WackerJr

Chase: Cold Case Investigations ~Distant Memories~ (3DS) A download-only game that will be lost after March. I got this for free years ago through My Nintendo, and I have to say that playing it now I'm so relieved I didn't pay anything for it! It's an incredibly short visual novel crime mystery where you read a few short interviews between detectives and a few people involved in an explosion a few years prior. Occasionally you choose an answer to a question, but getting them wrong isn't really punished as a 'Game Over' reverts you to the start of the conversation. One short case later and that's it. Where the likes of Phoenix Wright have enigmatic characters, the few here are really devoid of personality. I despised the lead detective, who spends most of his time shutting down and insulting his colleague, belittling her with comments such as "idiot" and insulting her in front of others. This was apparently made from some of the Hotel Dusk developers and you can see their fingerprints on it (despite appearances the detective is not Kyle Hyde!), and the writers clearly understand how to write a crime story, but the whole presentation of it and lack of gameplay makes this all feel like a one-hour pilot or a demo to try and create a larger game or series. Why this was released as an actual game I'm not sure.

Yep, well kind of. I did finally manage to open it, although I did get a little help. Like you, when I discovered what you were supposed to do I was flabbergasted (in the best possible way!).

Tunic (Switch) One of the last games I finished in 2022, and a wonderful and perplexing game! I'll keep my brief thoughts spoiler-free. I can only add to the accolades that it's received. It took me a while to actually get into, and I wasn't sure about the lack of obvious map to begin with, but once it clicked and I understood (or at least thought I understood) what was happening it was great! The boss battles were tough, and I wish I had discovered the penalty-free "No Fail" option before completing it! I admit to looking online for a little assistance as got stuck on a few bits, but overall a very clever and enjoyable title.

Thanks, I hadn't heard of this before, but will try to give it a go over the next couple of months. How would you rate the difficulty (if you can remember!)? Thomas Was Alone was a good difficulty to play alongside my wife, so I'm wondering whether it would be a good game for us to try together.

Merry Christmas to you & to everyone here! Hope you all have a great time this festive season. 🎄

Thanks, I finally got around to watch it this week and I ended up binging it. I thought it was great! With so many people I was worried it might struggle as you wouldn’t get to know or care enough about the individuals. I was wrong though, and even if you didn’t care about them, the intrigue of how each vote would go was immense. No spoilers - glad I watched it though! @EEVILMURRAY if they do invite you to apply for any future seasons you should do it! 😃

Thomas Was Alone (Switch) So I'm around 10 years too late, but I finally got around to playing Thomas Was Alone following its Switch release (despite being available on virtually every platform available in the last decade!). I can see why this won a BAFTA, as somehow the writing and Danny Wallace's narration give personality to a bunch of quadrilaterals! A 2D puzzle-platformer, where each 4-sided shape has distinct controls (e.g., one may jump high, one is small, one floats in water, etc.) and you have to utilise their skills to reach the goal in each of the 100 mostly well-designed courses. Each level is short, and the whole game only took a few hours as it's more about solving how to get each shape to the exit as opposed to challenging platforming (well, except for the DLC). I played this with my wife and we both enjoyed this and its charming writing.

I absolutely think there should be a new Switch soon. Sales-wise it’s still excellent, which is obviously good. While there have been some strong games this year and ones that have used the Switch’s capabilities to its fullest, I am finding more and more that are struggling on the Switch hardware. The obvious recent titles notwithstanding, I’m finding a great disparity now with the multi-platform games. I understand that graphically it’s hard to compare, but when performance and gameplay is becoming an issue that’s where it gets frustrating. Tunic did well at hiding it’s graphical differences, despite longer load times, we’ve seen Sonic Frontiers’ differences, but even things like the Two Point games which look good, have had to reduce gameplay elements (such as maximum number of buildings) to compromise. I love the portability of the Switch, and if the differences are minor then I’d usually opt for the portability of the Switch version. As these differences get larger it’s making the argument to get the Switch version harder. I also worry about Zelda: TotK as I desperately hope that the Switch hardware doesn’t stop this becoming as amazing a game as it should be. Finally, a fresh start to the eShop! Please! There is so much rubbish on there now it’s increasingly difficult to navigate. At least a new Switch would be a fresh start. Even if the current games still work, at least they could be filtered out, or Switch-specific could have their own section or app on the new machine.

