darksnowman

Forgot to mention. You can't check cupboards, drawers and bookcases (though I try them all the same) so that cuts down on hidden collectables however you aren't gearing up with weapons and armour so it's an understandable omission. There are still pots to smash and chests to find for items and accessories. Some have mini medals. And the content of each area is basically quadrupled as the changing seasons allows you to reach different places and the roaming monsters change, too. Hoping for a way to pick and choose seasons eventually in case I'm ever on the hunt for something specific. For the time being I'm happy to watch it flow from one to the next to see what changes. Having the music stop in winter is a nice ambient touch. I synthesised with a triple choc (?) slime tower NPC to get a Sugarstar Slime which I put straight in the party to begin levelling. Sadly it started at lvl 1. It'll take over healing duties when it catches up as it's a higher rank than what I have. Needless to say, you're listening to the usual array of accents and it's brimming with fun wordplay—they haven't really skimped on anything except, unfortunately, the technical side. Highest praise I can give it is I'm not seeing the time fly by when I'm on it. I took the warning to heart. The one in the fourth area freaked me out when I saw it because it was so out of place—it was like a demon from Persona floating there. I gave it a really wide berth. I was a wee bit disappointed to see some monsters reappear in the fourth area as I thought it was shaping up to have them all be unique to each area and season therein.

The 360 was massive in the US. Wow, impressive. Thought the Switch would have surpassed it years ago. To be fair to it, I thought the movement looked good in the trailers. Metroid and Metroidvanias aren't for me, but of those I've had a good time with, the movement is what pulled me in. I have the Dread demo but fairly certain I never fired it up. I got and have been playing LM2 this year due to the 3DS eShop closure. I've had fun with it, some annoying ghosts aside, and it's been great to have new stuff to enjoy in 3D. The separate mansions suits the handheld nature of it, imo. LM3 has a ton of floors with individual themes so it's like they took the LM2 variety and stacked it. Only bad thing I can think to say about 3 is the bosses were somewhat more of a pain than I expected as they weren't self-explanatory like the usual Nintendo bosses. Or maybe I'm just not in tune with the Luigi's Mansion way of doing things since I hit similar spikes in 2. Otherwise, it's great stuff that rarely gets talked about. Design-wise, Skyward Sword is the polar opposite of BotW. Which may sound great but it brings its own issues to the table. Probably worth a go if you like Zelda and you've never played it though. What it does have is music and the toilet hand like Majora's Mask.

🎶 there's loot in the mountain🎶 It's actually quite good once you give it a go, isn't it? It was one of the first Switch games I got since it's free so I look on it pretty fondly and with no shame—I'd a top time exploring the snowy island. No Build mode is a great addition because my fingers and thumbs couldn't cobble together any kind of tower when the pressures on. I tried the recently added racing mode and it's not too bad either. Dying to try the others but don't want to get lost in the Lego mode forever. I'm now thinking about Mario Party Nights into Dreams. The party % could come from the Search Party levels in Mario Wonder. LOL. Most importantly, where's the 4% RPG component come from???

It's like they sensed there's some sales here waiting to happen.

Oh, behave! Nor is it my bag, but far be it for me to tell Happenstance how to waste his time and money now he's started!

Link's Awakening is an all time great, imho. The remake juxtaposes the chilling storyline with a charming lick of paint. And if you liked past Luigi's Mansions you'll know what you're in for with 3—and fwiw, probably has the best graphics on Switch. Two games that should be in everyone's collection and might be extra lovely if you're playing that OLED in portable mode. Did you play Skyward Sword on Wii? I didn't rate it (nothing to do with the control scheme) so wouldn't really recommend prioritising the HD version. As for Dread... try the demo and see if it's your bag.

It's interesting to see your pickups, probably because you've already played (better versions of) third party stuff elsewhere. Here's how I'm rating it: Must-haves: Mario Kart 8, Mario Wonder Say no to: Metroid, TotK, Mario RPG Have I missed anything? What else you got in your sights?

First game this year: N64. Great start! Games played: 54 Total time: 774 hours Most played: Splatoon 3 : 133 hours. P3P : 85 hours. N64 : 72 hours (and counting).

You play as the princess several times in Paper Mario 64.

Mario has had a hammer since day one. Agreed that Mario RPG is significant as a first foray for Mario and co into RPGs but the two or three that came after render it obsolete.

