Dcubed

Secondary to the bombshell discovery that was Photo Dojo DX (a cancelled 3DS sequel to one of DSiWare's best games), it just so happens to have an absolute banger of a soundtrack! The full soundtrack (of 8 songs) from this unreleased demo can be heard here: https://www.youtube.com/@saladplainzone/videos

A bunch of E3 2010 3DS showfloor demos have just been found on a prototype console and dumped. These include some never-before-reported behind closed doors demos... INCLUDING A CANCELLED SEQUEL TO THE DSiWARE CLASSIC, PHOTO DOJO!!!!! @Glen-i, @RedShell THIS IS NOT A DRILL! NINTENDO WERE MAKING PHOTO DOJO DX AND ACTUALLY CANCELLED IT!!!!! Photo Dojo DX footage starts at 16:00 BTW.

Patience! The whole post isn't done yet... I just accidentally hit the submit button a bit too early

Then I'm either gonna wait for an inevitable "next gen port" (Hi Bayonetta 3), or slap myself for being dumb enough to wait

Well it's now 2025, so it's too late for me to add anything more to this list (sorry Mouthwashing). 8. Penny's Big Breakaway While I haven't finished the game, I have certainly enjoyed my time with it so far (playing the Steam PC version). The control mechanics are great, with a really nice sense of momentum, and the gameplay is really quite novel. 3D platformers in general are a rarity, let alone a good one, and this certainly is a good one. I do have to say though, that the game is let down by its rather samey looking and feeling environments; and its levels do tend to drag on for too long. So this is a game that I enjoy more in short bursts, as it can get rather repetitive after a while. Still, an excellent first effort from Evening Star and well worth playing; just don't try ploughing through it in one go, or else you may end up feeling burnt out. 7. Arzette: The Jewel of Faramore This was a delightful little gem that came as if from nowhere. A love letter to the Unholy Triforce that turned out far better a game than it had any right to be. While it won't knock your socks off with incredibly novel or amazing unique gameplay mechanics, it's simple a solid little sidescrolling action platformer that takes a very rough set of games and manages to pull something good out of them. While it's not the utter miracle that Haunted Castle Revisited was, Arzette was a joy to play as someone who always saw potential in the CDI Zelda games, and you can feel the love poured into the game from every corner. It also helps to satiate the hunger for Shantae Advance quite nicely, being a similar style of game. Solid game, made with a lot of love. What's not to like? 6. Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown I haven't finished this one either (do need to get back to it at some point), but this is a rather delightful metroidvania take on the classic 2D sidescrolling PoP gameplay from what I've played so far. The obvious point of inspiration here is Metroid Dread. It's very very obvious that the team at Ubisoft Montpellier were massive fans of Metroid Dread in particular... I mean... I can't really blame them really, because Metroid Dread is incredibly fucking good; as the inspiration shows in every aspect of the game's presentation, movement mechanics, bosses and overall game design. I've really enjoyed the time I've spent with it so far, despite not really caring a lick for the story or characters at all (though the option for Farsi dialogue is pretty cool, I have to admit). They did a great job of making Sargon just feel good to move around, this is a game with very good game feel. While I gather that the game goes on for a bit longer than it really should, this is a really solid tribute to both classic 2D Prince of Persia, as well as Metroid Dread. It also looks pretty swanky in stereoscopic 3D to boot! Well worth a play, and certainly one of the most criminally overlooked games of 2024. 5. Haunted Castle: Revisited Probably the single most impressive game of 2024, purely for how they managed to create something out of nothing. It cannot be overstated how incredibly awful the original Haunted Castle is, so to get a brand new Castlevania game that somehow manages to weave gold from pure shit is nothing but the finest of alchemy. Bravo M2! 4. Emio: The Smiling Man This is one of only two 1st party Nintendo titles from 2024 that I actually played this year (I mean... it's hard to make a fully 2D point n' click adventure run badly really), but I made a damn good choice to pick this one; because it's a cracker of a case. It's certainly not for everyone, as it requires a bit of patience for some intentionally obtuse progression and a rather slow start to the story, but I thoroughly enjoyed my time with it. The ending is every bit as hype inducing as Sakamoto was playing it up to be, and also every bit as controversial. A genuine bit of Nintendo history made right before your eyes with this one. 3. 1000XResist The single best narrative in video gaming throughout 2024. Easily. (not even Mouthwashing comes close, and I like Mouthwashing!) 