Dcubed

No Joy Mech Fight for us (or even a replacement) is total BS, but that's nothing new coming from Nintendo's usual drip feed schedule I suppose. At least we can get access to it by making a Japanese account this time! BTW, the Japanese versions of Zelda 2 and Blaster Master are very different from their western counterparts; definitely worth giving the FDS versions a go if you've never played them before! (It's completely free if you have an NSO subscription anyway; you can just download the app from the Japanese eShop and launch it using any account on your Switch; even your normal one - just like the EU version. I've done it and it works perfectly fine )

That (plus Kirby, Mario Tennis and Labo) was the entierty of their first party output of new titles for the whole of 2018. That year was very back heavy. And again, you can't just list NSMBUdx and Yoshi as blanketly "January" or "March". In reality, YCW basically an April release (it's only 3 days away from it); while NSMBUdx is barely a January one. The real gap is actually almost 3 months long; while they have absolutely nothing releasing at retail (from anyone, be it 1st or 3rd party) in the interim. That's horrible! @Ike I was referring to both first and third party, but I actually forgot about Blazblue (not that it's even remotely a significant release anyway) Edit: Actually, which Blazblue is this anyway? It's not on the Gamefaqs release list and the only one I can see for Switch is Cross Tag Battle, which is already out (You can tell that I don't follow the series! It's all confusing to me!)

Microsoft and Sony don't rely on first party releases to keep their platforms afloat though... Meanwhile, there are zero retail releases scheduled between January 18, 2019 (NMH: Travis Strikes Again) and March 29th (Yoshi's Crafted World) on Switch; not even 3rd party shovelware. Leaving your platform completely coasting for almost three months is a sure fire way to kill off its momentum. Nintendo can absolutely forget about hitting that 20 million target now. YCW was announced all the way back at E3 2017; and it looked rough. The fact that it was completely absent from E3 2018 spoke volumes. That game was supposed to originally launch last year; which is why NSMBUdx was pushed out of its original November slot (which we knew about long before the game was announced) into January; in order to fill a gap in the schedule. It got completely Tropical Freeze'd.

The fact that they're chucking out release date announcements out of the blue? (and right before the deadline of NSMBUdx's release) The fact that they announced Dragon's Dogma Switch out of nowhere? (complete with Direct style trailer!) The fact that a Direct would usually happen at around this time? All signs point to a cancelled Direct. One at the beginning of January, one at the absolute last moment of March. In reality, it's a nearly 3 month gap between releases, with nothing inbetween...

Will be interesting to see if it is indeed the final first party 3DS game... ... It is kind of tradition for a Kirby to be released at the last moment of a system's life though, so it probably is the end

I think that Nintendo are scrambling right now...I think that they've fallen well behind schedule and they're scrambling to keep up the Switch's momentum; they desperately do not want to suffer another Wii U style drought situation but they're coming dangerously close... Yoshi's Crafted World is probably not the only first party game that has gone through development hell and there's a very real chance that we're gonna be looking at another Wii U style drought if the 3rd party retail releases don't pick up the slack... The blatantly cancelled Direct and hastly shovelled out "story" trailer speaks volumes...

Damn. So it looks like Dragon's Dogma and Yoshi's Crafted World were supposed to be part of a Direct that couldn't be done in time then? Not a good look for Nintendo; seems that they're struggling to keep to their schedule... Makes you wonder what's going on over there... Also, the fact that Yoshi's Crafted World is coming out at the very last moment of the financial year means that it's probably gonna be coming in hot... It was probably the absolute furthest that they could push it back; meaning that it is likely not really ready for release... The hell is going on with Nintendo!? We've basically got no first party Switch releases for almost a whole 3 months! How the hell did this happen!? Nothing is ready, not even a Direct! They couldn't even get a Direct done in time, let alone their games!

Damn. Guess they couldn't get the Direct done in time after all Ahh well, at least we have a release date; and it lands exactly when I thought it would. The very last moment of the financial year. That probably means that it's coming in hot and might either be incomplete, or buggy... Not a good sign...

