darksnowman

If we'd put our heads together we maybe would have wondered if it were them because of the Cold Case game on 3DS.

Saw that Eastward is the latest game trial on the NSO app earlier. Got it downloaded and plan to give it a go at the weekend. I've no idea what to expect.

It was Mario, SotE and Pilotwings at launch with Turok shortly after. I was going to get it too (since everything else was sold out) but no way was I parting with seventy quid of hard saved dough. Put it back in the moneybox for Mario Kart.

Won't make it again. Hopefully next time.

Wonder what features the Canadians have singled out as ripe for the cuttin this time.

Star Fox Armada port incoming.

Noticed some slight weirdness panning the camera while moving at one or two points but nothing excessive. Could be more prominent later if levels become more demanding. But what do I know—I still generally take slowdown as the console being ambitiously pushed to its limits. Or in the case of something like Bangai-O Spirits, a welcome feature.

Controls are L/R, L+R to attack. Hold to charge. It has this sort of automatic lock-on where you'll go for the next nearest enemy when surrounded. You can also, block, dodge and jump. Standard. The only thing I reckon it could do with is a run button, although you can buy a speedup item for 100 coins. There are transformations—the first allows you to become small to access "mouse hole" sort of areas. Transformations use up energy which you get from felling enemies and general exploration. Levels have optional collectibles (5 unchinku facts, 3 souvenir doodads) and three evil disco lantern things you must destroy to unlock the big festival drum exit. You pick up coins, too, which can be used to buy items (you can carry three at a time) and you'll lose some if/when you die. 3,000 for extra health. I died twice from falling off levels into the abyss. First from getting to a spot I couldn't find a way back from, second from dropping off the top of a building to see if I could land on a lower ledge. Auto-revive item took care of a third when the spinny enemies got on top of me. It's not all action platforming; an early level is a car race. Provided the first four levels—the extent of the demo—is a decent barometer, this is reminiscent of Kirby and The Forgotten Land.

Hadn't too far to go to the end of chapter four. Suspicious character introduced. I burned through some healing items on Dana's boss (couldn't get the dodge timing right), then did a swift number on the normal party's boss, which brought the chapter to a close. Hope I was up to date with sidequests by that point. After a raid, chapter five got going with a number of quests so I'm having a bash at them while trying to steer clear of the story progression marker on the map. A night quest on Mount Gendarme is chaos. Like a musou. I remember doing another night quest on a previous chapter and I had to leg it through because the enemies were relentless. Then did another in a vertical area which was a laugh with this speedy movement not best suited to precision platforming. Need to return there for some chests. It seems the story has made Dana forget how to double jump? Either that or I'm misremembering that she could double jump. Want to make a point of fishing more and I'd like crops to fill out the rest of the farm. Still reacquainting myself with the people in the camp to see what benefits I can get out of them.

So much going on with Reading, Forest, Everton but really, lol @ Hendo.

Been on the lookout for this since the game trial. Since then, Ys VIII never quite stopped niggling away at the back of my mind. With no price in sight comparable to what I shelved Ys IX for a few years back (sub-30 if not sub-20!) I didn't wait long into 2024 before placing my order. Like, I knew I wanted to continue it and I knew I was going to enjoy it, so, really I knew it wasn't going to be money wasted—which those 25 hours+ during the game trial could attest to. The funny thing about resuming an old file is what you've forgotten. Was the raid icon the jumping off point I'd left myself from Aug 2022? I couldn't recall how to trigger it. What about replenishing item supplies or getting better gear? Wasn't sure. Side quests? Hmm. I know from missing one so far that those expire at the end of chapters, so as long as I didn't amble into that I'd be okay for the time being. To get back into the swing of things, I went to the immediate area outside camp and got the hacking and slashing underway. It started to come back to me. Felt great. Next, I went through the menus and swapped some moves out. Then, went around and talked to most of the camp (upgrading some gear in the process, need more bottles for healing items) and headed out to continue exploration of the other side of the island and press on with the story. There's been some interplay with Dana, we've found the wee girls father (I took time out to do her sidequest, too) but most troubling is we cannot deal with the Primordials over there. Had to leg it through... while filling out the map, of course. Worried what the next boss will be like if those are anything to go by. Wouldn't say I'm fully acclimated again, but it just feels great to play. It's one of those I don't see the time going by when I'm on it which I think is one of the attributes of a special game you've clicked with. @Ike top tunage.

