Topic: The Chit-Chat Thread

@NeonPizza I see where you're coming from, especially from the cutscene and sterile environment point of view, the cinematics are slickly directed but run so badly compared to the rest of the game.

@Anti-Matter Congrats on finally buying a PS5! I know you've wanted one for work time now.

@Tyranexx
Well, looks like my hype is switched to PS5 currently as I really want to play both Ratchet & Clank Rift Apart and the PS4 version on PS5 machine as both of them got 60 fps boost.
My reaction to Ratchet & Clank PS4 version on PS5 after got 60 fps boost = Wow, is that real 60 fps? Omg...! 😃
Cars 3 Disney Pixar PS4 version also got 60 fps boost on PS5.
I will quickly get the Harvest Moon and Story of Seasons games on PS5 as they are started to be hard to find in my country Indonesia.

@jedgamesguy
Don't understand why the cut scenes have frame rate issues, when they're not even up to par visually speaking compared to lets say Metroid Prime 3's, which not only looked more beautifully crafted with stronger art direction, but they also ran smooth as butter.

@Anti-Matter Sounds like PS5 is quite the upgrade from PS4 then. Happy game hunting! I think the fact I like to find bargains is one of the reasons why I have a decent game backlog.

Been playing Mario Kart with a few Nintendo Life friends, and it's been fun. Also getting back to my Steam library with Crash Bandicoot 4. Hope all is well with everyone.

@Sunsy Ah OK, gotcha. It's gonna get much, much harder the more you play Salmon Run. My first batch of SR sessions were easy, and now, it got insanely difficult to the point where it's more frustrating than fun... for me anyway. Plus your progress bar decreases if you and everybody else gets splatted on the first two waves. That discouraged me from playing more of that mode.

Oh that's a cool little detail that was added to that game. I'd love to meet Princess Peach as well... and of course I'd love to meet Mario, Luigi, Toad, and others too! Maybe even get an autograph from them too, lol. (And maybe, just maybe, Peach will bake a delicious cake for me!) I'd say the same thing about the many characters at the Disney parks, as well. I think it's more exciting to get exclusive stuff from Nintendo, Disney, etc. in general! Oh I just remembered, I have a shirt that I got from Nintendo NYC, it's got a circular design with stars around, and a small silhouette of Mario jumping, and it says "where everyone comes to play." It still fits me, too. I'd get a shirt from a Disney park as well. That's awesome you got Anna, Elsa, and Vanellope.

Ariel's special move sounds cool. Ah gotcha, you now have to pay $10 to get the Golden Pass, huh? Good to hear that it's a good racer outside of the monetization stuff. Good old free-to-play games, lol. I don't like microtransactions and loot boxes myself... especially if it's a game I bought with my hard-earned money. I'm looking at you, Crash Team Racing. Was Activision really that money-hungry? lol

That's cool. I remember putting a good amount of time into Pokemon Ruby/Sapphire and Diamond/Pearl, but I think that's about it in regards to Pokemon. I'm not a big Pokemon fan, but I did like Pokemon Snap quite a bit... I'm thinking of getting its Switch sequel, as well as Legends Arceus, I heard the latter is pretty good. Gurumin looks cute for sure, I might give that a try sometime. I did hear that Color Splash was better than Sticker Star, I do know that some folks liked CS. Have you thought of getting the Thousand-Year Door remake that came out recently? That's a great game right there, I've played through the GameCube original quite a few times back then. Tokyo Mirage Sessions is a good game too, I skipped it on Wii U, but got the Switch version.

@Tyranexx Yeah, same here... didn't know too many other Nintendo fans when I was in school, where everybody else would be into the PlayStation or Xbox. Assuming they were into games, of course. (I've seen a lot of people in my high school be into Call of Duty, which never really interested me.) I've seen a lot of people break out their Game Boy and DS, though the vast majority of them would just play Pokemon on them... it's been like that since Red/Blue came out! That's cool, I also remember seeing a kid from school playing one of the Wario Land games, it was likely WLII. Gotcha, I've played Smash since the N64 days, but I'm not exactly a competitive Smash player, lol. I used to play a ton of Melee as a kid, and I put a lot of time into Ultimate as well. Exactly... they're just games, and I play them to have a good time. If I do get frustrated, I'd either take a break from whatever I'm playing, or try to find my center for a little bit. The last time I did actually get frustrated, it was from playing the Salmon Run mode in Splatoon 3, so I'm gonna have to take a big break from playing that, at the very least. lol

Yeah... perhaps not as much people are going to Sears nowadays? Since places like Walmart and Target are still going strong today. If I recall correctly, there weren't as much people at my local Sears the last time I went there. I think that's why mine closed its doors.

