WackerJr

I don’t know whether it’s selling phenomenally or whether there’s a shortage of physical copies in the South of the UK, but everywhere I look is either sold out or a long delay for the disc version. Amazon has a 2-week turnaround for delivery, my local game ran out of stock today, Argos, Smyths, etc all in a similar predicament in their stores! I’ve managed to get a home delivery from Argos for early in the week. I’m hoping it is selling well, as I loved It Takes Two and the reviews you’ve all mentioned are glowing.

I’ve finally gotten around to playing SMWonder and it’s whimsically fun! It’s been a bit too easy so far and while great that I’ve been able to play this with my wife & daughter in 3-player, I found it played harder as I kept struggling trying to keep track of my character when things got frantic. Each Wonder Flower gives that feeling ‘what the heck are the developers going to make happen now?’ Randomly, and really just me, but I’m loving that some levels unexpectedly invoked fond Sega Master System memories too 😃:

Wow I used to be frustrated at the length of time between many US and UK releases in the N64 days. @Cube you’re making me grateful that there were so many garbage games that never even came to Europe! Thanks!

I agree. It’s one of my bugbears with most modern games, and then even worse when there’s been time to fix things but the issue still remains. It leads to a wider issue as I’m sure I’m not the only one who’s played a game at launch with clear and massive bugs, that don’t get fixed until post-launch.

So 5 months after the digital release the physical version is available, and in keeping with the original release, it’s buggy and needs an update… I understand that the carts were made months ago, so the initial issue the game had were present, but is it common practice to manufacture carts so long before release? Genuine question as I don’t know and if so then surely it leads to issues like this, when on the face of it consumers must surely want to have everything ready to go on a physical cart (more so when a game’s been out for a little shy of half a year).

Pikmin 4 (Switch) A game that really tries to cater for both new and existing Pikmin players. It doesn’t reinvent itself, but Pikmin 4 provides more gameplay, more Pikmin, more pilots, more ‘treasures’, more enemy types, and more luscious garden landscapes! I’m unashamedly a big fan of the core Pikmin games (sorry “Hey! Pikmin” and “Pikmin Bloom”), and everything seemed instantly familiar, almost too much so. Being able to customise your pilot is a neat touch, and then you’re thrown straight into the usual Pikmin routine. Of the new aspects, Oatchi is a welcome addition, albeit quite powerful at times. It’s a pup who acts a companion to your character. I assumed Oatchi would simply be a replacement for a 2nd pilot ala Pikmin 3, but your pilot and Pikmin can leap on his back, it making traversing the ground so much quicker and easier. It can be made into a 2nd pilot, vital for some of the later gameplay, but it’s also powerful in battle and is equivalent to multiple Pikmin when used to carry objects. The above ground levels felt quite relaxed, with explorative environmental puzzles. The enemies here never really felt too threatening and despite the fairly low difficulty of them, I still enjoyed the thrill of opening and exploring new areas. The underground levels were more challenging, restricting the amount of Pikmin and forcing you to battle and find treasures down a varying amount of floors. Many of the new enemy types are located here, with a lot of the ‘boss-style’ ones only appearing as one-offs. Despite the larger volume there were only a few stand out ones for me (my favourites were variations on the ‘Beady Long-Legs’ enemy). I did find that much of the time their threat was somewhat lessened by saving up nectar from previous floors and using it to power up my Pikmin before swarming the boss, who often wouldn’t last long being pummelled by the abundance of powered-up plant creatures. This does lead me to my main gripe - the amount of nectar it’s possible to accumulate to power up the Pikmin. I was able to collect a lot, and it did mean that I could use a similar strategy on many of the enemies throughout, as opposed to tactically defeating them. There were also timed challenges, split between ones with a set goal (e.g., defeat all enemies) or trying to score higher than another character. Getting platinum on the timed challenges was probably the greatest challenge, as you really do have to strategize and prioritise what to do when given goals and only a tight time limit to do so. I enjoyed working out the quickest routes and tactics, even if sometimes things felt a little hectic. New to the series were short night levels. These see you trying to keep your base intact while creatures march towards it. It didn’t feel necessary, but I quite liked it for the variety it provided to the usual gameplay and just breaking things up a little. That they were each fairly short was also good. As I can’t get the spoiler tags to work, I won’t say what unlockables there were, apart from I enjoyed them. I think it’ll prove to be a great introduction to those new to the series. It provided everything I expected, and I did really enjoy it. It provided small QoL improvements too, such as being able to rewind time, a great addition. For a game I spent over 30 hours playing it seems strange to say I wish it was longer, but I do. The challenges and trying to earn medals extended the length of the game. Unlike previous games in the series, I’ve no inclination to go back to this, but I do look forward to the future Pikmin 5, and hopefully Nintendo see the sales figures as making it worthwhile to make. Here’s my 70-second video review.

