Dcubed

I’ve already finished my course for this month (it went VERY smoothly this time!), so I’m happy to keep the deadline for Sunday I’m in the mood to make some more courses now... will have to make use of the interim I reckon!

I’m happy with that. Les Go! SMB2 it is!

Brilliant read @Julius Great stuff! MGS2 was disturbingly nostadamus-like with its predictions wasn't it? It's interesting that you caught how similar the first half of MGS2 was to MGS1... Since it actually turns out to be a plot point in of itself! When I went back to MGS2 fairly recently though, I was shocked at how little actual gameplay sequences were in the game (and how many of the gameplay sequences that are actually there weren't focused on stealth). There probably are actually more cutscenes than gameplay here (Something that would be taken to absolute comical extremes in MGS4); and its clear to see how MGS3 would take that critisism on board. It's a shame, because the gameplay that is actually there IS really fun; but there really isn't a lot of it.

Right! When’s the next contest starting? It looks like @Sméagol won the last month, so what’s our new theme gonna be? I’m itching to get stuck in

He never got past the fake ending because he couldn't be bothered to farm for the souls you need to get past that moment.

Doh!

That's not even counting the even funnier way of killing him...

HA HA HA HA HA! HA HA HA HA HA! HA HA HA HA HA! Oh just you wait until Portrait of Ruin... I guarantee you that you will waste your first hour of playing the game on making yourself hear two very specific voice clips over and over...

If you told me that Tim Folin guest composed that one tune, I'd believe you!

That's pretty cool. These announcements probably would've been made around then anyway, but it's nice to have some sort of overarching wrapper to help drum up some excitement in E3's absence

The PS2 Shinobi is a good game. It's quite a bit like Ninja Gaiden Xbox; even though it lacks the scope and polish of Tecmo's game, I quite enjoyed the PS2 Shinobi (I haven't played the sequel, Nightshade, yet though. That's one for the future). Glad you grabbed Pulseman while you could. It's a great game!

Well Switch is basically a glorified portable Wii U at this point, so of course you're not gonna find it as exciting the second time around

