Dcubed

Yup. My copy arrived on Saturday 3rd. Haven't had much time to play it yet, but I'm thoroughly enjoying it so far! I really like the background plane switching gimmick, a fresh twist on the typical series exploration mechanics. Level design is very solid too, much better than what we saw in Seven Sirens, with more interesting layouts, better pacing and more interesting environmental puzzles to solve. The music is good, the animation is great, the gameplay feel is very great! (I particularily love the diving and swimming mechanics!), and the couple of boss encounters I've done are brill. It's all great stuff! I'll give more detailed impressions as I spend more time with it, but it's looking like this is gonna end up being amongst my favourite of the series. This is almost certainly the best of the "classic" Shantae style of games, as seen in Shantae GBC and Risky's Revenge.

From what I understand, Dark Legacy is an expanded version of the original Gauntlet Legends that includes all the content from the original version anyway (same is true of the original arcade release too). So there isn’t really much point in playing the N64 version over the GameCube one.

This would be a great candidate for GCN NSO... It's not impossible! Warner Bros did allow Nintendo to re-release Quest For Camelot GBC... for some bizzare reason! This would certainly be a great add to the service!

As far as Nintendo console bundles go? Yeah, all the Switch 1 bundles included download codes in a box. It's much cheaper and easier for them to produce since they can just use the same consoles being manufactured and just chuck the code into a different box; no need to spin up a specific manufacturing line for that particular bundle that way.

All those options, but I'm just gonna pick my Mii. Why would I ever choose anything else?

I mean, why wouldn't we expect the rest to come at some point? Would be a bit silly to only have the first part. Switch 2 is certainly powerful enough to run these games after all. Storage space is gonna be a big issue though.

Neat idea! Will you be covering the big 3rd party releases that never had GCN versions even start development? (GTA3/VC/SA, FF10, MGS2 etc), or will these selections be exclusively games that were originally in development for GCN but got cancelled along the way? (Kameo: Elements of Power, Grabbed by the Ghoulies, Perfect Dark Zero, Too Human etc).

So much for Ultimate meaning Ultimate. What is this, Ultimatelier?

They're gonna really explode once their games start hitting Switch 2 though. They will easily be the biggest 3rd party publisher on that platform; and I reckon that their games will be better recieved by Nintendo's audience than Sony's (especially with less competition in those same genres).

My hype is of two minds. For the games themselves? It's a big fat meh, because Mario Kart World is the only game I'm getting on day 1. Having played it? It's fantastic, and it will not disappoint anyone here, but it's also only the one game; and it's also primarily a multiplayer game, not really the kind of game that you'd want to kick off a new console generation. Switch 2 lacks a big major single player game on launch day, in fact, it's the first ever Nintendo console to not be launching with a first party single player focused title. When I joke that Echoes of Wisdom is the launch game I'm looking forward to the most, I'm really not joking! And while I'm looking forward to DK Bananza? The rest of the new and original titles are pretty thinly spread out for this first year, there's not a lot of exclusive games coming in the first year; especially of the single player focused variety. There's no real way to sugar coat it, the lineup is pretty disappointing so far, but it probably won't stay that way... For the hardware itself though? Having actually played it? 10/10. This thing is a beast of a machine and it seems to fix every single issue I had with the original Switch. I have a big backlog of games that I cannot wait to play on this thing! They seem to have really nailed the hardware this time around and I'm super pleased with how well engineered this thing is. So while the initial launch lineup looks pretty thin on the ground, I also know that it won't be that long until we start getting the big first party titles that we're all clamering for. Switch 1's lineup was heavily carried by cheap Wii U ports in those first couple of years, while Switch 2 doesn't have that luxury this time around. But that's fine, because I've built up quite a Switch 1 backlog that will sing on the new hardware; which will happily keep me going until the first big wave of post-launch window software starts hitting the console

Bloody hell! That game looks rough! I wouldn't be surprised if it was actually an unfinished pre-alpha prototype that Acclaim pushed out the door well before it was done.