Jeese! Did a dog get at your old stick? Or were you just hungry while you were playing and ran out of snacks?

No kidding! Hell, it's over 7 years old now and still full price!

That has literally been my adage all year

Time for today's random announcement! (Who needs a Direct anyway!?)

Man, that name and logo bugs me so much... It's bloody Super Mario 64 DS all over again! Disgusting!

It's almost guaranteed to be this Thursday. Probably 5PM GMT/9AM PST (That's the usual time; and the Happy New Year eShop sale just so happens to end at exactly 8:59AM PST...) I doubt it'll be a mini one. Nintendo need to announce release dates, because there are absolutely zero first party Switch games with confirmed release dates after NSMBUdx releases on Friday...

NSMBU dx probably won't explode out of the gate (it IS a re-release after all), but it'll likely be a strong seller over time; so it doesn't matter too much if the marketing push is a bit late. More importantly, I'm just waiting for the Nintendo Direct announcement this week. Should be happening either today or tomorrow!

Haven't been able to watch any of this so far, but I will still attempt to do so! And of course, no doubt I'll catch up on the VODs later on!

New Totaka's Song finding! It's Pikmin 2 again! Only this time, instead of it being on the Treasure Collection screen with the confetti, someone found it on the memory card check failure screen! Makes a change from seeing everything about a game spoilt through datamining!

I'm gonna vote for Wario Land! Was playing through it again just a few months ago... until my cartridge battery died partway through a playthrough!!! (Bloody frustrating!). Game is brill and needs more love! Plus I need an excuse to either replace the battery in my cartridge copy or get it on the 3DS! I wanna finish my playthrough! (or, well, start it over again in this case!)

It’s very possible to pour 80 hours into a game you’re really enjoying within a couple of weeks; even if you’re working as well. Hell Switch makes it easier than ever for console games now! I personally wouldn’t want to play games that are expected to take around 80+ hours to complete though. There are very, very few games that truly justify that kind of runtime (The original Xenoblade on Wii being one of those extremely rare exceptions!); as any game that aims to last that long, does so through pointless grinding and repeating what little substantial content they have over and over again. Tales of the Abyss was the last time I played a game like that and I would never waste my time with something like that again; it just becomes mind numbingly boring by that point! Give me something shorter and more tightly focused over a never ending grind any day of the week!

Oh snap! I just had my mind blown! I just found out that you can actually turn a Switch on out of sleep mode, in docked mode, by holding down the Home button on the right joy-con!!! Almost 2 years in and I had no idea you could do this!! Now I feel completely stupid for getting off my couch and pressing the power button on the console each time lol!

Merry Christmas Everyone!!!

