nekunando

The game looks unbelievable! I'm feeling genuine excitement for a game for the first time in ages!

I never really like long, drawn-out boss attack phases where you have to wait ages before you can attack so I was praying I wouldn't make a mistake on the final boss in case I had to repeat that whole rigmarole again 😅

I've suffered a few too many of those over the years, unfortunately 😕 I think I paid maybe £11-12 for it in a sale a few months ago but it feels like I'll just have to write that off. My time is worth more than the hours of tedium it would take to see Tunic through to the end. As for Sonic Superstars, if you're interested in replaying levels, hunting for medals, grabbing all of the chaos emeralds and exploring every path then I'm sure there is probably something in the game form you. I personally don't feel any desire to revisit any of the stages and I don't think the bonus stages are particularly enjoyable either. Also, what was the deal with the Sand Sanctuary boss?! I must have spent close to 10 minutes going through cycle after cycle of weak enemy attacks trying to figure out how to inflict damage myself before ending up on YouTube yo find the answer. Going by the comments on the video I watched, I definitely wasn't the only one disgusted by the games lack of direction with that particular part!

Life is short and I've already wasted too much of it on Sonic Superstars 😕 Aesthetically, it's definitely one of the more appealing Sonic games for me but I don't feel like I'm having any fun. I get that the lack of lives provides more freedom for exploration and experimentation but I find that it just takes away most of the jeopardy and everything just feels inconsequential as a result. The game itself should be pretty short to see the credits so I do plan on finishing it before I sell it on but the last couple of weeks have solidified more than ever the feeling that less is going to be more going forward. The library of games I build on Switch 2 is likely to be MUCH tighter than on the current Switch. The cost of games and the potential stresses of going all digital will contribute to that, too!

I figured as much.. and that really irritates me 😢 It would actually bother me to have different variations of the grip in my drawer, especially when I never felt the need to have a grip that charges as I just rotate the joy-con on the console every so often to keep them all charged. Plus, it's £29.99 for the charging grip!

The original Joy-Con was "good enough" for me too, even with the shortcomings so I'm fairly confident you'll be right here that these will be enough for me again. The expensive of buying another set and then another grip on top of that doesn't fill me with joy, mind you! Am I right in thinking there isn't an official grips to buy other than the charging grip, much like the original Switch? I ended up just buying a couple of unwanted standard official black grips that come with the Switch from eBay so that I had 4 sets the same..

Delighted to heard about the improvements to the controllers 🙂 I've been exclusively a joy-con user throughout the entire Switch generation and never bought a Pro Controller. I like having controllers that can do everything the console has to offer without only being able to use one controller for certain games. Having said that, I had been considering the Switch 2 Pro Controller if only just to feel something considerably different going into the new console but I did expect the joy-con 2 to be a significant upgrade. The sticks are definitely the weakest part of the current joy-con (not just the drift but the lack of travel too) so it's so encouraging to hear your positivity about the improvements. Will it be good enough to deter me from the pro controller? I wasn't entirely sold on the Switch 1 Pro Controller (one of the reasons I never got one) but the new one somehow looks much more enticing!

The dust has settled a little after a few chaotic days of information on Switch 2 and I'm maybe only just about ready to gather my thoughts into something coherent 😅 Wednesday, the day of the Nintendo Direct, was all go! I took an extended break at work just to watch it all unfold on my phone and then it was straight back to work, home to make dinner and then the tension of the Merseyside Derby. It didn't feel like there was a minute to breathe and yet I managed to get my pre-order in with Smyth's for the Mario Kart bundle along the way. I expected the Switch 2 to be £429 so was actually relatively happy to see that we were getting Mario Kart World thrown into the mix for that price.. and what a game it may turn out to be! It was a great way to kick off the Direct and, as much as I often berate the open world obsession that continues to infiltrate and attempt to destroy modern gaming, I have so much faith it will work here and make the new Mario Kart more special than I ever thought possible. I hope the Mario Kart World Direct next week shows off just how much there is to do and that we're not just driving around big open areas for the heck of it. If not for Mario Kart, though, things would be an awful lot less encouraging. The hardware probably goes above and beyond what I hoped and expected so I have no complaints there and given that I don't own a PS5 or XBOX then all of the ports of third party games is extremely welcome. I may not necessarily be into many, if any, of them but I'm glad they are there. It bodes well for what can come in the future 😀 GameCube probably got the biggest cheer from me when I was watching in my car. I'm happy to be playing all 3 of the introductory games, especially F-Zero GX. I've longed for an HD version of that to come to Switch over the years but this will have to do! I would have been even more ecstatic if Wave Race: Blue Storm and 1080 Avalanche were confirmed but I have faith they'll appear down the line 🔥 That may be as far as the positivity goes! What on earth was Drag x Drive?! I was looking forward to seeing what game would be used a showcase for the new mouse functionality and this was it..? The control scheme doesn't seem like something you'd want to be playing for any length of time but it would at least be more encouraging if it had the same fun and vibrancy shown in something like ARMS from the early days of the Switch. This bordered on depressing! Oh.. and you expect everyone to pay for Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour? Good luck. It looks like something you may mess about with if included on the system but it definitely did not give off vibes of something that you'd go out of your way to pick up. If Nintendo didn't try to fill up the time (and too much time, in my book) with the Switch 2 versions of Switch games, they really didn't seem to have that much to show from themselves. Metroid Prime 4 looks so much better on Switch 2, and that's great, but I can't pretend to be enthusiastic about jumping into Breath of the Wild again. Tears of the Kingdom could also be 8K and a million frames per second- I'm not touching that one again unless I forget just how much I disliked it 20 years from now! Anyway, I watched through it all thinking that surely 3D Mario was on the cards. It had to be, right? Just before the last reveal began, I was thinking 'Please be Mario'. Then the trailer began and I was thinking 'Please DON'T be Mario' as I wasn't into the style of the environments at all. It quickly became clear that it was going to be a Donkey Kong game and that also didn't seem to fit quite right 😕 I've watched it back a few times and there are certainly things I liked but I'm still apprehensive about the game. Destroying everything looks like it'll become boring very quickly but worse than that is that it didn't quite come across as a Nintendo game. I was getting some Ratched & Clank vibes, for some reason, and that is absolutely not a good thing 😬 I'm still hoping it'll be a blast and I'll almost certainly pick it up in July as I only plan on having Mario Kart World at launch. With the prospective price of games on Switch 2, though, I feel like I'm going to have to be completely certain of everything before committing to it. That Luigi's Mansion font creeping its way into Bananza is NOT welcome, though. That's a tick in the 'Do Not Purchase' box! Overall, I'm massively excited for Mario Kart World and looking forward to getting my hands on the console itself. I was always going to pre-order Switch 2 no matter what as it'll be my main console for the next number of years so I'm happy that there's a huge game I'm genuinely excited to play from day one. I did hope there would be more from Nintendo themselves to be hyped for but I'm sure that will come eventually. That said, the hype around the C button wasn't warranted for me. Cool for those that want it but I can't see myself ever really using it!