I’ve been really lazy with writing up stuff over the last few months, but that doesn’t mean that I’ve been lazy about playing games! Let’s right this wrong! Yes, again. But this time I played through it on Hard mode and with Lecarde. Game is still great, you can pretty much just read my previous writeup about the game and it all applies… Ok, this writeup is pretty lazy so far… fine! I’ll offer some new deets then. The level design does a good job of making use of Lecarde’s unique moveset; with his high jump allowing for lots of neat skips and shortcuts in vertically orientated stages. He’s a lot of fun to play as, and is probably the easier character of the two to play through the game with; not all that dissimilar from Maria in Rondo of Blood, though certainly nowhere near THAT overpowered! There are also some unique branching paths that separate the two characters throughout a few of the stages, but these are far and few in-between. You’ll largely be playing through the same stages for the most part, which is a bit of a step down from Rondo of Blood and Dracula’s Curse. Overall though, Lecarde is a great character that shakes up the gameplay nicely; making for a fun way to revisit the game. He also has one of the most ridiculous death animations of the 16-bit era where he stabs himself for absolutely no reason, which is always a bonus. Sadly censored in the PAL version Ok, no more lazy copy/pasting content! Time to offer you guys something new! Order of Ecclesia was the last of the Metroid-style Castlevania games and would be Igarashi’s (affectionately Iga) final contribution to the genre until its spiritual successor, Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, hit the scene last year. Now, astute gaming fans will no doubt have noticed that Konami were absolutely pumping out handheld Castlevania titles throughout the mid 2000s, with no less than 6 titles released between 2001-2008 (and that’s not even counting the PS2/Xbox titles). As a producer, Iga was quite frank about the severe timeframe and budgetary limitations that his Castlevania titles had to contend with. Konami simply never gave him the time and budget that he really needed, and they wanted games out quick, quick, quick! Quite how his team managed to pump out so many great games during this time? Well, it comes down to a bit of witchcraft and a lot of very smart cost-saving & production trickery. His games would famously re-use sprites dating all the way back to 1993’s Rondo of Blood, they’d reuse the same game engine, reuse music and also cut corners wherever possible with the production. This was a team under extraordinary time and budget constraints, and they had mostly done a great job with the handheld titles thus far. But fans were starting to grow tired of the Metroidvania formula by this time, and many were asking for a return to a more classic style of gameplay that resembled the 8bit and 16bit titles. So what could Iga do in this situation? Why, he’d go for the Best-Of-Both-Worlds approach of course! This map isn’t just for show this time Order of Eccelsia is not a pure Metroidvania like Iga’s other titles, instead, it’s actually a linear game that is split up into stages, not unlike the classic 8bit and 16bit titles. Indeed, it isn’t until the very end of the game (past the point of the fake ending even!) that you finally get to see Dracula’s Castle, where the game suddenly turns into a Metroidvania title, complete with wide open map and open exploration! This game had an extended development timeframe compared to the previous handheld titles, as Iga managed to successfully lobby Konami for an additional 6 months development time over previous titles. Would this extra time be enough for Iga to ensure that the game could receive the additional polish, time and care that it needed to reach its lofty goals? Unfortunately the answer is that it still wasn’t really quite long enough to escape the hallmarks of a condensed development timeframe… Let’s talk about the good. This game has a great variety of stages, as you travel the countryside surrounding Wygol Village. It also has a really fun new gravity flinging mechanic that is always a highlight whenever you come across a chance to use it. The core gameplay is as good as ever, now augmented with the new Glyph system; which, while very similar to the excellent Soul system from Aria of Sorrow and Dawn of Sorrow, differentiated itself by greatly reducing the number of skills available and allowing the player to combine glyphs together for combined effects. It’s a bit like the approach that HAL took with Kirby’s Dreamland 3 and Kirby 64, though nowhere near that varied and deep. It’s a decent idea and it is fun to play around with, but it ends up being let down by a lack of core weapon variety; as most of the weapon glyphs end up playing very similarly and you’ll inevitably gravitate towards the one that deals the most damage… however! There is a twist! New to this game is a Weakness/Resistance system that determines whether enemies are vulnerable to certain types of weapons, be they blunt attacks, piercing attacks, magic attacks and whatnot. This system only really comes into play in the latter stage of the game, but it does a good job of forcing the player to make use of a better variety of weapons than they otherwise would’ve; and helps to add a bit of spice to the combat. Speaking of the combat… the boss battles are sensational! In typical Castlevania fashion, the boss battles are a real highlight; and its quite surprising how many get saved for Dracula’s Castle in the last stretch of the game too. Though I don’t blame you for needing an FAQ to get past this one Now why did I spend so much time of this writeup talking about the lack of budget and production issues that Konami had constantly lumped Iga’s team with? You can probably guess… Yup, they end up being a big issue here. Sadly, each of the different linear stages end up feeling a bit undercooked; with some stages literally being an entirely flat path with some enemies thrown along the way! And the copy/pasting… oh God the copy/pasting! If you hated the latter half of Portrait of Ruin, you’re gonna be getting some real PTSD flashbacks here, as you’ll see the same level formations appear time and time again; sometimes with some cheeky palette swapping, sometimes not even with that! This room in particular appears no less than 8 times throughout the game! That bloody spider and rock formation will be burnt into your brain by the end! The game also suffers from another problem, as its Best-Of-Both-Worlds approach also brings the Worst of Both along with it. You see, the Metroidvania movement and combat mechanics of the Iga titles doesn’t actually necessarily gel all that well with more linear stage design, as it lacks the mechanical depth in its core gameplay to make the most of this form of gameplay. As a result, the mook combat and level traversal feels rather unsatisfying; meaning that classicvania fans may feel let down. On the flip-side, Dracula’s Castle at the end of the game also feels simplified and watered down in its exploration and