WackerJr

Danganronpa V3 (PS4) With this I complete the full series to date. Gameplay doesn’t deviate from the established routine of the previous games, which sees another set of students involved in a deadly ‘killing game’. You explore the school setting & further the dialogue in the story before someone suddenly meets an unfortunate demise, at which point you search for evidence before entering a courtroom to try and deduce who the culprit is. The courtroom gameplay feels particularly Phoenix Wright-esque, where the majority of times you are trying to present evidence that contradicts somebody’s statement. To mix things up though during the trials, sometimes you’ll have to complete a minigame to solve a particular problem. There are more mini games then the previous titles, including a basic racing game or a Minesweeper-style one. For me these games, in the most part, are the best in the Danganronpa series. The presentation as a whole has been more refined, plus the twists, turns & revelations in each case still felt fresh & continually surprised me. Despite this, I still came away slightly disappointed. The humour was frequently more juvenile than the first two games, which fell flat a little too often for me. I won’t spoil anything, but I found the story to be the least satisfying out of the series so far. Not to say it was bad, far from it. The mysteries and murders were still excellently done, I just preferred the overall stories in the previous two games. Although of course I may have been a little fatigued from the 50+ hours of this visual novel series beforehand... I enjoyed the trilogy and I’m now ready to move on from the series & maybe take a short break from the visual novel genre.

I’ve never been a fan of their “New” branding (“New Nintendo DS”, “New Super Mario Bros”, etc), but Nintendo do seem to be fond of that naming convention so I agree it does seem plausible. When this new model is finally revealed I initially thought they’d need to have software to demonstrate why we need to buy this new model over the current one, and this was the reason they were putting off the reveal (that, plus the fact they’re still selling bucketloads of Switches every week!). I’m now not sure as this is the difficult one, since I assume they wouldn’t want to make a game that only runs on the new model & alienates the user base of millions. So how do they market this?

Was I the only one disappointed by this Sonic Direct? While with Sonic Colours it’ll be nice to have a remake of a game with an ok reputation, the rest didn’t really warrant the Direct for me. The Sonic model in the Tokyo 2020 games freaked me out rather, and the ‘reveal’ of the new Sonic game for 2022 revealed, well, nothing else. Although strongly hinted that Sonic would be running perhaps...?

Part-Time UFO (Switch) A fun diversion for an evening. I played it in both solo & co-op modes for a few hours, which was enough to complete the game. Essentially you controlled your UFO & used it’s extendable claw (think Nintendo Badge Arcade’s fairground-style claw but without Arcade Bunny, the most unscrupulous Nintendo character since Tom Nook!) to pick up objects & pile them up into a specific form of tower. Objectives varied from forming a tower of cheerleaders to balancing monkeys on an elephant that’s riding a unicycle on a tightrope (yes, really!). I enjoyed HAL’s sense of humour with these bizarre scenarios & it created some memorable moments. The floaty controls were just fine, making precise lifts & drops challenging but not impossible. It also added an edge of unpredictability, without being too frustrating, as to whether the objects were going to go exactly where you wanted, slightly out but enough to keep your tower erect, or whether it was simply going to crumble to the ground! There were bonuses & small cutscenes to unlock by completing the added objectives in each level, but to be honest I didn’t see the appeal in spending hours mastering the levels to get a few seconds of cutscenes. Overall, not a long game & not one I’ll return to, but the few hours I had with the game were thoroughly enjoyable.

Well I didn’t see this coming! The variety towards the end of the trailer really has me interested. I guess ultimately how easy will this be & how much leniency will the player have to create their own game from it? What age are they aiming this at? Lots of questions, but I’m excited by this!

I agree. I really didn’t like the Game Gear version, due to the reduced screen size & some of the buggy changes they made to some of the boss battles. The Master System version remains one of my favourite games on the system though. I remember the music for all of the zones, and the location of the hidden emeralds & 1-ups is still imprinted to this day! Great challenge @Cube and good luck with the 8-bit Sonic 2 & it’s ridiculous difficulty spikes! If you have the choice between Game Gear & Master System versions then pick Master System, if nothing else then for the first boss alone!

Absolutely agree. The message is dampened and suddenly the story of the protest becomes about the scenes of chaos shown, of the idiots causing harm, vandalism, breaking laws, and potentially infecting 100s of people with a disease millions are fighting hard to get safe from. Idiotic!