I'm loving it! What's the worst that could happen?

I got pretty fortunate with that. I was at the park with my kids on Wednesday night and I just happened to take a look at my phone about 19:20. There had been an email from Smyth's 4 minutes previously and I immediately clicked through and had my order for the Mario Kart bundle placed at my closest store by 19:24. I'm praying this will be enough for me as I haven't been looking elsewhere for a back-up option and I wasn't lucky enough to get an invitation from Nintendo 🥲

The worst part about the Nintendo Switch 2 Direct is that Wave Race: Blue Storm wasn't shown in the GameCube selection.. but it has to come, right? 🥲

I actually love how clean the Switch UI is and hope it doesn't become as convoluted and messy as rival systems. I'm genuinely not bothered about themes either as I usually end up back with the original design anyway. I do have a Yoshi theme on my New 3DS that matches my face plates well 😅

I can't think of too many third party games I'm desperate for at the moment. If I was that interested in them, I'd probably already have a PS5 to play them 😅 That's not to say I don't want them to come to Switch 2, though. I hope we get things like Final Fantasy VII Remake and Eldin Ring just for the sake of them being here rather than being things I'd actually buy myself. The more the merrier! I guess I would hope we get something like WRC from EA along with a significantly improved version of FC (though I wouldn't hold my breath on it being any better where it matters 😖) I'm not a huge Resident Evil guy outside of the GC versions of 4 and the remake of the original but I'd be happy to see all of the recent remakes make their way to Switch 2 along with VII and VIII. I was never going to play them from the cloud 😂 With Capcom, I wouldn't be surprised to see a version of Street Fighter VI at launch. As for Konami, I'm a bit surprised they haven't made eFootball available on Switch. Hopefully that changes here, even if it still isn't close to what Pro Evo was 😕 Maybe we'll get Metal Gear Solid Delta (and it'd be nice to have confirmation of Volume 2 of the collection if it hasn't already been mentioned for Nintendo) I mainly just want the Nintendo stuff to be good. 3D Mario never lets you down but I'll die if they somehow take it in the wrong direction for me. An amazing new Mario and Mario Kart is enough to get the ball rolling and I'm sure there will be some sort of showcase of the new controller functionality. Personally, I'd love it to be a much deeper sequel to Wario Ware DIY where design is made much easier due to the mouse controls and also the controller will lend themselves to all sorts of gameplay ideas. I got DIY way too late so never got to experience it properly so to have something like that close to launch would be amazing. I'd take that over another Mario Maker or Zelda Maker any day 🔥 I also hope we see something that fills the ARMS slot that the original Switch presentation had. For me, it's one of the defining games on the system and was completely different. I wasn't sure I'd be into it on the first reveal but it was amazing! My biggest fear, and one that is probably more likely than ever after seeing the popularity of things such as Tomodachi Life and Animal Crossing, is that the majority of stuff shown just won't be to my taste. Many of the games I love, including Punch-Out, Wave Race, F-Zero, Excitebike and 1080 haven't been seen properly for 15-20 years (and more 😭) You can say F-Zero 99 came but that's not the F-Zero I want. In fact, I'm don't even need new entries in any of those franchises necessarily. I'll happily take HD remakes of the Wii version of Punch-Out, Wave Race: Blue Storm, F-Zero GX, Excitebike 64 (or Excite Truck + Bots) and 1080 Avalanche. Confirmation of a GameCube on NSO would at least give me more hope of seeing some of these, at least! Anyway, I'm excited but increasingly nervous for Wednesday! I'll probably have to have my lunch break at 2pm to watch it and just take as long as it takes until it's over!

I've taken care of a couple more missions since taking this picture last night so I'd assume I'll be close to finishing it by the end of the week! I'm glad I waited until I was in the mood for it rather than just playing it for the sake of it on another occasion 🙂 I do find myself travelling directly to waypoints and skipping to destination whenever possible as there's no desire to spend 10 minutes riding across the country just to reach the next bit of gameplay. The dialogue is generally well done but I don't necessarily need to hear all the chatter between locations 😅 Like I say in the post above, I'd consider Red Dead Redemption 2 if it ever comes to a Nintendo platform. The thing is, I own it on PS4 so could easily just play it there if I really wanted to! My experience kinda makes me wonder if I need to give LA Noire another try, though it never drops below the £22.49 sale price every few weeks.