Josh64

Minus a few blips here and there I think I've managed COVID pretty well so far considering my anxiety and depression were already pretty hard to cope with before everything went to shit. I've really been feeling it today though as I just had a weeks holiday off work and have pretty much not seen anyone in that entire time - which I was perfectly fine with but makes the thought of socialising at work again an absolute nightmare. I only have a short shift this evening though so hopefully I'll be able to keep my cool. Had my first bout of inconsolable sleep last night/today, must have had around 11 hours sleep and still feel completely exhausted but I know its psychological so just trying to force myself to do tasks around the house and clear my head before I go out. I ate a whole packet of cookies in bed last night like an animal. It's not so much the thought of covid itself now, it's more the fact that before Corona I would constantly force myself to go out and socialise every day to keep on top of it, whereas isolation has enabled me to fall back into my old ways, I can't even handle voice calls on games or phone calls most of the time. I also have a gaming date (using mics!) with some of my friends tomorrow that I used to regularly play fortnite with so hopefully I'll be able to join in with that without a hitch.

To add to the joy-con hate train, I haven't had an issue with drift since the amazing fix @Londragon showed me (I also repaired two of my friends joycons from work!) but i'm starting to get bluetooth issues too, mainly when playing online. Playing Taiko No Tatsujin for example, I'll be in an online battle drumming away with my joycons when suddenly the left will vibrate, stop picking up my movements for about 5-10 seconds making me lose my combo, the lights on it will flash and it will reconnect. Very annoying but also not totally sure if it's a software issue as that and Animal Crossing are the only games I have noticed it happen on.

Oh damn! I still have a Bowser amiibo from the Mario Party 10 review I did back in the day - at least I know now for if I ever decide to replay it in the future

I vaguely remember watching this when it first aired and thinking the premise is mean but interesting - TV was certainly a different place back then. The fact that this got off the ground (lol) is testament to how messed up reality TV had become. I noticed looking back in the topic there isn't much mention of what the show actually is so: Anyway I forgot about it pretty much until this week when I read an interesting article on it and somehow went into such a deep rabbit hole that I have watched 8 whole episodes on YouTube so far. It's interesting to see how the set designers made everything but the more the show goes on the more unbelievably mean spirited it seems - and as such I just can't look away. I'm also kind of surprised by the budget of the show, you certainly wouldn't get Channel 4 splashing this much on reality tv now - in a bid to make them believe they're being flown over to Russia they went on a plane which circled the UK 4 times. I kind of wonder, if they're going to the effort of making a fake space journey, why not fake the plane ride too I'm really curious to how the reveal will pan out as I actually can't remember that part (who knows, maybe I missed it, would have been a school night back then!) And 2005 was such a different time, I really feel ancient now, some of the interview questions from the press in one of the episodes were so gross that I thought it was some weird gag put in for the show before remembering magazines like NUTS and whatever used to exist, "if you could shag a hooker or any character from Emmerdale who would it be?" was a question for these 4 people that believe they're about to go up into space and instead of being confused by it they just went along with it and answered like it was totally normal. Space Cadets, the reality show that never left the ground - The Guardian Some interesting things from this recent article: I thought this quote was really quite sad: Alas, with two episodes to go I'm going to see it through to the end, it wasn't my plan to get so invested but weird things from this era really suck me in and I found it even more fascinating that we already actually had a topic on these forums. Here's the YouTube link if you do get the urge: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZ9-tl3TJYaI_oSXhB9TPDA

As for 3D world I have only got to world 3, I have been collecting everything on the way but all the levels feel far too easy and simple at the moment so I'm struggling to motivate myself to play, though I do remember feeling the same on Wii U, I know I'll enjoy it eventually but this pedestrian start feels like a slog!

I 100%'d it yesterday too, I really enjoyed it and got used to its quirks about 20 cat shines in but there were a lot of confusing elements at first, this being one of them. I thought I'd 100% done an area then some other task would appear - When I just accepted that the game chooses the pace then I was fine with it. I also didn't really 'get' the Bowser fights, do you get a cat shine from him initially? I can't remember. I was fine fighting him the first and second time but then he just kept coming so I ended up ignoring him. I did really enjoy the final battle though and the ending was hilarious. The exploration was fun and I love finding secret islands and just exploring with Dorrie. I also appreciated the quick travel feature of the map after completing the game with 50 cat shines, it made the new tasks on previous islands much more palatable as I didn't have to scurry backwards and forwards all the while. The lack of load times is my favourite aspect of it being a full world, it gave great Banjo vibes, it's just a shame that with the 3D World aesthetic it didn't feel like a 'world' as such but more of a big pool with obstactle courses. It was still interesting as an experiment though and if they were able to pull off an open world Mario with actual islands more akin to Sunshine then I'd be over the moon (or cat shine). The only tasks that did piss me off were the 'destroy the fury blocks' - Just felt pointless and annoying!

