Dcubed

@Sméagol No, the pipes are not a red herring, but there’s a known exploit that I left in on purpose to brute-force finish the level anyway if you really are just completely stumped (which you seem to have found). The level has plenty of misdirection, but that isn’t one of them I think my next level is gonna return to a more straightforward style next time though. Puzzle levels are great, but I’m getting tired of making them; it’s exhausting trying to make these mechanisms all work seamlessly (and not become soft-lock hell). And I’m feeling the urge to make something more traditional, action focused and straightforward now anyway.

Really enjoyed your writeup about Advance Wars Days of Ruin/Dark Conflict @Jonnas! And I agree with everything you’ve said. People complain about it abandoning the happy-go-lucky vibe that the series was known for, but by this point? The series was starting to look a bit tired. We had been coming off of 3 very similar mainline releases within the last 4 years (plus the Gamecube spinoffs as well); it was really time for something different. Advance Wars Dual Strike in particular had also really gone off the deep end; throwing all notion of balance completely out of the window and was just utterly jam packed with everything and the kitchen sink. While it was great for its sheer range of utterly overwhelming options & systems, and its staggering amount of gameplay content, it was completely unbalanced and also basically impenetrable for newcomers. It was clearly designed for super fans who had bought and mastered all of the previous games. Going back to basics was absolutely the right decision for Days or Ruin/Dark Conflict and it absolutely needed to happen. And really? Dark Conflict/Days of Ruin never actually went “Grimdark”, as the naysayers say. Rather? It actually had a tone that was more similar to the Fire Emblem games; yes, the story took itself seriously, but it was still filled with colourful characters and moments of levity sprinkled throughout (especially in the US localisation; instead of the vastly inferior EU version). The decision to make an entirely separate localisation for the EU version still absolutely baffles me though. I honestly don’t know what they were thinking; the resources spent on Dark Conflict would’ve been far better spent on localising Soma Bringer! And the EU script is total arse compared to Treehouse’s far superior work; it’s so dull and dry, totally flavourless and uninteresting. Complete waste of time & resources that ended up producing a far inferior product. This is one game I am very glad I imported back in the day!

Don’t worry. The majority of the game takes place post credits; that’s when the kiddie gloves come off and the ranks start to really matter.

Just nabbed a couple of SNES Switch controllers. Thanks for the heads up!

E3 is truly dead now...

You do indeed get a feel for the enemies' stats and abilities over time. A basic knowledge of Pokemon will also give you an solid idea of what enemies to look out and fear for as well. It's a total non-issue.

Great to see another SEGA AGES release that has never previously gotten a proper home release before. That’s the kind of game that the SEGA AGES series should be focusing on.

Had no idea that magazines got to preview Sonic CD 9 whole months before its release... that’s probably where that new prototype release came from!! One of the staff working for one of those magazines must’ve nicked the CD! Another great video from Splashwave as usual; learnt something new from it too! I totally didn’t just copy/paste this in the right place after making a terrible mistake...

Oh FFS! That’s what happens when I post while half asleep!

Yeah, I pretty much agree with @Hero-of-Time in all respects (except the portability). The hardware is basically a dream come true, but the software lineup is just so lacking... It’s a great port machine, but not much more. Yet ironically, the one “port” aspect that’s most important to me (Virtual Console), is totally absent. I’d be all over portable N64, Wii & GCN games (as well as all the other platforms that should be there in complete form, with complete ownership), and yet? Nothing. Bloody typical! The Switch is just full of wasted potential, as Nintendo have seemingly almost totally give up on making actual original games anymore...

Glad to see all this interest and love for this game. It’s a great series and this remake looks fantastic! You guys picked the perfect place to start!

Had no idea that magazines got to preview Sonic CD 9 whole months before its release... that’s probably where that new prototype release came from!! One of the staff working for one of those magazines must’ve nicked the CD! Another great video from Splashwave as usual; learnt something new from it too!

It’s because they really want to push the flagship Switch model with this game and it’s focus on same system co-op. Too bad about the worldwide shortages though. Nintendo must be fuming at the whole Covid-9 fiasco!