So they came through! Nintendo have sent me through a black NN3DSXL, along with my original faceplates. They’ve successfully transferred over my account, so I’ve still got my games too (they also threw in some Zelda stickers which my daughter’s happy about!). The only two issues I’ve found, which aren’t the end of the world, are: 1) Some games froze on the 3DS loading screen. Deleting & redownloading them has fixed the issue though. 2) I’ve lost saved games from downloaded titles along with my Wii Plaza Puzzle pieces. A shame but if that’s the only thing then that’s a relief and I have a working NN3DS again! I wasn’t sure if Nintendo were going to be able to help, but great respect to them they’ve really pulled through for me. I’m happy with the outcome. Now, to finally finish Chrono Trigger!!! 😃

I really enjoyed Cubivore on GameCube. It looked bland and uninspiring back actually the simplicity of the blocks made it easy to tell how ‘large’ each creature was and meant it couldn’t be challenged that said creature didn’t look like it’s real-life counterpart, as it quite clearly just gave a suggestion on what the creature was and wasn’t trying to accurately portray anything. Great find in playing an N64 prototype! It’s quite clear I’m a Conker fan, and how this made its way into the N64 in the form it did I still can’t quite believe. It’s very Rare-esque with its humour, just dialled right up! I still recall this having a room full of students in hooked and in fits of laughter when played in single player at my school(!). I can recall very few games getting such a captive audience! I agree with your thoughts on some of the gameplay issues. I recall the camera being frustrating at times, and despite most areas being fairly linear in nature there were a few times I couldn’t work out where I was going. It was so much about the variety and set pieces though. I enjoyed the switch about halfway though as well, where it suddenly got a lot darker. All the time still not for kids, the first half felt more juvenile compared to the humour and tones of the second half. Would love to see this on NSO and a proper sequel at some point in the future.

So a further update, Nintendo contacted me to say they’d need to replace my console, but they don’t have any white NN3DS models like mine, so would I be happy to receive a black New Nintendo 3DS XL instead. I’ve asked them about transferring my account and they’ve assured me I can redownload all my existing software into the new device. I’ve accepted (not that I had much choice) but the upgrade seems like a good alternative!

Quick update and it sounds as though Nintendo are coming through for me! The wording on their repair quote is: ”Diagnosis: Lower Screen has defective image - Out of Warranty. Spare Parts: Product is replaced - KTR ASSY HW SWAP WHITE EUR - Quantity: 1” So they’re charging me £79 for it, but sounds as though they swapping either part of or the whole system 🤞 (unless of course I’ve read that completely wrong and I’m just giving them money….)

Taking place tonight is one of my favourite wrestling events of the year: the WWE Royal Rumble. What are people’s thoughts and expectations? With this being the first PLE on Netflix I’m hoping they go above & beyond to make it a good event. The rumble itself if usually either excellent (like the 2001 previously, or the past few women’s ones) or a huge disappointment (see the 2022 Men’s one). I feel there are some strong contenders in the men’s match this year and hopefully a few good surprise entrants too (I believe….! 😜 and what a pop that’ll be if the Scot appears!) There’s some exciting matches too this year, with the male tag team championship match (DIY vs Motor City Machine Guns) having a lot of potential to be an entertaining one. My guesses for the winners this year are: • Women’s: Charlotte Flair (final 3 with Jordanne Grayce & Liv Morgan). • Men’s: CM Punk (final 3 with John Cena & Roman Reigns).

Nope, no joy(con) for me either. Congrats to those that got selected!

Oh no! Maybe Nintendo UK still have some older NN3DS's knocking around and they'll just send me one of those... Ok, unlikely I know, but now I really am gutted! Their automated system has asked me to send it in for repair, but I'm assuming that's what it always does when you request a repair and I worry now that once received they will just email me to tell me they've stopped repairs. That's a really good point! Do we know if it can be performed by selecting the option using just the d-pad and buttons? (it's been a while since I did it) I seem to be able to use the d-pad to move between apps, as whatever the cursor should be on shows up on the top screen. If I have to type anything though then I fear I might be in a bit of pickle! (to put it nicely!)