2. Super Mario Party Jamboree Returning to the traditional formula, Jamboree is just simply a top-shelf Mario Party title through and through. While I haven't had as much time to play it as I have wanted to, I've loved every moment I've spent with this game. Excellent board designs with plenty of interesting gimmicks and options for strategic plays, a well balanced and nuanced set of items, and just an excellent set of minigames and side modes. It's simply just a full and complete package. You won't be pining for DLC here, it is so utterly packed with brilliant stuff that you'll be playing it with your friends for years. The online support is also top-shelf, as is the presentation (honestly, it puts basically every other game released on Switch this year to absolute shame. And it does so at a full 1080p/60FPS without needing new hardware, it's simply just one of the best looking and running games on the platform). The Buddy system is also kind of brilliant, allowing for some utterly ridiculous plays; such as potentially buying 2-4 stars in one turn! The only real complaint I have to make is that the Jamboree Buddy minigames can make matches go on for quite a while, with even 15 turn matches often clocking in at almost 2 hours; it's a bit of a time committment to make for group sessions, even by series standards. It's just so much fun that the time will just fly by, but it does mean that longer matches are usually out of the question; which is a bit of a shame, as some board events and items don't really come into play unless you play longer turn games, so you will miss out on some of the intended strategic gameplay unless your group can really commit to longer play sessions. Still, that's really it. Outside of that one issue, the game is everything a Mario Party fan could really ask for. It's a brilliant continuation of a superb multiplayer series, and a very worth sequel to Mario Party Superstars/Super Mario Party. There's just a whole lot to love here, and as a long-time fan of the series? I'm massively pleased with what Nintendo Cube have pulled off here. Finally, I just want to give a special shoutout to one minigame in particular... and that is Slappy Go Round, which might well be the single greatest Duel Minigame in the series' entire 25 year history. It's so simple and so utterly brilliant! A pure social mindgame nightmare! This single minigame is worth the price of entry alone 1. Balatro Kings go brrr... Kings go brrr Overall? A year very much dominated by narrative-driven games and some surprise out-of-nowhere hits. Not many new good multiplayer games this year to choose from, but we did get some fantastic NSO re-releases with newly added online play (especially Perfect Dark and Four Swords); so combined with Jamboree? Not a terrible year overall for multiplayer fun. I'm not gonna include replays, but I will include games that I played that either came out in English in 2024 for the first time; or ones that I played for the first time this year... 8. Lunar: The Silver Star I haven't finished this game yet, but I did start playing it this year. It's a game that is surprisingly ahead of its time in many ways, from its surprisingly good voice acting and (mostly) quality localisation, to the way in which sprites show visible equipment changes and the way in which NPC can give multiple lines of dialogue when spoken to multiple times. The music is nice and the battles are quick & snappy. While I wouldn't say that there's anything really revolutionary for the time with its gameplay, it's just a well made RPG with likable characters and a good-enough story. Certainly one of the better RPGs of its era, though it's not really a patch on the best that the SNES had to offer. 7. Pang! 3 A great game with an awkward title. I've been playing this one quite a bit at the Heart of Gaming arcade, and while I had played some of the Pang! games before? I hadn't played this one. This is a great little action puzzle title that expands on the formula of popping bubbles with your gun/lasso thingy. Featuring a strange mexican/fine arts mashup theme and some high energy music and sound effects/voices, this is some of the best arcade action puzzle gameplay you're gonna find. 6. Virtua Cop 3 An excellent 2003 follow-up to SEGA's seminal light gun shooter series. Its new bullet-time mechanics would actually go on to directly inspire 2006's Afterburner Climax. Otherwise? It's a stoic game that focuses on the simple joy of shooting baddies as a copper from the future. If all cops are bastards? Then this is a bastard of a good game. Hopefully it gets a decent home port one day. 5. Tetris Battle Gaiden What if Tetris and Puyo Puyo had a baby... no, not that one, or that one either, but rather this 1995 Japanese-only SNES game. Released here in the west for the first time as part of the Tetris Forever collection, Tetris Battle Gaiden is a falling block puzzle game of the VS variety. Unlike your usual Tetris game, this one is focused squarely on VS gameplay against either the CPU or another player. While very clearly inspired by the massive success of Puyo Puyo and its sequel (fair's fair right?), what makes this game unique is the cast of characters with unique powers that can be used to hinder your opponent. Of course, Halloween is the best character, and not just because he flips the bird at his opponents, but because his level 4 power can be used to double the power of your attacks, and that's stupid awesome! Great game, damn shame it took so long to come out over here though. BTW, while I don't include collections in game rankings as a general rule, I just wanted to take the opportunity to point out how great Tetris Forever is as a package. The interviews are really great, and the supplementary material is just fantastic. Even if you already own every game in the collection, it's well worth checking out for the excellent non-game material! Anyway, if Single player puzzlers give you Zs, and you love giving your opponents an L? Tetris Battle Gaiden will fit your tastes to a T. I wholeheartedly recommend it. Fuck you Shaman! 