that's how under the radar it is. Yeah, a remake of the obscure 1994 title, Little Big Adventure. It's clearly being made by people who respect the source material (that island looks almost exactly like it does in LBA 2!), and I'm really excited to see what comes of this. Maybe it's not even going to be out in 2024, I don't care, I just want more people to know about it, and that makes it the perfect Stroopwafel. Speaking of which... So, there's a popular variant of this cookie in Portugal, a long-time staple of local supermarkets. Its name? BELGIANS The Dutch haven't made a fuss yet...

Good performance by Spain! As the one remaining southern European nation, I was already rooting for them, so it's good they earned their victory.

By the way, something that occurred to me, in case you aren't used to playing/purchasing collections of fighting games, there's something you should keep in mind: these are very likely going to be the Arcade versions. This means that single-player content is going to be as minimal as it gets. Most of the games in this collection have character endings, I think, but MvC2, notably, has no character-specific endings. In fact... ...I imagine that the MvC2 shop is not going to be there. The roster is probably already unlocked from the get-go. That said, they did add a Training Mode and specific character achievements, so maybe there will be something there.

Now bear with me for a second, not every update is going to have interesting games: A Jonnas NSO Update I noticed recently that my list of remaining "Unplayed" games on the NSO was 107. So close to one hundred! Wanting to clear a minor milestone that matters only to me, I decided to blaze through a bunch of games that I knew wouldn't take much of my time. Jonnas chooses a bunch of quick games So, Donkey Kong. The one from 1994 is a pretty good game, but the original is really only the first 4 levels. Worse, the NES version is just 3 levels. Over and over again. Did them quickly. Will admit, the game didn't feel as archaic as I expected. Then, Donkey Kong Jr. plays even better. It's also an easier, more pleasant game. It was probably meant to be accessible for younger children, and that may be exactly why it managed to age better than most games of its era. Did the levels, and can confirm that some of the physics and levels from DK '94 were taken directly from here. Thus, Donkey Kong 3 remains as the unloved child. Rather than a platforming, this one is a shmup, a bit like a more dynamic Space Invaders. Spray the bugs, spray DK's ass, manage both of those targets. Not a bad game, but quite finicky (those bugs move a lot!), and I didn't enjoy it that much. Did about 5 levels before dropping it. Also, Mario Bros. isn't just an annoying Smash stage, it's also a game. Plays surprisingly well, but it gets hard really quickly. I can imagine a kid or two spending hours stomping on.................KOOPAS on the Arcade. Personally, I found it got stressful way too fast. But it's pleasant, better than I thought. Then, Wrecking Crew (1984). Ever since I saw that Eggplant Man trophy in Melee, I wondered what was up with this game. It's... aggressively meh. Sure, I have to wreck it all, but the movement is so limited, and the enemies can corner me easily, and I think most levels can become unwinnable? Maybe I was missing something (never figured out how to interact with those barrels), but this was easily the most frustrating game of this batch, and I'm happy to drop it. It was at this point that Nintendo decided to suddenly add 7 more NES games to the service. Jonnas despairs upon his hubris ........ Donkey Kong Jr. Math is weird. Nice idea for a game, but what, is it only multiplayer? And why does it control worse than original DK Jr? There's also a mode where the computer just does math for you? Like, is the player just meant to guess? What a weird thing. Mappy-Land is a game that has some decent ideas, actually. You run around for collectibles, you can set traps for enemies, take advantage of the environment to kill a few... Respect, it feels like a more rigid, more strategic Flicky. Sadly, I didn't like how it controls, changing floors is very finicky. As far as games go about a small animal that endlessly struggles against the feline inevitability of fate, I prefer Flicky to Mappy. Dig Dug 2 is when Dig Dug too realises the futility of digging through an underground that forever regenerates, so he came to the surface. I had some fun with the concept of breaking the floor to slow down enemies, but as the levels got harder, the more noticeable it was that Dig Dug controls like he's drunk. I must've completed 15 levels before the frustration got to me. Nice idea, but the gameplay needed some more work. Golf (NES) and Baseball (GB) are sports I don't particularly like. Tried them briefly, and predictably, didn't care much for them. ...The list of unplayed NSO games is now 104. Yaaay...?

The only discounts I took advantage of this summer were the particularly good deals: Invisible Inc. Disco Elysium: The Final Cut And that's it. Gotta keep my backlog in check.

