Ronnie

He evolved plenty, just not in the expected way. That's ok though I think, people and circumstances change in 30 years. The fact that he'd grown weary of the Jedi order ways (something Lucas has said was very deliberately shown in the prequels) was a good thing. That he could still inspire the galaxy with his selfless actions was the ultimate heroic thing he could do, while still allowing our new heroes a chance to shine. I thought it was perfect. How did the message get out? Why does that matter? It doesn't have to be the good guys who spread the word, plenty in the First Order saw it and Ep 9 shows that there are plenty of defectors in their ranks. If the last scene of the film hadn't happened, I'd agree with you that his actions weren't important enough but they very purposely chose to show word of his actions had inspired a new generation of kids/force sensitives. It was a cat and mouse game, and the Resistance were out of range. The Last Jedi actually added a ton to Star Wars space combat. The First Order were patient, they were picking off the ships one by one once they'd run out of fuel. What stupid actions? Not sure what's weird about hating people who profit from war. I think a lot of your reasons don't make much sense, but hey, they're yours. I'm not arguing against you not liking the film, you're of course entitled to not like something. I'm just arguing against your suggestion the film is a piece of crap, which I strongly disagree with. You don't get 90% critical rating on Rotten Tomatoes if you're a piece of crap, by a film-maker who's next film got 97%. Fair enough. Like I said, I don't think TROS needed to "fix" anything. The prequels already explicitly showed the Jedi order to have lost their way and Luke was simply reacting to that and how history was repeating itself. There was no "mess" imo. From reports, Rian worked far closer with the Lucasfilm story group than JJ ever did, and a ton more respect for the Star Wars universe. JJ just wanted to make a cool film.

Why does it make no sense that a person and circumstances can change in 30 years? And anyway, his sacrifice was the most heroic thing the character could do. He managed to save people including his sister and inspire the galaxy to rise up. That's what that scene at the end was showing, the kids hearing reports of what happened at Crait, and how Luke Skywalker faced off an army of AT-ATs unscathed. It's what inspired a force sensitive boy to dream about standing up for himself, which then eventually led to the Galaxy fleet in IX. Why not? Ships need fuel to go to hyperspace and the First Order was shown to have the technology to track them. The latter have no respect for these rebels, they're bugs to be squashed. They showed their arrogance in letting them burn off the remainder of their fuel. Why is she an idiot? That act pretty much typified the moral of the film, the Rebels win by "saving what they love, not destroying what they hate". Later shown by Luke's tactics. Ok. That's the sentiment with most TLJ haters I try and have a conversation with. "It's a piece of crap, just because. I can't explain why, but it is.". People have an expectation of what a Star Wars film should be and if it does something different and unexpected, it's bad. If Empire had released during the social media bandwagon/echo chamber days it would have got as undeservedly torn apart as this film. Thankfully it didn't. TROS didn't need to fix anything. Rey would have been perfectly fine being a nobody and Snoke would have been perfectly fine with just being a bad guy who rose up with the First Order.

Just finished this. Fantastic. Highly, highly recommended. Every act is better than the last. Quite an emotional/epic finale too.

I don't mind the shortened time frame really, but I do agree JJ dropped Rian in it with his (admittedly excellent) cliffhanger ending. I suppose Rian could have opened his film 6 months later with Rey still training with Luke but I think a lot of people were keen to see "what happened next". I can't say I noticed the hyping up of Rian Johnson before the film came out but I wasn't as invested into reading everything about the films back then, like I am now, so will take your word for it! Agree with you on this and how the Mandalorian is the exact opposite. Much as I like JJ and I think he did plenty of great stuff, I think he was probably the wrong man to bring in, with hindsight. Another thing to remember is, people keep comparing Star Wars to Marvel, but the MCU's early years were rough too. They certainly didn't get everything right, it wasn't until phase 2 and 3 that they hit their stride. Or at least that's the impression I get as a non-fan. I hope that The Rise of Skywalker has taught them to take their time with these things. If they're having trouble deciding how best to tell Obi-Wan's story, then take your time and get it right. No need to rush. I WISH TRoS had been delayed a year, though I suppose Covid would have screwed those plans up anyway !! But yeah Kenobi seems like a one season thing.