level design compared to previous Metroidvania Castlevania titles; meaning the Metroidvania fans may feel let down. Ultimately, for all the game does well, I feel that it doesn’t fully satisfy either side of the fanbase. The repetition of assets and even entire chunks of level design become a real stain on the game as a whole; but I can’t really put the blame on the developer when they were working under such tight time and budgetary constraints… However, what I can fault the developers for is for trying to do too much with too little. It’s still a good game that is worth your time, but coming back to it, I feel that it is the weakest of the three DS titles; simply because it spreads itself too thin over too much bread. While I applaud the ambition on display here, it doesn’t quite nail the landing. Did you know that there is an absolutely AMAZING mod of Super Mario 64 that allows you to play the entire game in splitscreen co-op with a friend? Did you know that it actually runs on real N64 hardware with an Everdrive? Well now you do! I played this incredible mod with @Glen-i and we absolutely blitzed through the entire game, 100% in a couple of hours or so and it was an absolute blast from start to finish! You don’t need any introduction to Super Mario 64, so lets just talk about what this mod brings to the table. Here’s a video that shows a playthrough running on real N64 hardware to help illustrate what I’m about to say… First off the bat, the game runs in splitscreen throughout the entire game; it runs with a bit of slowdown here and there, but actually runs amazingly well on original N64 hardware considering that it was never designed to be able to render Super Mario 64 twice! (do note that if you want to run this mod on a real N64 with an Everdrive, you will need the Expansion Pak). Second thing you’ll notice? The mad lads behind this mod have actually redubbed the cutscenes with Peach! She actually has new dialogue referencing Luigi! It’s this attention to detail that really makes this mod look and feel like the real deal! Third? There are all new gameplay mechanics to accommodate the two player action. Luigi actually plays differently from Mario, complete with the high jump and slidey physics that you’ve come to expect. There’s also a new team-up move where you can launch your bro high into the air to get access to areas you otherwise wouldn’t be able to. Question blocks now grant two of every item when struck, stars are numbered and it’s even possible to collect two stars at the same time with some well co-ordinated collecting! Best of all though? There’s even a new Bubble mechanic that has been lifted straight out of New Super Mario Bros Wii/U! When one bro kicks the bucket, they’re brought back in bubble form, allowing the other bro to bring them back from the brink; if both bros go though? It’s back out of the level for both of you; just like in NSMB Wii/U. Finally, there are almost no restrictions as to where each bro can go. As long as you are both within the same loading zone, you can go anywhere and do whatever you want within the confines of that loading zone; if a bro triggers a loading zone, the other bro gets zapped to their location. Simple, and exploitable! What an absolutely amazing way to replay a classic! This was SO much fun! We absolutely loved it to pieces! It’s just so incredibly well done, it’s hard to believe that it isn’t an official product! From scamming Koopa The Quick and beating him in zero seconds (thanks to a cheating bro waiting by the flagpole from the start), to cheating Bowser by standing either side of him; it was just so much fun tag-teaming this game! If you ever get the chance to try it for yourself, I can’t recommend this mod enough! And this is just the icing on the cake. So good. Speaking of mods… here’s another amazing one that looks and feels like an official product. It’s the colourised version of Super Mario Land 2 that we never got! The mod is completely bug free and works flawlessly on real Gameboy Advance/Color hardware! (It even shows a This Game Can Only Be Played On Game Boy Color screen if you try to play it on an original brick DMG Game Boy! Once again, the attention to detail is spot on.) The entire game has been given a lick of paint and it looks great! It looks and feels like a real GBC game that Nintendo would’ve put out in 1998 and everything has just the right shade of colour. Another neat addition to the original comes in the form of playable Luigi, now selectable from the file select screen or with a quick press of the Select button on the world map. He plays just as you’d expect, with a high jump and a long slide. Ultimately, I don’t feel that Luigi adds much to the game, given SML2’s generally boxed in level design, but it’s a nice extra nonetheless. As for my thoughts on the core game itself? I find myself growing more fond of Super Mario Land 2 over time, and revisiting the game again only reaffirms those feelings. It’s a smaller, more compact game than its bigger console brothers and that’s not a bad thing. It feels perfectly suited to the Game Boy’s small screen and the larger & more detailed sprites necessitate a slower more methodological feel to the gameplay that is fun in its own right. Looking back on the game, it does feel more like a prototype Wario Land game than a Mario title; and its clear that Nintendo R&D1 had their own vision in mind for the kind of game they wanted to make. The lineage is clear as day, as Wario makes his debut in this title (albeit looking pretty off model, even at this point!), and its clear to see how the Wario Land series’ brand of gameplay, pace and humour began here. Even the music (especially the boss battle music!) feels like it could’ve come from straight out of one of the later Wario Land titles. Overall, it’s a great Wario game; and this colourisation mod was a great way to revisit Wario’s debut. Strongly recommend giving this mod a go if you ever get the chance! Though nothing can save this Wario sprite from looking proper dodge it seems Well it seemed sensible to try out the other Game Boy Mario colourisation mod after the excellent SML2DX, so here it is! Given the overall simpler look of the original Super Mario Land though, the colourisation is inevitably going to be a lot less striking overall; but its still very well done. The colour choice feels natural and it all runs without a hitch on real Game Boy Color/Advance hardware. Once again we return to Super Mario Land, a game that aligns itself far more closely with its console brethren in terms of gameplay. However, it too comes with its own unique wrinkles and coocoo bananas elements that make it stand out on its own. This is the second homebrew project I’ve played in the last few months related to Super Mario Land now, after I played the amazing SNES remake at the tail end of last year! And while this project obviously isn’t as impressive as that one, its still a great way to revisit the original SML that looks and feels like an official Nintendo product. Another strong recommendation if ever you have the chance. And hey! Daisy actually looks like Daisy