The MvC series has had multiple ups and downs over the years (Max didn't delve too much into it, but the period between MvC2 and MvC3 was also a "dark age" of sorts for the series, where it legitimately felt dead as well). The fact that the last game was such a flop pretty much spelled doom for the iconic partnership. Basically, if Capcom and Marvel aren't doing stuff together, it's easy to believe that all is lost. That said, a collection of MvC is the stuff of miracles. Fighting game collections are still somewhat uncommon, and to think that one was made of so many titles that historically have had little or no console presence... It's mental. My personal favourites out of the "classic" tunes are Magneto's and Captain America's. Great stuff. In fighting games, the controller should be your top criteria. Whichever controller lets you do quarter-circles, half-circles, and Shoryuken-motions fairly comfortably, that's the one you should prioritise (Charge motions are also significant, but if you aren't used to 2D fighting games, these are going to be awkward regardless of the controller you choose). The MvC series in particular has a motion that's significant across the board: the super jump (down-then-suddenly-up). It's a bit awkward to perform on a d-pad, but a joystick can do it with a flicking motion.

Welp. So that's it A mostly boring game where we, admittedly, played as well as we could. It's weird to go out with so little drama. Barely a whimper. On the brighter side, with Ronaldo's upcoming retirement, maybe this team will finally evolve into something new.

I mean, I am totally bracing myself for a loss today But yeah, since I still have hope, that's positivity. Every competition, all I want is for Portugal to go out in a dignified fashion (which granted, doesn't always happen). A loss is bound to happen, but as long as I can point out "I liked that thing we did that year", I think that's the best outcome.

I wish her a quick recovery. Stay strong.

Welp.... As if by divine intervention, something unexpected came up in the last hour, and I will no longer be able to make it. My apologies for cancelling so suddenly.

Oh yeah, that is her! She's been voicing a few Fire Emblem characters lately as well, and she still sounds the same as in 2004.

I think the structure makes sense as it is. The Nintendo section is plenty active on its NSO, Mario Kart/Smash Online Meet-up, and Switch eShop threads, and if we were to merge to a "General" gaming section, the majority of activity would still center on those clearly Nintendo-focused threads. And that's just the "evergreen" threads, surely there'd still be a lot more threads dedicated to first-party Nintendo games. I think such a merger would not quite reflect the activity that this forum usually gets. My main issue with the current system is that part I bolded. The division of sections made more sense at a time where the majority of games were indeed divided, but more and more, we see worthwhile games come out for every platform available. It's silly that the thread location for, say, Balatro or Witcher 3, depends on whether or not a Switch version has been confirmed or not. And when it is confirmed, it goes straight to the section that also has all of the first-party content, the NSO threads, etc. Meanwhile the "General Gaming" section feels more like a "Misc. Gaming topics" section, rather than a home for multiplatform releases. If we were to restructure, the main thing I'd advocate for would be: The "Nintendo Gaming" section for topics that only concern Nintendo matters and/or games (NSO, 1st-party games, current Nintendo consoles, etc.); Turn the "Other Consoles" section into a "Rest of Gaming" section, for other console exclusives, and multiplaform releases (such as indies, collections, etc.), including those that were also released on a Nintendo console; Keep the "General Gaming" section as it is, for miscellanous discussion (gaming habits, retro gaming, industry talk, etc.). ...I suppose a quicker way of saying it would be "I support moving multiplatform releases to Other Consoles, maybe rename that section to reflect this, and nothing else"

I'm up for either time. Just let me know which schedule works best for everybody.

This is a weird sentence to read, and realize that it is technically correct.

Excellent show from Turkey! Austrians played well too. It was just a fun game in general, so much back and forth That save at the end will go down in history for sure.

This is some fancy forumwork! Loving it so far! I've finally been rewarded for my first year in N-E. About time, too, I've been waiting on that one since 2007 😤 Thank you very much for all your hardwork I'm so happy to be part of this community.

I understand wanting to beat games that eluded us over the years, but if any given game turns out to truly not be your cup of tea, I personally find it best to just drop it. That's how I've been facing my backlog as of late. Of course, that's just my view. We all have different goals.

Jesus Christ, that match. We went from playing alright against a clearly weaker side in the first half... to just dragging our feet clumsily for the entirety of the second half. And then all the drama happened during extra time + pens. The entire country has a new hero in Diogo Costa. Yeah, it's like the entire match felt like a story about how much Ronaldo is feeling the weight of his age. If we lost, this would certainly be his last match ever with the team (Pepe too, actually). Absolutely. Penalties aside, I was not happy with how this team played for most of the game.