Oh gotcha, that's good to know. I've had no plans to get Return to Dream Land Deluxe anyway so I'll probably just stick to the Wii version if I wanna revisit it. That's cool, looks like you've made a good amount of progress in TTYD so far. I won't spoil a thing. Ah, thank you for telling me... sounds like DQVII is super long. I don't have VIII, unfortunately. But I do also have XI on Switch, so maybe I'll play through that first.

Agreed, Mario Party is at its best when you have friends/family over. I've had some good rounds with my younger brother, as well. It's a fun series for sure, with one of my favorite ones being Mario Party 6. Love how in that game, the boards change when it goes from day to night, or vice versa. That day and night mechanic was fun for sure... the boards themselves were great too, and I love its music too. WarioWare is pretty good as well, though I'm not as huge into it as a lot of others seem to be, for some reason. I do like the Nintendo-themed microgames, though.

My current Disney Speedstorm plan, play the daily challenge everyday just to stock up on seasonal coins, which get turned into tokens when the season ends. If there's anything I learned playing Asphalt 9, it's just stock up the currency and save it for the long run. That's my trick to playing Gameloft's free-to-play stuff.

Indeed, same with me. Though I usually can't have it late in the day, it will keep me up all night. I think so too, my mom loves seafood. Me, I'm just not big on fish outside of a few I would eat.

@MarioVillager92 Wow, I didn't know it gets difficult. I only tried it once as far as I know. Ah the decreasing rank bar, had trouble with that in Disney Speedstorm. Once you hit multiplayer rank 16, your rank can go back down to 15 if you're not winning. Hence why I like the regulated multiplayer better. It's all skill rather than people having the better kart stats.

Be careful if Peach bakes a cake, we all know what happened when she did that for Mario. I think that's what I would do if I went to these kind of stores. I would not buy video games at Nintendo NYC, but I would maybe get a Peach shirt or something I can only get there. Sounds like a cool shirt. Yeah, they were the few times I got plushies from Disney in the past 10 years or so. More recently, the local Disney Store closed, so Target would be the only place I could go for any Disney merch. Amazon in case of shirts, I did get an officially licensed Sofia the First shirt from them a few years back.

Yeah, she's fun to play as. Pretty much, Gameloft caught on to free-to-play players saving their tokens for future seasons. If you earn tokens then you can buy shop items without real money. I don't mind season passes as not buying them don't affect playing, even if the Paladins one felt like a chore, but Disney Speedstorm's was kind of fair. Let me play and earn the rewards. Indeed, I did have to open a bunch of lootboxes this week, only because I had some Wreck-It Ralph Box Credits that were gonna expire. Those credits you usually earn from playing, and then redeem them on a box without spending real world money. Usually with lootboxes in Asphalt and Speedstorm, I just use the currency I stockpile and avoid using real money, I'll open one like once in a blue moon (minus the free daily one, I'll always grab those). Agreed, I don't want microtransactions in paid games. That's Activision for ya, lol.

Same with me with Pokemon Emerald, I got far in it, but then I stopped because it felt like it went on for too long. I still want to get the sequel to Pokemon Snap, I have the original on N64, but mainly play it through my Wii U nowadays. Actually, I bought the Wii U one shortly after they announced the sequel. If you're interested, Gurumin is on Steam and GOG. It use to be on 3DS too. Here's a trailer to it, I really liked this one...

I don't think I'm going to get Thousand Year Door, not because I have no interest, I just feel it will be played and then at some point I'll stop because RPGs go on for too long. No hate towards the game at all. Nice, glad you played it on Switch, I have both versions.

CHICKEN FINGERS.

@Sunsy
Yo, I got PS5 machine last Saturday and have tried Smurfs Mission Vileaf on PS5.
But, I felt quite disappointed to see the game cannot even run on smooth 60 fps (40 - 60 fps) and that's PS5 version, not Switch version.
But I will continue the progress of Smurfs Mission Vileaf regardless of its unstable fps.

