Hero-of-Time

This rumour has popped up about the acquisition.

Honestly, I'd love an Oscar style show that really highlights the people behind the games but I doubt it would pull in the viewers as it would probably lack mainstream appeal, which is what Geoff's show is really aiming at. I doubt most mainstream gamers don't really care about who makes their games, let alone whether or not they should be awarded for doing so.

As much as I dislike the show, not to mention how it's gotten progressively worse of the years, it wouldn't exist without him or the sponsors. Nobody else seems interested in doing a proper awards show or at least footing the bill for one.

I'd be very surprised if it is allowed to go ahead for the very reason you said. They own a lot of that market already and so would they even be allowed to purchase even more of it?

F-Zero X OST has been added to the service.

Looks like Sony is sniffing around Kadokawa.

Nintendo are currently offering a deal where you buy an NSO subscription and get one free. Not sure if you can use the free code yourself and double up on your own sub. https://store.nintendo.co.uk/en/nintendo-switch-online-expansion-pack-membership-P00079

eShop Black Friday sale is now on. https://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/nintendo-eshop-black-friday-sale-4460164

Yeah, this took a crazy amount of effort. It's easily the most difficult and longest platinum I have went for in a very long time. With me playing through Final Fantasy 1-6, as well as INTERmission, it was now the turn of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth to be added to the platinum list. I played it earlier in the year when it was released but I just played through the main story and called it a day. After taking a 8-9 month break, it was time to tackle the platinum. This journey meant I had to complete every side quest, tackle every super boss, beat every mini game on their hardest settings, play through all the Golden Saucer games on their hardest difficulty, replay the game again on hard difficulty, pretty much level up every materia to it's max level and take on all of Chadley's battle simulator challenges. A lot of this stuff is very time consuming but relatively simple. It's the battle simulator challenges that are the stuff of nightmares. The battle simulator consists is very similar to what was in part 1 but everything has been dialled up to 11. A lot of them have you needing to go through a series of 10 fights against insanely difficult enemies, some of which are summon beasts or actual super bosses. Fail one of the fights and it's all the way to the start again. You pretty much have to play perfectly for 10 fights/half an hour for each of these challenges. There are a few that pit you against either Sephiroth or Odin as the final battle. Both of these have the ability to completely wipe out you and your party with a single attack. Honestly, my heart was racing and hands shaking after getting through these battles. What a rush. Like when I played replayed INTERmission on hard, it gave me a new appreciation of the battle system. I didn't really faff on with it back when the game was first released but going through all those challenges required me to really learn the ins and outs of the materia system and learn how to best link up certain ones with each other. The effects of some of these combos are devastating and I imagine pretty much required usage for when getting through the Brutal and Legendary challenges. After finishing those challenges, going through the game again but on hard difficulty wasn't that bad. Even the final boss battles were pretty tame in comparison. Going through it again but skipping cutscenes and only engaging enemies when I needed to really did highlight just how much fluff is in the game. Honestly, there was probably only 10-15 "random" enemy battles that you actually need to do in the whole game. The rest of the battles are boss fights. Playing this way means the game is only around 10 hours long. It's nuts just how much filler has been put in this entry. To give some perspective how long this all took, back on release I finished the game sitting on 42 hours played but by the time I had unlocked the platinum, my time played finished at 152 hours. Worth it. With it finally done, it meant I had my landmark platinum 800 in the bag. For those who aren't part of the PlayStation ecosystem, once you earn a platinum the game is locked on your profile in that position, unless some DLC is released and you earn another trophy. This means my road to 800 list will always be a reminder of the time I played Final Fantasy I-VI, INTERmission and Rebirth games all off the belt. Year of the JRPG indeed.

Glad to see you are enjoying it. @darksnowman has been playing it on his Switch a lot over the weekend as well. I take it you are also playing it, @Ike?

I always wanted to play this and Hercules, back when I had my PS1. They both looked like great and looked to replicate the classic Disney games I used to play on the SNES. Given Cube's review, maybe I dodged a bullet.

I've been enjoying my time with the game. I've not been playing a lot of it but rather just playing short bursts in between other stuff. Only 20 hours in at the moment and have just reached the 2nd Giant Lighthouse. I'm loving the animations, especially with Luigi. The guy is hilarious and it's nice to see him being treated with a little more respect in this entry. In the previous entries, it used to annoy me seeing him being cast aside and being used as a joke character but here he is really shining, at least in the early stage of the game. One thing that continues to annoy me is this series is the enemy HP. I've been grinding levels where I can and even though I'm a fair few levels higher than enemies, they still take a few hits before they are defeated. The damage they do to me is laughable but the time it takes to bring them down should really be a lot quicker than what is. The battle plug system is really cool and it's something that does help with speeding up the battles. Being able to switch certain ones out and mix and match for different combos allows for some great experimentation. I usually have equipped the one that dishes out more coins and then any other that can increase my damage output. So, yeah, still early in but loving the jolly vibes the game is giving off. Plus, I love team IDLE. They are adorable.

@Julius Smyths are currently selling the game for £34.99. Very tempting...

This should be a slam dunk. I look forward to seeing how they cock it up.

That's a really weird design choice. What do you use instead?

Popped into Forbidden Planet yesterday, which I think is the first time doing so since the pandemic. Me and my mate went in with the intention of buying something but both came out empty handed. There were a few trades I was interested in but the problem was they didn't have the starts or ends of them. It was always the middle parts of the story which was useless. Also, the prices were pretty steep. I was looking at the deluxe edition of one of the Power Ranger books and they were asking £65 for it. Amazon has it for £44. It's no wonder the high street is dying.

@killthenet thoughts on Tyrone Mings?

Looks like this is being delisted across all platforms. It's very strange that this is being took off everything. I mean, Sega owns all of the stuff, right? It can't be a licencing issue.

Mario and Luigi icons have been added.

I was thinking the same thing, @Helmsly.

What? A person who can't spell Stickerbush Symphony correctly early in the morning.

Sat at working listening to DKC2 OST and I feel Hot-Head Hop doesn't get the recognition it deserves. Talk about any song in this soundtrack always gets overshadowed by Strickerbrush Symphony.

Meh. We all have to go at some point. Now it just may be sooner rather than later.

The NSO carrying over is an interesting one. Surely they will have to add another console to it to keep people subscribed after all these years. There can't be many more big hitters left to be released on he NES, SNES and N64 apps. When was the last time the Mega Drive games got an update? Feels like ages ago.

Not looking good for the US at the moment.