4. F-Zero Climax This 2004 Japanese exclusive GBA game was the last game in the series up until F-Zero 99 came out last year. Like its GBA predecessor, GP Legend, this game was developed by Suzak and is based on the F-Zero anime series. While I have my issues with GP Legend (in particular, its tracks feel like they were designed by a five year old, and the physics feel floaty and off), Climax is a surprisingly big improvement in just about every area. While it looks very similar on the surface, mechanically it actually plays quite differently, with a much greater sense of speed and a number of new control and boost mechanics. The most notably one is perhaps the Boost Fire move, which seeks to combine the boost mechanics of both 2D and 3D F-zero into something ridiculous. BOOST FIRE!!!!!!!!!!! The track design has also been significantly improved from its predecessor, now featuring sensible layouts! But they do also include plenty of opportunities for crazy and risky shortcuts. I really like the tracks on offer here, but if that's not enough? You even have a track editor, so you can make the five-year-old designed monstrosities of your best nightmares! While I need to spend more time playing it still, I'm really impressed with Climax so far. It's much better than GP Legend, and it's a shame that we never got it originally. 3. The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles As I previously mentioned in my Gaming Diary writeup for The Great Ace Attorney 2: Resolve, it isn't really a sequel, but rather the second part of one big game. As such, I am grouping the two releases together as one title; same as with Golden Sun/TLA and Sonic 3 & Knuckles. And while I do have some issues with the game as a whole, most notably with the game's pacing (the first half honestly feeling like a bit of a slog, until the second half starts popping off), I thoroughly enjoyed my time with this game as a whole. Just be prepared to sink some serious hours into it in order to see the story through to its conclusion (took me about 75 hours in all, which is about as long as the first four Ace Attorney games combined with some yen and shillings left over). 2. Sonic Superstars I played the Steam version and had a fantastic time with this rather lovely return to form for the blue blur. Spot on physics combined with good level design and some fun new gimmicks make for a pretty great little modern take on the classic MD Sonic gameplay formula. Just don't bother with the rather crappy online multiplayer battle mode. 1. Ace Attorney Investigations 2: Prosecutor's Gambit This would probably be tied for GOTY alongside Balatro if they were in the same list, I can't really decide between the two. Funnily enough, this is also how I probably would've felt if the game actually got released back in 2011 like it was originally supposed to (as it would've been tied with Skyward Sword for my GOTY in 2011). I've already waxed enough poetic about this game elsewhere, but long story short? This is the best game in the entire Ace Attorney series, and every bit worth the 13 year wait it took to get localised. I missed out on almost every Nintendo first party release this year, since I'm now waiting to play them in better form on Switch 2. I'd love to play the remake of Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door for instance, but with that game running at only half the framerate of the GCN original? (30FPS vs the original GCN game's 60FPS), I really can't justify the purchase right now. I'm really hoping that TTYD gets its 60FPS back when played on Switch 2, as the gameplay really suffers from the worse performance (particularily with the Superguard mechanic). Same goes for the likes of TLOZ: Echoes of Wisdom. As excited as I am to play a brand new 2D Zelda game that actually appears to be a real Zelda game, and not open world rubbish fake Zelda? I can't bring myself to play it right now when it runs so badly on the current Switch model; especially when I know that Switch 2 is only just around the corner. Even though most of Nintendo's output this year were remakes and remasters? I'd still like to play them, but there's not much point in doing so right now when they're all probably gonna play quite a bit better in a few more months. So that leaves this rather large list of 1st party 2024 titles below... Outside of Nintendo's first party releases? I wish I had a chance to play Lorelei and the Laser Eyes, it looks right up my alley; but I just haven't been able to dedicate the time due to competing priorities. Same goes for Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes, Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D Remake (hopefully in decent form on Switch 2, because it runs like shit on the current Switch and I'd like to play it on a Nintendo system) and Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island. I also want to play UFO 50, Antonblast, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth (hey! That's coming out on PC this month!) and Astro Bot (PC port plz). I also still need to get the Jackbox Naughty Pack and Jackbox Survey Scramble, as well as Peglin, Visions of Mana, Unicorn Overlord and The Plucky Squire. So there's plenty of 2024 games that remain in my backlog (Not Mouthwashing though, I've played that one now).