Yes for Sports Story! A great finale & lovely surprise! (Ok a surprise for me, sounds like everyone else predicted it! 😄) Can’t wait to try this one.

New Pokémon Snap (Switch) Improved upon every aspect of the original and I really enjoyed it. While my wife saw it and thought it looked really repetitive, thanks to the updates there are a surprising number of stages, and there’s variation within them by playing them in day or night. I didn’t always find it clear how I got a Pokémon to behave in a certain way, so a lot of poses were achieved by blind luck, and some of the more secret Pokémon have a very set, but unclear method for finding them, so you have to be patient enough to try things. I liked that it felt as though you were traversing a world filled with Pokémon and so was thoroughly satisfied with it.

I haven’t watched it yet, but the concept has my attention. I watched and enjoyed The Mole on Netflix and assumed it would be similar, but then heard the rules and it’s basically the rules of the game ‘Gnosia’ (but sounding more Mafia than Sci-Fi). I really liked that game and it’s concept so I’m sold! 😃 What are people’s opinions of it so far?

Overboard! (Mobile) A wonderfully written choose your own adventure story, by the same developers as 80 Days. I used to really enjoy choose your own adventure books, and the clever twist of this mystery is that you already know you’re the culprit and you’re trying to work out how to get away with it (a “youdunnit” if you will… see what I did there!). It initially got found out on my first few playthroughs, but as it should be, I could use the experience and things I learned to try different narrative choices, or visit areas in a different order, to eventually succeed. Or kind of anyway. Turns out there are a variety of endings, and the game does give new objectives, usually ones I hadn’t realised were even possible, and I did play it longer than intended to try and find these additional endings and the fun writing they usually lead to. Overall, it may have only been a few hours in total, and I did give up finding all the endings in the end (I found enough), but i enjoyed this.

Fantastic! Exciting to know they haven’t given up on the series. With how fast you need to move cards to do well in the later races it’ll be much tougher when not using touch controls.

From the first few seconds of the “Mario, Mario” chanting reminiscent of the original Super Mario Bros 3 commercial I was won over by the various nods and Easter Eggs contained in this trailer. Looking forward to reading up on the huge number I will have missed. Overall impressions from me are positive again from this. Whether you like their films or not, this has struck me as very much an Illumination movie.

I always found the Wii U a mixed bag and a real tease. It constantly gave with one hand while taking away with the other. I remember holding the gamepad and thinking it felt big, but that I could get used to it (which I did). I was excited that it had a touch screen, but then was quickly concerned that it felt similar to the DS, in that the touch aspect felt a little less responsive then an iPad and that it didn’t like multi-touch. With the touch screens on the iPad quickly improving, I wasn’t sure how well it would last over the next potential 5 years. It felt it had lots of tech demoes ideas, but sadly never really transitioned into games (e.g., it had some video demoes where you’d follow a set path on the TV, but you could look around you on the gamepad screen, but then nothing was ever really done with the idea). Some great first-party games, but little third party support. Handheld mode so someone else could watch TV was great, but the controller couldn’t cope with being very far from the system. I thought Nintendo Land was fantastic, but only short-term fun. I remember inviting friends round, and the games were short-term fun, but no-one was really interested in playing long sessions of hide-and-seek for instance, so we quickly went back to our regular multiplayer games. I loved Wind Waker HD and was more than happy to play it again having enjoyed it on GameCube (no Tingle Tuner mind, which I liked on the GameCube). Playing it through with my wife was a great experience. The best games were great, but it was a very disheartening time overall with the sparse release schedule. I never played it, but I’m hearing a lot of love for Affordable Space Adventures, which is a game that only works on WiiU.

