Josh64

I don't know how to feel about this. A lot of the additions look cool but it all feels so disconnected. I wish they'd have given us more land mass and had the caravan park as part of the existing island and also allow you to move in these new designed houses to your island instead of that archipelago. As is it just feels like there will be so many loading screens and aeroplane/boat trips which is an especially harrowing thought knowing how bothersome some of the Animal Crossing load times can be. Price wise I would not be willing to pay for the standalone DLC, it definitely seems a bit too steep. It is a much nicer prospect as part of the NSO Expansion but then there is also the caveat that you have to subscribe for a minimum of 1 year meaning this would cost a minimum of £35 if I went that route. I'm really not sure what to think atm so I'll leave it on the back burner, I have plenty of other things to be getting on with anyway. Perhaps I'll see how much the free DLC engages me and make my decision from there.

I just noticed that too, it's a real shame. I'd have definitely tried this for a month or two to play some N64 classics and get some mileage out of the Animal Crossing DLC but doubt I'll pay for the year as I just know that given their track record the N64 releases will be small and slow and I also doubt I'd get knee deep in AC long term other than perhaps a nice few weeks checking out the new stuff.

This is NSO, you need to open the app and insert the money into your phones headphone jack instead.

I am very unsociable when it comes to gaming so the Switch is a godsend as there is no way of getting in touch with me or trying to coerce me into group voice chats which is often the case when I occasionally fire up my xbox - however I am sure that I'm in the 1% of people that feel this way, almost everyone is shocked/disappointed when they learn about just how barebones Switch online is so a price increase really is baffling. Even forgetting the lack of features there, I think this should have no price increase simply because their NES/SNES output has been pretty shit /non-existent the past year or so, so the addition of these consoles should just be seen as a necessity to continue the promise of bi-monthly retro games and not an extra. Oh you and your love of Beetle Adventure Racing I remember as a wee kid playing DKC2 on the 'extra TV' in my parents room, this tiny black and white thing. There's a level where the water turns red after a while at which point you must jump out to avoid death, this was so much easier when I was finally blessed with a beautiful colour CRT the following Christmas. Speak for yourself, Pilotwings 64 is a classic! Slightly related - An old friend from college that hasn't been into gaming since his childhood days on N64 got a Switch recently and has been talking to me all things related to it. He excitedly asked me if the upcoming N64 Switch Online might include Goldeneye. Oh my sweet summer child.

Also YouTube has fully given up on me, it only ever suggests videos I have seen before. If I didn't actively search for new things I'd be stuck in a constant loop. Then again it is 2021 and I find myself playing a Super Monkey Ball 1 & 2 collection and Sonic Colours Ultimate so maybe I'm just that predictable.

Twitter is awful! I love the music of Hideki Naganuma but his online presence is annoying to say the least, so I unfollowed him. A few days later I see his tweets again under the topic SEGA so I unfollow (especially because I actually like sega and the topic seems focused on their constant mishaps lol), then he appears again under another suggested topic 'Sonic the Hedgehog', then again days later under the even more vague 'videogames' topic. Just fuck off and let me read my followers only, Twitter!

I struggled with this massively the first time around on GameCube The first few goes on here gave me trouble too between the mix of the slightly different physics, using a joycon instead of cube control stick and just losing my edge after all these years. You really gotta hug those turns eh??

Nintendo also said they wanted the GameCube to last longer than a normal lifecycle and also denied the DS Lite (or was it 3DS XL?) literally days before announcing it so their statements are about as believable as those 1 megapixel UFO videos I find on YouTube in the early hours of the morning.

Haha oh man, what levels were giving you a hard time? I had a similar amount of fallouts thanks to one of the extra stages

Not sure what happened there as I watched a video a few months before release where the OG announcer had already recorded lines for the game. Have asked him on Twitter about it so will hopefully find out what went wrong there but I know there was a lot going on between him and SEGA so I wouldn't be surprised if there were some sort of late stage FALL OUT between the two. I'm really enjoying the game so far, especially the 'missions' for each level which include reaching the extra goals, clearing in a certain amount of time or completing with all the bananas. I agree the physics are mostly fine but the camera took some getting used to, it doesn't follow as vigilantly as before and actually sometimes requires some manual movement. I have played a good few hours and still loving every second, I'm also surprised by just how good some of the new music is - some inevitable duds but also some surprising total bangers, to the point where I still have yet to get round to download the OG soundtrack for the game!

