Dcubed

Wrong Capcom/SNK crossover! I still think this one is neat at least. It’s so bizarre, everyone is so off model and out of character that it’s kind of endearing? How… honourable? But yeah, everyone wants Capcom VS SNK instead.

Something neat and something funny. Nintendo did an interview with a couple of the previous NWC winners on the Switch’s News channel thingy; which is neat! The funny part? It’s ok Nintendo. You don’t need to censor the word “Atari”, we’re all grown-ups now; we can handle it

Having a great time playing through PD on Secret Agent again! Have also been unlocking some of the Speedrun Challenge Cheats along the way too. Here’s a few I’m particularly proud of… Such an incredible game! One of Rare’s absolute finest!

Honestly? I hardly do myself anymore. There’s usually just no need to do so when almost everyone accepts card now, even most corner shops do these days. I’d never put my card details on my phone though, I draw the line there as that’s just lunacy. Your phone gets nicked or borrowed nefariously? Oh well, you just had your bank account details stolen then!

Oh no!! Some poor guy who was interviewed on the BBC couldn’t get his doner kebab because the computers didn’t work. He was left disappointed, DISAPPOINTED even! Oh the tragedy of it all!

I think it’s most likely a matter of them seeing NWC coming out and thinking “Oh shit! We never did fix our cackhanded solution for charging those stupid NES Joycons… quick! Hack something together ASAP!” This thing is blatantly just a Switch charging grip with a bit of plastic glued onto the back to make it stand up. Look how ugly that thing is with the wire sticking out the top of it, utterly laughable.

You aren’t kidding! It’s literally Chibi Robo with the serial numbers filed off, right down to the musical beats as you walk. The story synopsis is brilliant though. I love how on the nose it is

The OG Xbox and the 360 were nice machines, with a bit of their own identity, but the Xbone and onwards are basically just low-end PCs in a box. You aren’t really missing all that much, especially since Sony and Microsoft consoles from 2013 onwards are basically identical machines that mostly play the same games and offer the same gameplay experience. Going back to the OG Xbox today? It has some pretty nice exclusive SEGA titles, as well as the best versions of Outrun 2/SP (which are worth the price of the console by itself), as well as some great support from Tecmo (especially Ninja Gaiden Black) and a couple of noteworthy exclusive western titles like Crimson Skies, but otherwise? Unless you’re into Halo (which I’m not), it’s mostly a better version of the PS2 with some (at the time) console exclusive PC ports which are largely redundant today. I’d still say it’s worth checking out, but don’t pay too much for one; hell, you can even get modded ones with expanded hard drives for pretty cheap these days (I nabbed one for around £50 on eBay a couple years back or so). The hardware itself is quite nice and generally well built, much nicer to use than the kinda janky PS2, so it’s a good way to experience a decent selection of the biggest multiplatform games of the 6th gen; and a console that also offers some noteworthy exclusives. As for the 360? It was really something you had to experience at the time, as it really did offer something compelling with its robust online network, groundbreaking initiatives like Netflix (the first non-PC device to offer support for the service!), downloadable movies etc and the rather excellent XBLA; as well as things like custom soundtracks and the best versions of most multiplatform games of the day. It was a pioneer of many of the online services we take for granted today. But going back to it now? Almost all of its exclusive titles have now either been ported to PC/modern consoles, or are backwards compatible on modern Xbox consoles, while almost all of its unique identity has been stripped away with subsequent system updates and ports away to other platforms; so there isn’t much value in getting one today.

Ok, I know this is more of an N-America thing than an N-Europe thing, but this is still pretty cool… The actually got back some of the original NOA Game Counsellors from 1980s era Nintendo to do this ad

Alright dudes? Who’s up for a bit of Four Swords after the ol’ Mazza Kart tonight? @S.C.G? @BowserBasher? Or is everybody dead dave?

Have you even played a video game before?

I guess the Souls games are the biggest hole in my gaming repertoire. I've tried Dark Souls before, but I just didn't enjoy it all that much; not because of the difficulty, but because of the Dn'D style trappings with all of its stats and inventory management. I'm just not much of a Dn'D fan and I don't find generic Tolkien esc fantasy all that interesting (Outside of LOTR itself... which Dn'D is basically pure copyright infringement of). Ultimately I just found the game kind of boring outside of its basic combat mechanics. That being said though, I do like it when games mix in actual dice roll mechanics into their gameplay, like with Crimson Shroud or Disco Elysium; so I can gel with games that attempt to simulate the tabletop RPG format in an abstract manner. But I have never enjoyed western RPGs and I don't like Dn'D (and lets face it, all western RPGs are just reskinned Dn'D to some extent). Actually, maybe Dn'D is the biggest aspect of gaming that has just passed me by?

