S.C.G

This one's pretty good also... I bought the original model grip a year or two(?) ago and I've found it great for handheld play, got it when they were selling the grip in red for a limited time. Both the original model and the newer model are both good and you can buy this bundle with the grip, cap sticks, charging cable etc for a reasonable price though do take into accounr shipping, especially as it's overseas but worth it though for a quality product. Check it out on Satisfye if you're interested. Disclaimer - N-Europe does not benefit from you clicking that link, this is a product I have personally purchased and probably mentioned before, I just thought it worth sharing.

I was going to post about the recent discount, but I'm glad to see that you noticed the game from the list of discounts in those excellent New Releases and Discounts articles which you post on the front page every week I thought at that price, it would finally be too good to ignore and in fairness, if anyone wants to buy MHGU and isn't fussed about having a physical copy then you really can't go wrong at 60% off. Also... This offer still stands, plus I might have mentioned in the Discord for A Smashing Cast that I'd be up for hunting on the game as well, either as part of an episode or just generally. If anyone else purchases the game or already has it and wants to get in on the action as well, then just say the word and we'll arrange a time to play one evening. - - - - - Just for general information... Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate - 60% off - Until 28/05/2020

Nintendo Switch Online NES and SNES applications will be updated soon Nintendo really do pick the weirdest times to update these applications. Oh well, it's all up on the main page now and it will be nice to see these games appear on the service from 20th May, 2020. NES - Rygar - previous VC release? Yes - any good? Yes - a dated yet decent title which is still a classic. SNES - Wild Guns - previous VC release? Yes - any good? Yes - a great arcade-style Western-themed shooter. Panel de Pon - previous VC release? No - any good? Yes - an underrated Puzzle game which is well worth playing. Operation Logic Bomb - previous VC release? No - any good? according to a SNES Drunk review... Yes... it's worth playing and apparently, because it was one of those games which lacked any save feature, this should do well on Nintendo Switch Online. All in all, this is a pretty good update, let us hope that it isn't too long until the next batch of games though.

Paper Mario: The Origami King unfolds for Nintendo Switch on July 17th, 2020 Up on the main site, I saw the Press Release appear in my inbox, probably the first time that I've heard about the game first that way before even on the forum. Great news of course, while I've always been a fan of the earlier Paper Mario games, I don't doubt that there are good parts to the more recent titles. It's just that, this latest entry looks like it could end up being one of the best yet potentially, though I still would have bought any remaster of the other games. Pre-ordered anyway, as it's now available on the Nintendo Store UK.

I'm genuinely intruiged by that stylus as it's pressure-sensitive and connects to the Switch via the headphone jack, so it requires no batteries, doesn't need to be wireless and looks to have a decent-sized lead, plus with it being directly connected, it should be very precise I would have thought. Also, I'm guessing that it will probably just work with the Switch generally... I hope so, even if it's just for this software then, that's still cool but if you can use it with other games and pieces of software on the Switch then that really will be very much worth having just for the peripheral alone, let alone the sure to be excellent software.

Colors Live is coming to the Nintendo Switch via Kickstarter Potentially exciting news for any aspiring or exisiting artists who own a Nintendo Switch. Colors Live is coming to the Switch via a Kickstarter, digital software but it comes with a unique pressure-sensitive stylus. (this should interest @Dcubed as I remember this is something you've been after for a while) Also, thanks to @Ashley for letting me know about this I meant to post it earlier but it's on the main page now. The original software Colors 3D on the 3DS was amazing, so I've got high hopes for this one, plus the Kickstarter has already met its target.

So many triangles... But it was an impressive demo, I posted my thoughts about it over in the PS5 thread. If the demo really is truly representative about what we can expect to see, then it's certainly interesting.

That was a solid PS5 tech demo, my level of interest in the console has definitely increased. Visually, it looks like we can expect much of what we've already seen on the PS4... but just more stable and of course... more triangles. What they're doing with the sound is interesting, I was listening to it in surround, not even in the best sound mode and what I heard seemed comparable to something straight out of an Uncharted game, if not ever so slightly better perhaps? Which is high praise, as I remember all of the Uncharted games sounding incredible. As for the actual game demo itself, I would be very surprised if they don't turn that into some kind of working title, or if indeed it already is a working title which might be ready for launch; because if that really is purely all made for this demo then... well played indeed.

Streets of Rage 4 (Official Soundtrack) Partly for research, but mostly because it's a solid soundtrack.