now! Moving away from homebrew mods for a bit (though don’t worry, there are plenty of cool Banjo Kazooie mods out there I’m trying out!), I could resist the allure of the Bear and Bird no longer! After their tearjerking return in Super Smash Bros Ultimate, I knew it would not be long until I would have to return to the lair of the witch. And yes, the Bear and Bird’s initial outing is still a classic in every sense of the word. This game gets the Banjo Seal of Approval People love to compare this game to Super Mario 64, but the truth is that this game is actually more of an Action Adventure title with platforming elements than a pure 3D platformer. Banjo Kazooie level design actually abandons the obstacle course esc design of its popular comparator and instead opts for a naturalistic world design that is open-ended and focused on exploration. When Super Mario Odyssey came out in 2017, I originally noted that the game actually played more like Banjo Kazooie than Super Mario 64 (See, I did say that!) but ultimately I felt that Super Mario Odyssey didn’t quite capture the same magic that the Bear & Bird’s outings did. Going back to Banjo Kazooie, this sentiment has only become stronger in my mind. Unlike in Super Mario Odyssey, all of the collectables in Banjo Kazooie have meaning. Nothing is just given to you on a plate, nor left out in the open for seemingly no reason. Notes are placed in such a way as to guide the player towards exploring every nook and cranny of each world, Jiggies are all rewards for solving puzzles, completing minigames and overcoming platforming challenges, and the Golden Honeycomb expansions are all rewards for players who crack the code of each world and seek out the most secretive of all secrets. Every world is also loaded with personality, memorable characters and classic British humour that makes for an unforgettable experience that you immediately associate with Rare’s Golden Era. This game was a joy to revisit and clock 100% yet again; the sheer amount of secrets and mysteries this game held back in the day is just bonkers. The lineage of the DKC trilogy is clear in Banjo Kazooie in that regard. I could tell you what Stop N’ Swap was actually all about… but then I’d have to kill you; and sadly this is a family friendly post. That’s not to say that Banjo Kazooie isn’t a good platformer per-say; its platforming mechanics are actually very good, though not as deep as the likes of Super Mario 64. Rather, the platforming mechanics take a backseat to the adventure gameplay and serve to enhance the exploration and to provide mechanics that serve the game’s various challenges. There’s an enormous amount of variety to the gameplay that really is perhaps best compared to the Legend of Zelda series (and perhaps that’s not terribly surprising when you consider that Banjo Kazooie actually started life as Project Dream; itself a Zelda-like Action Adventure game). From racing as a walrus, to spelling out words on a ouija board, to a literal endgame quiz that tests your knowledge on everything you’ve seen throughout the game! Banjo Kazooie is jam packed with great ideas that are superbly executed seamlessly with the core gameplay of a 3D platformer. It’s a huge achievement that would only really be surpassed by its own sequel; and subsequently never really seen again. If there’s any complaint I can lodge against the game, coming back to it, it’s probably the harsh requirement for actually completing the game. While I knew I wanted to 100% complete the game and find/do everything, I was reminded about something I had completely forgotten… There’s actually very little difference between a low % (ignoring glitches) and 100% completion of the game! In order to face off against ol’ Winkybunion herself, you actually need to collect a staggering 94/100 Jiggies and a whopping 810/900 Notes! You need to collect a minimum of 94% of items in order to actually complete the game! That’s nuts! (By contrast, Super Mario 64 only required the player to collect 58% of stars to fight its final boss). Your biggest childhood nightmare, forever taunting you It kind of works against the element of freedom that the game’s structure was going for, when you basically have to complete almost everything anyway. But otherwise, this game is amazing. The Bear & Bird’s first outing is every bit as legendary now as it was almost 22 years ago. Here’s one that most of you probably haven’t played before. Before Pokémon, Game Freak were known for developing quite a few good action games; and Pulseman represents the culmination of all of that experience. Released at the tail end of the Mega Drive’s life, this game sadly never saw a western release outside of the US only SEGA Channel service… until it hit the Wii Virtual Console in 2009! Part Mega Man, part Kirby’s Dreamland, part Pinball, all electrifying! Pulseman is a classic action game with a mixture of straightforward and somewhat more open level design. You run, you jump, you attack and you electrical spark your way through 7 stages of action packed gameplay. What separates this game from others in the genre though is its unique electricity focused gameplay. You see, your Power Ranger wannabe hero seems to be built out of your nan’s old carpet; because he loves to build up static electricity! When you manage to build up an electrical charge, you are granted an expanded moveset that allows you to unleash your charge in a number of ways; you can use it to fire off a bolt of electricity, you can choose to use an Alien Soldier esc dash attack move, or you can choose to unleash the mighty Volt Tackle attack (yes, this is where Pikachu got the move from). This system makes for a considered approach to tackling each stage, as you need to figure out the best way to get through the myriad of challenges that make use of these unique mechanics… And oh boy do they make the most of these mechanics! Each stage is jam packed with interesting ideas that you won’t find in any other game; and the level design is clever enough to weave in some light puzzle solving and interesting traversal without bogging down the action focused gameplay. It’s good stuff, and any action game fan will no doubt love what’s on offer here; it’s also hard as balls! Watch out! Team Galactic's gonna getcha! You’ve probably already noticed that the game is a looker (and the more astute of you have probably noticed Ken Sugamori’s signature visual look that would go on to inspire the Pokémon series’ art) but you probably haven’t noticed the sound. This game has a brilliant sound track that will likely remind you of some of the later games in the Pokémon series. But equally as impressive is something that was very unusual for a Mega Drive game of this era… the game is almost entirely fully voice acted in English! Granted, the game doesn’t have an awful lot of dialogue (it IS an action game after all), but it’s still enormously impressive all the same! Translator’s Note: Water can destroy Pulseman This is a great game that deserves much more recognition than it gets. It’s a real shame that it never originally got a western release and it’s a real