Is that so? Would have sworn one of those yellow text pop-ups prevented me from it in the demo. Dodgy memory. Roughly how far are you? I've been getting through battles on autopilot so far. The boss at the Infernal Gate got one of mine down to 1HP (Capischum I've incidentally got on healing duty) then we finished it on the next turn anyway before I got the heal off. G ranked party here. Don't want to hit an impasse but wouldn't mind having to put some thought into it.

That's still one I want to get. Think it came out around the same time as something else I went for instead. A few more things to add to those impressions. On the point of synthesis, you need monsters that are lvl 10+ so I've looked at it but haven't committed to anything as yet. It tells you to prioritise gold monsters and I've spotted a few golden slime variations I will probably go for though I'm not certain what happens to the monsters you use—like, can you buy them back like SMT or do you need to go scout them again—which is holding me back from depleting my stock too quickly at the moment, as my monsters that are eligible for synthesis are the ones in my party. You carry eight monsters with you (four in the active party and four in reserve) so I've started swapping out the inactive four to level a greater spread for potential synthesis, or make them viable party members. Noticed the monsters in the paddock are closer to lvl 10 than I expected so it looks like they gain experience whether they're with you or not? Would be a cool bit of streamlining if that's the case. I'll see how it goes because often the biggest hurdle for me in these kinds of RPGs is to resist becoming loyal to the early monsters. Got past where the demo stops you, meaning I've encountered the other character from the cover who seems a twerp though I'm sure he'll come good by the end. And peeked into the fourth area where my first monster encounter offered to join me. Score! Even better is its above lvl 10 so it looks like synthesis options will be easier to come by. I will say, entering and checking the immediate area, panning the camera was pretty choppy. It seemed to find its footing but I'll be keeping an eye on the Switch in case it starts sparking under the immense pressure of rendering these bleeding edge visuals. Sad that Treasures and this don't have the level of polish they deserve. Well, at least this has an increased monster roster.

Even with the three hour time limit, I didn't shirk any encounters as I intentionally wanted to get a feel for them. They seemed to take care of themselves so I wasn't really able to get much of an idea of what to do (not that I want the demo or the game to have me under the kosh at all times). Especially when you get the second party member, you're in an out of battles before you've barely had the chance to participate. Thought it was cool it's action combat because I wasn't expecting that.

Yep. Took two weeks but I got around to treating myself to it. You should try the demo if you're on the fence. Demo progress doesn't carry over (though you get access to whatever you wrangled) so I've to redo the opening hours. The demo prevents you from taking on the cyclops in the first area so naturally I made a beeline for it last night then promptly fled after it OHKO'd one of my monsters. I will take great pleasure in beating and scouting it later on. There's a WiFi shop and online battling that wasn't in the demo. Couldn't afford anything in the shop and tried the battle mode that autobattles you through thirty encounters. My fledgling party won 1/30. I'll take it. Looking forward to getting to some synthesis. I remember before I played DQM on DS, synthesis sounded daunting because I imagined it as splicing creatures together to produce monstrosities like those fossil Pokémon in Sword and Shield. Actually glad to see there is some DLC as it's something I want(ed) for Treasures. Provided it's worthwhile, it's nice to know there could be something to eventually come back for. Just wish DQ IV was a bit fresher in my mind. It's been many years so some of the finer details might be lost on me.

Haha, no way. Thought there must be an Irving buddy in Sonic or something!

1 2 3 4 5 Temples to unseal so come on let's ride Noishe and scrap across Sylvarant The teach says check the ruins But I really would rather Demon Fang Desians and Read some skits cos the skits are deep We got Colette, Genis, Kratos and Raine And as we continue, you know we getting Sheena

Loved the three hour demo! Haven't picked up the full game as I haven't seen it around so I should probably just get it ordered.

Well Switch U to you too. What better way to see the year out than further embarrassment. Already looking forward to you live blogging it on here. Might not exist in the hands of the consumer now, but just give it 20 days.

Hook, line and sinker.

You've gone to deep into the rumours.

Extreme-G! ...apparently comes under the futuristic racer category.

Got a watermelon (score of 2,700+) and did a few more rounds anyway. I suspect a few more will be had before the close of play on the 11th.

Totally. Easy to understand, difficult to master. I'll count it as a win if I can make one suika before the trial period is up.

Thanks for the triple threat tonight.

The Suika Game is the current game trial. Trying it was a mistake—I'm going to be dreaming about it.