Haha, it's true though... there isn't much which is certain at the moment about these console launches except maybe the basics. For the launch of the PS5, I can see... superior versions of existing PS4 titles such as Ghost of Tsushima or The Last of Us Part II and probably a launch title from Housemarque. You'll have the usual 'next-gen' versions of Cod etc and any free to play games you care to mention and maybe one or two high-profile surprises from third-parties. I wouldn't put it past Sega to reboot Sonic the Hedgehog in true '06 style... but hopefully nothing like that game for the 30th anniversary next year. Imagine if Sonic was suddenly a system seller again, launch title for both platforms and somehow a miraculous Switch port just because... As for a true exclusive, the PS5 could get a new God of War game but it might be too soon, definitely not too soon for an upgraded version though.

I should get back into this game, I was enjoying it a lot at one point and I really liked the expansion. Maybe I'll return to it soon.

No company deserves blind loyalty. When it comes to Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo, each company has their positive aspects along with a myriad of faults. I used to prefer Nintendo over the other two, going so far as to not even properly bother with buying any Playstation or Xbox console until much later on. Looking back at some old posts I made about Sony and Microsoft, I can see that my perceived 'loyalty' to Nintendo prevented me from giving some great games a good chance. I've been a multiplatform gamer for many generations now with access to probably more games than I'll ever reasonably play. The thought of next generation consoles is always interesting but also, I quite like where things are now with the Switch, PS4 and Xbox One. If I were to consider buying any new console however, it would most likely be a PS5 even though I'll do everything I can to not want one due to the expense. Looking at where we are now with the Xbox One Series X and the PS5, they are both consoles, which will likely come out next year, there will be some games at launch. That's all we really know at this point, aside from the fact that both machines will be using new ways to deliver games to us faster and make them run better. Has anyone actually seen a genuinely exclusive game announced for either platform which makes them want to buy into either system on day one? Or is it still too early to tell either way? I keep thinking that I won't join in with the speculation on either machine until we know a little bit more but... I cant deny that it is interesting, to a point.

I keyed in a quick search and apparently people have got decent returns out of burying a max stack of bells in the game. It's not always guaranteed and the tree will supposedly take longer to grow but there's a good chance that you'll get a lot of your bells back or more. There is also the chance that it'll be capped at something like 30K bells per bag but at least all is not lost. Disclaimer - I don't know that much about it, I just found this out and I've only buried a maximum of 1,000 bells per tree so far, though I might start burying more bells now.

I'll still use them but only for those exclusive releases which I can't get anywhere else, especially if we're talking about games which are around £25 - £30 on the eShop anyway, it makes sense to pay a little bit more for them (to me) so that most of the game is on the game card (as much as possible) saving on SD card space and there's that relative security that you can still play the game if for whatever reason the digital version becomes unavailable. But even I'm thinking twice about buying from a lot of these places now. Yep, they all take money upfront, prepare to pay at least six pounds for postage as well, but if you're ordering a signature edition or two versions this isn't too bad, not compared to LRG's shipping charges, which don't result in import charges (thankfully) possibly because it's already factored into the delivery charge which is usually £12 or more... so it makes sense to combine two releases if they are coming out on the same day but this is not always possible. Streets of Rage 4 is one of those games which derserves to have a wide-spread physical version though, like Sonic Mania did with the Plus version, as many people will surely still want to play it years down the line and these consoles which we're playing on now, although the account system is better than the previous generation, it's only good enough for as long as all these services stay active; it makes me wonder for the future of games really... I'm sure you'll still be able to play them offline with your account in a basic form but it's not as simple as it was back in the day, as I can still play the original Streets of Rage trilogy thanks to owning the original cartridges.

I'm glad to hear that Streets of Rage 4 is getting a more standardised release, but also gutted that Limited Run Games had to embargo this information to garner more sales. Oh well, I've ordered the Signature Switch edition (mostly for the soundtrack) and the standard PS4 edition, at least I know these will be versions which should be completely fine for compability with any future dlc which may be coming out... the LRG versions should be as well but I think I'll just be keeping those sealed for now at this point. It's a bit annoying because I really thought up until recently that Limited Run Games would be the only place which would be selling physical versions, just Switch and PS4 at that, now that I've downloaded the Xbox version, there isn't much point to buying that again and I may well just not keep the LRG versions in the end. This is a good thing though, the game being more easily available physically, I just don't like the way thet Limited Run Games have gone about this, they won't be getting as much business from me as they used to, because while they are great for physical versions of games which would have otherwise only been available digitally such as Celeste... when it comes to a game like Streets of Rage 4 they clearly wanted to really milk it for all it was worth and while I don't blame them for it, there will be a bit of backlash from it inevitably but then again... Panzer Dragoon has a physical release from them and that is the only way you can get a physical version of that game... for now. Anyway, not to take anything away from the game itself, which is amazing, I've been playing it every other night, spending several hours on it each time and I can easily say that it's one of my favourite games of the moment, the whole of 2020 and in quite a long time because I can't remember the last time I enjoyed playing a game so much.