Nearly a month into 2025 and I realise I never wrote up games I finished at the turn of the year, before my pledge. Here’s a brief summary of each. Altered Beast (NSO) This was possibly the first Sega Mega Drive game I ever saw being played in person. A friend once showed me their new system and they played a few minutes of this. I thought it looked amazing at the time although I didn't get a chance to play it, but since then I’ve always wanted to try it. Well I finally got that chance as a grown-up with Nintendo Switch Online… and what a disappointment! A side-scrolling beat-em-up with creatures resembling those from Greek mythology, where you constantly play through levels until you collect three spirit balls, released by defeating specific enemies before they disappear. At which point you turn into a creature with additional abilities and take on the boss. It plays like the arcade game, where there’s no way of replenishing your life force, even between the handful of levels. The chunky characters have shonky hit detection and the whole thing was bland, repetitive and dull. Some wine gets better with age, others don’t benefit from aging, but I figure Altered Beast must have begun life as vinegar anyway! A Little to the Left (Switch) A puzzle game about organising and rearranging objects to be more aesthetically pleasing. Presented with a single screen of objects and no instruction, you’re tasked with rearranging items in a way that improves the scene. It could be as simple as straightening wonky portraits, stacking objects in a particular order, or rearranging a cutlery drawer so everything fits. I quickly got an understanding of the logic the developers were looking for, and quite a few levels have multiple solutions. For instance, books on a shelf could be rearranged in height order, but then they could also be arranged so that the pattern on their spines all match up. Both solutions would be correct and it tells you how many possible solutions there are for each puzzle. There are some creative solutions, and thankfully there’s a hint system for each level where you reveal the solution, so I was never stuck for long. Some levels required quite precise control, and I can imagine this feeling much better using a mouse. I resorted to playing in handheld mode using the touchscreen, since the analogue stick controls were frustrating me. A simple premise and perfectly pleasant, but ultimately I found it a bit dull. If only tidying my own real-life things were as simple as the game made it out to be! My 60-second YouTube review of 'A Little to the Left'. The Exit 8 (PS5) A lonely walk through a Japanese subway, which transpires to be a creepy spot the difference game. This first-person walking simulator sees you walk through a small section of the subway, passing posters, doors and a single passer-by on his phone who’s completely oblivious to your presence. Turning the corner at the end you’re presented with seemingly the same section of subway again, complete with posters, doors, and then that same passer-by appears once again! The goal is to look around the corridor and if everything seems the same then walk to the end and turn the corner. If you spot something different (“anomalies” as the game calls them) or something unexpected happens then turn around and head back and exit the way you came in. There’s a single poster around each corner which indicates how many correct ‘exits’ you’ve made in a row, with the goal to get 8 correct in a row. It seems simple in theory, but much tougher in practice. Sometimes the changes are obvious (I’ll only spoil one at the end of this sentence, as most are best left experienced), for instance there could suddenly be hundreds of posters scattered across the floor, while many others are a lot more subtle. With only the haunting sound of your footsteps for company, it is quite creepy. To quote Alfred Hitchcock: “there is no terror in the bang, only in the anticipation of it”. This game encapsulated this for me, as I was constantly expecting something to happen, and admittedly it did make me jump a few times when something unexpected would occur, or I was too slow noticing something! As it turns out, the predominant source of tension was the anticipation of turning the corner and finding the poster to discover if I’d chosen the right exit each time! It’s short as once I’d finished 8 correct consecutive exits I was able to go back and try to spot all the anomalies (playing through it again but the only anomalies that might appear would be either a previously unseen or incorrectly guessed). I finished it all in around 3 hours and it doesn’t hold much value to replay it. However, it is admittedly only around £4, which I felt was reasonable. A decent, albeit brief, experience. My 70 seconds view of 'The Exit 8' on YouTube Platform 8 (PS5) The recent follow-up to The Exit 8 is another horror walking simulator. Again the goal was to spot anomalies, but this time you’re stuck within the confines of a moving train carriage. The main gameplay difference this time is that the exit is always the door at the end of the carriage. The trick each time though is to work out if there’s anything you need to do, or not do, while in the carriage in order to open the door. For instance, the door may be locked but a poster on it tells you to find an anomaly in the carriage, so you explore the carriage and once the usually creepy obscurity is found the door unlocks. Each carriage is seemingly the same, with posters on the walls and a single other occupant who I recognised from 'The Exit 8'. The biggest change is the number of jump scares the game throws at you. The weirdness is cranked up and there are many things that happen, which could send you back to the beginning if you don’t act in time or solve the puzzle. It’s not gory, but by the end of it my heart felt as if it had been bouncing like a pogo stick on a trampoline! Half the time, the carriage won’t have a puzzle to solve, but will still have something odd happen as you walk to the door. I’d love to say more, but it really is best experienced without knowing what peculiarities the developers have come up with. At little over an hour, this was even shorter than its predecessor, but again I picked this one up for cheap and the freakiness was kind of fun! My 60 seconds review of 'Platform 8' on YouTube

It's 2025 and I'm still trying to get through my 3DS backlog (dipping in every now & again anyway). Or at least I was... I finally plunged into Chrono Trigger last year, great game by the way, and having entered what I think may be the endgame, my second screen has now stopped working! 😬 Having restarted my 3DS it still recognises what should be on there, but the touch screen itself along with the actual display are kaput! I've put in a request to Nintendo, so hopefully they'll be able to repair this for me. Sadly, for the time being my adventures with Crono and crew have come been postponed.