You are blessed! I tried as much as I could to get used to the right analogue stick but I'm just so bad at using it, which is sad as it ruled out so many games for me when I was regularly on my Xbox One, maybe I have my formative N64 years to blame with its one analogue stick for not blessing me with dual analogue precision!!

I feel like 1-2 Switch doesn't qualify because it's got no meat to the bones, it's fine being weird but at least make it memorable and have a lifespan of more than an hour. There was a title on WiiU called Spin The Bottle/Bumpies Party which was much more impressive and unique, albeit with less impressive rumble. Mario Kart and Labo are inventive but they're so far removed from actual games that I forget about them, they are literal toys, whereas NES Remix while not as unique in that sense was an actual game that had some hours of content to it so it felt more substantial. The reason I love 51 Worldwide Games is that it feels like one of the lower budget but more fun titles we would get in the Wii and WiiU era, hopefully with COVID slowly waning we might see more output from Nintendo this year. As much as a failure as the WiiU was, it has completely saved Nintendo's ass with ports just lately and made the Switch feel alive with first party content when we may have been going through somewhat of a dry spell.

Gyro aiming is wonderful and the reason I play Fortnite on my Switch over Xbox One or PS4, it's technically inferior graphically and has a lower FPS but the gyro controls are just that important to me, it's true that they need to be implemented well though. I feel like I can move my arms freely as one click of a button sets the reticle to the middle of the screen regardless of where you are so you can move about and still enjoy the wonders of gyro, I appreciate not all games are like this and the lack of a good industry standard for gyro aiming is probably what is holding it back.

Yeah it's all about the amount of effort that went into specific console features, I do think for the most part Wii U games failed to use the GamePad in a novel way, even Nintendo titles, which is why there have been so many great unaltered ports to Switch, but ZombiU is a perfect example of a game that SHOULDN'T be ported. Man, it was such a great and novel experience on WiiU, it was dirt cheap on PS4 so I picked it up and yeah, it genuinely felt like a different and lesser game. Sunshine wasn't a probem for me but I appreciate it's better with GameCube controls. I notice it on Tokyo Mirage Sessions, the menus are a whizz to me now that I'm hundreds of hours in, but it was so much easier and pretty cool to have the gamepad for all of those menus and chats between characters. I guess the problem with introducing console exclusive features in games is that they stay like that, console exclusive. If Nintendo were to keep their new and innovative features in place from one system to the next I think people wouldn't mind, but when they reinvent the wheel every generation it makes preserving and enjoying games on a newer system hard and thus I think that is also what puts a lot of devs off fully engaging in console specific functions - it's not just a feature that is exclusive to Nintendo this generation, it's a feature that is exclusive to this Nintendo system forever. I guess a good thing about the Switch is that dual screen aside, they have tried to preserve their previous innovations like motion controls which allow stuff like Mario Galaxy and Skyward Sword to exist in the modern day but Mario Sunshine is a great example of how confusing Nintendo can be, they introduced this great pressure sensitive R button and then drop it for every console that came after it. When things like that happen it's easy to see why devs don't stray far from the status quo.

I just got 120 stars on Galaxy last night! The first 60 stars or so are fairly easy but I guess with the new wacky concept they had to ease you in slowly, I had a lot more fun on the latter 60! Music and graphics are still fantastic, it's a real shame Nintendo didn't go HD with the Wii. I haven't got that much more to say on Galaxy, mainly because I'm sure we're all really well-versed with Galaxy out of the 3 and it still feels pretty recent to me (despite being 14 lol). Going back to Sunshine, I found this great interview from when it first released in Japan - Rolled up sleeves Mario was a compromise for Koizumi wanting a new outfit At least he finally got his wish in Odyssey eh? Sunshine Interview And I just KNEW that weird voice acting and cut scenes were a pressure of the time lol.

I'm a bit late to the party but will be picking this up in the next week or two - I really want to try Bowsers Fury first so I wanna know, is it like a standalone game with it's own intro and credits or is it intended as a post 3D World world, because if it is I'll make myself be patient and play it last instead lol. I'm just eager to play as I recently finished Sunshine and would like some new open world Mario to explore!

