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Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack: N64 & SEGA Mega Drive (& GBA!!)

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I've gone through Minish Cap, now looking at Alone in The Dark, however it really doesn't translate well to the big screen (Darn Sky Glass) so I'll be playing it in handheld mode.

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Level 3 complete. It's pretty claustrophobic in there and it took me a bit longer than the first two. Good sense of achievement getting through it with all the stray fairies.

I remember lending the N64 cart to my cousin—provided it still works, to this day the files on it are mine and his. A side-sidenote: probably the biggest blot on MM for me has always been that it only has two slots. Meant I deleted and restarted my own file on the N64. The main reason I double-dipped on the Wii VC was to have two more files! So anyway, we went back to his one Saturday or Sunday and he flicked on the TV and there was MM, paused in the waters of the Great Bay Temple. I was like whoa, this is how serious gaming is done. Then yesterday, I took it on in smaller chunks as and when the day allowed, pausing and putting the Switch to sleep in between. The modern equivalent of leaving it on. Majora's Mask man, it's all cyclic. 

It was only halfway into day 2 by the time collected Gyorgs remains, but even so, I could feel the moon bearing down. Something about the way you're always stopping to assess the flow of water for where to go next puts the pressure on because you feel like you need to be going rather than observing. So good. Enjoyed the use of fire and ice arrows in there.

Spent a moment in the purified bay area then warped over and saved at the owl statue in Clock Town. Didn't reset to day one because having got the frog from the Great Bay Temple, I'm considering getting the choir together now when the going's good. Realistically though, I just can't be bothered going back to Woodfall for the one in there.

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Wish the game had auto-unequipped my mask here...

Bio Deku Babas should be in Resident Evil. I'd a nightmare brought on by them. :shakehead 

On 28/02/2023 at 8:34 AM, EEVILMURRAY said:

I've gone through Minish Cap, now looking at Alone in The Dark, however it really doesn't translate well to the big screen (Darn Sky Glass) so I'll be playing it in handheld mode.

Alone in the Dark was the first NSO GB/GBA game I'd a look at as I'd never played it before. It seemed like it might be worth giving a proper go.

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I was trying not to expect too much from Ikana in case my rose-tinted glasses had built it up into something it isn't. This was not the case.

Captain's mask, getting the Gibdo mask (one of my favourite individual moments in the game), Ikana Castle and onwards to the tower itself. It's a great segment only marred by going into the well which requires you to stump up items to open doors... and if you don't have them? Well, you better go get em. Meh. I'd been making do with getting money from that 100 rupee chest in Clock Town and dodongos. Dancing Redeads seems an even better source!

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Let the freakshow begin.

Stone Tower wasn't so bad. Time-consuming to lay the replicas and go out and flip the place, but not difficult to unravel it room by room. Thought it had gone well until I left without all the stray fairies, so I had to do another pass-through afterwards for those. A bit of an annoyance but totally worth it when the Great Fairy of Kindness bestowed the Great Fairies Sword upon me. 

And with the Ikana skies a little less murky (woo?), I can be on my way to confront Skull Kid.

But that's going to have to wait as there are still a few people in my Bomber's Notebook remaining to be helped. I must have been waiting for items that I should now have, so I'll stalk the denizens of Clock Town some more and see what can be triggered because I've no intention of finishing this without becoming the Fierce Deity.

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:weep: 

And no, I didn't bother with the frog choir.

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1 hour ago, darksnowman said:

I've no intention of finishing this without becoming the Fierce Deity.

Maybe it was because I last played it on 3DS, but I thought I was going to get slaughtered if I went against him sans Fierce Deity Mask. Turns out it was a piece of piss.

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4 hours ago, EEVILMURRAY said:

Maybe it was because I last played it on 3DS, but I thought I was going to get slaughtered if I went against him sans Fierce Deity Mask. Turns out it was a piece of piss.

Oh yeah, Majora's not the hardest. Freaky customer, though. I think I mind getting some good use out of bombs and/or the blast mask of all things against it back on the N64. Maybe I enjoy that blast mask a bit too much. :laughing: That was before I was aware of the existence of the powers of the Fierce Deity. 

Not sure why I never got the 3DS version. Maybe it was the price, or maybe it was not wanting to play it on the small screen but I've went through OoT 3D a couple of times with the 3D cranked to the max so I doubt it was that. Likely I was playing games I hadn't played before. Kind of want it now.

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Metroid Fusion is crashing onto the NSO Expansion Pack next Thursday – March 9th!

Talk about striking while the iron is hot, fair play Nintendo! 

Edited by Julius
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At this point, I would've preferred Mario Party 3.

We're running out of boards!

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13 hours ago, darksnowman said:

Not sure why I never got the 3DS version. Maybe it was the price, or maybe it was not wanting to play it on the small screen but I've went through OoT 3D a couple of times with the 3D cranked to the max so I doubt it was that. Likely I was playing games I hadn't played before. Kind of want it now.