Nintendo 2018 was definitely a quieter year for Nintendo that the past couple of years. I previously likened Nintendo's 2018 to their 2012 and I still think it's a pretty apt comparison. That being said though, if you didn't own a Wii U (and lets face it, most Switch owners didn't) you were absolutely drowning in riches this year! Imagine a year where Captain Toad, Bayonetta 1, Bayonetta 2, Hyrule Warriors, Mario Tennis Ultra Smash Aces, Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze and Super Smash Bros For Wii U Ultimate all came out as brand new titles within the same year; plus add on the three Labo releases, Kirby: Star Allies, Super Mario Party and Octopath Traveller (Plus Let's Go if you want to count remakes). That was the reality for most people who owned a Switch! While Switch had very little new to offer most of us here (let's face it, the only truly new games released this year were Super Mario Party, Octopath Traveller, Labo and Kirby: Star Allies - and even then, the latter was almost certainly a port of a cancelled Wii U game), the lineup that it did offer for most Switch owners was immense! Of course, the lineup of indie titles has been superb though (even if most of them are multiplatform releases). Celeste in particular just blew me away! And then there is the larger 3rd party titles like Monster Boy (which I haven't been able to play yet, but am really looking to getting stuck into!), Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate, Valkyria Chronicles 4 and Taiko no Tatsujin: Drum N' Fun! There have been some good releases on Switch this year, even if the grand, grand majority of them are re-releases of older titles... Really though, this is all just building up to 2019, which is looking to be a serious contender to Nintendo's 2013! The lineup is already scarily similar, and we haven't even started the year yet! If they can pull off at least one first party release every month, like they did back in 2013 (and it's looking very likely that they will!), it's gonna be an incredible year next year! Almost all of their dev teams are due to release something next year, so I expect 2019 to be a real blow-out year! Sony This hasn't really been Sony's best year. While they have had some big titles published this year, the publisher was marred by controversy; not least of which being the whole debacle surrounding cross-platform online play. The PS4 Pro also hasn't really taken off quite like how they wanted to, while the Xbox One X has really stolen its thunder as the high-end hardware choice for enthusiasts. They also had an utterly disastrous E3 showing that was so bad, that they have officially cancelled their E3 2019 showing. Their strategy of selling the PS4 based off of promises of future releases announced years in advance has finally come back to bite them in the arse. And to finish off their joke of a year, they decided to ripoff Nintendo with the Playstation Mini... just... you know, without the quality emulation. It was really sad to see them completely bungle this project, but bungle it they did. What a terrible way to round off a terrible year! That's not to say that they haven't had some good releases this year. This year saw the release of the absolutely superb remake of Shadow of the Colossus, as well as the long awaited Detroit: Become Human, God of War and Spider-Man; while Astro Bot was a surprise hit for PS VR. It's a small lineup, but its one that packed a punch! Tetris Effect was the one big exclusive 3rd party title this year, but it was at least a really good one! Overall, it was a pretty awful year for Sony, despite the release of a few good games. Sadly it looks like 2019 will not be reversing this trend so far; with signs pointing to a small lineup and a total lack of communication going forward (especially with the confirmed lack of an E3 showing). It really does feel like Sony are winding down the PS4 now in preperation for something else to come in 2020... Microsoft Microsoft actually had a pretty bangin' year! The surprise introduction of Game Pass turned out to be a real trump card that nobody saw coming! While their lineup of new titles was pretty threadbare (Consisting solely of Sea of Thieves, State of Decay 2 and Forza Horizon 4), Game Pass was the real star of the show; especially with the expansion of the Xbox One's backwards compatibility functionality! The Xbox One X hardware and functionality also really stole the show for them this year, not only making their console the defacto choice for everyone who wanted the best experience with 3rd party multiplatform releases (obviously not counting PC or Switch here, which bring their own unique advantages to the table), but also breathing new life into older titles with its newfound ability to up-res Original Xbox and Xbox 360 titles to full (or near full) 4K! A huge boon for long-time Xbox fans that went a long way towards justifying the console's high price! (and is no doubt one of the big factors that lead to the Xbox One X outselling the PS4 Pro). On a wider level, Xbox fans also have a lot to be excited about. Not just for the upcoming lineup of exclusives (which includes a new Battletoads game! New Cuphead DLC, Gears of War 5, Halo Infinite and Ori and the Will of the Wisps), but also for the future of the Xbox ecosystem in general. Microsoft outright confirmed their intention to remain in the console market and that they were working on the next Xbox; on top of that, they've also been on a mad shopping spree this year! Aqquiring ALL of the developers mentioned below... ... and with word spreading of them putting more developers on their shopping list... The future of Xbox is looking a lot brighter than this time last year! Outside of