Welp But it's aaaalright now, in fact it's a GAAS. But it's aaaalright, I'm Jumpin' Jack Flash, it's a GAAS, GAAS, GAAS.

Maybe they commissioned them to do the port a long time ago (before their poor reputation was obvious), and have been sitting on the finished port ever since?

It's been a while since I last posted, but there's plenty of games I've been tackling. Curiously, it's been mostly compilations... Capcom Beat'em-up Bundle I have played this one before. Posted about it, even. But at the time, I hadn't actually finished most of these games, which means they were marked as "Unfinished"... Since one of my gaming resolutions for 2024 was to clear my unfinished games, I had to tackle these properly: The King of Dragons - One of the most accessible titles in this collection, and one that I found very enjoyable. It's 2 basic movesets distributed among 5 characters (each with different stats), but it's pretty well designed. Projectiles are surprisingly rare in this genre, so the fact that I can play as an Archer or Mage is pretty novel. It's got some tough, but surprisingly fair bosses, too. The only thing to keep in mind is that it's also surprisingly long for an Arcade game (something like 12 levels). Finished it with the Archer. 3 stars Knights of the Round - Back then, I thought this was the worst title in the collection. I still think that. The attacks don't feel impactful at all, and it's got a needlessly high barrier of execution for its most basic moves (a parry that needs to be timed, a jumping attack that barely works...). Dreadful experience. Dropped. 1 star Armored Warriors - Really fun Mecha-themed beat'em-up. Controls smoothly, difficulty feels fair, and it's got plenty of style. It's got a complex weapon/equipment system (you can equip stuff to your arm, shoulders, and feet separately) that feels more accessible than it sounds. A minor gripe is that the characters lose their unique moves the moment they pick up a weapon, but it's still a worthwhile experience. Finished it with... the main character whose name I forgot 4 stars Warriors of Fate - I thought this was fine back then, but I came to dislike it the more I played it. The various mechanics don't work quite as intended, but that's not what makes the game bad... it's the fact that enemies have gigantic health bars, and your attacks cause pitiful damage. And get this, when you die and Continue, every enemy on-screen takes damage equal to about half of their health. Never before have I felt an Arcade game that feels so pay to win. Dropped. 1 star Captain Commando - Is a fun and accessible one. There's 4 distinct characters, difficulty curve is fine for the most part, and it's got plenty of style. My only genuine complaint is that the final boss is a ridiculous difficulty spike. Finished it as Captain Commando himself. 3 stars That's 5 previously unfinished games cleared from my backlog. Overall, the Capcom Beat'em-up Bundle is still a lovely, well-put collection that's worth visiting, 5 stars. Even if a couple of games in there are poor, I'm very glad the collection exists. Double Dragon Trilogy So, this one wasn't exactly on my plans at first. Since I was blasting through beat'em-ups, I decided to give Double Dragon (NES) a try on the NSO. That game felt basic, but there was some depth to it. Billy gains experience throughout the game, and unlocks some new moves along the way. Furthermore, the bosses are set in creative environments where you can try to defeat them via punching or via ring-out, it's got some interesting ideas. Ultimately, the game got too difficult to continue, and despite its ideas, it just didn't grab me enough to continue. I then tried Double Dragon 2 (NES). This one was more interesting. You press one button to always attack left, and another to always attack right, regardless of orientation, which means that the A button is either a punch to the right, or a back kick to the right. It's so bizarre! Truth be told, they're good moves: the punch is quicker and shorter, the kick is longer and slower. Turning around to use one or the other is kinda fun, actually. Furthermore, the game actually has plenty of ideas throughout the playthrough (cramped corridors where you can't jump, a tank as a boss fight where you need to platform a bit, etc.), and what brings it down the most are the absurd platforming segments in the lategame. I needed the rewind feature to finish the game on Normal (and then they don't even have the decency to give me the proper final boss). I've had the trilogy on GOG for a very long time, so I decided, now's the time to check it out! Double Dragon (Arcade) turned out to feel more enjoyable than its NES counterpart (the entire moveset is available from the outset, and there are cutscenes that transition between levels), though those ring-out bosses were exclusive to the NES. The game definitely felt more difficult, with certain enemies even punishing me for landing a punch if I didn't mash fast enough. While enjoyable, it didn't hold my attention for long, for similar reasons as the NES version. Double Dragon 2 (Arcade) felt much different than its NES counterpart, not offering any of the kooky ideas from that version. I hear the original game did have the left/right dynamic, but this rerelease did away