Problem is that if I make it a pledge, Nintendo's gonna read it and screw me over by delaying the console until 2027... so best not jinx it

As far as New Year's Resolutions go? The big one for me is finally getting round to playing most of Nintendo's Switch lineup from 2022-2024 when Switch 2 finally comes out this year. Ever since Bayonetta 3 and Xenoblade 3 came out, I've basically held off on playing any of Nintendo's big first party releases since I've been just so fed up of how poorly most of the games run on the current Switch 1 model. So when Switch 2 comes out? I've got a big list of games to play, including Bayonetta 3, Pikmin 4, TLOZ: Echoes of Wisdom, Super Mario Bros Wonder, Xenoblade 3, Bayonetta Origins, Fire Emblem Engage, Mario & Luigi Brothership and more. As long as Nintendo don't let me down, and these games finally start running better on the new hardware, this is gonna be the big catchup year I've been waiting for!

I've actually got a quick one to add that I just played through today. We're kicking off this year with... Mouthwashing This little indie horror came out suddenly out of nowhere towards the end of September last year, and I figured what better way to kick off the new year with a festive halloween title! This is (mostly) a first person "walking simulator" game, where the narrative is the main focus. There are some very light puzzle solving sections and a couple of surprise sections with some light gameplay of various types, but for the most part, you are walking, talking and soaking in the disgusting mouthwash atmosphere. It is thoroughly a psychological horror experience, with some pretty disturbing subject matter that I can't delve too deeply into for sake of spoilers, but make no mistake; this is certainly more Silent Hill and less Resident Evil in that sense. This inventory menu looks familiar... The game's aesthetic is clearly inspired by Silent Hill 1, complete with PS1 era resolution wobbly textures, dithering and jaggies, and it was pulled off to great effect; giving the game an etherial nightmare atmos that leaves you constantly feeling uncomfortable. Equally, the minamalist sound design really pulls you in and brings particular focus onto specific aspects of the environment and the story it's telling. Like 1000xResist, the game also does a lot with a very small amount of assets. There aren't a huge amount of environments, but the game really takes advantage of your familiarity with what few environments are used to mess with your understanding of the story. Speaking of which, I'm a sucker for games with intentionally disjointed, non-linear and fragmented storytelling, so naturally I really liked the way the story was told here. Really though, that's about all I can say without spoiling anything. Mouthwashing is a game that is better the less you know going in, so I really don't want to spoil anything about the story; because the narrative and atmosphere is 95% of the game's total appeal. But yeah, I enjoyed it. It's sordid, twisted psychological horror told in a way that takes good advantage of the medium. It's also short n' breezy; I played it from start to finish in about 3 hours, so you know it's all germ killer and no tooth filler! Kills 99.9% of all germs!

Speaking of NOM reviews. One thing I always gave them mad respect for was for bringing down Wave Race 64’s review score once they got a chance to review the PAL version. IIRC, they originally gave it something like 92% and then bumped it down to around 87% after seeing how shockingly bad the PAL conversion was (keeping the higher score only for the NTSC version). Says it all when even Nintendo’s own official publication is encouraging you to import to avoid their crappy PAL releases

That's bonkers that these guys finally pulled it off! Mad impressive!

So, now that I've finished GAA 1 & 2, it's onto Clock Tower. You know, only the most Christmassy of games! Really enjoying it so far! It's so far ahead of its time it's kind of crazy. You can immediately see how it went on to influence games like Resident Evil (in particular, RE's health system is directly lifted from the original Clock Tower) and it genuinely pulls off a very unsettling atmosphere in the same vein as Dario Argento's films (I do realise that's not a coincidence, you don't need to point it out). The puzzle and level design makes you think of RE1 right away, albiet from a sidescrolling perspective of course. While Scissorman of course heralded the Stalker type enemy, which RE would go on to ape with Mr X and Nemesis; though the semi-random nature of Scissorman's encounters here is arguably even more effective than what Capcom pulled off years later. Yeah, it's clunky in places, and the decision to both make running drain your health and have it take so long to regenerate your health is a bit silly (though the enhanced "Clock Tower Rewind" version actually fixes these issues, I chose to start with the original version), but it offers unsettling atmosphere in spades. Well worth a play for any fan of traditional survival horror, or just point n' click adventure games in general. So far I've managed to get one ending... the worst one (which is kind of a joke ending of sorts, you deserve it you monster!), seven more to go! BTW, while I don't really have any major issues with the port itself (the localisation feels faithful and appropriate, while the emulation quality is fine), I do have one real complaint to make. The pop-up notifications for when you unlock achievements/gallery photos is really obnoxious, it blocks the entire bloody screen! Why!? That and the new Saturday-Morning-Cartoon animated intro & corny vocal song feel really out of place for what is a fairly straight-laced survival horror game. Speaking of which... ... fine. I'll do it myself! I do hope that we get the rest of the Clock Tower series (+ Haunting Ground, why not?) released on modern platforms. Would be nice to play the rest of the series without having to sell an arm and a leg (after cutting them off with scissors).