I agree about the size of the switch, the only pocket I can fit it in is my PJ pockets (which in lockdown do get about 1000% more use than previously but still) A slightly bigger screen but same form factor, doing away with the bezels, would be best and probably necessary as if it isn't a full generational leap they don't want to start confusing the market with different sized joycons.

yeah maybe I was too harsh on Noki, I was enjoying it initially for the pure platforming and scale as you said but the blue coins hidden in the walls really soured the level for me!

I completed Sunshine a few days ago with around 70 Shine Sprites! Leading up to it I had a GREAT time on Sirena Beach, first with the epic manta ray squirt off and then a really fun jaunt through the hotel finding secret entrances to each room, like jumping through mirrors or squirting away posters and finally making it to the vents in the ceiling. I used to hate that stage so I was kind of dreading it but I had a really great time. I love the basement casino too and also had NO IDEA it shares music with the Luigi minigames in Super Mario 64 DS, I guess it just shows how much 64 has always stayed with me while this really has been a nostalgia-ridden adventure. All of the boss battles have been great fun, Wiggler on the beach, Mecha Bowser JR in the theme park, the aforementioned Manta, and while it was a repeat I liked revisiting the big Blooper in Noki Bay. Speaking of Noki Bay, as a flip side to Sirena Beach I loved this stage as a kid but found it so tedious and kinda shit now lol. I liked the 'special' events like swimming in the bottle and cleaning the Eels teeth but man, the stage itself is pretty trash, still looks lovely though. Lowlights then, these cutscenes are so lame but I will accept they were great at the time and I loved them as a kid. Bowser Jr having a voice doesn't phase me weirdly but Bowser sounds so strange, he definitely benefits from just growling these days. Also Corona Mountain, what's with that?! That has to be one of the shortest, easiest, lamest and most underwhelming final levels to almost any platformer ever lol. Just jump across a few spiked platforms, travel by boat to land and boom, final boss! Final boss fight was also laughably easy but those water effects in the bath were top notch. I don't know how they pulled that off but it was like 2002 Sea of Thieves up in there! Especially the way Peach was bobbing up and down on her duck. Anyway, I'm on my blue coin journey now, I had an average of 20-25 per level while each level has a total of 30 so I have been looking at guides the last day or so and got myself up to 231, so only 9 left! I'm hoping I can bang them out today. I think the game would have benefitted greatly by having only 20 per level as most of them are fun to find or have cool tasks attached to them, like attacking and eating a beehive with Yoshi or eating blue butterflies but the last 10 or so in each level are kinda bullshit. Squirt this one random torch for a blue coin to come out, squirt this totally random patch of sand for a blue coin, squirt this single cupboard in the entire hotel. Like wtf? It would honestly take me years of constant play to find them all without a guide. I don't know much about the development of Sunshine unlike the countless interviews I've read about 64 but my guess is that this had to be rushed out as you can kinda see where the intentional blue coin tasks were and where they kinda had to just shove them in to make up the numbers. A boat appears when you defeat Bowser which takes you back to the start of the game - I had a blast revisiting the airstrip post game and blasting through the water collecting 100 coins. Oh, also also, THE FLOOD near the end of the game! That was really great and somewhat makes up for how shitty Corona Mountain is. Though I was pretty concerned about one of the Piantas, he was stuck on one of the outer islands of Isle Delfino and told me he'd been there for 3 years, I thought it was kinda hilarious so posted it on my Twitter days ago. While the flood was going on I went over to that island to see how he was as most Piantas were around where they usually are but on nearby rooftops instead or swimming with rubber donuts... There was a floating log above where he usually sits on the island but he was nowhere to be seen. After the flood he isn't on the island either. I can only assume he was a victim to the sea. Here he was days before I knew of his terrible fate: https://twitter.com/HenshinJosh/status/1365790343233343490?s=20