Why though? Why doesn't his characterisation make any sense? You wanted him as the badass hero from the original trilogy? People and situations change in 30 years. They didn't go with what was expected and instead told an interesting story. In what way? Any examples? Sorry I'm genuinely just trying to understand. Whenever I speak to someone who didn't like the film they have a hard time articulating the actual problem and just throw out macro level things without actually honing in on any specific issue. I suspect if social media had been a thing back when Empire Strikes Back had released people would be calling that film a borefest and slamming that fact that Luke "lost". I think The Last Jedi gave us so many amazing moments, I find it hard to narrow it down. Poe's attack on the cruiser, the Rey/Kyle Ren force connections, Chewie and the Porgs , the betrayal of Snoke and the Praetorian guard sequence that followed, the Hyperspace ramming, the stunning battle on Crait, Luke and Kylo Ren facing off. It had tons of great character moments, it looked absolutely stunning, filmed beautifully, had depth for the first time in a Star Wars film. I can't say enough good things about it. I'm pretty bad at articulating thoughts, if you're so inclined there's a great YouTube video from CinemaWins (a breath of fresh air YouTube channel that actually celebrates the good instead of tearing everything down like 90% of videos on there). Everything Great about The Last Jedi If you don't want to get into it that's fine. I just think if you can get on board with the story decisions Rian decided to tell, the film itself is great. After The Force Awakens, I appreciated a bit of surprise with the storyline.

I genuinely don't understand the hate for Rian Johnson, nor The Last Jedi. If a new trilogy by him gets formally announced tomorrow I'd be over the moon. I think he's fantastic and having recently watched Knives Out has only solidified that view for me. I realise fans aren't happy that Luke wasn't mowing Stormtroopers down with his green lightsaber, but for me Last Jedi is by far my favourite sequel film. I'll probably not watch the Mando trailer, or maybe I'll just skim it. Star Wars is pretty good at not showing too much, but still it's only a couple of months away (hopefully), I think I can wait that long. Looking forward to seeing reactions though. As for Rian, even if Lucasfilm wanted to formalise his trilogy, I'm not sure they ever could sadly. The toxic reaction to him would doom a project before it's even begun. Really sad. Maybe in time but feelings still seem pretty raw. I agree that with The Bad Batch, the High Republic stuff, Mando, Cassian and Obi Wan shows there's enough that's already been announced. I'd be keen to see an update on the Cassian show. Mando has set the bar really high for that one. Regardless of what they talk about in the coming months, I'm excited for "Phase 2"

I was just replying to "For 120 Hz, won't we also need a new TV capable of supporting it?"

People said the same when the PS4 Pro came out, re: 4K tvs.

Ordered a LEGO NES this morning, 200 quid, I don't need it, but I need it.

Yeah it was much tougher than I thought it would be.

**WARNING, TOO MUCH TIME ON HANDS ALERT** Firstly, brilliant Challenge @Cube, it was great fun popping in every day and seeing everyones choices and which were more popular than others. I've been noting down everyone's picks with each passing day to see any trends. - Overall, there were a total of 305 games mentioned. - The highest number of game mentions in a single category: FIVE MENTIONS IN ONE CATEGORY: F-Zero GX, Racing Game Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Most Relaxing Navigation FOUR MENTIONS IN ONE CATEGORY: Banjo Kazooie, 3D Platformer Goldeneye, Licensed video game Mario Kart 8, Racing game Super Mario World, 2D platformer Super Monkey Ball, Best mini-game Zelda: A Link to the Past, Opening Section to a Game Zelda: Majora's Mask, Town or Village Zelda: The Wind Waker, Most Relaxing Navigation - The games with the biggest range of categories: SEVEN CATEGORIES PER GAME: Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Favourite Villain / Antagonist, Opening Section to a Game, Best Musical Moment, Credit Sequence, Town / Village, Best Final Mission, Best Boss Battle SIX CATEGORIES PER GAME: Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Most Relaxing Navigation, Town / Village, Best Musical Moment, Saddest Moment, Nicest Graphics / Art Style FIVE CATEGORIES PER GAME: Banjo Kazooie, 3D Platformer, Scariest Moment, Most Interesting Collectibles, Game That Takes You Back to Your Childhood, Personal Gaming Tradition The Last of Us, Opening Section to a Game, Best Story, Scariest Moment, Saddest Moment, Favourite DLC/Expansion The Witcher 3, Favourite Villain / Antagonist, Town / Village, Mini-Game, Licensed Video Game, Favourite DLC / Expansion Zelda: The Wind Waker, Most Relaxing Navigation, Nicest Graphics / Art Style, Favourite Villain / Antagonist, Town / Village, Saddest Moment - Overall, 31 games got 4 mentions or more: - And finally, the moment you've all been waiting for... THE TOP 10 N-EUROPE GAMES OF ALL TIME!!!! CUBE'S CHALLENGE THING With SIX mentions each, 9th and 10th place: With SEVEN mentions each, 7th and 8th place: With EIGHT mentions each, 4th, 5th and 6th place: With NINE mentions each, 2nd and 3rd place: With a whopping TEN mentions, 1st place goes to: There we have it, I think we can all agree the winner is also the greatest game ever made. No? Ok fine, close enough. On a personal note, HARD MODE GET!, who else? PS: Sorry @GenericAperson you must have posted while I was working on this!