Shame to see the straight run of surprisingly good Doreamon N64 games come to an abrupt halt.

The craziest part of Mario Tennis on the N64 is that Camelot managed to make the game in just 9 months. That’s 9 months from start to finish, from scratch! No pre-existing assets to work with here, no middleware engine, oh no. Camelot made magic happen here! And that’s really telling of a bygone era. It’s amazing that a game of this calibre could be made so quickly by such a small team! How I miss those days… Honestly though? It’s a miracle that Camelot survived the transition to HD and are still going today with a team not much larger than in the N64 era.

Well here we are! Tis the season for narrative driven point n' clicks apparently, because I played all four of these games as promised (spoilers I suppose!) Emio: The Smiling Man Emio: The Smiling Man is the first brand new game in the Famicom Detective Club series since 1997's BS Famicom Detective Club: Lost Memories in the Snow (released exclusively for the BS Satellaview system, still remaining without any form of re-release or localisation... would be nice to fix that now Nintendo...). Over the past decade or so, Yoshio Sakamoto has consigned himself to a dark room where he decided to work on a couple of Metroid titles alongside MercurySteam. Metroid Dread was kind of really seriously fucking good, and even managed to sell north of 3 million copies, so Nintendo decided to go crazy and entertain the request of a bunch of insane fanboys at MAGES who wanted to remake the first two Famicom Detective Club games, giving them the budget and support needed to make lavish remakes with full voice acting and even full English localisations. Amazingly enough, these games managed not to bomb, because everything sells like gangbusters on the Switch, so fast forward about three years and... Hello, it's me again, in my little dark room. I can afford a couple of candles now. Emio is a ridiculous creative risk from a company that has been unfortunately quite risk averse throughout the Switch generation. Not only did Nintendo have the balls to have one of their key lead creatives work on a brand new HD point n' click adventure game for three years, they also made it their key summer title as well. And if that's not enough, they even let this madman create the first ever internally-developed Nintendo game to earn a PEGI 18 rating (and not for even for gambling references! Oh no. This 18 rating is very much actually deserved). I have had my grievances with Nintendo this generation, but I have nothing but the maddest respect for the majestic testicles on display here. During the game's announcement video, Sakamoto went out of his way to say that the ending in particular would likely end up being "divisive" amongst players. An interesting statement that is perhaps less bold than you might expect at first glance, but this little statement ends up being perhaps the most telling of how this game was written and produced. Without wanting to spoil anything? I can confidently state that every single aspect of this game is written in service of said ending. Yoshio Sakamoto and Kaori Miyachi clearly wrote the ending first and then worked their way backwards, with the majority of the game arguably feeling a bit like "filler" in comparison to the massive unending bombshell that is said ending. That's not to say that the rest of the game isn't thoroughly enjoyable, because it is. Filled with memorable characters and some interesting mysteries along the way, this game takes a much more grounded approach than something like Ace Attorney. You're also a massive creep Speaking of grounded, this game sticks surprisingly close to the original two NES games in terms of gameplay and structure; complete with the same style of investigation where you have to select dialogue options multiple times to "find the flags" needed to progress the story. Despite the passage of more than 30 years inbetween the games, it feels like a natural progression onward. This also includes the setting, which places itself squarely in the mid 90s with CRTs and bulky shoe mobile phones. Outside of the outstanding visuals, this game feels like it could've been released in 1995; whether or not that's a good thing is really down to your own personal preference and taste, but I quite dig it myself. I also dig the focus on urban legends as the motif for the game's story. While the original game was focused on lost memories, and the second game based on a ghost story, Emio focuses on the idea of an urban legend come to life. The motif is well woven into the game's overarching story and ends up feeling pretty believable. Is it real? Or only in your head? I totally get why some people may be upset with how much of a red herring the game's story might feel though compared to its ending, because the storytelling here is very lop-sided. But even without the ending, I still found myself enjoying my time playing boy detective. Felt like I was playing the natural SNES sequel to the original FDC games. But, you know... all good things must come to an end, and... Ho ly Shit! Wow! WHAT an ending! It doesn't just stick the landing, it pulls up the fucking earth along with it! I wish spoiler tags were working properly here so that I could discuss the ending more, but it's probably the most insane thing that Nintendo has ever allowed to be produced. I can't believe that they okayed this, let alone made it! I guess the bad part here is that the ending does end up overshadowing most of the rest of the game, because it really is just that out there. And also handled with a surprising maturity