shame that it didn’t make the cut on the Mega Drive Mini in any region. It’s one of the Mega Drive’s very best, if only you could get the chance to play it… This may shock you… but I had never played the original Shinobi before! I’ve played through its various Mega Drive sequels (including the excellent Shadow Dancer), but the original? Nope. Never. So with the game now being on Switch as part of the SEGA AGES series, it was time to rectify this! Insert the Ninja Attack sound from Super Mario Maker 2 here I ploughed through this game like a true ninja, on the original Arcade difficulty with no save states and no assistance (didn’t pull off a 1cc though, I’m not that much of a ninja!) and yeah, I can see why this game was so beloved on launch. It’s a good time. This game has an almost Castlevania like flow to it, with a more methodological pace that requires the player to think about how they tackle each foe and rescue each hostage. The platforming elements are minimal, but the level designs are nicely varied and (mostly) introduce interesting wrinkles that keep things interesting all throughout. Despite being an arcade title that makes use of 1-hit-and-you’re-dead gameplay, the game feels surprisingly fair and well balanced (for the most part). Joe Musashi’s moveset is simple but effective here; he gets a jump, a ranged shuriken attack, a close-range melee katana attack and a screen-clearing ninja magic attack. The scoring system actually rewards the player for not making use of either ninja magic or their shurikens; the latter of which is basically essential, meaning that only the most utterly masochistic of ninjas dare apply for this challenge! But the original game suffered from an annoying problem for those attempting a no shuriken challenge, as the game originally only made use of two buttons; with the choice of shuriken or katana being subject to a rather finicky and unreliable context-sensitive use of the attack button that decided which attack to use based on your distance from the enemy. Thankfullly, M2 have rectified this problem with this SEGA AGES release and now grant you the option of having separate shuriken and katana attack buttons; making it much more fun and much more viable to actually complete a stage without using your shurikens. Though I'd reckon you'd have a tough time beating the bonus stage without any shurikens... Not all shines bright with the original Shinobi however, as the game actually suffers a bit of a slump in the middle portion of the game. While the initial and latter stages all have great stage and enemy variety, the middle part does not. The game appears to run out of ideas and starts recycling enemies ad-nauseum (especially the blue ninjas; who I like about as much as seeing an EA logo), and seemingly stops introducing new level concepts. As such, I find that the middle portion of the game is a bit of a drag… its also accompanied by one of the cheapest and most infuriating bosses I’ve ever seen; the dickhead shogun at the end of Mission 4! He basically kills you immediately as soon as the fight starts and I can’t imagine how utterly infuriated and ripped off I would’ve felt if my credit came afoul of him at an actual arcade cabinet. Thankfully, the subsequent mission is a blinder, as the game gets back its mojo and reconvenes with introducing new ideas and enemies. So yeah, the original Shinobi rightfully earns its place as a SEGA classic. It’s just a shame that the middle part of the game clearly didn’t get as much TLC in development as the beginning and end portions of the game. Taking a pretty big side step, I felt like returning to Shantae’s big comeback on the DSi! After an 8 year hiatus and several cancelled attempts to pitch the game to various publishers, Wayforward finally brought back the half genie girl in a big way; as digital distribution finally gave the developer the chance to self-publish at long last! She's clearly happy about it Originally pitched to the public as an episodic release in three parts, the idea of an episodic release was eventually scrapped and the game was turned into a single release in the same vein as the original GBC game. Like its predecessor, this is a metroidvania title that bares more than a passing resemblance to SEGA and Westone’s Wonderboy/Monster World series. You have an overworld to explore, quests to complete, dungeons to conquer, characters to meet and music to rock out to! For those that aren’t familiar with Wonderboy/Monster World, the game is perhaps most similar to Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link; but with the top-down overworld replaced with a Metroid-esc seamless map. Long story short, I had a great time coming back to this gem. I love the core gameplay, the characters, the music, the transformations and neat gameplay ideas, the humour; pretty much everything about it. However, this game feels like it was cut short in development; with only two full sized dungeons and a Battle Tower that feels like it takes the place of what was supposed to be a proper dungeon. The game also feels a bit lacking when it comes to enemy variety as well, with a lot of the same enemies showing up from start to finish. Part of this could be down to the DSiWare service’s filesize limit, part of it could come down to the game’s switch from episodic to single release. Either way, it’s a bit of a shame, as the game feels a bit unfinished as a result. What’s here is absolutely great, but it feels like it was originally going to be so much more… … which perhaps explains why its 3DS sequel ended up getting 3-4 years’ worth of development and ended up becoming the best game that Wayforward ever made! But this game is good too. Cool twist at the end too, that ties in neatly with the 3DS followup. I’ll spare you the lame “it’s an arcade port… PSYCHE!” jokes that literally everyone makes with this game, because you all know the drill by now. Eternally locked in an epic struggle with The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening for the coveted title of Best Original Game Boy Game Ever Made; Donkey Kong 94 is the epic revival of the classic Donkey Kong series, beating Donkey Kong Country to the punch by a few months. Now sporting a puzzle platformer focus with its gameplay and hugely expanding the scope of the classic Donkey Kong gameplay, Donkey Kong 94 represents the absolute best in classic Game Boy gaming. Endlessly inventive, astoundingly clever level design and utterly sublime platforming gameplay that was so good that Super Mario 64 would go on to nick this game’s moveset wholesale. Donkey Kong 94 is the full package. Coming back to revisit this masterpiece, its every bit as good as I remember it being. If ever I have a complaint to make about this game however? It’s that its music is perhaps nowhere near as special as its gameplay. The soundtrack certainly isn’t bad by any means, but you’re probably not all that likely to find yourself humming the game’s music and chucking it onto your phone’s playlist. The music is OK, but this is one area where Link’s Awakening clearly pulls ahead Phew! That’ll do for now I reckon.

