WackerJr

I enjoyed the “This is a game!?” award/mention. With so many games each week, with many of ‘variable’ quality, I think you can have some fun writing mention of these kind of games! 😃

Tonight is one of my favourite annual PPVs (or should that now be “premium events” according to WWE terminology!?) - WWE Royal Rumble. I’m excited as, on the face of it, it’s less predictable than some years. Excited by a Mickie James appearance too, and I can’t see WWE allowing it but I’d love to see her enter wearing the Impact title belt! Ive been trying to avoid spoilers so I’m predicting Bianca Belair (or Ronda Rousey as surprise entrant) and Big E as the Rumble winners. Here’s hoping it’s a good one though, especially with the high quality matches having taken place recently across all the various promotions.

However much people would like it, with MK8 still selling truck loads, I don’t see Nintendo risking the sales on it by releasing a new version until the next console. I predict (nay hope!) the next console Kart will include challenges, which have been sorely missing since the DS version. The ‘twist’ being much more advanced and numerous, such as an adventure mode with challenges being grouped into stages and characters.

Haha - similar situation here! 😁 NTWEWY is also on sale physically in a few places right now for both Switch and PS4 (Amazon, Game) so I gave in to temptation!

It couldn’t, could it? Is a Goldeneye port really coming….? Well 2022 enters with a bang with this huge rumour showing Goldeneye achievements on XBox! I’m so conflicted by this find, as this appears to based on a port of the original it seems and not the remaster that was leaked fairly recently. If (and that’s a big IF) this turns out to be true, I’m conflicted as the original hasn’t really aged too well, whereas as least the remaster made it look and run a whole heap better for the modern day. Still, it surely opens up the possibility of a Nintendo port too.

Thanks! Looking forward to the review of this. The trailer has me interested as I like the sense of atmosphere and art style (When I first saw the visual design thought it was by Ustwo, the Monument Valley developers, but obviously it’s not). The trailer makes it seem a little easy and relaxing, while hints at an enemy chasing you in sections, so I await the review to find out how it actually plays. Colour me intrigued!

Had mine on Tuesday. Whole process when I got there was quick and simple, and I was in-and-out in less than 10 minutes. 3rd Pfizer jab and thankfully no side effects at all (I was fortunate not to have any after my initial two as well). My wife had hers recently too, although she felt ill that evening. Glad to get it done before Christmas.

I was reading up about Chicory yesterday after seeing it appear on some Games of the Year lists, but embarrassingly I hadn’t heard of it. It’s had some glowing reviews and so I’m interested in this one too & glad to see it heading to Switch.

I’m excited by it, although expect the Nintendo-relayed announcements to be a little thin on the ground (prove me wrong Nintendo!). I was planning to watch it, but at 1am and likely to last a few hours means I may catch the beginning, but will check back in the morning to see what I missed. I just don’t know what will be revealed, apart from the new Sonic game and the trailer for the 2nd movie. These could look great, they could look naff… this is Sonic after all! Reggie’s involved so I’d love him to announce something exciting (imagine the hype of him finally announcing a Mother game!), but in reality with his position I can’t see him revealing anything major.

Gnosia (Switch): I found this visual novel oddly addictive with a gameplay mechanic that sounds strikingly similar to a particular popular multiplayer game (hint: an anagram of “Umong As”). The gameplay loop seems simple enough at first, with a handful characters on a spaceship, at least one of whom is an imposter (I.e., infected by the Gnosia). Each round, one character gets voted out, and each game is won or lost when either all imposters have been voted out or if imposters outnumber the crew. At which point, win or lose, you’re transported to the beginning of a new loop, with all roles reset. The initial games quite exciting as new characters were constantly being introduced, and they do a good job of keeping all the characters different from one another, both in appearance and personality. New gameplay mechanics are introduced as you play more games, the first few in particular influence how you approach each game, such as new roles (e.g., the engineer can check out one character each round to see if they’re infected or not). There are a lot of other nuances within the game, such as improving your stats in areas such as becoming better at getting others to trust your opinions, or identifying where others are trying to deceive you. You can build relationships with other characters between rounds and trying to achieve certain outcomes enables you to learn more about the background of each character and, ultimately, progress the story. I liked that each loop tends to be quite short, maybe 5-10mins each time. The early game for me was the most exciting part, with the mystery unravelling. Unfortunately for me, the game eventually becomes a bit of a grind once you’ve unlocked the characters. I went through over 100 loops in order to advance the story, and while the story was interesting, I don’t think it is strong enough to keep most people interested over an extended period of time. Glad I played it. The initial couple of hours were fun & exciting as the mystery began to get explained. For me the grind was somewhat tedious come the end, and could’ve done with speeding up how you unlock the final third of the story. Good - I wasn’t dissatisfied with my experience.