that you wouldn't expect. I thoroughly enjoyed Emio and it's an easy recommendation if you enjoyed the previous FDC games, but you do need to have a certain tolerance for intentionally-obtuse "retro style" adventure game mechanics. The lop-sidedness of the storytelling does leave me feeling a bit trepedicious in how to rate the adventure overall, but it does end up having quite the impact as a result. Sakamoto wasn't kidding when he said the ending would be divisive. Oh, and Nintendo have one last thing to say to all of you... ACAB, as officially sanctioned by Nintendo The Great Ace Attorney: Adventures I have a confession to make. I actually played this game back in 2021 when it got its first ever English localisation. I ended up giving up part-way through finishing it though, as I ended up being busy at the time and I was getting increasingly frustrated with this game and its many issues. But I steeled myself and threw myself back into the courtroom for another go... The Great Ace Attorney Adventures is the first of a duology of games first released on the 3DS as a pair of Japan-only releases in the Ace Attorney series. It wasn't until the two games were packaged together as The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles and released on all platforms in 2021 that we finally got these games in English. These games presented a unique challenge to Capcom's localisation team, as unlike the rest of the series, these titles were actually period pieces; set in a nebulous late 1800s era Victorian Britain/Meiji Era Japan, which dealt with Pheonix Wright's ancestor Ryunosuke Naruhodo (which, rather cleverly, matches up with Phoenix Wright's name in the Japanese version of those games). There was never going to be a way to Wright their way into Japanifornica this time around, as it specifically deals with the tenuous and strained Japan-Britain relationship established in the late 1800s on the background of the British industrial revolution. Oh, and it also happens to star Sherlock Holmes and several real-life people, such as Natsume Sōseki, good luck! Probably a hamburger The original games also came out at a somewhat unfortunate time, towards the end of the 3DS' life as the market for 3rd party games had more or less dried up; and when the Switch was just around the corner. Given the circumstances, it's not surprising in retrospect that Capcom turned down the chance to localise the original 3DS release. The series was already on thin ice in the west, being relegated to digital-only releases and already having spin-off titles skipping localisation (Oh hey! I'm looking at you Ace Attorney Investigations 2: Prosecutor's Gambit, who also just got its first English localisation this year!). But this decision would go on to have future ramifications, which we'll get to later. So what makes this different from the other games in the Ace Attorney series? Why, quite a lot actually. Outside of its wildly different setting and its completely "original" cast of characters, this game is a period piece; which means that the writers can't rely on the usual trappings that the series loves to lean on. That means no fingerprinting, no blood sampling, no ballistic markings, and no updated autopsy reports. This is the late 1800s, there are no mobile phones and modern technology is nowhere to be found. All you have to rely on are your wits and your deduction skills... with a little help from Herlock Sholmes... On second thoughts? Maybe he's not as helpful as I first thought... The investigation sections introduce a new mechanic called the Dance of Deduction. Essentially, Sholmes manages to solve the mystery for you! All by himself! Hooray! Except... I totally would! ... he's not the most competent Great Detective who ever lived, and loves getting everything totally wrong. So it's up to you to set him straight and give him a gentle nudge in the right direction. These sections are really fun and it's always amusing to see what nonsense is going to spew from his mind-palace. Also new to the courtroom is the ability to question multiple witnesses and defendents at the same time, with statements often causing neighbouring witnesses to give away vital clues. This is a great idea in theory, but in practice? It's telegraphed rather obviously and pursuing them is always the correct decision. As such, this mechanic doesn't end up adding much to the overall gameplay, as it just ends up elongating the usual witness statement process. Ironically, if they were to ever bring back this mechanic? It'd be a fantastic fit for Apollo Justice and his crazy eye-of-sauron powers! If they had it so that you had to spot little twitches and tell-tale signs in the neighbouring witnesses? It'd be a much more interesting mechanic than it is here. The other major new mechanic is a big one though. In fact, it's the one big thing that basically every single Ace Attorney fan has been asking for since the very beginning of the series. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you, THE JURY!!! They sure look like a trustworthy bunch Styled like a Victorian-era Jury, you are given 6 jurors who are responsible for rending the verdict of Guilty or Not Guilty. However, this is an Ace Attorney game, and if you know anything about the Ace Attorney series, you'll know that the entire planet Earth is filled with incompetent morons. What could possibly go wrong with letting 6 "randomly" chosen citizens decide the fate of your client!? This is the best new mechanic this game introduces, as it tasks you to pit the jurors against each other to expose how utterly stupid their line of thinking is. It's great, and a natural extension of the find-the-contradiction gameplay that the series is known for. See! I told you! That's a lot of new mechanics, and lot of new stuff thrown at the player! Unfortunately, this brings us to The Great Ace Attorney Adventures' biggest problem... It never feels confident enough to take the training wheels from the player. The cases themselves are all fairly simplistic and don't really tax the player to think outside the box much. The entire game just feels like one big glorified tutorial for a better game, and that's a real big shame. The new mechanics are great, but they're just never really allowed to stretch their legs, and end up feeling underutilised as a result. Another major issue I have is that the dialogue is very long-winded, and the pacing can feel glacial as a result. The localisation itself is utterly superb and a joy to read, but the overall pacing of the story is super slow, far from the snappy and speedy pacing of the original Ace Attorney Trilogy (or indeed, Ace Attorney Investigations 2: Prosecutor's Gambit); and you'll often find yourself internally shouting at the game to get on with it already! It took me around 35 odd hours to complete this game, and that was really way too long; it could've easily have been done in half the time if the game was better paced, as the story isn't nearly complex or interesting enough to sustain that kind of running time. Finally, one other major issue I have (and fair warning here, we're moving into some slight spoiler territory here), the game ends up undermining its own period setting here with Sholmes' inventioney ways... ... ... ... ... Damn, I wish spoiler tags were working properly... ... ... ... Ok, coast should be clear now. Later on in the latter cases, Sholmes and his partner Iris introduce a couple of magic inventions that essentially mimic the blood sampling and fingerprinting mechanics seen in the mainline series. This really rubs me the wrong way, as it goes against the entire point of making a period piece to begin with. Why bother getting away from the modern setting if you're going to re-introduce modern technology elements anyway!? I was quite enjoying the holiday away from the series' usual trappings, but then the writers end up relying on them again anyway. Very disappointing... though that being said, the way that the court deemed much of it to be inadmissable was pretty clever. Also, another thing that did end upsetting me was something that was always going to be unavoidable... You see, this game just so happens to be one of the very few 3rd party 3DS games that actually genuinely took advantage of the stereoscopic 3D capabilities of the system for gameplay purposes, and of course, that was never going to be replicable with newer systems. You'll know exactly what I'm talking about as soon as you see that part of the game, and the developers clearly did the best they could with the circumstance they were lumped with, but it's still a huge shame that it had to happen, as much of the impact is indeed lost as a result... Just turn the 3D slider back up Susato, please. Slight spoilers have now ended While I do have my issues with this game, it's hard to be too mad at it. You're still getting a proper Ace Attorney experience with a wonderfully kooky cast of characters, wonderful presentation and a ridiculous over-the-top story. While I would ultimately say that its my least favourite game in the series, it's still an Ace Attorney game at the end of the day. However, this isn't the end of the story, because this is only one half of The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles after all. I may have to re-consider some of my feelings surrounding this game later on, but it was indeed a seperate release originally on 3DS, so this is how I felt when I first came to the end of my Adventures. I mean, it's impossible to be angry at this really 1000xResist 1000XResist is the debut game by a Canadian development group called Sunset Visitor, a group of people who previously cut their teeth in experimental art-house theatre. Most of the game's developers mainly hail from Hong Kong originally, and their diasporic experience forms the heart of this game's narrative. Without wanting to delve too deeply into the game's story (damn you lack of spoiler tags!!!), this is a narrative-driven 3rd person adventure game with some very light puzzle solving elements. The majority of the gameplay involves walking and talking, so if you're after a rollicking white knuckle action title? You best look elsewhere. However, if you're after a story-driven experience that takes unique advantage of the medium of video games to produce a narrative unlike anything else you've ever felt before? Then this is the game for you. Heh... heard that in a game once... Despite being obstenably a sci-fi story, 1000XResist is a story about the human experience of diasphora, told with a mixture of sci-fi and real-life allegory. But what is truly special about this game isn't necessarily its plot or linear story beats, but rather the manner in which the story is told. The developers' experience in art-house theatre eminates through every facet of the game's visual makeup, with light and shadow forming the basis of every scene, presented in much the same manner as stageshow theatre. This also ties into one of the game's main mechanics, as you page through chunks of time when diving into certain characters' subconcious memories... Stylish AND economical! Despite being a title from a small indie team, you wouldn't know it while playing the game; as it ends up feeling far larger in scope than the