Glad I wasn’t the only one surprised by that! Before checking, I’d just assumed that they would’ve been available in smaller numbers due to the dreadful Wii U sales so the sale prices would’ve been pretty good, so I was painfully disappointed.

I still need to finish my 2024 write-ups, but in the meantime, to join in the fun: • Chrono Trigger DS - I finally got around to starting this in 2024. It’s taken me a while to get into, but it’s definitely been worth sticking with. Should be finished soon. • Final Fantasy 7 - thanks to everyone who advised me to play the original version (or at least the one on Switch). I’ll be playing this classic for the first time this year I hope. • Super Mario Wonder - I love my Mario platformers & surprised myself I haven’t played this yet! • Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom - I put off buying this so I could get it as a Christmas present 😀. • Astro Bot - looking forward to playing this. • Uncharted 2 - playing through the Uncharted series with my wife. • Astral Chain - it’s spent way too long in my backlog. • Tales of Monkey Island - retro time! Used to love the MI games and I haven’t yet played this or Return to MI yet. • Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D - the adverts for the upcoming Switch remake’s reminded me I haven’t yet played this & I have it on 3DS. • The Great Ace Attorney - Enough time’s passed since playing the Phoenix Wright games to return to some courtroom drama! I managed to sell the majority of my Wii and Wii U games last year and it was quite satisfying. I’m debating what to do with my load of N64, GameBoy and DS games next and thinking I might try to sell these this year too. I’m finally realising that I’m never realistically going back to the majority of them.

Ok, I realise I still need to write up a few of the games I’ve played in recent months before everyone’s moved onto the 2025 thread. Sackboy (PS5) I wish there were more games like this. A lengthy 3D platformer that’s serviceable in single-player, but really comes into its own when played alongside others. I played the majority of this with my wife and we had a blast traversing the textile levels. Playing as LittleBigPlanet’s woolly protagonist, everything from your own character to the enemies themselves looked lovely and hand-made. The platforming itself wasn’t revolutionary, but did everything well. Linear with plenty of items and secrets hidden just off the path. You primarily have the ability to jump, slap, roll and throw, which allow for neat tricks in co-op such as having to throw a team-mate onto another platform in order to get to out-of-reach items. In our case this lead to many laugh-out-loud instances where one of us was ‘accidentally’ (or so it was claimed) thrown off an edge to our doom. Enough levels also gave us a specific skill or item just for that level, such as shurikens or a rope to latch and swing on certain surfaces. It gave enough variety to keep us entertained. Essentially you just had to reach the end of each level, but each levels was sprinkled with heaps of orbs that could collected along the way. These vary between those that count towards your ranking come the end and those that grant you outfits for your avatar. There are plenty of outfits and also help to distinguish who’s who when the action heats up on screen. When played in co-op it also tells you who collected the most, and the winner of each level gets their photo taken too (which ultimately turns into which other player can sabatage it the most!). I found some of the best levels were the ones played out to licenced music, such as Uptown Funk or Toxic, with the action often lining up with the tune. A little like Rayman’s musical levels, but not so strict in missing a beat forcing you to die. I tried it in single-player and it was ok, but really does excel and want you to play co-operatively, with some levels only available to play with multiple players. It did get a little harder later on too, so while in co-op you all share the same stack of lives, I feel a younger or inexperienced player will enjoy the early levels but will only get so far (or at least that was the experience I had watching my daughter play with her grandparents). As I said at the beginning, I wish there were more decent co-op platformers out there, as this was a lot of fun and something we enjoyed playing together. Link to my 60-second review

I don’t know why that was so compelling, but I enjoyed that & admittedly never realised much of that about the MM dog race.

I don’t know why that was so compelling, but I enjoyed that & admittedly never realised much of that about the MM dog race.

Wow I learned pretty quickly that I couldn’t trust NOM reviews, although it was mainly biased towards Nintendo-published games, but that one seems bizarre even by their standards! Glad you got to play it @Cube to clarify how shocking it really was and relieved that I’ve never had to! 😂

Well that wasn’t on my bingo card! What is it, 28 years after the original? I wonder if they’ll copy the ridiculousness of the original and concerned about whether they can recapture the popularity of it. Saying that, I’ll still be watching this regardless! 😄

Watched it for the first time as our Christmas Eve movie last night. It was good & our daughter loved it too! Merry Christmas everyone! We’ve just made it to my wife’s family for the day. Surprised at how much traffic was on the road today! Whatever you’re doing, have a fabulous day everyone!

Was it last year The Game Awards were criticised a little for not recognising the growing number of layoffs? I might be misremembering that…. Nice to see this being rectified this year and Satvat comes across very well and likeable.

My wife and I really enjoyed It Takes Two so looking forward to this one.