Dcubed

Because the Series X is gonna be about twice the physical size of the PS5. Simple. Unless Sony want to put out a behemoth of a console, like what Microsoft are doing, it can't possibly match the Series X's specs. On the flipside, the PS5 will no doubt be substantially cheaper than the Series X (though I suspect that it itself will end up being $599.99/€599.99)

That's some real confidence coming out of Microsoft here. They know that Sony aren't gonna be able to match this and they know that Sony are in a bad spot with their production and marketing schedule with the PS5; proper going for the jugular here! That being said? This thing has $799.99/€799.99 written all over it.

My guess is May. Seems like the right time.

You did not cheese that final room by bring the extra P-Switch... That’s what you’re supposed to do! You make the extra one spawn by going in and out of the room and then use the extra one to extend the timer and get enough time to get across the coin block section (it’s impossible with just one P-Switch). And no you don’t have to be big to get through the flying block room; you just need to be quick! About that WR, I have no idea how they’ve pulled it off. I haven’t been able to replicate it!

Most of my levels aren’t built for multiplayer; except for one (the Ice Climbers course, which is meant for same screen co-op but generally works fine for multi-screen multiplayer too). Unfortunately, most of my levels will break completely in multiplayer and will be unbeatable if you try (though Ice Climbers is a riot!). But yeah, that sounds fun! I love watching people try to beat my levels! Most of them have a neat gimmick of sorts or are puzzle based, so you can all work together to figure it out. On a technical level, you just need to download the levels and have someone video stream their attempts to beat it while we all watch and chat about it

Naturally I love the idea! You guys will need some patience though... they are pretty tough (far from impossible, but definitely tough!). If you want me to take part, I should be available this coming Monday or Tuesday

Yeah, that’s what I was thinking. Start of the month made sense to me; but this year happens to be a leap year... so... close enough

So it looks like Glen-i is the winner so far (you guys like your easy stages huh?). Unless @S.C.G or @RedShell turn the tide that is Shall we set the next challenge date for the 29th of February? (That'll then run for a week up until the 8th of March?) If so, @Glen-i will need to choose the next theme (and the two course parts to focus on). Perhaps I can whip up some fancy leaderboard graphics too before then for funzies? (Maybe even keep a running tally of overall votes alongside the number of weekly wins?)

I do agree. It's the same problem that Yoshi's Island has; only here it's magnified by the length of the stages. It's really enjoyable to play through, but it's a nightmare to 100% it (I have no idea how I did it back in 2011!). I wouldn't blame you if you just didn't bother with getting all the medals in the end... which would be a shame, because the final unlockable is pretty awesome (Who am I kidding!? All of the sub games are awesome!)

On the topic of in-depth per-game discussion, because I think that's an interesting subject that @Hero-of-Time has brought up... I do agree that there is a lot less discussion surrounding individual games than there has been in recent years. To be honest, I only really find myself doing it in the Your Gaming Diary thread and the Retro Game Discussion threads these days. Personally? I am actually not playing much new these days anymore. There's precious little coming out these days that I find myself really genuinely enjoying and sticking with anymore; even for games that are genuinely good. Part of it is just a disillusionment with the industry in general and part of it is just me not wanting to play super long games anymore. I find myself just unable to stomach 50 hour+ RPGs anymore; I have Octopath Traveller sitting on my Switch, numerous Fire Emblem games on 3DS and Switch, Dragon Quest 11 & Xenoblade 2 and such and I just can't bare the thought of starting them. I don't want to play 100 hour+ games anymore. I don't want to play games that are all about grinding anymore. I also don't want to play online multiplayer focused games either; it just doesn't interest me (The MK8 NE-League being the exception of course!). I have no interest in GAAS and I despise open world games & everything they stand for. I want to play games like Luigi's Mansion 3, Link's Awakening and Yooka Laylee & The Impossible Lair; games that are tightly designed, intricately crafted and designed to deliver an amazing experience that can be completed in a reasonable amount of time. These kinds of games are becoming increasingly rare though (and even then, the grand majority of those kinds of games that are actually still coming out are remakes of games I've already played dozens of times). They are precious to me, but they are a dying breed. As such, I've been largely turning to retro gaming to play the games I really want to. I've actually played through quite a few over the last couple of months, like Castlevania Bloodlines (yes, again; but in Hard Mode and with Lecarde this time!), Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia, Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story, Pulseman, Donkey Kong Country (SNES and GBC!), Stunt Race FX, Star Fox 2, Super Mario Land SNES (The fan-made remake for SNES!), Super Mario Land 2 DX (the fan-made GBC remake!) and the Super Metroid Randomiser for SNES. I am planning on doing writeups for these in the Your Gaming Diary thread at some point soon; and hope to get a bit of discussion going (in particular, I'm really keen to hear what @Hero-of-Time thinks of Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia, considering that we would've both have played it fairly recently!). I also got my hands on original carts for Lufia 2 and Terranigma recently; and I'm looking forward to playing them for the first time on my shiny new Super NT! (Which I'm probably gonna do in March when I have a bit of time off work). I also recently got my hands on a Mega SG recently and am planning on playing through some of the Mega Drive games that I have had for a while, but have never actually played before (like Phantasy Star 4); so I'm sure I'll have some interesting thoughts coming up that our resident SEGA fans, like @S.C.G, will be keen to hear Now that I have a Super NT and a Mega SG (as well as Everdrives for the GB/GBA/N64), I'm looking to get into the games that were never released on the Virtual Console; and delve a bit more into SEGA's library of classics (Also the myriad of fan hacks, randomisers and homebrew awesomeness available for these older consoles!). Maybe I can even do some video reviews of sorts for some of these older games if I find the time/energy to do it? That'd be fun I'm sure! But yeah, I am not posting in the Switch game specific threads because there's almost nothing coming out that I am actually really interested in anymore. It's a sad world where I see an upcoming Zelda game and feel literally nothing for it; and where the most exciting upcoming games are ports of Wii and Wii U games I've played to death

