Ronnie

I feel like a lot of Nintendo's sports games are quite low-effort these past couple of gens. Mario Tennis, Mario Golf, Mario Strikers, Switch Sports etc. Sure they add free content over time in all of them but overall, they could all be so much more. Wii Sports Resort was amazing and while this game looks great graphically, the whole package just doesn't seem to be up to anywhere near the same standard.

The amount of money this franchise makes, it continues to blow my mind how the games are still a generation or two behind from a technical pov. Japan was always lagging behind the West (Nintendo and maybe 1 or 2 others, apart), but this goes far beyond that.

The windmill animating at about 4 frames per second in the trailer probably should have been a warning about the game's technical shortcomings.

Oh please Nintendo games review well because they're some of the best in the industry. When they're not, they don't review well, like Starfox Zero or Mario Tennis Ultra Smash.

They need to staff up, and hire talented developers experienced in modern gaming. It's getting ridiculous now.

From a business point of view it probably makes more sense to have people tweet about the console and games to the world, rather than to an enclosed social network full of people who already own the console.

With Rabbid Mario you can often do like 2000 damage to 5 or 6 enemies at the same time, especially if you use the Spark that powers up attacks as well. But if you're more long range then fair enough

Good on Nintendo for for innovating as ever, but the technology just wasn't there yet to really sell the concept. Though tbf the streaming tech was really impressive at the time. Miiverse was fantastic too. Really clever idea and easily the console's best feature. Games wise, Mario 3D World, Splatoon, Mario Kart 8, Pikmin 3 and Mario Maker. Worth it for me just for those gems.

Finished this just now. Fantastic overall. Positives - The battles themselves are great fun, I always enjoyed them be it a random battle in the overworld or a story one. The various Sparks, abilities and power-ups give you so much freedom and the skill tree is actually really great. You can't max everything out so you have to decide what you want to prioritise. - Humour is great. The Rabbid characters are fun, Peach and Mario especially. - Exploring the overworlds is fun, lots to find and puzzles to solve. Negatives - The voices and dialogue in general of the two AI companions is horrendous. Beep-o himself is the most obnoxiously voiced character I think I've ever experienced in a game. - Some serious frame-rate drops, tons of texture/geometry pop-in, and overall the game just doesn't look particularly great. The art direction does work a lot of the time though, especially in worlds three and four. - It potentially over-stays it's welcome a tad, but I was pretty much 100%-ing every planet before moving on so maybe that's why. Had a great time. Worth it after a 5 year wait.

Not saying we hand out awards for how much buzz a game gets, but I just don't recall people raving about it at the time. Looking on Metacritic it's at 83% so obviously it's great. I'm just bitter that Tunic didn't get nominated instead.

Stray feels like it's really scraping the bottom of the barrel, was it really that good? Felt like no one was talking about it at release.

I'd like to see Tunic up for GOTY

Another outstanding episode of Andor. The dialogue, writing, cinematography, performances, story threads. Absolutely top notch.

That was one of the best Indie Showcases in a while. I'd happily given most of those game a try. Tons of creativity and some really original concepts. Have a Nice Death, Pepper Grinder and A Little to the Left in particular look great, and Sports Story was a nice one to end on. Good to finally get a release date, looks fantastic. Good presentation format too as usual, snappy but still gave indie studios their time in the spotlight.

There's one side mission at the end of world 3 where the first half is just tedious fetch quests/busywork, but the actual battle at the end of the mission is one of the best in the game so far.

Thanks, yeah I'm about to do my third secret door level. First one was a bit meh, the second was a lot more fun having to puzzle your way through it.

Great news about Kirby, hopefully leading to more 3D games in future. Didn't realise Fire Emblem Engage is out so soon, very quick reveal > release.

Switch hardware sales should pass the PS4 and Game Boy this quarter. Also confirmation of release windows for their major upcoming games: From nintendolife.com

Nearly four years after that announcement trailer. Getting a little silly now. But it probably won't show up, again.

The game is still very much grid-based, even if it's not as explicit visually. It's the ability to move around freely as much as you want and use Sparks and other skills before locking in your position by firing your weapon that took some getting used to. It adds an interesting bit of strategic thinking, even if it can get a bit fiddly when I'll be shifting characters a block or two to get them in range to help another team-jump. Did the first story battle of world 3 this morning and enjoyed it a lot, they added a new mechanic to help get around and it was a lot of fun. I barely took much damage and it was really satisfying getting around so freely and taking enemies out with relative ease.

No idea what Nintendo or Microsoft have to do with this discussion. Also didn't Sony stop their PS3's from being backwards compatible shortly after release? VR is a different kettle of fish. If I picked up a PSVR2 I'd absolutely dive into all the old VR stuff, just because the content is so lacking, and likely will be for a long while. We're talking about VR hardware from PS4 > PS5. A PS5 that is already BC with PS4. The platform is already a tough sell, BC should be expected from a consumer pov, and a business pov.

With a high end PC you also get... a high end PC. It does a lot more than just play games. I shouldn't be surprised given Playstation's terrible history with backwards compatibility but I still somehow am. That's just crazy. How to cripple an already niche/unpopular platform from day 1.

This is a lot of fun. Just finishing up the second world and getting really into it. I hadn't watched too many trailers or much gameplay beforehand so I was surprised by just how different the game is structured. It's a lot more open, with lots of side-quests everywhere and a ton more battles. Nothing too involved obv but there's lots to do if you wander around. The cutscenes are quite fun. I hate Beep-o's voice with a passion though. HATE it. So yeah, very different experience to the original, but both are good!

Stupidly pricey, especially given the tech is bafflingly not backwards compatible with PSVR 1 games. Still, not too surprising given it's coming from Sony this gen. The Horizon Call of the Mountain bundle is £40 more. Does that mean the game standalone will be 50 or so? I kind of expected that game to be like a 5-10 hour thing at most, so that seems pretty pricey if that's the case. Again not a surprise, For The Players. Oh phew, that makes it ok then.

Ten years today since Disney bought Lucasfilm. The sequel trilogy, Rebels, Mando and Solo have struck the biggest chord with me personally in that time, but I've enjoyed almost all of it to be honest. Galaxy's Edge, Jedi Fallen Order, The Bad Batch, Andor, Rogue One, The Book of Boba Fett, the High Republic etc etc There's been a few mis-steps (as there is in everything, especially at the beginning) but on the whole I've had a blast. I think I'm probably a bigger Star Wars fan now than I was in the OT era.