I might have a sealed copy... FOR A PRICE.

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Ahh crud.  Don’t tell me that they’re sticking with one game a month?

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17 hours ago, Julius said:

Metroid Fusion is crashing onto the NSO Expansion Pack next Thursday – March 9th!

Talk about striking while the iron is hot, fair play Nintendo! 

Crashing but not burning because it's the bestroid! :cool: 

If they're truly striking while the iron's hot then I look forward to seeing screenshots of the Fusion suit in Prime Remastered. And they could throw the first Metroid back in as an unlockable when they're at it... :indeed: 

10 hours ago, EEVILMURRAY said:

I might have a sealed copy... FOR A PRICE.

EEVIL's Emporium has it all! What inordinate amount of rupees would that be going for?

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Finished Minish Cap a few hours ago. Moved on to Mario & Luigi.

Great Force + Chopper Bros + Mad Button Mashing Skills = Utter Brokenness

Just wait until I get the Mush Badge, no boss will last one turn!

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14 hours ago, darksnowman said:

EEVIL's Emporium has it all! What inordinate amount of rupees would that be going for?

One Mirrion Dorrah.

 

All counter offers welcome

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1 hour ago, EEVILMURRAY said:

One Mirrion Dorrah.

 

All counter offers welcome

I'll give you tree fiddy

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Done. Did the whole Final Boss in 4 moves.

Spoiler

You'll just have to take my word for it with the final phase. Anyone who's finished this game can tell you the 1 HP each bro has at the start of the clip is proof enough.

It really can't be understated how utterly broken the Mush Badges are. Completely snaps any challenge of fights over its legs. Every boss was dying in 1 attack! It's hilarious!

My time was under 10 hours and each Bro was at Level 45. The time elapsed at the last save point was 9 hours, 34 minutes. And I guarantee it didn't take me 26 minutes to reach the credits from there.

It's still a great game. I love RPG's where you can get insanely broken with the right setup. It's why I like Octopath Traveler so much.

I'll probably finish off WarioWare next.

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metroidfusionarrivesthisthursdayonnintendoswitchonlinebanner.620x0.webp

Metroid Fusion arrives this Thursday on Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack

Now up on the main page.

Writeup, tweet embed, and trailer.

It's great to see Nintendo recalling the original release dates of Metroid Prime and Metroid Fusion.

March 2023, is the new November 2002. (referring to the original NTSC release dates, at least) :smile:

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6 hours ago, S.C.G said:

March 2023, is the new November 2002. (referring to the original NTSC release dates, at least) :smile:

You planting the seeds for changing this place to NTSC-Europe? :p 

I remember Fusion as a Christmas release and Prime as one I went to Game after school to collect my pre-order in... Feb? If they'd come out on the same day here I doubt I'd have got both.

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Wonder if the Fusion suit will be patched into Prime now that Fusion is coming to the NSO app?

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7 hours ago, darksnowman said:

You planting the seeds for changing this place to NTSC-Europe? :p 

I remember Fusion as a Christmas release and Prime as one I went to Game after school to collect my pre-order in... Feb? If they'd come out on the same day here I doubt I'd have got both.

Nope, just stating the similarities between the original NTSC release of both games, which was in the same month, this seems to have been mirrored here, at least going by the date of the physical release, and the upcoming release of Metroid Fusion.

I'm aware that in European game release territories, Metroid Fusion was released on November 22nd, 2002, while Metroid Prime was released on March 21st, 2003.

I can still remember buying Metroid Fusion from Game months before, and then playing Metroid Prime on a demo GameCube in a "Big W" store (Woolworths) before purchasing it that same day.

I've never forgotten the game since, though I did take my time when originally completing it, as I used to play PSO a lot on the original servers, (not a lot has changed these days, as I still play PSO) but I made sure to go back to the game when the time was right, and it was worth the wait.

As for Metroid Fusion, it wasn't until later on that I properly finished the game, and playing it on NSO EP will only be the second time? Maybe third... playing through it properly, though I've started a save file on the original cartridge a few times, I'm sure... Metroid Zero Mission definitely got played through a few times... Super Metroid had lots of playthroughs, but only one complete playthrough for whatever reason.

Metroid Prime is the only game I remember playing through many times over, my best 100% Hard mode run took around 12 hours, which was in a couple of sittings, when I felt that I could dedicate that much time to a playthrough within 24 hours...

As for Metroid Prime Remastered? I'm hoping to start a playthrough soon, I may stream it and just play it a couple of hours at a time, the same for Metroid Fusion, though that could be done in a single sitting if it's not a 100% run, maybe a few tries for 100% as it has been a while, but it is the most linear Metroid game.

It's good to see Metroid back in the spotlight again though, Samus is a great character, and always fun to play as in Smash as well. :peace:

Edited by S.C.G
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3 hours ago, S.C.G said:

I'm aware that in European game release territories, Metroid Fusion was released on November 22nd, 2002, while Metroid Prime was released on March 21st, 2003.