Yeah, Earthbound is the obvious choice. Xenoblade? Might as well wait for the upcoming HD remaster on Switch and get that version instead. Dark Dawn? It's the weakest of the Golden Sun games by a wide margin and you shouldn't even consider playing it until you've played the original two GBA titles (which are amongst the best RPGs ever made).

Sounds like your B-Button is getting stuck? Try cleaning it with a toothbrush.

To be honest. I reckon that any Direct being cancelled wouldn't be so much down to issues surrounding production of the Direct video itself, but rather due to issues surrounding production of Nintendo's entire upcoming software schedule. Simply put, I don't think Nintendo actually have anything to show. Outside of their upcoming Wii/Wii U ports, I honestly think we've already seen everything they're actually going to release this year. I bet that literally every upcoming first party Switch game (that isn't a Wii/Wii U port that is basically already fully completed; COUGH! Super Mario 3D World DX COUGH! Pikmin 3 DX COUGH! Metroid Prime Trilogy!) has been delayed until 2021. Their teams were already struggling with HD development as it is; there's no way that COVID-19 hasn't massively impacted on their development pipeline. They will coast on Animal Crossing, 3rd party releases and the remaining Wii/Wii U ports for the entierty of 2020. As such, there is no need for a Direct; it'll only make them look worse. Besides. It's not like their competition will actually be launching their next-gen machines this year anyway