Game Pass, you also had the introduction of the Xbox Adaptive Controller too, a fantastic initiative for the disabled! The new upcoming Project xCloud, a really promising initiative that expands the Xbox's reach outside of its own platform, a recommitment to the PC platform (with almost all of their first party Xbox One releases now being available on PC!) and almost across-the-board support for cross platform online play with Switch! They've even won back a lot of lost marketshare ground against Sony in their key markets! (US and UK), with not too much seperating them now! So yeah! 2018 was a great year for Microsoft; and 2019 looks to be another humdinger of a year for Xbox fans. Game Pass really has changed everything and the whole business model behind it just makes so much more sense for them, given their market position and the stance of the company as a whole (as-in, Microsoft, outside of the Xbox division). 3rd Party Multiplatform Publishers/developers in general Just one controversy after another for all of the big 4 western publishers and all of them deserve everything they got. From EA being EA (and outright breaking Belgian law), to Rockstar’s shambolic mistreatment of its staff (with outright slave labour conditions), to the absolute incidious misogyny that plagues the industry; they’re all run by a bunch of absolute inhuman cunts. The AAA market in general can fuck right off and the sooner it dies out, the better. As for smaller publishers and the Japanese side? THQ Nordic really have gone from strength to strength! Quietly becoming a force to be reckoned with! They've pumped out some great titles this year and have aqquired pretty much the entierty of AA western development it seems! Hopes are high now for a revival of Timesplitters! Capcom had one massive release that really disappointed me, but I can't really argue that 10 million sales says that it was the right decision... Still, we finally got Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate at least! That's a nice consolation prize! And Mega Man 11 turned out really well too. It's all about 2019 for Capcom though, and it promises to be one of the best years that they have had for a LONG time! Can't wait for both RE2 Remake and DMC5! Namco had a decent year, with the release of DB FighterZ (which turned out way better than anyone expected!) and two new Taiko No Tatsujin games in the west! Unfortunately they bungled the release of Dark Souls Remastered on all platforms (and tremendously so on Switch), while Soul Calibur 6 was a high profile bomba. Some other low-key bombas also marred the year, like Ni No Kuni 2, but overall, they did ok. Square Enix had a pretty disastrous year really, only seeing any real success with Octopath Traveller (and that was really thanks to Nintendo). They lost IO Interactive, bungled Final Fantasy 15 and Dissidia NT and really just did poorly all round the year. Their biggest release of this year (Dragon Quest 11) was also marred by controversy and ended up really underperforming... hopefully they will be able to salvage something out of it with the (incredibly late) upcoming Switch release... SEGA had a good year though. With releases like Yakuza 6 (despite the demo debacle), Sonic Mania Plus, Shenmue 1&2 HD, Valkyria Chronicles 4 and Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise; they had a strong lineup of critically acclaimed releases, even if they didn't end up being big sellers in general (they will likely do well over time though). This year also saw the beginning of their new SEGA AGES initiative on Switch, a successor to their SEGA 3D Classics and Virtual Console line of high quality re-releases from M2; and while it's taking a bit of time to really get going, to be this good takes ages! Next year is promising too, with Sonic Team Racing headlining the year alongside Judgement, Puyo Puyo eSports in the west, a new Sakura Taisen game and the continuation of SEGA AGES; as well as the promise of a (newly delayed and completely re-engineered) Megadrive Mini. Here's hoping that it turns out better than Sony's attempt... So yeah! That covers the landscape broadly! 2018 wasn't a great year overall, but 2019 looks to be one to remember!

It's absolutely pathetic that it took them this long to get a Switch version done, but at least it looks like a good port. Still, if voice acting is the only addition that this version is getting, then they might as well not bother. This really has to be the equivilent of DQ8 3DS (which had a ton of new, extra content) for it to have any real chance of success. Including the 3DS version with this package would be a good start... https://gematsu.com/2018/12/dragon-quest-xi-s-launches-in-2019-in-japan-teaser-trailer#oMFUAOswgFarp78X.99 Oh, they added more partners to marry live with, that's nice. That's a decent start! More new content like this is what this Switch version really needs!

Yeah, that actually does sound like a realistic release date for it. Could well be real!

I've just had my mind completely blown! Here's an album of music from the Megadrive Sonic series (plus a few bonus ones) running on actual SNES hardware! Now you've probably heard "SNES" renditions of MD tunes before, but almost all of them are faked, using midi music and sound fonts, none of them actually adhering to the limitations of the SPC 700 chip... Well this is different! This one runs on real SNES hardware! And he even includes the SPC files that you can run in any SPC music player (or put onto a flash cart and listen to on actual SNES hardware!) It's unbelievable how close they are to the originals! While I've heard plenty of great MD renditions of SNES tunes before, it's great to see someone doing the reverse for a change!