I played Mario 64 in level order to get all 120 stars and it was so much fun, I really felt like a kid again. I've played it a lot over the years but not got the full 120 since my first N64 copy, so while some of the stars like the red coins in the wiggler room of Tiny Huge Island were mega frustrating, or getting 100 coins on Tick-Tock Clock, it felt great when I actually managed it. One thing people used to complain about which I disagreed with at the time was the camera, I always said as long as you keep controlling the camera it's fine, and that it's only a problem if you don't reposition it with the C buttons - I was WRONG. The camera is an absolute nightmare, it almost always buzzes and refuses to move where you ask it to lol. The controls also don't feel as good, as some of the above posts have mentioned, that turning circle seems way off, but playing on an N64 still feels fine and as though you have more control, so I can only imagine that perhaps it's the different design of the weird old n64 stick that doesn't translate well to modern controllers. I'm onto Sunshine now and playing that in order too. It's a lot slower paced but I'm really enjoying it, the bigger worlds and collecting blue coins gives me big Banjo/Yooka Laylee vibes which I love. I also can't believe just how incredible it looks!! It really pops in 1080p and everything is so vivid, I'm really diggin' the sunny vibes. I'm impressed they upscaled or at least put a filter on the cutscenes too. So far most of the shines have been enjoyable, there's only one which I have absolutely hated so far, Shine 8 in Ricco Harbour where you have to get a durian fruit to hatch Yoshi and then traverse floating fish. For one, when you fall it takes AGES to get back up, two the fruit machine is a pain to navigate and slowly pops out random fruit until you get the right one, three the durian that Yoshi needs gets absolutely PUNTED by Mario for bloody miles from the lightest touch (no other fruit in the game does this!!), four I didn't realise for ages that Yoshi needs to do his projectile vomit juicing onto the fish to turn them into platforms so I was unsuccessfully trying to just bop off their heads for ages, five you have to eat a coconut half way through your fish vomit journey which isn't obvious at all because, six the different fruit creates different platforms and while the durian makes them go side to side, coconut makes them go up in the air. Okay so where do they tell you this, how was I to know this and who THOUGHT of this?! If it wasn't for YouTube I'd have never known, it's no wonder I didn't get all the Shines back in the day lol. It has been digging up a lot of memories, it's a genuinely nostalgic game, I think because I only ever had it for the GameCube so haven't been able to play it since 2005ish whereas Mario64 has been downloaded on my Wii and WiiU, as well as a regular play in my DS days. I'm gonna stick to doing the shines in order and hopefully get the full amount, but we'll see whether my enjoyment of the blue coins wanes or not. And finally just gotta say, Isle Delfino is SO FUN, I love it. Probably my second favourite hub world ever after Showdown Town in Banjo Nuts n Bolts. EDIT: That level https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zf_AdG01YVY

Yeah it's a shame else I would have enjoyed playing these games but the art style is just not for me at all. I wish they used the Let's Go engine

The graphics are nice but the gameplay looks like it would put me to sleep. I don't think it's for me now that the wonder of seeing Pokémon in their own environments in 3D isn't a dream come true like it was in my childhood '64 days.

C'mon, that's just mean. This is at least launch title Xbox 360 graphics, which for a Pokémon game is unbelievably advanced!

It looks rough around the edges but it's still miles better than the wild areas of Sword and Shield - and from the brief footage we saw it doesn't seem as penned in either. Could it be an actual open world?! It's nice to see an early 2022 release instead of late 21 and nice to know the remakes are being made by another developer, hopefully with GF's full attention and a decent amount of time they can make something that feels a bit more modern. Do you think they had any help with this? It kinda looks like a sparse BOTW to me, would they have access to that engine? I know it's different devs but it's not unheard of to share development. More than anything I'm just glad they're giving us an open game with free camera movement and no chibi characters, the new remakes look horrible to me, a true step down from Let's Go, so I'm glad that this should at least float my boat. And Oshawott as a starter again is ballin', I love that little sad boi.

I never played it on Wii as I was too invested in Boom Street at the time. I do generally love motion controls so I'm kinda interested but the art style hasn't grown on me in HD either - I thought it looked like a gross mix of Twilight Princess and Wind Waker while not being as good as either back then and I think the same now.

OMG I'm so pumped! I loved the first film so much. I guess this is how people felt when they lost their minds at the Metroid Prime 4 logo

I agree, the rumble games are SO simple that about the only thing I like about them is the low poly character designs (for the most part) If they didn't have the Pokémon name, no-one would remember these games. And after all these years I still don't know how The Pokémon Company/Nintendo/Creatures/GameFreak works, sounds like a right mess.

foldable phones somehow slipped my mind, my friend recently got one and it looks beautiful and feels really nice to hold. I take back what I said!

I'm shocked and appalled that no one predicted the Wii U. I feel like the form factor and usability of phones won't be widely different in 10 years time but just a lot more powerful and with more storage space, which is kind of what happened the last 10 years anyway. Compare a 2008 iPhone to any current phone and whilst it will be incredibly weak and have a rubbish camera, the general usability and types of apps is pretty much unchanged. I'm really fascinated to see if VR will take off and become mainstream or still be somewhat of a niche, PSVR was a nice window into the future of a casual market for VR and I think if Sony release another more refined and user friendly version at a cheaper price it could really blow up.