Calling in @octolingking13 to let you know… today at work we put on Taylor’s new album and I have to admit… it wasn’t bad. So you’re welcome.
Hey, does anyone here play Disney Speedstorms? I played it when it launched but recently I’ve been very annoyed that they forced us to pay IRL $$$ for the Gold Pass instead of Tokens like before. Also, Arbee is my favorite AI-type character in history! <3

@Anti-Matter Nice, hope you enjoy it otherwise. I played Smurfs Mission Vileaf on PC, and it ended up just being a smooth 60FPS experience. I have the DRM-free version GOG sold, and backed up its offline installer to a DVD-R disc. One of my favorite cartoon tie-in games.

@Sunsy Yeah. Salmon Run is no walk in the park. Really wanted to be more into this mode, but it's just so difficult! I've had my share of bad teammates as well. Ah gotcha, yeah I mainly stick to regular matches most of the time. Only moving on to the more advanced modes, like Splatoon's ranked battles, if I get enough practice.

Ah I remember... then Bowser would talk out of nowhere, saying that no one's home, lol. That'd sound like a good buy over there. I've gotten a Mario shirt over at Nintendo NYC, as well. Yeah, my local Disney store also closed down, but that was years ago. There is at least Disney's own online shop, I've gotten some Mickey Mouse Christmas decorations over there actually.

Good to hear that Disney Speedstorm's season passes sound fair. Kinda weird that the box credits expire (the same kind of thing happens with My Nintendo's coins), but it's good you used them up. That sounds like a good plan, stockpiling on the in-game currency so you won't have to use your hard-earned cash. I could go on and on about what happened with CTR, but I'll just leave it at that, lol.

Cool to see that you've gotten pretty far in Pokemon Emerald. Yeah, a lot of RPGs are just so long! I can get burnt out by them very easily. I no longer have my copy of Pokemon Snap... I wish I did. But I do have it on the NSO expansion pack, so I can play it that way. I do wanna get New Pokemon Snap sometime, too. Thanks for showing me the trailer, it does look like a good game... I did notice that there's that rhythm bar at the top of the screen, I wonder how that's used in the game?

Oh gotcha, that's understandable. Yeah, I'm like that with the majority of RPGs nowadays, haha. Though I will say that even though I'm not an RPG fan like a lot of people are, I still liked TTYD, as well as the original Paper Mario. I think it helped that I played TTYD when I was still pretty much a kid, back when it came out on the GameCube. But, it's all up to you at the end of the day.

@CaleBoi25 I play Disney Speedstorm, and I agree on the Golden Pass. I had a feeling it would happen because it's Gameloft. I play Asphalt 9, and even that season pass uses real money instead of tokens, which is why it didn't surprise me too much. This is coming from someone who doesn't mind the occasional battle pass in free-to-play games, I did buy The Little Mermaid golden pass (Ariel is a great racer).

Though, in Gameloft's free-to-play games, I usually just stockpile the blue tokens I earn, and save them if I want something in the shop. Because of this, I've accumulated a ton of blue tokens in Asphalt 9 without paying real money. Trying to do the same with Speedstorm, and just using Seasonal Coins and Vanity Coins (the two free currencies) for buying stuff on the shop.

@MarioVillager92 Surprisingly I never played ranked. I mostly blame the way people behave in ranked games in other multiplayer games. Minus Gameloft's games because "ranked" is the main multiplayer mode, and the rank only gives you rewards.

Yup! Poor Peach, even Bowser comes after her in her own castle. Nice! You too with Disney Store being closed. I miss it, just the magical atmosphere there. I think my mom shopped their website once too, she ended up giving me slippers that look like Mei from Turning Red.

It was, it does have missions like Paladins, but I feel like I can complete missions by just playing rather than trying to play certain characters and do certain tasks that make it harder to do. They do, Disney Speedstorm lets you earn credits which unlock lootboxes for free. There's two, Universal credit, and season credit, hence why Wreck-It Ralph themed. The season one expires when not used. It worked for me in Asphalt 9, so I figure it will work in Speedstorm too. Oh I could too, I know about the stuff Activision does.

That's cool it's on NSO's expansion pack. I like revisiting Pokemon Snap when I got it on my Wii U, it was the first Pokemon game on N64, at least in the US it was. You're welcome, it was a cute action RPG that wasn't really long (could be completed in about 8-10 hours IIRC), and a really cute game. I honestly can't remember how the rhythm bar was used, it's been so long, and I last played it in 2016. Maybe I should boot it up one day, I did install it on my current PC. It's one game I didn't want to be without, I love it.

Surprisingly, I never did play a Paper Mario game, not even the original. Funny thing is I still remember the "free demo" ad from a magazine, and it was Mario with a literal dotted line to cut him out, lol. I think in 2001, I mainly played Dreamcast with Pokemon Stadium 2 being my only N64 game that year.