I can still remember buying Metroid Fusion from Game months before, and then playing Metroid Prime on a demo GameCube in a "Big W" store (Woolworths) before purchasing it that same day.

Hmm, I would have said half-term in February but I knew it wasn't as late as April/ Easter so if we split the difference and land on March that sounds reasonable enough. ;) 

Same—I remember the day I got Prime too, and it took me a while to get through it and all, though not due to any involvement of PSO...

After Fusion (which I probably hadn't finished at that point as those were still good days for swapping games... sadly, it was the tail end of that era), I was looking forward to Prime well enough. Super Metroid's not for me, but thanks to Fusion, I hadn't written off modern Metroid yet. Basically, being the next Nintendo release made it a must-buy anyway, it seemed a given they were going to knock it out of the park as they had with Mario 64 and OoT... and above all for me, having lost Rare, I saw it as Retro stepping in to take up the mantle. Rare had DK, Retro got Metroid, the natural order of things was resuming. Something about those opening sandy rooms reminded me of the end of Perfect Dark so I breathed a sigh of relief and set about chipping away at it. I don't know how quickly I got there, but when I reached the part that sends you off on the artefact hunt I ejected the disc and stuck it in the drawer where I wouldn't have to look at it. :D No thank you. It wasn't until during the Wii years that I went back and finished it, starting over to give it a proper chance. My opinion on it didn't change but at least I can say I did it. :( 

But at what cost, @S.C.G. At what cost.

Fusion's the exception that proves the rule for me with the Metroid series. Hope Chu Chu Rocket gets added to the GBA NSO. :hehe: 

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1 hour ago, darksnowman said:

Rare had DK, Retro got Metroid, the natural order of things was resuming. Something about those opening sandy rooms reminded me of the end of Perfect Dark so I breathed a sigh of relief and set about chipping away at it. I don't know how quickly I got there, but when I reached the part that sends you off on the artefact hunt I ejected the disc and stuck it in the drawer where I wouldn't have to look at it. :D No thank you. It wasn't until during the Wii years that I went back and finished it, starting over to give it a proper chance. My opinion on it didn't change but at least I can say I did it. :( 

But at what cost, @S.C.G. At what cost.

And then later, Retro had DK... stuck with DK for a while, before going back to Metroid, and here we are.

I can see that, both Perfect Dark and Metroid Prime rated high on my personal level of anticpation at the time as well, and yes, the artifact hunt definitely seems to be the point at which many players tend to shelf the game. That might have been close to where I left it, though it might even have been after that, or at least towards the end of the Phazon Mines... yes, that sounds about right.

I don't mind the artifact hunt that much though, it's a lot of back-tracking, but the world is so well-designed, and with the improved loading times in Remastered, I don't expect it to be that much of a bother this time around, either... anyway, I should probably save this for the Metroid Prime Remastered thread.

Back to Fusion... everything from ther story set-up at the start, to the SA-X encounters, the well-realised enviroments, and the tight controls (considering the limited number of buttons) made for an excellent Metroid title, which is easily one of the most memorable games in the series to date, though it seemed to be overshadowed when Metroid Zero Mision was released a year and a half later.

Here's hoping Metroid Zero Mission is added soon (but not too soon) so that people get a chance to play Fusion, and then may want to try out Zero Mission as well.

Yes, more Sega GBA titles for NSO EP, as these were mostly excellent titles, plus many GBA games will become more accessible thanks to the modern features that the service provides.

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On 3/4/2023 at 11:16 AM, BowserBasher said:

I'll give you tree fiddy

Ok so £350 is the highest current bid!

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A friendly reminder that Fusion lands on the service today!

Urgh, I really want to get back to a Metroid adventure, it's been a minute since I played and loved Zero Mission...

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BTW, worth pointing out that the Japanese version of Metroid Fusion actually has an exclusive Hard Mode that wasn't in the US or EU versions (The Japanese version came out after the US/EU release and got Hard Mode as a bonus feature).

For those who've played Metroid Fusion to death (like me!), it may be worth checking out the Japanese version on the Japanese NSO GBA app for a new twist on the game :)

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5 hours ago, Dcubed said:

BTW, worth pointing out that the Japanese version of Metroid Fusion actually has an exclusive Hard Mode that wasn't in the US or EU versions (The Japanese version came out after the US/EU release and got Hard Mode as a bonus feature).

For those who've played Metroid Fusion to death (like me!), it may be worth checking out the Japanese version on the Japanese NSO GBA app for a new twist on the game :)

If anyone goes looking for this and doesn't see it, there's no need to adjust your set because according to wikitroid, you have to go through the game once to unlock hard mode. Apparently, the JP version has an easy mode and a gallery (to view the various end screens after you get them) too. Nifty.

In hard mode, you basically get half as much from all the upgrades and enemies deal 50% more damage. 

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