WackerJr

Day 29 - Nicest graphics / art style Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon (3DS) One of the rarer 3DS games that actually made great use of the 3D effect. Turn that 3D slider up & it’s like peering into a diorama & added a lot more enjoyment to the game (plus I’ve already used up my vote for Wind Waker! 😁).

Day 28 - Favourite DLC/Expansion Honourable mentions to Super Smash Bros Ultimate, The Last of Us, and any Professor Layton game, but I’m going for: New Super Luigi U Originally released as DLC, this was effectively a new Mario platformer, and even better, it starred the green plumber! The levels were shorter, with only 100 seconds limit for them, but I enjoyed the increased difficulty and the fact that there were over 80 levels to beat. Frantic, manic, haphazard fun!

First things first, those voice impersonations were so much better than I was expecting! Great stuff! 😄 There really does seem to be a common theme of concern as to whether Nintendo do actually any other new games coming this year, which we’re all with you in thinking! Thanks for the recommendation of Edith Finch. I’ve got it but hadn’t built the motivation to give it a go, but that review has gotten me excited to get around to playing it. The back of the box game was enjoyable once again!

Previous couple of days: And now, Day 27 - Best Boss Battle Mizar (Jet Force Gemini) At the time this was possibly the hardest boss fight I’d encountered. It took me so many attempts, but it was just so satisfying when I finally cracked it. Plus it earned me the chance at seeing what is, understandably now, likely to be the last Jim’ll Fix It inspired cutscene in a video game...!

Mutant Mudds.

I don’t understand the sheer popularity of Let’s Play streams either. Unless the person playing is good at the game (eg., speedrunners) then I struggle to watch & just get frustrated when they (fail to) do something I would’ve done if I was playing. Streaming the ends of games is a tough one. I don’t see a problem with it, especially, like you said on the Podcast, for games that are a few years old. I am heavily against spoilers though without warning (eg., putting a spoiler in the description or thumbnail). I’m still trying to avoid spoilers for games a few years old (or more) that I intend to play at some point (e.g., Mario Odyssey, Final Fantasy VII, Mass Effect), but you would expect to see the endings for streams playing through a game.

Day 24 - Final Mission Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time For me it has been bettered in other games since, but at the time it felt like a suitably climactic conclusion to the best game I’d ever played.

Day 23 - Licensed video game Sam & Max: Hit the Road I grew up as a huge fan of the Point & Click Adventure games, such as Monkey Island, Broken Sword, Day of the Tentacle and Toonstruck. Sam & Max: Hit the Road had great voice acting and made me laugh throughout. It may not have been the best of its genre, but it was hugely enjoyable & memorable. I haven’t tried the sequels released a few years ago, but they have a lot to live up to!

Day 22 - Favourite playable character I could easily go with any of the 4 most popular mentions so far: Link, Samus, Guybrush Threepwood (Mighty Pirate), but my choice is: Mario He just controls brilliantly each and every time you play a mainline Mario game. So often I’ll play a game and blame each life lost on the controls & not my lacklustre skill, but I can’t make the same excuse when playing as Mario. Whether it’s bouncing off turtle shells, reaching P-speed or throwing Cappy around, he’s just a joy to control.

Oops, missed yesterday: Today: Day 21 - Game that takes you back to your childhood Sonic the Hedgehog (Sega Master System) The Master System was the first system I ever owned myself, so it was a toss up between this & Alec Kidd in Miracle World. My sister and I spent hours playing these games. I have such fond memories of Sonic, especially working together with friends from school to find all of the hidden Chaos Emeralds, hunting down the 1-up tucked away on every level, and discovering the secret route in the penultimate stage by complete accident after dying countless times. Every time I hear the music I’m taken back.

I think you guys that do the editing do a fantastic job. I haven’t noticed any audio issues. I tend to listen to it through the Podcasts app on iPhone, although usually through headphones and I adjust the volume at the beginning for anything I listen to regardless. Well done @S.C.G for stepping in last week. I thought you sounded more passionate as it went along, which I thought was good.

Thanks @Happenstance It definitely works better with the crowd, but the remote mini one they held near the beginning of the pandemic worked better than I thought it would. It really does rely on good commentators though.

Previously missed: Moving on to Day 19 - Melee Combat: Batman: Arkham City Everything was just so fluid and the combos so satisfying. You were put in many situations where you had to fend off a mass of thugs, and it didn’t get tiresome for me.

Wow I’m really behind. A quick catch-up:

I was pleased to hear the honesty in the views regarding the joy-con drift issues. I love Nintendo, but to continue to have this issue with a major component of their hardware is shameful. I’m fortunate enough that it hasn’t affected me... yet! Their console & controller builds are usually strong, but I was concerned when my 3DS has issues with the raised design around the bottom screen causes scratches on my top (3D) screen, which seemed a clear design fault that still wasn’t rectified when the ‘New 3DS’ was produced. The Switch issue is a big one and I’m with you that I cannot see how Nintendo are going to win the legal battle over it.