I hadn't heard this until yesterday either. I always knew Body Harvest was somewhat of a precursor and some parts of it feel very much like GTA3. Something along the lines of Nintendo weren't happy with it and dropped them when they were meant to be publisher but thankfully someone else stepped in. via pressthebuttons I'm really excited for this, I loved playing GTA 3 back when it first came out, I was a little young for it then so didn't own it myself but often played my brothers copy on his PS2. I remember really enjoying punching the public onto train tracks and waiting for the train to come by... looking back I can see why some of the public and all of the media were concerned about kids playing it but it's honestly still quite comical and slapstick in its presentation As for this remake I can't see why there wouldn't be a physical version as it would sell like crazy, especially the Switch version, but after what happened recently with Kingdom Hearts I guess we can't take anything for granted. The dream scenario would be the whole package on one cart but given what LA Noire was like and some of the other retro game compilations from elsewhere like Crash and Spyro, I think we may have GTA3 on cart with the other games being downloadable. I wouldn't hold out hope for original soundtracks, I'm sure some of the music may stay in but I'm sure a vast majority won't, it's not as east licensing music as it was back then and I also don't think Rockstar will go to the effort when they know it will just be the hardcore nostalgia fans complaining compared to the millions of casual players not noticing the difference. Graphically you're all likely right about it just being a resolution bump but we may at least see some cleaned up character models, I got the iOS port for my iPhone and Pad years back, like 2013 ish, and the overworld all looked the same but the characters did look nice and clearly had updated textures and even higher poly models, they have actual hands in that version unlike the comical N64 style blocks with lines seen in the original PS2 version of 3. I never played the other two as much, I was too knee deep in Melee and Sunshine by the time Vice City came out and wasn't too fussed but I do remember by the time San Andreas rolled around I did get my first pang of jealousy and wondering whether the grass is greener on the other side as all my friends had a blast in Andreas while I was picking noses on WarioWare and bangin' bongos on Konga 2 (love both obviously but there was clearly a lot to be envious of in what seemed like such a huge sprawling world back then). I'm rambling anyway, yeah I'm looking forward to it lol.

I hope this is a meaty update! I often long for the first year of the game where I played daily and enjoyed building up and decorating my island - I went back recently after the direct to clean up weeds and stuff in time for Brewster and his pigeon milk, alas my island is so full there's barely anywhere for weeds to actually grow If there is somehow a way to expand your island I'll be reeled back in but otherwise I can't see myself playing too much as my island is set up just how I want it now and that was my favourite aspect of the game, I'm not too fussed on catching fish and bugs these days.

I have enjoyed what I have played of this game, I completed the story mode and beat all the single player missions, I also levelled up Cricket and gave him a Kawaii design but I'm pretty much done with it. I sometimes dig up the old games to this day and still have a blast but this one isn't quite wacky enough to hold my interest and the character mechanic ultimately slows down the gameplay and sucks out a lot of the gameplay variety. Given the myriad of different unique things about the joycon, the IR, the HD rumble and ofc motion controls, it's a shame we didn't get a sequel to Smooth Moves but given the existence of the Lite and how local play seems to thrive on the system I can see why they'd go with this route. Not for me but I can see how this ultimately appeals to a wider audience and will be more welcoming to newcomers. The only true thing that is objectively worse about this game and not just personal preference is the complete lack of extras - I loved all the weird and stupid extra unlockables you could get in previous games.

I'll start this by saying I like the game! I'm just so torn on it. Ok, in general, this is a Blast to play and as Mandalore said, it's got a lot of unlockables and it's genuinely fun collecting the hidden keys. The reason I'm irked by this game is because it could be so great, maybe even this generations Excite Truck/Bots, but everything I love is followed by something that irks me. For starters the levels are all fun and interesting but looking back, the claim of 29 race tracks is barely true, as at least half are just very light variations on earlier tracks just with things like dinosaurs being replaced with apes or London now being set at night time with UFO's flying around - again, they are all still fun but I can't help but see how they kind of quickly slapped these extra levels together. The length of tracks is also odd, generally they seem to be 1.30 to 2 minutes long but then you'll have a stage that is barely 40 seconds in length and you barely have time to use all your allocated boosts. The UI is also a bit lazy, the grand prix mode is fun to play but there are no points after each match saying what your overall standing is, you just have to hope you get enough 1st place wins to be given the gold cup at the end. The music was also a let down for me though I'm probably in the minority lol - I love that super corny theme song with the woman wailing as though she's a Donkey Konga 2 cover artist and for whatever reason, perhaps uncontrollable excitement and optimism, I'd told myself a lot of the other music in the game would be like that akin to Sonic R. Alas the only song with vocals is that very theme, the rest of the music in the game is pretty generic sounding dance music. I sometimes feel as though I don't have enough freedom when driving too - If you see a shortcut you have to go in at a certain time as if you make a last minute turn too late you'll hit an invisible wall and be thrown forward on the normal track, like playing Mario Kart with that annoying auto assist function turned on. Like I said, I do like the game and perhaps the reason I'm being so nitpicky is because I can see just how great this could have been - but as it is, it's just a bit of mindless arcade fun - which I guess is on me as they never really stated it was anything but that.

I'm sure I'll be old and Wrinkly before they announce some kind of Smash DLC collection. I had a dream about Klonoa last night and that would be my ultimate Smash addition, I was always surprised he never made it into 4 when it was announced Namco were helping and the reveal of Pacman.