sum of its parts. Again, the team's experience in art-house theatre pays dividends here, as they make expert use of select assets and lighting to create a game of large scope on a very modest budget. It's hard to believe that this is their first game, but Sunset Visitor already manages to show up developers multiple times their size; at no point do you ever feel like their vision is compromised due to budgetary constraints, or that the game is any less in scope than what they intended. It's remarkable that they built this game on such a small budget! Speaking of performance, the voice acting and motion capture on display is nothing short of sensational. Again, showing up AAA developers hundreds of times the size of Sunset Visitor, the character performances are utterly stellar. But that's what happens when you get literal theatre actors to perform for your game I suppose. I could give you some context... but you know, spoilers and all that So that's about all I can really say here. 1000xResist is a game that you'll probably enjoy more the less you know going into it, so I probably shouldn't really divulge anything more. In short? It's brilliant, why? That would spoil it, you'll just have to trust me. You should buy it. It comes with free booze! The Great Ace Attorney 2: Resolve This is the second of the Great Ace Attorney duology, originally released in 2017 as a Japan-only release for the Nintendo 3DS. Sequels are nothing new to the Ace Attorney series, but as it turns out, this is not your usual Ace Attorney sequel. No, as it turns out, this isn't really a sequel at all; but rather it's the second part of one large game. Yes, Capcom pulled a Golden Sun here, as this game continues directly where the first part left off. This game fully expects you to have played and completed Adventures before jumping into this one, doing something that no other Ace Attorney game has ever done before. It makes direct reference to specific cases from the first game, and continues directly on from where they left off. If you were the poor sod who lived in Japan in 2017, didn't play Adventures in 2015 and for some strange reason decided to start with this one? Well, you were SOL buddy! Oh, so it was you who skipped Adventures then The first case then acts as your typical tutorial, but this recap is refreshingly brief, as it quickly starts to tax the player with more confounding testimony than was seen throughout most of Adventures already. From there, the story quickly goes off the rails and straight into space, as the kiddie gloves are well and truly off. In many ways, Resolve is a game full of cases that would normally be considered Final Case material; as the writers finally take the training wheels off and throw huge amounts of complexity the player's way. NOW all of a sudden, the decision to package the two games together makes total sense, and both games as a whole hugely benefit from being combined into one big game; The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles. Sonic 3 & Knuckles I can only imagine how cheated I would've felt if I had bought Adventures seperately back in 2015, because it feels so incomplete on its own... but now that the two games come packaged together as one big title? It all makes much more sense now. That being said though, it ends up making the game as a whole feel very lop-sided towards the end, and you realise how much of a massive slog the first part is. The whole package took me around 75 hours to complete and that's kind of ridiculous for an Ace Attorney title; I could complete the entire original trilogy, Apollo Justice and perhaps even Ace Attorney Investigations and still have some change left over in that amount of time. Still, the second half absolutely delivers the payoff that the first half leaves you longing for. It does inherit many of the same issues I have with Adventures (in fact, the issue of magic technology actually gets even worse here if you can believe it!), but the scenarios are so convoluted and ridiculous that you can't help but suspend your disbelief and let it take you on its crazy-ass ride, as it leads you to satisfying conclusion after satisfying conclusion. Infinite Climax So I can't really rate the two games seperately in the end, since they're really just two parts of one big game that were originally sold seperately. While I do feel that the pacing feels very off (starting off very slow, but eventually coalessing into something frenzied), this is a ride well worth taking. Just be prepared to make a serious time commitment. I also need to give a special shoutout to the team responsible for the port-job from 3DS to Switch/modern platforms. They really did go all out with the presentation aspect, up-resing all of the 2D artwork and developing an all new UI that feels totally natural. It's the best that the series has ever looked (and I include the newer re-releases in that), really grade-A stuff. What's also amazing are the massive repository of supplementary materials that you can access from the gallery. It basically includes an entire art-book's worth of reference material and concept art, complete with liner notes from the original artists! They even include a full soundtrack, complete with unused music and liner notes! This is really sensational stuff that I really wish other re-releases would follow suit with! I love this stuff! Capcom really went above and beyond with bringing this game to western audiences, and it deserves the highest level of praise I can give. Long may Ace Attorney continue And with that?

Vengeance Most Foul is absolutely cracking! Aardman knocked it out of the park!