Some modern recommendations: Action platformer: Shovel Knight Takes what's great about the classic MegaMan, Duck Tales, SMB3, Zelda II style games and reworks them into a brilliantly fun, polished package. A throwback that works in the modern day. Amazing pixel art and even more amazing sound and writing, and humour. 3D platformer: Super Mario 3D World Platforming perfection by the masters of the craft. Each level a bite size dose of creativity and fun. Dripping with polish and great music too. Hopefully not too long to wait for a Switch port. Puzzle platformer: Inside Dripping with atmosphere and environmental story-telling, turn the lights out and just get sucked into this haunting world. Won't take long to complete, about 4 hours or so. Metroidvania platformer (Lite): Ori and the Blind Forest / Will of the Wisps Beautiful visuals, touching story-telling and amazing traversal, you'll be flying through the environments by the time you've unlocked all the abilities (not literally). It's pretty linear for a Metroidvania though, unlike... Metroidvania platformer (Hardcore): Hollow Knight If you enjoy Dark Souls style difficulty with boss fights, this is your game. Tight combat, tons of boss fights, like an old school Metroid in terms of world navigation. Polished like a Nintendo game. Brawler platformer: Guacamelee / Guacamelee 2 You play as a Mexican luchador, what's not to like! I've a real soft spot for these games, you'll have a big grin on your face while playing them. Great humour, fun platforming, satisfying combat encounters. Precision platformer: Celeste Rightfully nominated for Game of the Year in a year alongside Red Dead 2 and God of War, if you're after a Super Meat Boy type experience with beautiful sound, lovely pixel art and a surprisingly deep story. Can't say enough good things about this gem, the depth of the platforming and the tricks the devs included is masterful.

Put it down to curiosity. Well that and the ginger bear looked hot...

Oops. Kind of forgot that was on there.

@Goron_3 you should definitely put your choices up anyway. I do the same. I don't end up actually tweaking much but I do do it just for the sake of it lol. Actually I was kind of struggling with this entry but reading the rest of your traditions has made me realise I have a ton. For instance I realised after I'd posted mine how I like to keep a record of every game I play to completion and give them a score out of 5, it's a nice way of keeping track of what I've played. Been doing it since 2013.

Really wasn't expecting THAT in a Nintendo game Just beat the fourth streamer this morning. For me, the game is a lot more memorable than Colour Splash, which I also loved, but at the same time the writing isn't quite as witty, and it's a tad simplistic in terms of platforming/puzzles etc. That said, I think it's an absolute joy to play. The battle system isn't bothering me at all, I actually quite enjoy the puzzle aspect of it and you don't actually run into that many enemies. You can also one hit kill a lot of them in the overworld later on anyway. One of those games that I really don't want to end.

How about always starting off by looking behind you in 2D and 3D platformers? For a more official Gaming Tradition I'll go with something boring like always making time to play a Mario or Zelda game around Christmas. Ideally it would be a new release, or even a spin-off game like Captain Toad, but if they haven't put one out I'll just play Super Mario World or something like that. I actually delayed playing Mario Odyssey by a month because I wanted to play it closer to Christmas, and it ended up lasting me until the new year.

I was just about to say there's a disturbing lack of Wind Waker in here, in a topic about art style !!

Graphics/art style Finally I get to talk about my favourite game ever, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. Much maligned when it was first revealed, now the visuals are almost universally praised. Just a gorgeous game that will stand the test of time, it looks great now, and it'll look great in 50 years. Honourable mention to Red Dead Redemption 2, simply stunning from start to finish, Mario Kart 8 and well, most Nintendo games.

Dream feature is nice, especially now that islands can look significantly different. Fireworks using your own custom patterns is cool too. Was any of that in the leak? First I’ve heard of either feature.

I agree but you’ll get people bringing up the Mario Galaxy box art. I’ve always assumed it was “so long-a Bowser”

Favourite DLC/expansion This one's pretty easy... Mario Kart 8. I remember it being amazing value for so much top quality content, a few of the tracks were instant classics and the amount of work put into them was staggering. My jaw still drops during the Ribbon Road intro in particular, just beautiful.

A 15 second promo and Burnham still manages to be annoying.

Best Boss Battle Shadow of the Colossus and Stallord from Twilight Princess are great shouts but I'm going for one that's been stuck in my head since I played Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle, the Phantom of the Bwahpera. That first year of owning a Switch was especially amazing and this game (and this boss battle in particular) played a big part in that for me. Brilliantly creative and fun it was hilarious seeing him tear Mario apart with lyrics.