Well, another week went by without me playing any Animal Crossing but thanks to @RedShell @Vileplume2000 and @Nicktendo last night, I ended up playing for most of the evening. It all started off with us possibly recording for A Smashing Cast but when that didn't pan out, instead we all just met up in Nick's town and played some games including Hide and Seek, a Fishing Competition and perhaps the best one... 'Catch the Tiger Beetle...' which eventually turned into just 'Catch a Bug... ANY Bug!' after Red quite accurately stating that there were no bugs around (there really weren't that many and a few were scared off) but eventually, a big was captured, so that was good. We were partly on voice chat on Discord while Red was on his trusty keyboard incidentally... I didn't know that you could just plug in a USB keyboard, I may do that as well for next time but this is something we would like to do with A Smashing Cast in the not too distant future, have anyone from the forum join in by showing us their island and optionally joining us on Skype, then you'd have your island featured in the episode plus there would be some kind of game to play on one of our islands; so give us a shout either in here or in the A Smashing Cast thread if you're interested, as this would typically happen at around 8pm BST on a Tuesday. Thanks for the gifts again as well everyone, I know I bought some items from my shop which... may or may not have been that useful but I tried... and I'm grateful for the fruit as now I have one of each fruit at least on my island, well... soon to be more as I've planted them all now. In fact, as I was really feeling it (the urge to keep playing the game) I carried on playing for another couple of hours, during part of which I was listening to the latest episode of N-E Café Podcast which is probably one of the better ways to enjoy the show I've found, sometimes I'll listen to other shows while playing Animal Crossing because although the game is good, a lot of it is busy work... for instance, Nook wanted me to find locations for three residents AND furnish all of their homes... he claims there will be a reward for it but I somehow don't think it's going to be worth it, but it does't matter because this is Animal Crossing where Nook somehow always gets you to go along with all of this I mean... it's not that bad I suppose, I just got to the point where I realised just how much I'd need to craft and then worked out that I'd probably need a hundred of each wood plus other materials and I got so far with bashing trees... then my Axe broke and I called it a night, so I'll go back to it either later or tomorrow I think. If we had some of those quality of life improvements featured in that video though, I'd probably be much more inclined to put some more time into the game.

Well... I was waiting for that announcement, I'm not really buying as many limited release Switch games as I used to but the Shantae games are ones which I tend to go for the physical versions wherever possible, I'll likely just go for the standard edition though as even though the soundtrack is surely spectacular, I'm not sure it's worth paying double the base price for, but it's probably worth it for anyone who wants all of the other extra items in that collector's edition. Looking forward to hopefully playing the game soon, though I do need to play a lot of the previous games before that as well.

Yep, I think you're right there Ash... From what I remember when playing the original The Last of Us when it relaunched on the PS4, I definitely enjoyed the game and while the story was good, it's deifnitely more of a game which is sold on the setting and the gameplay mechanics, which definitely presented some interesting moments and setpieces. As for the story... I really couldn't tell you everything that happened in it, just that there were definitely less characters in the game at the end than there were at the start, so it lives up to its namesake at least and without knowing much about this second part, it's safe to say that there will probably be even fewer characters by the end of this game. (I didn't see any of the spoilers and this is purely a guess from the bleak precedent that was set in the first game) I'm sure that I'll still enjoy the game though, when I hopefully get to play it but I'm not expecting the story to be stellar even though the acting will surely be great; this will still probably be pretty great in a lot of ways though but it does make me think about the future of games and where a lot of them are trying to go with story-telling etc.

