Dcubed

Chrono Trigger should be your number 1 priority before any FF game. It's probably my personal favourite RPG of all time, the absolute apex of the genre. Ideally you should play the original SNES version over the DS one (the revised script is rather flavourless compared to the stellar original, and the new content added to the DS version actively lessens and cheapens the experience as a whole by association), but the DS version will do if you can't otherwise play the original SNES version. Stay far away from the PS1 or mobile ports, while the modern Steam release is an improved version of the mobile release (which itself is a low quality port of the DS version).

Not a bad first attempt for the Job System, but it was certainly done better later on. Still, it clearly did something right, because much like FF2 before it (SaGa), FF3 essentially spawned two entire series of non-FF games dedicated to expanding on its main gameplay gimmick (Bravely Default and Octopath Traveller).

Zool looks pretty neat, I like the art style. Reminds me a bit of Suikoden. At least it’s a bit of a different take on the typical Pokemon knockoff, and also a rare RPG for a RPG-starved platform

Yeah, the Goldeneye speedrunning community call it “Dark License To Kill”. Basically maxed-out health/damage settings on the highest difficulty. Though they try to beat it without cheats on (which is almost impossible!), I wouldn’t dare try it without cheats! Yeah, Invincibility would probably trivialise the challenge, but otherwise I think having all the other cheats available would make it quite fun! I’d be up for trying it in co-op at some point once we’ve both unlocked everything

A fun challenge would be to see if you can beat the game with all of the custom difficulty settings whacked up to max (the ones you unlock from beating Perfect Agent) while kitting yourself out with cheats. Cheater vs Cheater mode

I’m starting to get the feeling that the Aleck 64 logo is meant to be an S&M collar rather than a dog collar with all the soft core porn running on the thing…

Here’s one for you @Cube https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/xboxera/console-wars-the-card-game Ha ha! What a great idea! Surprised nobody has come up with something like this before. Looks like it could be a lotta fun

Oh that's awesome! Always love seeing previously JPN only games get official translations! Wing of Madoola is a pretty important game in Sunsoft's history too, so I'm real glad to see it finally get an English release!

Secret Agent done! YEAAAHH!!!! Got every Agent & Secret Agent cheat so far, including completion of the Firing Range with every weapon... Do wish you could use these in multiplayer... even if they are a bit rubbish. It's the one thing I liked about the Xbox version Just Perfect Agent left to go now, and then all of the Combat Simulator Challenges. We going for 100% completion baybee! Oh? And just in case you're wondering? No cheats were used in the making of these cheats No save states used. All done the old fashioned way! (By watching some speedrun strats on Youtube and using them to figure out the quickest paths through each level. You know, like how we did it back in 2000 )

Yes it is. This is a Goomba/Galoomba situation where they're retconning their sudden dramatic species redesign and providing an in-universe explanation as to why they look nothing alike.

I’m guessing that it’ll be just for the intro… but playable Link will be a post-game unlockable feature. They wouldn’t build an entire moveset just for such a small sequence, so that seems like the kind of thing they’d do. Avoids the whole “Mottainai” problem without undermining the main selling point of playable Zelda

Look! Actual level design! Holy shit! So much for those still claiming it to be an open world game or (even dumber) saying that it reuses the map from ALTTP. Shock of all shocks, it looks like a real proper classic Zelda game. The kind that we haven’t seen since 2013 Bind looks like a very fun mechanic too. I’m sure we’ll see lots of cool puzzles making use of it… you know, like the kind of handcrafted game design we used to see from Zelda a million years ago. Shame about the framerate though… Looks like it runs substantially worse than Link’s Awakening Switch (swear half that trailer was running at 30FPS), seemingly using the same double buffer V-Sync as LA Switch, but just not hitting the target as consistently. Guess I’ll have to wait until Switch 2 comes out before I can enjoy it properly…

Honestly? I've played far worse games than Superman 64, which sits comfortably into the category of "So bad it's kind of enjoyable?" It's fun in the sense that watching a trainwreck is fun and it's certainly not boring (a far worse crime to commit). I doubt that it's the worst game on the N64, let alone of all time. Haunted Castle makes Superman 64 look like a masterpiece in comparison.

Weird that they're going back to the Yakuza name after working so hard to rebrand to Like A Dragon. SEGA can't make up their minds!