@Sunsy Ohhh, gotcha... yeah, some super-competitive players can act a bit... rough, lol. At least I can't hear them when I play Splatoon!

Indeed, lol. Mario's always here to save the day, though. I loved that magical atmosphere too! The Disney store I've been to even had various Disney songs playing on their wall-mounted television. The Mei slippers sound cool, cool to see your mom got you them.

Lol, that's how I normally play games too! Just playing games without paying attention to what missions/achievements are available. Shifting gears a bit, I'm no achievement hunter, lol. I normally get a good amount of achievements when I play games on Steam for the first time, but without even trying to go for them. Similarly, in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, I'd do the Nook Miles tasks without even knowing. My NookPhone would go off seemingly out of nowhere and I'd have to redeem my Nook Miles, lol.

Nice, that's cool. It's a game I'm quite nostalgic for, and honestly, it might just be my favorite Pokemon game. And it's not even part of the main series! I did have the first Pokemon Stadium as well, but I never got into it. Just like how I had a hard time getting into Pokemon Red back on the Game Boy. Nice, that sounds like Gurumin's an easy playthrough. Gotcha, that's fine. That rhythm bar looks like it'd be from something like Cadence of Hyrule.

Admittedly, I didn't play the original Paper Mario until it came out on the Wii Virtual Console. The title of the game sounded... silly to me when I was a kid. And my gosh, I was sorely missing out. 2001 was a weird year for me as well, since me and my brother had to live in another house with our dad. We did have the NES, and I think I still had my Game Boy Color back then, but that was kind of it in regards to consoles, lol. My N64 was at my mom's house at the time. Later on that year, I got the Game Boy Advance, and my bro and I got the GameCube as a Christmas present. Lol, that "free demo" ad sounded funny... just cutting Mario out of a magazine! Nice, that's cool. My brother also had Pokemon Stadium 2, as well as Hey You Pikachu. Even back when he was a kid, he was huge into Pokemon.

@Sunsy Same for me regarding chocolate, at least a lot of it. The caffeine content can affect sleep. I have occasional sleep issues, so I try to avoid habits/times of the day that might interfere. With a couple of exceptions, I really enjoy most seafood. Shrimp is probably my favorite, though I'm not picky about most fish and shellfish. I'll eat them in about any form too, though I intentionally avoid fried food most of the time.

@MarioVillager92 That sounds VERY familiar lol. Most people I went to HS with who even bothered gaming were typically PS or Xbox and gravitated towards FPS games like Call of Duty and Halo. Sports games too, which also aren't my thing. But yeah, most past Jr. High "outgrew" Nintendo. I'd probably like Smash more if I'd had others to play with growing up. Smash Wii U was the most I've spent with any of the games. It was fun, but I sank maybe 20ish hours in before selling it. I certainly game to have fun, and short game breaks are great for various reasons....not just rage lol.

I believe Sears went bankrupt a few years ago - pre-pandemic - and never fully picked up the pieces. But the chain bailed out of my area years ago.

On Kirby: I forgot Kirby's Dream Land 3 is on NSO, so I might try that game too. But Kirby and the Forgotten Land and Planet Robobot will take priority. On TTYD: I just nabbed the third star, now I'm hopping around Rogueport again. It's definitely a fun game so far, even if I do think the Glitzville section dragged a bit. I've heard Dragon Quest XI is a great starting point too. I've not played it yet, but it is backlogged and is my preferred "next" DQ, barring any new developments regarding the DQ HD-2D rumors.

Another thing with Mario Party is the board game setups, which is a lot better with other players; I'm not exactly fond of playing against myself or a CPU who may or may not cheat. XD WarioWare is a good B series IMO, though YMMV depending on the game. Some are better than others. I've played many of the series titles, though not all of them. My faves are WarioWare: Gold (3DS) and WarioWare: Smooth Moves (Wii). Touched! was my first, which is also a solid title.

@Tyranexx Surprisingly I don't remember people in my HS being into sports games, but I wouldn't be surprised if they were also into stuff like FIFA or Madden, lol. I'm not into sports games either, at least the ultra-realistic ones like the two I've mentioned. I do remember Guitar Hero and Rock Band also being popular at the time, too. Never was interested in those, either.