At first I was quite excited, as I was planning on buying Stranded Deep, although admittedly besides a couple of reviews I hadn’t read up much about it. Going by the comments from @Ganepark32 and @Tales though, I’m going to lower my expectations (a LOT!).

Like many others, TMNT was one of my favourite announcements. I’m a little torn though, as while I like the look of the gameplay & understand the retro graphical style they chose, I would rather they’d have made it look more like the newly announced Asterix and Obelix: Slap them All! which looks like it was taken directly out of the comics.

It’ll be interesting to see how involved Nintendo are with this. Like has already been said, I predict a Direct, which is fine with me. They’ll get the audience that would usually watch a Direct, and should gain a few more who are looking at the offerings from E3. I guess it also means they can show off glimpses of more games and then the developers can potentially show off more of their games in the days that follow. I do miss the Treehouse demonstrations though. One of Nintendo’s better ideas.

Night Trap (Switch) Urgh! (Not a term I usually begin a post with!) Reminiscent of attending an uninteresting workshop or course, where you know the information is useful, but you’re feverishly wanting it to finish so you can get on with your life. I’ve read it’s history & how it was discussed in Congress and thus importance of this title in video game history, so for my own knowledge & experience I’m glad I played it. Frankly though, I can’t believe this was an enjoyable game back in 1992 never mind now! Sadly I missed most of the story since it usually played out in a separate room to where the action was happening. With just one-second intervals to correctly time each action button press & stop the intruders, I quickly got overwhelmed & multiple failure screens. My gameplay sessions resorted to writing down when & where I hit the action button to progress the story & replaying it repeatedly until I defeated enough to reach the end. Frustratingly, and more a product of its time, were the lack of checkpoints, with just one at the halfway mark of the 30-minute story. Failures meant replaying the same sections over again with no way of skipping. Thankfully I only had to spend around 3 hours before succeeding in reaching the end, and I’ve no desire to replay it. As a relic of gaming history I’m glad it was resurrected, but I found it more of an educational rather than enjoyable experience.

I remember watching this. I was engrossed although morally torn. I still can’t believe that, even in 2005, this was given the green light & like you said @Josh64 seemed to be given a substantial budget. I’m pleased to read that Johnny Vaughan at least intervened on some of the most embarrassing suggestions. I don’t want to say more about the end at risk of spoiling anything. It was an interesting social experiment if nothing else, and unsurprisingly I can’t recall anything else since quite like it.

They say there’s no such thing as bad press, and if that’s the case then Balan is doing really well! Read today about the amazing observation that one of the tunes from it is virtually identical to one from Ghostbusters! Link to news article & clips to compare It may be a fairly generic spooky theme tune, but that’s got to be more than a coincidence as some of those music sequences are identical!

Enjoy your break everyone. I can imagine the effort involved by yourselves, along with all the editing, uploading, etc. and it’s appreciated by everyone that listens I’ve no doubt.

If you enjoyed the demo then feel free to go for it. Like you, I’m a huge fan of 3D platformers, but I found the demo absolutely dreadful & was so disappointed considering the pedigree of people behind it. I know it was only a demo & so the finished game should be so much better, but the lack of review copies to many sites is also another red flag. Was this the boss fight that many sites are reporting on because it has a strong potential to cause seizures in those at risk of having them? I did watch a clip (as I’m fortunate not to be one of those people) and it wasn’t an easy thing to watch. I know the publishers have said a Day One patch will fix it, but to release a game with such a potentially harmful scene in it is reckless & unprofessional. @Josh64 if you do get it then do let us know your opinions, especially with the lack of reviews out there. Hopefully it is much better than I fear it is!

Some great ideas for revivals of older games. It brought back memories of playing 2-player Super Kick Off and being thrashed at Sensibie Soccer too (great game but I was no competition for my friends!). I agree that seeing Sensible Soccer or Cannon Fodder revived would be great. Good shout about Command & Conquer @Vileplume2000 I only really played Red Alert but it was excellent! There were some good (& surprisingly difficult) Disney games back in the 8 / 16-bit era. I haven’t bought the recent Aladdin / Lion King ones, but remember playing them, and enjoyed the ‘Did You Know Gaming’ episode where they explained just why level 2 (the frustrating monkey puzzle) was so tough.