After tons of online searching (such as how to find out my HR and what are scraps, among plenty of other stupid questions) and discovering various online groups to bounce questions off, I proceeded to take on the two license quests under the village section to boost me up the hub list—albeit marginally. Because village and hub don't feed into each other otherwise, and apparently pursuing the village side is baby mode and not the done thing. Not offline for story and online for communal grinding, then, as I'd believed. Do those quest maidens not compare notes?? Then I threw on the online and incredibly, people joined. If you build it, they will indeed come. Where I'd been ticking them all off before progressing on village, the bare minimum number of quests to get up through the star rankings were done in the hub. On quests where no one joined, it was a 20-30 min slog, but depending on the others, quests were done and dusted in a breezy five. I'd love to be able to OHKO these beasts. It put it into perspective to not see these players join me inside the monster to carve it threefold at the end. On a rampage quest, someone who has clearly mastered the game smashed it by setting out traps and barrels and doing something to reduce the cooldown on the kiln thing. I enjoy the rampage quests but all I pretty much do is set up the stations and then jump into the thick of it with my sword. On this big victory, I at least delivered the death blow despite being a passenger. Eventually came the Narwa encounter in it's very own arena. This was like a proper boss fight from Mario with floating platforms. It was well done but I doubt I'd have emerged victorious without the other three players mucking in—at best, I'd have timed out. I wasn't a complete deadweight but I wasn't far off it because my playstyle of ZL+Xing to victory wasn't designed with flying monsters in mind. After all that (this is the condensed version) the game finally allowed me to take on the other Sonic quest: The Super Shady Look-alike. In keeping with MH, doing it once wasn't enough to let me make all the layered gear, so away we went again. Thankfully twice was nice. All this because I don't know if these Sonic quests becoming "unobtainable" this month means they'll be chalked off my quest list or if it just means the add-on content will no longer download for new players. Everything's clear as mud with MH. Until I see more quests will be unobtainable, it's time to get back to some games with nippier controls.

Got S+ on the Gotta Hoard Fast! quest (2* difficulty). Quite possibly my greatest achievement in Monster Hunter. LOL.

I would say crack it open but I think you've enough willpower to wait it out now for the Switch release. I've several on the Wii, such as Battalion Wars 2, that have suffered the same fate. Be able to retire on these things any year now.

Was thinking the same but since it's got Hero-of-Time's imagination tingling I'm wondering if it'd be wiser to shelf now and play later. My memory of them is sketchy too but I'm sure it'll come back once I get into the games. Would have thought you'd have done your due diligence with the Wii game back in the day, I reckon you'll enjoy catching up with it now.

Only other thing I can think of is she's used to people bowing down to her authoritah so she's taken a pick against him for not scooting aside on the platform. We've seen he's more than willing to having a chat with her but she looks closed off to even entertaining the idea. You'd think the others would remind her they got the train before traitors were assigned. Obviously not easy for them to see what we see, but Ash has looked nothing but guilty. Haha. So far, the fourth traitor looks like the only one with a bit of game about him. Pride and overconfidence should be the downfall of the other three provided the others can suss it out.

I'd say it looks like she's brought some preconceptions to the table with her, yeah. Anthony doesn't seem like a bad spud at all. Hope they stop being so naive and catch on to the big ginge that's positioned himself as head of the group and gang leader of the traitors.

Watched the first three. We are so back.

https://www.nintendo.co.uk/Games/Nintendo-Switch-download-software/EGGCONSOLE-XANADU-PC-8801-PC-8801mkIISR-2498066.html Absolutely blown away.

Read it the other year and found it to be no great shakes, unfortunately. Me ma thought the same which was a surprise because I reckoned it'd be more her cup of tea. Since then, Osman's knocked out three more of these and counting so by all means, have at it and let me know if the series is worth following. Seems like they're always going for a few quid in The Works or Tesco so that they haven't held their supposed worth tells its own story—empty calories or rather: pointless.

If 0 is amazing, Koholint's home to higher scoring nices. Better than a mimic!

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2023/dec/30/arbroath-back-up-goalkeeper-ali-adams-substitute-striker-scores-screamer-raith Saw this doing the rounds. Not bad when your no.2 keeper has this sort of finish in his locker!

Never heard of it but it looks and sounds pretty good.

Stacked like those characters "with large chests/ exaggerated proportions".