The total amount of 'game time' in the podcast, is about nine minutes total of the nearly two hour podcast, there's a small game at the opening which I thought was fine and then Or Wars at the end, which I think works pretty well as the rest of the show was all game talk, with recently announced games being talked about and some reasonably good Love & Respect questions. I would say that it's worth a listen, though... games aside, whether it's Kyle, Jones or anyone else hosting it, if there's a bit which I don't like in the podcast such as a game I have little interest in hearing about because I don't like it or if I think there's going to be a potential spoiler from a game I haven't played or finished yet (this happens often) then I just skip that part of the podcast and just enjoy what I can from it. I think Jones did a good job on the Podcast though, plus it was always going to be a bit different, at least for a bit due to it going to being a live call now but it still works pretty well and is worth a listen, even if it's just in the background while you're playing a Switch game or trying to get stuff done. I've been doing that a fair bit recently, putting a podcast on while either posting News articles or features or while playing Animal Crossing sometimes, I've ended up with a bit of a backlog of videos though, as there's plenty to do at the moment just generally but it's nice to have an episode of Frame Trap to watch/listen to and of course... the N-E Café Podcast every week, which I've ended up listening to later and later in the day now as it's just a better time to listen for me, but I'll always make time for it.

Remembering the Nintendo GameCube in 2020 Well, that's another year gone by then as the GameCube is officially Eighteen years old now since its release on May 3rd, 2002. I knew this date was coming up again too, the other week, then all of a sudden I realised that it's that day again. What better way to celebrate than to re-use last years header, add 2020 to the article title, reuse images of my collection and go through the different spines. Yeah, it's definitely an eleventh-hour idea which I started posting almost in the eleventh hour and just finished it but it still counts. Anyway, enjoy(?) and if you have any favourite GC boxarts or spines or ways of displaying your games, let us know, I'd be interested to hear about them at least.

A Smashing Cast - Animal Crossing Episode 1: Come Whine With Me is now available Now up on the main site! Thanks once again to everyone involved in this latest venture for A Smashing Cast which is our first foray into Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Cheers to @LazyBoy for getting this episode up on our YouTube channel and to @Nicktendo and @Vileplume2000 for showing off their islands. (There was a technical hitch, which means that we didn't get to see Ryan's island this time and although my island is there... well, it is there but there isn't much of it) But the important thing is, that we all had fun playing the game together, I was certainly amazed to see just what can be done on the game and it all went pretty well. There will be more episodes in the future and we're hoping to feature other islands from members of our N-Europe community or anyone who has watched the video. We're always grateful for any feedback, comments or suggestions. Until we Smash again!

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Donkey Kong vs Kirby tournament is now live The latest tournament in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate which went live today, lets you choose characters from either the Donkey Kong game or Kirby. You'll be able to duke it out for the next three days until the event ends. (Kirby probably wins the N-Europe vote by default though... because Rick!)

Congrats bob. If it's a boy, you could call it bub.

Well, after playing Streets of Rage 4 for a good three hours on Normal mode and only now clearing Stage 6, I can say that the game is brutal but fair, with some brilliant set-pieces so far and a difficulty curve which had steadily ramped up to a point where each new area is taking a good few tries to get through, but you learn more as you play and it's really rewarding when you finally beat the stage you were on with just a sliver of health left. I really want to finish the story mode at least once in a single sitting but that will all depend on how the game plays out from here, I could just leave it there until tomorrow but I want to keep pushing forward as the game is just so much fun to play; the trio of developers who worked on this game have really done the Streets of Rage series proud, as not only have they managed to retain the core elements which were so enjoyable from the original games but they've expanded on the formula in ways which make complete sense when you take into account the just over a quarter-of-a-century which has passed since the last entry in the series. This is how you bring back a beloved series in style in a way which will have anyone who plays it raise a big smile on their face from throwing the first punch in the game and realising that this is a new zenith for the Beat 'em Up genre which can proudly sit alongside not only its own older brethren but also any modern-day 'Classic' example which you care to mention... Wulverblade, River City Girls and Ninja Saviors; it's up there with the best and then some. Streets of Rage is back, in 2020 and I couldn't be any happier than in this moment, playing through this game for the first time which I never thought would see the light of day, but dawn has broken on the streets of Wood Oak City and it's time to reclaim them from the shadowy criminal syndicate, one stage at a time. Annnd... Stage 10, you win for now, I'll be back though.

An exceptional review there @Hero-of-Time which makes me want to play the game even more right now. I'll be playing it later on the Xbox One with any luck, then again on the Switch at a later date. I would have asked you if we could use your review for the site but it turns out that there might well be an N-Europe review for this game and that's about all I can say. I'm really glad to hear that you enjoyed the game though, it's fantastic to hear that this really does sound like the sequel which everyone, fans and newcomers alike have been waiting for and that there really isn't any reason for anyone not to get the game if they can, on any format.