Makes me want a proper Kirby model something fierce...

Yeah, it’s a great game. Certainly one of the more fleshed out spinoffs. And the minigames by themselves could’ve been released as standalone DSiWare titles if HAL wanted to! While I think that the game is a bit too long for its own good, and that the soundtrack leaves a bit to be desired, it’s a very solid entry in the series that makes great use of the DS’ touch screen to offer some very unique and interesting gameplay. You’re gonna go mad trying to get 100% though! It’s no joke!

Thanks for the feedback @RedShell. Reason why I put it after the jump instead of before was because there’s a large gap in-between that checkpoint and the next and I didn’t want to make the player have to pull off that jump more than once (and Mario Maker unfortunately has a 2 checkpoint limit; if I could’ve had a 3rd one I would’ve). If you do fancy giving it another go; pro-tip: Wait until either the 5th or 6th block cycle (you’ve no doubt noticed by now that I made it so that the cycle changes each time), your best chance is easily the 5th or 6th one! Also the difficulty curve throughout the course is non-linear on purpose; so don’t worry, there’s a nice reprieve after that tricky jump!

So I’ve played your level now @Sméagol. It’s not bad overall, but there’s a few unfortunate things that drag it down a bit... Firstly, you have a very long vertical platforming section without a real way to regain your lost progress from falling down. Combined with some very tight jumps? It can get a bit frustrating getting your way back up; probably could’ve done with breaking this section up a bit somehow (be it with a warp door, a pipe, one way doors or even vines); also could’ve probably done with one more mushroom along the way as it’s a pretty gruelling challenge. Second... I’m not sure I actually beat it in the intended way? I actually couldn’t figure out what to do at the end with the vines and bombs; I ended up getting up there without getting hit, got a Super Leaf from the block that would normally give you a mushroom and just flew up to the top? Surely that’s not the intended strat!? (If so, that’s a huge potential soft lock right there). Finally, there were a few blind jumps here and there in the vertical section, where the camera wouldn’t quite go up high enough to show you the cannons before they shot bombs into your face; bit annoying, but I know first hand how hard it is dealing with the limitations of Mario Maker’s camera system, it’s really easy to let these things slip by. I really enjoyed it overall though, despite those issues (and the ridiculously strict timer that you rightfully mentioned!). There’s some great ideas here and I love what you did with the donut blocks & pipes (as well as the foreshadowing with the donut block in the big vertical section; good job there!) and the cannon directional trick. Good stuff. Overall though, I’m gonna have to vote for @Glen-i’s level though, just because of those issues and overall missing bits of polish. I actually think that your level is more interesting than Glen’s, but Glen’s is more fun overall. Iron out those kinks, make the level a bit kinder to the player and I reckon you’re onto a winner with it though

I was wondering if maybe we can make this a new thread as well? Might get a bit more attention from other N-E folk that way? Even if they're not actually making levels, they can still play and vote on their favourites! Speaking of which... @RedShell, @S.C.G, @Hero-of-Time, @nekunando, @Jonnas, @LazyBoy, @BowserBasher Get in here and play our levels!