with it, reducing controls to a simple "A to punch, B to kick backwards", which manages to be more confusing than the original idea. All in all, this felt like a much more generic affair, and worse of all, boring. Double Dragon 3 (Arcade) was just a big stinker. Clearly made by a different company, this game runs horribly, feels janky and unpolished up the wazoo, and clearly cares not for balance or difficulty spikes. The worst aspect though, is that this may be the first-ever instance of pay-to-win microtransactions. That's right, you can purchase upgrades and new moves with extra coins. Disgusting. Finally, the Double Dragon Trilogy itself, released in 2015, might just be the worst compilation I've ever played with. Instead of preserving the original games, they made a bunch of needless changes to them (like redoing the UI, or the aforementioned rework of the controls in DD2) without giving the player any option to turn them on or off. Furthermore, they added widescreen to these versions... without changing any specifics of where the player can move to. In other words, you now run into an invisible wall where the old aspect ratio used to be. Did a weapon land on the edge of the screen? Tough luck, you can't get there. So obnoxious. DotEmu always had good intentions, but they were obviously not good at this endeavour back then. It was interesting to play through such historic titles, though I'm more saddened by the sorry state of their curation and preservation. The NES versions and the first Arcade game get 2 stars each. Everything else (including the collection) gets 1 star. Megaman for the NSO The Gameboy Wars See, this game does have a nice boxart. Shame on the NSO for showing us a NTSC abomination. Anyway, this was a replay of a childhood game. Game is still lovely and nostalgic, and I'm really happy it's on the NSO, exactly as a I remember it. There was a brief scare where I couldn't replicate a platform skip in Iceman's stage... but then I eventually did it. I've just gotten old, my timing isn't what it used to be I also (re)played MMII and MMIII. From the NSO thread: On instinct, I rate these three games, in order, 4 stars, 3 stars, and 2 stars, but my enjoyment of them kind of transcends this grading system. Without much else to add... here's an attempt to lower the pitch in MMII. With corrected instrumentation, that soundtrack actually sounds pretty catchy. Megaman: The Wily Wars Still itching for Megaman, I decided to take the Wily Wars for a spin: I had never played this game, you see. Inspired by Super Mario All-Stars, this game is actually a collection of MM1-3, remade for the Mega Drive. The first time that classic Megaman was done in 16-bit, predating even MM7. Incidentally, this was developed by Minakuchi Engineering, the same guys behind the Game Boy games (except MMII). It... feels a bit off. The controls, I mean. Megaman feels a bit stiff, his sprite is definitely taller than in the NES, and he does NOT shimmy easily anymore. He also fires a bit slower, just enough to be noticeable. Some seemingly arbitrary changes were made to the enemies as well, as most bosses feel much sturdier (they have way more i-frames than before), but many of them also slower (most noticeable with Quickman, Shadowman, and Heatman). Once you get over that initial barrier of Megaman feeling "off", this is actually a competent and interesting version of all 3 games. The redone graphics look pretty nice, enhancing the intended atmosphere for many of the classic stages (for example, adding swaying heat waves to Fireman's stage, and Bubbleman's underwater segments), and in some cases making them feel entirely new (Topman's stage is now a toy factory instead of a greenhouse, and Cutman's stage doesn't look like rubble anymore). There are some annoying moments where you can't quite tell what's foreground and what's background, but they're few and far between. The soundtrack for each game was also redone with the MD soundfont, and many classic tunes sound pretty dang nice. The password system is gone, as you can now save in all 3 games (a godsend for MM1 especially). I dare say this might legitimately be the best version of MM1, in fact. (Granted, I haven't played the PSP remake, but that one looks like an entirely new game) And because remaking games wasn't enough, after beating all 3, you unlock a really fun new campaign: Wily Tower. There are 3 new robot masters designed for this game (they do look more like MMX mavericks), each with their own stage, and after defeating them, you have 4 more stages of Wily, with more bosses. They're all pretty cool, actually (shout-out to Buster Rod G., which is a worthwhile addition to Megaman, despite the ridiculous name). It sounds like a typical MM game, sure, but what makes this mode unique is that you can build your own arsenal. Yeah, you can choose 8 weapons and 3 helper items out of any of the first 3 NES games! It's a really fun idea, and I really enjoyed being able to use my own preferred weapons (none of which come from MM3). Since this extends to the items, I was even happy to use Item-1 instead of being stuck to the wonky Rush Coil. I had great fun revisiting this trilogy in such a new way, and I enjoyed Wily Tower even more. This quirky experiment deserves 4 stars for sure.