3D Platformer While I think the Super Mario Galaxy games are masterclasses in this category (& I expect to think the same of Odyssey once I play it!), my favourites in the genre are pretty much are of the Rare N64 platformers, who were on top of the game in that era. Special mention to Conker’s Bad Fur Day, but I’m choosing Banjo Kazooie. Like the best platformers, it was a joy to control. The characters memorable, humour I enjoyed, level design fantastic, music consistently excellent, the difficulty level perfect, with so many secrets to find & rewards for going above the basic requirements for beating the game. I was obsessed with finding out more about Stop N Swop and sad that they weren’t able to follow through with their idea. It’s hard to add more to what others have said about this fantastic game so I won’t.... it’s a brilliant 3D platformer!

Day 4 - Favourite Villain / Antagonist GLaDOS (Portal / Portal 2) Luring me into a false sense of security, pretending to help me through all those training areas. I should have guessed your true intentions by the messages scrawled on the wall. They were right, the cake WAS a lie! Forcing me to destroy my favourite companion cube then trying to lure me to the same firey fate, you never truly cared for me. I should hate you, but your hilarious dialogue made that so difficult, and even after supposedly condemning you to your own fate, hearing your voice singing how you were still alive brought a smile to my face. GLaDOS how I hate & love you! 😄

I’m not really going to add to this category, more reinforce the great games already mentioned. I’m so pleased Sensible Soccer was mentioned (thanks @londragon), but for me like many others it has to be an N64 title. I played many hours of Goldeneye, Perfect Dark, Mario Kart 64, Smash Bros, F-Zero X and NHL ‘99 with friends. I was always the worst at F-Zero and NHL though so I won’t be choosing them! To be different I’m going to plump for Mario Party 2. This totally took me by surprise, and even more surprising was just enjoyable this was with friends and how often they made this their game of choice for some multiplayer action. Rather than the actual board games though, we usually went with just the minigames. Everyone had their own areas of expertise (button mashing was not one of mine!), and it made for some close contests & some entertaining sessions.

Great thread! Best Opening The first games that sprung to mind were, as previously mentioned, The Last Of Us, and one that will mentioned much in this thread, Goldeneye on the N64. The freedom you initially had, and then finding and using the Sniper Rifle within the first two minutes. The game felt new, felt special, felt like something I’d never played before. It absolutely hooked me in within mere seconds!

Yeh, I saw that and got excited for a fleeting minute when I saw some of those titles. I was quickly deflated as I gradually realised each & every one had already been snaffled!

I can completely empathise with Greg about sending time with your family & little one, and then only really being able to settle down to a game late at night when you’re absolutely exhausted! It certainly does make gaming tricky at times. Wow I thought my backlog was large, but I do feel a bit better knowing it’s nothing compared to the N-E Cafe team and many of the forum users! The digital vs physical discussion was interesting and I like hearing what others currently do. The proportion of digital games has certainly increased over the years. I still enjoy physical copies mind, especially the joy of peel the plastic Nintendo seal off a case! 😃 I do like to sell & buy older second hand games too, so I won’t be sticking to a digital-only solution yet given the choice.

That’s seriously impressive @Glen-i! I’m still attempting to get my first, ha! I’ve managed 9.8 on a couple (Pit & Incineroar spring to mind). Any tips or any character you’d recommend so I can get that challenge ticked off?

I agree. Although with their record profits last year (albeit for one game) I can’t see that happening anytime soon 🙁. I don’t believe Nintendo will be releasing a Switch Pro either anymore. Not with both Microsoft & Sony releasing their latest powerhouses shortly. They could get away with previous handheld revisions due to the lack of competition.

I’ve seen the list of games on the various Mega Drive mini-esque consoles & it wouldn’t surprise me if this was the method they used! The GameBoy segment was a really enjoyable listen, and the game element was a neat touch over just simply discussing great handheld games. I personally didn’t disagree with many of the games and forgot that there were so many worthy contenders. Great to see some love for some of the games I didn’t know if they’d be included (Pokemon TCG for instance). Here’s the obligatory ‘what about this game’ opinion... shame there was no love for Stranded Kids, one of my favourites, and one I managed to get a mini-review into N64 / NGamer magazine with 😃. Good choices from everyone & another enjoyable listen, thanks.

These days, knowing the gaming community, managing expectations is pretty important. But yeah, very funny how matter of factly it was stated lol I still expect, like myself, that many were wondering if they would still announce the next fighter at the same time, so I’m glad they’ve set expectations now. To be fair, it makes sense on their part not to dilute interest & draw attention away from the new Arms character(s) when it’s already fairly niche among the wider gaming audience.