Holy hell! Corsola is an unstoppable nightmare! I can just feel the rage brewing on the other side

Likewise, gonna be a No from me on all counts dawg. Ideally, we’d all aim for the same window of time for uploading as well; will make things more fun I reckon. Of course, once the contest is over, go ahead and make whatever changes you want to make

Good stuff. Spike is a lot of fun to play around with. I’m sure that I can come up with an epic masterpiece with it... Watch this space...

Thanks for that. But sadly it looks like there's nothing available for the small sized N3DS on eBay now; everything on there is for the N3DSxl or for the OG 3DS/3DSxl... ... sigh... my quest for a decent N3DS telescopic stylus continues

Worth noting as well that all four Mega Man Zero games are also available on the Wii U VC.

It's literally Ultraman lol! Looks like a fab concept! I'm in 1, Viewtiful 2, Wonderful 3, Gigantiful?

No way. We've already seen the PS5 dev kit; it's not even half the size of the Series X (which has totally given up on the standard console form factor and is shipping in an ITX sized case). The simple laws of thermodynamics mean that the Series X will be substantially more powerful. It simply has far more room for cooling and more room for a bigger die on its chips. The trade off is that the Series X will, of course, be much larger and unlikely to fit into a standard entertainment setup; it will also probably be a lot more expensive. Both consoles will also be far more expensive than previous machines, simply because of the SSD alone (which alone will add around £150-200 on the BOM by itself!); never mind the high-end GPUs and Ryzen CPUs that they're shipping with. However. It's not 2013 anymore. These days, people have been conditioned to accept £1,000+ smartphones as the norm; and I suspect that Microsoft will be pushing to sell the Series X on a smartphone style contract as the norm, like what they've already been experimenting with in the US with the Xbox One X. £200 upfront, £25 a month for 24 months with Game Pass included? That's a LOT more pallatable to the average consumer than an off contract price of £799.99; and I suspect that this is the angle that Microsoft will push as the primary way to buy the console. Sony's console also won't be cheap, but it won't be as much as the Series X (I'd be very surprised if it was only $499.99; $599.99 is much more realistic given the SSD and the specs). On the other hand, Game Pass is a true killer app and it's gonna be the big USP that will allow Microsoft to get away with selling the console on contract. The old economics of gaming hardware are long dead. We live in an age of smartphone contracts being the norm; where even 10 year old children have smartphones where their parents buy contracts for them. Don't expect pricing to fall in line with previous hardware and don't expect the same model of sale to be used this time around. The pricing and subscription models on display are, by far, going to be the most interesting aspect of this new generation of hardware I reckon.

Worth noting as well that the Shimomura games tend to be more exploration/puzzle focused and focused on ability combinations/modifications; while Sakurai’s games are faster paced and have more straightforward level design. The modern Kirby trilogy (Return to Dreamland, Triple Deluxe, Planet Robobot) are kind of a mixture of the two; while Kirby Star Allies is kind of a love letter to the Shimomura games (both in terms of gameplay and in terms of story/characters). The Shimomura games also tend to have a darker tone than the other Kirby games. I’d say that the Shimomura games are more of an acquired taste than the Sakurai ones (or the modern Kirby trilogy). I do like them, but the plodding pace isn’t for everyone; and the typically slow character movement is typically pretty frustrating.

So my Everdrive 64 just arrived... and I forgot just how much like buttered arse the original N64 hardware looks like on a modern display So I’ve gone and bought an RGB modded N64 (found a seller that was selling modded NTSC consoles for a shockingly reasonable £69.99 - That is very cheap for a pre-modded unit!), along with an N64 RGB Scart cable and a Retrotink 2X Scart upscaler. Let’s hope that it helps the ol’ N64 to look a bit more palatable on a modern display! Because I'm looking forward to trying out the Super Mario 64 and OoT Randomisers and I’d like it to not be completely eyesearing while playing! I have one of these and can’t recommend it enough! The quality is just stunning!

Where did you find them? Any chance of a link? Been wanting some for ages! I love my New3DS, but I bloody hate its twiglet stylus! (And don't particularily want to have to carry around my DSiXL's Mega Stylus around with me everywhere. However much I love it, it's not very practical on the go!).