Fun games as ever! Highlights will probably come tomorrow morning

Some interesting perspectives here. Cool to see. In short, I think that a reviewer should at least have a basic appreciation for a game’s genre; but doesn’t have to especially be a fan of it. I don’t see a point in getting someone who absolutely hates puzzle games in general to review a puzzle game for instance. Ultimately, people who are reading a review will already have some sort of passing interest in the game (or at least its genre); and a review should be written with its intended audience in mind. You wouldn’t go to MumsNet for a review on Doom Eternal (well... you might do if you’re looking for a bit of a laugh at least). Same general concept apples to any reviewer. A game should always be reviewed for what it is; not for what it is not. At the most basic level, a good review needs to respect that basic adage.

Hey there, thanks for the heads up. I saw this yesterday and tried to nab a game for Switch, but all the codes were gone sadly. I’m keeping an eye on it though

Yeah, Baba is You is absolute genius. A must play for anyone who even remotely likes puzzle games! Legit mind blowing stuff!

No, this is not a photoshop job What a world we live in when Animal Crossing makes the front page of the FT!

I wonder if they were planning on releasing it later, but decided to pull it forward because of the leaks...

Yeah, MGS 1-3 are absolutely brill. Yeah, MGS3 is not subtle about its 007 influence at all, you're gonna love it! MGS4 and beyond though? Ehh...

Normally we would run themed nights each week and then have Players Choice on the last week of the month. Unfortunately, due to lockdown, our resident Mario Kart 8 Lunatic Guru @Glen-i is not in a position to provide his usual brand of barmy themes right now. So we’re just running Player’s Choice for now. Your average score is what ultimately determines your ranking; so you’re not penalised for starting late, or missing some nights here and there

Save data is stored on the Switch console itself and it doesn't matter if its a digital or physical copy, the save data is compatable with either version (Wii U was the same). So long as you haven't deleted your save data, it'll still be there if you rebuy the game