I know I already spoke about this game in the N64 thread, but it really is remarkable how little changed in the transition from N64 to GCN. The only meaningful difference is the bump in resolution from 240p to 480p and the addition of an English localisation. That’s it.

Not as good as last time, but I'll take it. Might just use the credit to buy a couple of sets of NSO vouchers... they can still be used on games that get Switch 2 Edition upgrades after all! And there are at least three upcoming first party Switch 1 titles (Metroid Prime 4, Tomodachi Life LTD and Rhythm Heaven Groove) still to come!

Good game, but it does lose some of its appeal in its home form without its crazy deluxe arcade cabinet... Complete with Trucker Horn!

Right, it's not letting me send a PM to you for whatever silly reason, but just out of curiosity, how much for the following... BTW, are any of your games NTSC copies? Or are they all PAL?

Heads up to anyone planning on ripping their LRG cart, it looks like the ROM has some issues with saving on most flashcarts and FPGA devices; due to the weird cartridge that LRG have used, and some strange patching that they've done to Wayforward's ROM to make it work with their dodgy bootleg carts (In nerd speak, the ROM header is broken and the game has been set to use the wrong save type. The actual game that Wayforward made uses SRAM to save, but has been modified by LRG to use EEPROM instead; causing saves to not persist on anything other than LRG's bootleg carts). Luckily, somebody has made a patch that seems to undo the damage that LRG did and fixes the issue... https://www.reddit.com/r/Roms/comments/1kdj2vb/fixed_shantae_advance_rom_patch/

That's well above the market value for even a complete in box copy of the game, sounds sus to me. That being said, there wouldn't be any real harm in relisting the auction as a Buy-It-Now; just as long as you do not listen to any requests to sell outside of the site. NEVER accept any purchase offer that doesn't go directly through eBay, there will be no seller protection whatsoever if you do this and you will almost certainly be scammed. As long as they purchase through eBay directly though, there's no harm in using the Buy It Now option.

Good news for Nintendo at least. Bet they must be breathing a sigh of relief as they take this Xmas season mostly uncontested now.

What is a mediocre arcade to GCN port turns out to be an amazing arcade to GBA port! Absolutely insane what Raylight Studios pulled off here. Jaw dropping stuff for the hardware!

HD2D or we riot!

It wouldn’t surprise me if they’re reusing some cheap recycled Chinese bootleg carts; it IS LRG after all. Either way, first thing I’ll be doing is ripping the ROM and playing it on my GBA Everdrive/Analogue Pocket/MiSTer instead.

Took ‘em 8 years, but they got there eventually! Maybe in another 15 years, we’ll finally get a proper shopping cart feature on Switch 2.

Bonkers increase. Microsoft are clearly done selling subsidised custom hardware. They definitely won’t be releasing a traditional console ever again. Xbox’s future is in branded OEM PCs and PC handhelds. Still, all these price increases on Sony and Microsoft’s part is good news for Nintendo, as Switch 2 becomes comparatively better value as a result.

Had a chance to try out the VGC family sharing feature. It's pretty slick. You just select the game you want to lend, the other person accepts and you're done. Nice and painless. You can only give out one game per person at a time though. So I lent @Ugh first aid my copy of AI: The Somnium Files Nirvana Initiative, while I borrowed her copy of Unicorn Overlord; but I can't give her any other games while I'm lending out Nirvana Initiative. Also, once you're playing a game you've borrowed off of someone else, any account on that system can freely load it up and use their own save files; just as if it were any other physical or digital game. You are NOT limited to just using your own account to play the borrowed game. It all works exactly like lending out a physical game, with the same limitations and all. I'm not gonna try linking any other systems until I get my Switch 2, so I won't be able to try that out yet. The obvious use-case is to link your Switch 2 and Switch 1, so that you can freely share games between them without limitations; so that's what I'm gonna do.

It's an arcade port, where the actual main arcade mode was removed for the home version. Bizzare.