Also yes. This is indeed going to be the first ever internally developed 18-rated Nintendo game (probably co-developed by Mages, like the previous remakes were, but still!). A genuine piece of Nintendo history in the making! (And very fitting for a sequel to a series so tightly tied to Nintendo’s original R&D lineage; this is as true-blue Nintendo as it gets! ). Oh this is so cool! Sakamoto has been talking about how he’s wanted to do a new FDC for almost 2 decades at this point, and even Miyamoto has expressed how he and many other Nintendo staff want to do a new Adventure game, but that market/budgeting realities have been holding them back for years… So awesome to finally see the bean counters at Nintendo finally loosen up and let them make these passion projects!

Going from being an obscure Japanese only game, to full-on worldwide HD remake, to brand new game in the span of just a couple years or so? Quite the glow up! So great to see Nintendo get back into adventure games in a big way

(Ok, it’s not technically a new IP, but close enough ).

It’s looking pretty grim, isn’t it? The polls are looking like a Republican landslide right now, and Biden is refusing to see the writing on the wall… America is so screwed… We could well be looking at a whole new age of fascism as Trump starts enacting revenge on those who “wronged” him if they can’t kick out Biden and get someone in who has a chance of actually stopping the neo-nazi party from winning.

Great multiplayer game, but I do have one big issue with it… the camera is just too far zoomed in; you just don’t get a wide enough field of view to react properly… something that could be nicely resolved with a new HD game… … no, not that one, and not that one either. Kindly one that isn’t a steaming pile of goat shit, thank you.

I need to get this game at some point. Ain’t no way it ever gets added to NSO, so long as EA continue to hold the rights sadly…

That's the thing though... it isn't really a joke at all. Pokemon Snap is basically a Star Fox game, with a very heavy emphasis on scoring and optimisation of said scoring. Granted, it lacks the ability to duck & weave through enemy fire and the surrounding environment, but the set of items that you get gives you enough ability to interact with the environment & choose/alter your path to make up for this and seperate it from your typical light gun game. I've said it many times before and I still believe this. This is the biggest part of the game's appeal that most people do not understand (and indeed, something that Namco failed to understand with its Switch sequel; as they turned it into more of a sleepy safari photography game). Pokemon Snap is an arcade score-attack rail shooter, just wearing a photography skin. Everything involving the photography aspect of the game is just mere window dressing around the core rail-shooter gameplay. It's a proper rush to see those scores multiply as you game the system to achieve the most optimal photos possible If I have any major flaw to levy against the game though? It's that there is an optimal path to take with each stage; with only certain types of photos leading to the best possible score. I'd chalk this one up to an overall lack of Pokemon variety and a limited number of stages, with only a mere 63 Pokemon being available in-game and just 6 stages in total... a casualty of being moved from 64DD to standard N64 cartridge no doubt. Either way, I still love the hell out of the original N64 game; it really does help scratch that Star Fox itch

That sounds pretty realistic

What else is there to say? The better side won. A team that only starts playing football when they’re down doesn’t deserve to win.

Finally, some proper aggressive and forward play! About time England woke up!

You may be waiting a while as I’m gonna be pretty busy with work over the next few days but you’ll get some impressions at some point!

There are quite a few more JPN only first party GBA games (Earthbound Endings, Magical Vacation, Tomato Adventure, Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade and Custom Robo GX), but unlike the ones previously mentioned, they’d be unplayable without extensive Japanese knowledge and would require full English localisations… which ain’t happening for a “free” NSO release. They’d have to get the paid standalone FESD&TBOL treatment. That being said, Nintendo have been known to sit on previously unreleased localisations before (The EU versions of Drill Dozer and Wario Ware Twisted immediately spring to mind, as does ASH on the DS), so who knows what else is sitting in their vaults just waiting to be released?

Oh wow! That’s awesome! Have always wanted to try these games out Shame that they haven’t been translated but AFAIK, these games don’t present much of a language barrier to actually playing through these games as they’re fairly straightforward platformers; so it shouldn’t be much of an issue here. Hopefully this means that we’ll also end up getting Kururin Paradise, Guru Guru Champ, F-Zero Climax, Rhythm Tengoku and the Bit Generations games as well at some point on the NSO service