Mine is hard... Would probably recommend at least a quick nap before and afterwards; even if you do play them tonight Also, that softlock sounds like a challenge to me... I'll do my best with it

Boom! Here’s my well rounded, sweet and explosive course! That was a ton of fun to make! Love the two part limitation! Really helped to break me out of my creator’s block and got me to come up with some doughnutty ideas Looking forward to making the next one!

Damn that really sucks to hear... And after all that waiting too... Good on them for acknowledging it quickly and in just sending out replacement adapters to everyone, no questions asked. If only other companies could've been so forthcoming with acknowledging and recifying fatal design flaws... BTW. Something amazing to share with you all! Looks like MLIG are starting a new documentary series surrounding all of the various people involved in new retro products! This first episode includes interviews with Brian Parker from RetroUSB, Matt Lisi from Insurrection Industries (The GCN Carby) and Jason Rauch from Game-Tech (GBA Consoliser)

Anyway. E3? Yeah, it’s dead Jim. Not too surprising that Nintendo are hosting a booth there, but don’t expect anything outlandish and spectacular like previous years. It’ll probably just be low key and in line with every other convention they attend. As for announcements? BOTW 2 is getting delayed till next year (from what I’ve heard) and there are some nice Wii U ports coming. I expect a CG teaser trailer for Metroid Prime 4 (the game itself will probably not release for the current model Switch at all), while Bayonetta 3 will be their big new “core” focused game (and it is defo coming this year). Otherwise, a couple of interesting new IPs, one classic Nintendo franchise revival from NDCUBE, Paper Mario Switch, another Labo and that’ll do I reckon. I do like the idea of a more adult focused party game that’s more akin to Jackbox than Mario Party for a change...

Thanks to a convenient clipping glitch though, it’s possible to go back and get those “missable” Dijin & summons though

Smash Tennis is the EU exclusive localisation of Namco’s Super Family Tennis (the one that has been available on the Super Famicom app for the last few months). It’s... ok. Perfectly average. It’s no Super Tennis, but it’s fine I guess.

Pop ‘N Twinbee is a great game; glad to see it represented here. Worth noting that Japan are getting it this month too; so if you want to play the 60hz version, you can do so via the Super Famicom app

https://www.siliconera.com/m2-announces-new-arcade-shoot-em-up-ikusaba-sega-classics-arcade-line-at-jaepo-2020/ Well this is interesting (and frustrating!), looks like M2 are going to be re-releasing a bunch of SEGA classics back into the arcade!

Ooh! I've already got some great ideas for this one! I'm in! Yeah, I think that having two main elements to focus on is plenty. And 1 week should be long enough for everyone really. Hell, you can make some great levels by just focusing on a single idea or element (I've done that plenty of times myself).

It IS a bit of a faff. I didn't have to do many though; since most of the others were already amongst the other collections and such, so it was just a few like Pulseman, Phantasy Star 1 and Earthworm Jim 2 which I didn't have elsewhere. Apparantly they are gonna be restocking the other Super NT colours if you don't want the black one, but it's just a matter of waiting for them to come in again. Yeah, I saw. I'm sure it will be more or less the same price as Terra Onion's Mega SD though; it's still gonna need the same high power FPGA to simulate all of the SEGA CD's chips (it's basically a console in its own right). So it's hard to justify the price really (plus the few games I actually want, like Lunar 1 & 2, cost an arm and a leg on their own on eBay as it stands!). Maybe some day, but that day is not today... ... I think the next one on my shopping list is the Everdrive 64 (I've already ordered the Everdrive GB and GBA, which are on their way). Really keen on trying out some of the various hacks like Goldeneye X and the OoT, Paper Mario & SM64 randomisers! Have already extracted all of my existing GBA and GB games in anticipation for the incoming GB/GBA Everdrives. Really looking forward to trying out Super Mario Land 2 DX and the Metroid 2 Colourisation hack on real hardware! Looking forward to seeing the Analogue Pocket; but right now? I can't really see myself getting one since I already have an IPS modded GBA and the GBPlayer/GCN HDMI/Gameboy Interface setup (As well as most of the big name GBA games on the Wii U VC too). But we'll see. If they can come out with something like Wireless Link Cable multiplayer? I'll be all over that bad boy! But right now, I've yet to be convinced (plus the screen aspect ratio is wrong for GBA; so I'm not convinced that it'll be the ideal way to play GBA games yet).