Yeah, Carrington Villa SA cheat is rough, dunno how the hell I managed to pull it off. Another rough one is the par time for the Air Base SA cheat… that is until I watched a speedrun and found out that there’s actually a secret shortcut that skips the laser section altogether! This one blew my mind. Had no idea that you could just go back into the lift and be taken straight to the Air Force One entrance! Also, that trick of using the DrugSpy to block the lift door is genius! You save a good 10-15 seconds from that little trick alone!

I don’t think Nintendo will ever drop the price of the console officially. Were so close to the end now that I think they will just ride it out until Switch 2 comes out; so that they can set the expectation that Switch 2 will also never receive a price drop (thus discouraging people from waiting until the price comes down). Thus Switch 1 will become the first console in all of human history to never receive any form of price drop throughout its lifecycle. That’s probably an even bigger accomplishment than beating the PS2’s hardware sales record.

Always felt so weird to me that the GBA got so few Pokemon spinoff games (just two, granted both of them are absolute bangers and both better than the actual original mainline R/S/E game that the console received; but still!). Such a huge missed opportunity… … but especially a massive missed opportunity that we never got a GBA Pokemon TCG RPG game with e-reader support… The damn real-life Pokémon TCG even got e-reader support! And it was squandered on Pokédex entries and a couple of minigames. Absolute lunacy of the highest order! A proper GBA PMKN TCG with e-reader support would’ve been an easy 10+ million seller; and the pieces were already there to make it happen! It just… never did. So stupid.

What can I say? Four Swords actively encourages you to be an idiot

Plenty more racers still to come and all. N64 is to racing games what NeoGeo and TG16 are to fighting games and shmups respectively.

It hit 32 degrees in London today… which may not sound that hot on paper, but we’re currently at around 80-85% humidity; which means that it feels like a bloody rainforest over here! Even my poor portable air conditioner is struggling to keep up! Speaking of which… DK Jungle probably would’ve fit the theme.

Small update. I have since replaced the nasty looking c-stick for a new one... Ahh! Much better. You might be wondering why I didn't replace the left stick... well, as it turns out; the left stick is the only part of this controller that is actually unique to this colour variant. While Gamecube controllers by and large all use the same buttons and sticks, regardless of controller shell colour, it turns out that Nintendo broke their rule in this one specific case; as the left stick actually comes in a slightly darker grey to fit the Platinum colour shell. Squint and you can see the difference Might not be so obvious in this photo, but I did try swapping out the sticks and the result just looked really weird and obviously not OEM, so I've decided to leave the left stick as-is. It looks better in person than these beauty ugly shots would suggest, and the minor blemishes don't really bother me. The left stick works perfectly and feel normal, and that's the most important thing. Edit: I've only just noticed this now... but it's not just the left stick, but all of the grey buttons (Y/X/Start/D-Pad/Wireless Switch/L/R) actually use a darker variant colour as well! No other Gamecube controller uses these particular parts AFAIK (though I'd imagine that the wired Platinum colour GCN controller also uses these buttons/sticks; the wireless switch would still be exclusive to this one particular variant). Interesting that Nintendo actually bothered to manufacture unique parts for this colour and this colour variant only!

I get that, but the Joycons are buggered anyway. It's either a matter of sending them back to be repaired, fixing them yourself (A PITA, but it can be done. I've fixed a bunch of mine and it's not a fun experience), or just having them sit there being useless. I know what option I'd pick.

NOE now offer free repairs on all Joy-Cons, regardless of their warrenty period. Send the Joy-Cons back to them rather than spend another £60 on another pair.

Damn that’s brutal… And they’re also not just losing staff from the layoffs, but are also getting 155 staff members taken away from them and absorbed into other parts of Playstation… and on top of that? They’re getting their other non-Destiny/Marathon project and an additional 40 staff members stripped away from them and spun off into a wholly new studio? Oh and if that’s not bad enough? Bungie is no longer being run independently as Herman Hulst has now reportedly taken over the running of the studio… This is a massacre. That’s more than 30% of the entire studio wiped out, just like that. Why did Sony even bother buying Bungie for such an exorbitant sum (an amount that I and almost everyone else unanimously agreed was a massive overspend for the company), if they were just planning on gutting them anyway? What a massive waste of money!

Banjo Kazooie is a 10-12 hour game your first time through, if that’s of any help @Jonnas