Here's the 2023 Switch year in review. Safe to say nothing else will be added at this point. Demos and game trials excluded. Sports Story : carried over from 2022. Much like the developers, I haven't finished it either. Virtua Racing Crisis Core - FF VII - Reunion : carried over from 2022, loved it. DQ Treasures : carried over from 2022, loved it. Shiren The Wanderer: The Tower of Fortune and the Dice of Fate : if I had to select my "desert island Switch games", this would make the cut. Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope : excellent. Need to get back to it. Immortals Fenyx Rising : loving DQ Treasures gave me the confidence to give this a go and it's no secret I loved it too. Had a great few weeks with it around April time. OutRun The Suicide of Rachel Foster Pokémon UNITE : must have been back on this for a Mew or Mewtwo that would have been too much effort to claim for free. Monster Hunter Rise : probably go back on soon to do the Sonic stuff before it's gone. TMNT: The Cowabunga Collection : great package. NEO: TWEWY : was back on for a dabble. Probably for a breather from turnbased. Persona 3 Portable: pleasure to finally have, a relief to finish. Wish it was a lot shorter. Can't say if I'll get to P4G or go back to P5R in 2024. Got all these day one. Collection of SaGa FF Legend : finally went back for FF Legend 2. Maybe do 3 in 2024. World of FF Maxima : overall, had a great time with this. It was like FF greatest hits. Animal Crossing: New Horizons : tried to go back. Think I'm done. Disney Speedstorm : seemed all right! Castlevania Advance Collection : played Harmony of Dissonance in October. Ghostbusters: The Video Game Remastered : top fun to be part of the GB team. ToeJam & Earl: Back in the Groove : great update of a classic. Theatrhythm Final Bar Line : unbelievable value. Want Angeal, Tseng and Cissnei to be added. Baten Kaitos I & II HD Remaster : immediately played Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean. Looking forward to playing Origins in 2024. Super Mario Maker 2 : still one of the best on Switch. Clockwork Aquario : lovely little game. Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc Anniversary Collection : bunch of unlikeable characters made for an immensely likeable game. Go figure. Portal : is a girl?? Is a puzzle game??!! I'd osmosised the cake is a lie, at least. Super Mario Bros. Wonder Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Tetris 99 Burnout Paradise Remastered : more open-worldery! Weird for a racing game. Doom : still getting updates. F-Zero 99 : outta nowhere! Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince : ongoing. Among Us Fortnite The various NSO apps : dipped into quite a few games. At least remember fully playing Majora's Mask, Link to the Past, Link's Awakening and got up to the Fire Temple in Ocarina of Time before Mario Wonder came out. So I pretty much replayed all the best Zeldas this year. Not too bad going! Played a good whack of Wario Land 3 as well. Splatoon 3 : took in and did the single player earlier in the year. I played this pretty much daily to keep up to date with the seasonal catalogues until September which made it an entire year from release. It's great fun but enough's enough. Happy to draw a line under it and move on. GotY: Immortals Fenyx Rising. Even having played the demo, I wasn't sure to what degree this was going to work out. After I got used to the controls and cautiously started figuring out what the game wanted from me, we got on like an absolute house on fire. By the time I'd wrapped it up (not 100%), I was left with that empty feeling you get when you've come out the other side of a top gaming experience that you know your next game won't measure up to. Fantastic. Glaring omission: Pikmin 4. I know. I said in the Pikmin 3 thread I'd have to remember to get on the next one day one. And I didn't forget... I think the timing of release just wasn't ideal plus I would have still been grinding Splatoon 3. Haven't even so much as tried the demo! Though I did enjoy having a go on it at one of those Nintendo events. Mustn't leave it on the backburner forever. Had intended to slot in Lego City Undercover to keep the open-worlding going after Immortals but that window closed. Hoping to get it off the shelf in 2024! ------------- 3DS - this is off memory because my activity log has been a mess for years from repeatedly letting the battery drain and the internal clock resetting. Some games I fired up just because there always seems to be a file going or they're infinitely replayable: chrono trigger ds theatrhythm outrun etrian odyssey of some variety earthbound : still refuses to let me click with it mario land mario bros 2 dq 8 mario bros dx wario land kirby triple deluxe New games I got and played: yokai watch legend of kusakari dkc 80s overdrive japanese rail sim 3d fairune : not a hidden gem! mario maker : the built-in levels are top-notch. 3D classics twinbee lylat wars 3d : fichina??! luigi's mansion 2 gurumin 3d : lovely, charming game. mole mania : yes, @Jonnas, I confirm this game is okay. also, got these one weekend in a three for two: mario tennis 3d : fun, actually monkey ball 3d : scratched to pieces but worked pilotwings : unknown only to return them the following monday because pilotwings didn't work (it was the reason i tried to take advantage of the deal). in an oversight, i bought style boutique twice—from the final eshop frenzy, and picked up the cart along with yokai watch 1 & 2, style boutique 2 and dillons dead heat-breakers. head like a sieve, sometimes. And there's still more new 3DS stuff (unplayed games and demos!) to go in 2024 and beyond. No chance of being on top of things in time for the Switch 2.