I like this topic and the scope for ‘lowness’! 😀 Some great examples suggested. A few others sprung to mind: WWE 2K (2019, multi-platform) A buggy mess that saw #FixWWE2K20 trending and contributed to the cancellation of the following years’ title, and a 2-year gap for this usually annual wrestling game. Long-time developer Yukes had left, and somehow this game was allowed to be released in a clearly unfit state. Things continued to get worse too, as the more expensive collector’s edition, supposedly containing wrestler autographs, were sent out without the actual signatures (which lead to one wrestler, Edge, setting up a PO Box himself to allow people to send him their copies to sign). To add a huge heap of ironic misery to the situation, the game even initially suffered a game-breaking bug when attempting to play WWE 2K20 when the year changed to 2020! Yes game fixes were subsequently implemented, but the damage had been done. It didn’t kill the series, but caused a huge black mark, a delay to future games, and a lot of rebuilding (both with game engine and in reputation). Bubsy 3D (1996/7, PS1) This attempt at revitalising the Bubsy series effectively killed it (at least we thought / hoped, until a new game was made 20 years later!). It was being developed as one of the first console 3D platformers and then shortly before release the developers saw Super Mario 64 demoed and swiftly realised how inferior Bubsy looked in comparison! It was too late to change though, so their game was released and made to look even worse in the shadow of Mario’s 3D masterpiece. Balan Wonderworld (2021, multi-platform) Ok, so I cheated as I really can’t see this becoming a series after the disastrous reception of this! It did however, cause the co-creator of Sonic to leave Square-Enix so is likely considered one of the low points for everyone involved…. According to him, he actually left six months before the game was released, after complaining about the state of the game.

Persona 5 Royal is really good! I understand the hype now. It took me a little while to get into, and everything seemed a little overwhelming, but I’ve hit that point now where it’s got me hooked. I think I’m about halfway through, and I’m going to stop writing so I can get back to it! 😃

I was a little worried by the lack of Switch reviews, but they’ve started coming through it seems, which is reassuring. I’ve just watched the GameXplain gameplay comparison and yes the PS5 version certainly looks much better, but the Switch version still looks perfectly playable and it doesn’t appear as though the gameplay is altered.

No not anymore. I do miss the days of N64 / NGamer magazine as I enjoyed their sense of humour and found their reviews seemed pretty accurate with how I felt about the games I played. I do enjoy the different articles that paper magazines tended to put together, and I don’t see anywhere near enough online. I guess they had to fill pages each month so were forced to be creative. I am pleased to see that the likes of Edge & Famitsu have still managed to hold on to their reputations when it comes to reviews, and a high score in them is still held in high regard.

Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle (Switch) Playing the original Mario + Rabbids game and it really is the surprise that many others exclaimed it was. Thankfully UbiSoft have avoided the mistakes other developers have made when taking a popular gaming mascot and giving them a firearm *cough* Shadow *cough*. The over-the-top weaponary suits the game’s aesthetic. The battles are fun, the block puzzles inbetween do feel more for padding, and the ‘eccentric’ humour of the Rabbid cosplayers thankfully doesn’t really interfere with gameplay. It didn’t quite feel as polished as a first party Mario game, with a few graphical glitches, but I thought it was solid and much more enjoyable than I thought it would be! It has made me more interested in Sparks of Hope.

Mario Party Superstars (Switch) Having grown up on the N64 Mario Party games, it felt good to return to many of the classic mini games I recognised. 100 of them may sound a lot, and even though they’re the better ones from previous games and ditched any motion controlled ones, the familiarity with so many of them (even though I admittedly haven’t played Mario Party 5-10) meant I was left wanting more. 5 boards didn’t feel enough either, especially as a couple are quite basic. It’s probably one of the better Mario Party games, taking the most popular parts of previous games and including online play. I do feel greedy, but it feels as though they’ve included the bare minimum of what they needed to, and unless any DLC suddenly appears then I’m left wishing there was more!

Haha! I forgot I posted on that, nice spot! Anything to help promote it as I have a real soft spot for the N64 (& I really enjoyed the book).

Five Dates (Switch) Conceived, developed, released & set during the pandemic lockdown. Five Dates is an interactive rom-com that I enjoyed more than I expected to. You watch video dates between protagonist Vinny and five female matches. Occasionally you’ll be given a few seconds to select a response from multiple choices, and these can affect how the date plays out, and whether you are able to get any follow-up dates. Since the actors are all real and this was filmed during lockdown there’s no way for the characters to meet up in person. I liked it as, while I guess it’s classed as a dating sim, the game focuses more on the rapport between the characters instead of just trying to hook up. Vinny is likeable and sincere, the actors are good and the writing is pleasant. I didn’t find it laugh out loud funny, but I did find it charming and chuckled on quite a few occasions. I didn’t mind the reminder of being in lockdown, and found it to be a short and simple feel-good experience.

If only so I can show off my copy too 😃, but I agree this is an outstanding and comprehensive summary of the N64 library. His writing and summaries are excellent.

I heard really good things about this on a Podcast recently and glad to hear you’ve backed up those opinions! How long would you say it is out of interest?