I’ve got the second but haven’t started it yet, although really enjoyed the first season (along with Before the Storm). I’m torn on them releasing it complete as opposed to periodic. I prefer being able to play the full game, but I hope they keep plenty of story twists & cliffhangers that the episodic format forced them to make. The trailer kept on hammering home the “power of empathy”.... I’m sure it will get implemented well, but it’s hardly a soundbite that’s going to sell the game!

I’d usually expect EA or someone similar to shoehorn it into an exercise game. I’m not particularly surprised as yet. It’s still a very niche item & while it’s sold well (played better & sold heaps better than most anticipated) you’re limited to just those million or so worldwide that could play your game. Combined with the pandemic hitting mere months after Ring Fit was released making it harder for developers. Yes I’d be surprised if Nintendo weren’t developing a follow-up, but it’s still a big risk in difficult conditions for 3rd parties.

Agreed. This took me by surprise with the graphical style & the resemblance to the FF Tactics games, and was smooth & impressive. Like @Julius mentioned about the Scales of Conviction, there feels like potential here and the possibility of choices affecting the story is certainly interesting. The demo didn’t see it implemented quite as well as I thought from the trailer, but there’s still plenty of time for this feature to play an enjoyable part in the full game. I really enjoyed the FF Tactics games, so I think I wanted to enjoy this demo more than I actually did. Still, I like that they are using the demo to get player feedback.

Danganronpa 1 & 2 (PS4) Technically two separate games but my thoughts apply to both. A visual novel by the Zero Escape team, with Phoenix Wright gameplay and a Hunger Games-type setting. Without trying to spoil anything, I enjoyed the twists and turns of the story, where often the identity of the culprit of the Phoenix Wright-style trials remains a mystery until the end. I went into these expecting my decisions to effect the story, ala Zero Escape, but ultimately in between trials I was just playing out scenes & following the narrative. I wasn’t a fan of the humour, which was very teenage & a little hit-or-miss. Ultimately, the trials were the big draw & I’m glad each one felt lengthy. I was often left guessing how it was going to play out, or how the crime was committed until near the end of each, like the best mysteries. I love the premise and, even if I don’t think these are as good as either the Phoenix Wright or Zero Escape series’, I really enjoyed them. So much so that I’m now playing through the third game in the series too!

Haha - really enjoyed the Nintendo franchise game at the end. I don’t think I appreciated just how many Nintendo franchises there are (or at least ones primarily on Nintendo consoles). After starring in some poor poor sequels after his original fun introduction, becoming a meme for Nintendo hype leading to constant disappointment, then the apparent disbandment of its developer, Skip, now Chibi Robo has to live with the embarrassment of being unceremoniously dumped in the first round of your alternate universe franchise culling. Poor poor Chibi...

Nice to see them still supporting the WiiU. Let’s face it you can never have too may have stability updates!

Just to add that I really enjoyed the nostalgic discussion about the N64 days. It still remains my favourite era of gaming, with many a multiplayer session with school friends. Wow, when you all just listed them it was a reminder of just how many good games came out for the N64! I’m glad to hear I wasn’t the only avid reader of N64 Magazine too. The Ocarina of Time review was my first copy & I enjoyed their sense of humour & honesty when reviewing. Randomly, Tim Weaver, who was editor around that time, appeared on ‘Pointless Celebrities’ on BBC here in the UK a week ago. It seems he’s now an author of thriller books!

Story mode = win. Speed mode = win. Mario Golf = win! 😄 (I’m happy with this announcement!)

• I thought the same initially, but actually the more I think about it the more it seems feasible. I think it may happen, albeit with no other gameplay changes. • Zelda collection seems likely, although with the NES games on Switch Online I can see it being an Ocarina of Time / Master Quest / Majora’s Mask compilation. • Skyward Sword HD. • Could they port Twilight Princess onto a 4th console? Possible but I’m going to guess no on this occasion. • My prediction of other games in the Direct are Pokemon Snap, Monster Hunter Rise, Mario Golf, Silksong, Two Point Hospital expansion, No More Heroes 3, Crash 4. • Mention of but no gameplay of BotW 2 (cutscene only) plus Bayonetta 3 (no gameplay or videos, just a fleeting “still in development, don’t forget about me”) • Smash character reveal: Crash Bandicoot. • Mother 3...... oh who am I kidding!