Exactly the same here! 😃 I’m so pleased to hear this, and until I finally get around to playing it I’ll just have to base my opinion on the myriad of positive reviews for the game! With this news, and that the Danganronpa team are also working on a brand new IP there’s plenty to be excited about for fans of story-based / interactive visual novel games.

Congrats! As well as being a sports coach myself, I have friends doing similar courses and they all say how much more involved it is then they realised, so nice one! 👏🏻

Hmm, nothing jumped out to me, although I did notice that Blossom Tales has been reduced again. @Ronnie’s positive comments have gotten me tempted. Worth it?

Read good things about it and so really looking forward to this.

Good luck! I had the same experience, going in with all 48 I thought I’d get through it just fine… I was so mistaken and taken aback by just how tough it was! Thank goodness for the ‘Not so Impossible Lair’ checkpoints! Keep plugging away, it’s so satisfying when you finally get through it (or was it simply relief!?!). I did spend hours on the impossible lair alone.

The original presenters were so iconic the producers will have had tough time replacing them without causing toilet much uproar. I’m happy with those choices & really looking forward to this. Ah Games World. I too have fond memories of that. I still hear Bob Mills as an occasional guest on ‘Fighting Talk’ on BBC Radio 5Live, and good to see ‘Big Boy Barry’ is still involved in the video game industry as a guest on podcasts and the like. Jet was amazing casting choice at the time too!

Wow I hadn’t fully grasped just how many WiiU games now appear on other consoles! Depending on the price of a physical copy, I rather enjoyed the Wii game Pandora’s Tower which could be downloaded. The only other game I can think of not yet covered is NES Remix 1+2. Not worth full price as you can play the full NES games on Switch Online, but some of the crossover games in it & challenges were enjoyable. Fun for a couple of hours, and the WiiU versions include more games than the 3DS version.

How horrendous that she has to experience that, and truly terrifying I imagine. Hope she gets support after this as I imagine she’s going to have increased anxiety especially when out on her own. A huge well done on her heroic actions though, from scaring off the attacker to saving the person’s life. You get minimal time to think about your actions and her quick instincts has really made her a hero.

So I got interviewed on BBC radio recently and took part in one of the games the presenter plays (guess the person’s job). If you have a spare 6 minutes and fancy a chuckle at how I suddenly had to explain that I touch people, without saying anything incriminating on breakfast radio then have a listen on this link (my club’s Facebook page where they cut just the relevant part of the show).

Fantastic topic! There are a few big games I really need to get around to playing one day: Final Fantasy VII and Metal Gear Solid 2 from PlayStation days. Bayonetta and Xenoblade Chronicles are both games I have, but for some reason have never started. Persona 5 is probably the newest game I’d really like to play, but I’m slightly worried about the number of hours I’ll need to put aside for it! Finally, a game I did play when I was much younger but I would absolutely love to find and 100% is Lemmings 2: Tribes. The Lemmings games were some of the first PC games I played and completed. To this day I still feel unfulfilled not to have finished Tribes and I don’t know how to find the game nowadays or if I would ever be able to fully complete.

I’d like to say I was cleverly referencing the strong links between the Metroid and Alien franchises and that Samus herself is deliberately heavily influenced by Ripley, the protagonist of the Alien series, but I’d be lying, I just typed the wrong letter by accident…

😂 What a difference a letter typo makes! Still, I’m not going back to edit it as you’re right, that really would be an epic battle! 😄

Going back and watching those trailers, I’m consistently impressed with their quality and variety. I prefer the ones where they build up the suspense and intrigue before the reveal, whether it be the reveal of the character themselves, or the disguise that the trailer was actually for Smash and not their own game (think Inkling or Joker for example). I also enjoyed the technique that some of the trailers used to suddenly drop in a reveal out of nowhere (e.g., Snake), taking you by surprise and making you realise that yes they really are here! In many instances Sakurai’s team use the trailers to demonstrate their knowledge of the character and the many Easter Eggs and references to the original games that the character’s are known for. From Sora’s recreating a multitude of scenes from Kingdom Hearts, to King K.Rool taking on the role of Gruntilda and replicating Banjo & Kazooie’s defeat of her. They are also never afraid to show off the epic battles between rivals: Mario vs Sonic, Samus vs Ripley, Cloud vs Sephiroth, Reggie vs Iwata(!?) and getting players hyped at the prospect of these rivalries being renewed within Smash!

A swanky complete edition you say…..?

I always get excited by Smash announcements, even if they’ve thrilled & disappointed me in equal measure! I missed the predictions at the beginning, although in hindsight I would’ve done terribly! A little worried by Sakurai’s comments that you may or may not recognise the final reveal, so it could be completely obscure. I hoping he’s trolling. My rather dull prediction is for Nintendo to somehow have successfully negotiated many legal hurdles and Sora to be revealed following a Mickey Mouse troll, with Mii costumes of Phoenix Wright, Prof Layton, Doom Guy, Crash, Master Chief and James Bond’s tuxedo… Oh, and a return of Break the Targets! Too much… yeh I thought so……