Ah gotcha, that's all right. This might be an unpopular opinion, but Smash Wii U left me... a bit disappointed. I did have fun playing it in multiplayer (except for one instance which I'll explain soon), and I love that Mega Man is playable in the game (he's one of my mains in Smash 4 and Ultimate, as well), but the lack of an adventure mode bothered me. I hated the 8-player mode too... I keep losing track of my character when there's a large amount of players on screen. Classic mode in Smash Wii U had you deal with 8-player matches too, so I didn't like classic mode in that game, either. It might just be my least favorite Smash Bros. game, honestly. No offense to anybody who likes the game.

Kirby's Dream Land 3 is worth trying out too. It's a bit simple compared to a lot of the other Kirby games, but I like its art style and music, and riding your animal friends is pretty cool. That's cool you're making some more progress in TTYD. All right cool to know. VII and XI are the only Dragon Quest games I have right now. I used to have Dragon Warrior I and III on the NES, but I don't anymore.

Yeah, I really only play Mario Party with friends/family, not just against CPUs. Honestly, I love a good round of Mario Party, even though things can go crazy in it, lol! Most of the MP games, I do really like. I like Mario Party 2-8, DS, and Superstars. (MP1 is hard for me to go back to, and I'm not too fond of the vehicle mechanic that 9 and 10 has.) That's cool, I do think WarioWare Touched is a solid game as well. I used to have a physical copy of it, but I don't anymore, however I do have the downloadable version that My Nintendo used to have. I liked Twisted and Mega Microgames as well, and I haven't played much of Smooth Moves. I do have Get It Together, but haven't played much of it.

Chameleons shall rule us all. Prepare the crayons as tribute.

@CaleBoi25 sorry abt the late response! been busy lately lol. YAY! IM SO EXCITED!(ive listened to over 10000 minutes of that album already probably, this is getting unhealthy) but glad you tried it! also what happened to you changing your profile picture so much (pearl is my fav idol tho!)

@MarioVillager92 I did get into some of the Guitar Hero series on the Wii. They're pretty fun games and the closest I've come to actually liking rhythm games; normally I don't click with them very well. Never had much exposure to Rock Band, but there was a Christmas party at my previous job where someone brought in one of the games with a PlayStation to play. That was pretty memorable, if only because an acquaintance completely butchered the German lyrics for Rammstein's "Du Hast". XD

I think the lack of a meaningful adventure mode or story is why I bounced off of Super Smash Bros. Wii U pretty quickly. I avoided the 3DS version entirely so that I wouldn't murder my circle pad. I've also heard the 8-player mode was chaotic and not a very fun way to play, at least on most screen sizes. I didn't have easy access to any of the systems previous Smash titles appeared on outside of the Wii, but I never grabbed Brawl. Probably for the best since I hear it isn't one of the better series titles.

I've played both Kirby's Dream Land and Kirby's Dream Land 2 via the 3DS VC. Both are fun games, though the latter is definitely the more fleshed out of the two; the first game has its place but feels like a demo in comparison. In TTYD, I'm midway through Chapter 4. There have been some...interesting developments, but I don't wanna spoil anything for anyone. Suffice it to say it's my favorite setting in the game so far since I like the aesthetics lol. As for Dragon Quest, thankfully some of the games are obtainable on Nintendo systems. The cheapest options otherwise are through mobile (if at all). I might have to get Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Revelation on mobile unless it's remade by the time I get to it.

I'd probably consider buying Mario Party Superstars if I had others to play with often, but that's very rare for me IRL. I sadly know few Nintendo fans. The vast majority of my family doesn't even game on electronics. WarioWare: Touched! is a pretty solid game, though I'm not fond of the microphone sections. There were a lot of collectibles in that game, some of them quite fun; I think I almost 100%ed it. I gave my physical copy to my sister and never had it in digital form. Twisted is one I'd like to play, but it's expensive even secondhand. I've played:

• The original WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgame$! (GBA, through the Wii U VC)
• WarioWare: Touched! (DS)
• WarioWare: Smooth Moves (Wii; one of the best secondhand titles I've bought)
• WarioWare: Gold (3DS; a very good compilation of previous games)
• WarioWare: Get It Together! (Switch; has its fun points, but there are stronger titles)
• Game & Wario (Wii U; technically a spinoff that was a mix of fun and meh)

As mentioned earlier, I'd like to get my hands on Twisted!. I do want to buy Move It! for the Switch too. I'm fine with skipping DIY and Snapped!. Not that I have a choice with the latter anyway since it was a DSiWare title, but it wasn't well received.