Topic: The Chit-Chat Thread

@Zuljaras Oh, I see. I don’t really find any animal breed ugly or bad looking. I usually lean more toward the cute furry ones, but I also do think the ones you listed are nice too.

The only real animals I absolutely CANNOT STAND have to be bugs. They are so awful and cockroaches are the most disgusting of them all, though luckily one hasn’t showed up in our house in a few months despite it being the summer time. The only bugs I can really stand would have to be bees and butterflies, plus they are nice to look at.

@Pastellioli Precisely, which is why content ratings exist: to provide general guidelines so that parents, guardians, etc. can make decisions regarding whether they believe something they're buying is appropriate for a minor. To be fair there once wasn't a rating system; thanks to earlier games like the first Mortal Kombat (Which I totally get based on some of the violent content, even if it is over the top), this is why such things were put into practice.

Personally, I think age ratings should mostly be adhered to, though a kid's maturity and relative age (such as age 12 for rated T games) I think are part of those gray areas. It's easy to look up a game's content online including the details. "Cartoon violence" can vary widely for example. Which is why the ESRB (not sure offhand regarding other regions) has more detailed info regarding a game on their website. Sadly, many parents/guardians don't do their due diligence, either out of laziness or perceived stereotypes like "This caetoony game is for kids".

Yeah, I'm definitely not one to spend a lot of money on something I'll barely use. The Mature 17+ app could use more games for sure, and Conker would be a great candidate. I am somewhat confident we'll get it at some point. Historically there's usually a Nintendo Direct in September, so it's possible we'll see a NSO drop then...or maybe even in August. I'm kind of surprised they didn't have an updated roadmap in the last Direct.

@Tyranexx I was a bit bummed out when they didn’t show an NSO roadmap for the N64 service back in June, cuz when the service was first announced, they showcased the titles that were going to be added, and all the games that were shown there were added, so I thought that they’d show the next batch of games they are going to add. Hopefully they do at some point, and hopefully the next N64 drop is in August or September. I’m still banking on September though, however, an August drop would be nice. They usually drop one title every two to three months, so we’d likely have two more games on there for this year (one in August-September and one in November-December) but there are rare occasions where they release two titles at the same time. I think it’s nice to know what is coming, but I do think there is some sort of surprise and excitement without there being a game roadmap since it just makes me wonder and imagine what games will be on there. I am super hopeful for Conker to show up, and I am also hoping Diddy Kong Racing is put on there at some point. Those are probably my most wanted, as it’d be nice to see more get into Conker, and I’ve been wanting an official way to play DKR, since it’s so hard to play emulated.

That cartoon thing is accurate. A lot of people can assume things just by appearance and not really looking into it. It’s likely why so many parents accidentally bought Conker for their children since they assumed it was a kid’s game by its appearance.The ESRB site is pretty helpful. I have gone on there randomly (mostly out of boredom) and the details they go into for some of the content in a few of the games is pretty good and something parents should look to when getting a game for their kid, though the ESRB I believe doesn’t show content descriptors for older games. I remember looking at the page they had for Conker and while the site did list the general content it contained, it lacked a content descriptor, while the ones I looked at for modern games and releases like Rare Replay had descriptors that went into detail with the content included. They only have content descriptors for newer or more recently released games.

Hello! Hope everyone is having a good day or had a good day.

My sweet tooth is getting out of control…just bought a bag of granola yesterday and it’s almost gone. The coconut and dark chocolate chips in it are too addicting…I had two ice cream bars yesterday too. I have a really bad habit of overeating, I am skinny thanks to having a high metabolism but I need to stop spending so much money on candy and actually eliminating sugar from my diet. I don’t want to suffer the consequences!

I haven’t been doing much with hobbies. A few days ago I watched The Truman Show for the first time and rewatched Mr. Peabody and Sherman while I was attempting to draw a few days ago. The Truman Show was pretty good and the ending was so satisfying. Mr. Peabody and Sherman wasn’t a masterpiece, but it was good fun, and I did rewatch it solely because so many clips from the film with the historical figures were used in a ton of memes on Instagram. Remember seeing the film way before it became popular recently, so I remember a few scenes from it. I don’t know what to watch next though.

I’ve been trying to draw but I’ve been so unsatisfied with what I’ve been making thanks to art block. I think I should just try redrawing a scene from a video game since I don’t know what to draw. With art block, I really just need to draw boring things to get back into the swing of things, but it’s my perfectionism that’s making me hate drawing right now. It makes me sad, since I love drawing and it seemed I was able to pump out art works nonstop, but now I’m just so slow and sluggish and feel that a lack of time has made my progress remain stagnant. It’s so surprising and depressing how much unfun your hobbies get as you get older and how you’ll have less time to actually enjoy stuff. It seemed when I was younger I could draw anything and be happy with it even if it did look like garbage. I think it’s social media that’s making me feel that way by looking at a ton of nice artworks on there. Downloading social media was a mistake.

I’ve been playing a rhythm game on my phone, and today I was so, SO CLOSE to getting a full combo on a super hard song but I missed two notes. I wasn’t expecting to full combo it, but the dream was possible! Oh well, I’m not bothered and I was laughing a bit after I finished it. I’m going to be playing my Xbox in a few more days since a game club I’m apart of is finally playing Conker tomorrow. I haven’t done a second playthrough of it, mostly cuz of a lack of motivation and the game ticking me off in some parts, but I really want to talk about how much I love it with others, though I do hope some of them don’t drop it immediately, but I feel like that’s what’s going to happen. I’m pretty excited about it, but I’m probably leaving the game club once August is over, since Conker was my only reason for joining and they hiked up Game Pass prices and the plain Console subscription was taken down. It’s a shame, cuz I found a lot of value in the normal subscription, but oh well.

@Pastellioli Had a good day. Played some Jagged Alliance, and did an errand before the heat advisory comes tomorrow.

Glad you watched Mr. Peabody and Sherman. As for social media, my experience is mixed with it. I hated Facebook, just people that I haven't spoken to in years from school followed me, and I hated the experience. Felt weird to find out people I went to school with were not that great. Then I tried Twitter, it was fine at first, then everyone decided to become (forgive me for using this word) political. Gone was anyone wanting to talk games, cartoons, etc. So I left. Now I just have a personal Instagram account, and my experience there was good. Between art and stuff based on what I like (Trolls, gaming, cartoons, etc), it was good. Plus, I never post anything personal (seems people forgotten about the whole "no posting personal info" lesson about the Internet). Plus, a Poppy drawing I did got showcased on the official Trolls Instagram account last year.

I just stick with Instagram for social media. There's YouTube, but I don't make videos, so I just use my account to watch and occasionally post a comment. Honestly, I prefer forums like this one. They're focused on a core topic, have off-topic sections, they have rules (something social media lacks), and I can talk about stuff I like without worry.

@Sunsy Ooh, that’s cool that some art you made was showcased on social media! I’d love if that happened to me, but my account is way too small lol. I have my account as public rather than personal so I can share art, but I haven’t really posted anything in a month, but it surprisingly doesn’t bother me a bunch.

Loved watching Mr. Peabody and Sherman, and I just found out it was based on these segments from a cartoon show called Rocky and Bullwinkle, which I never watched, but I vaguely remember seeing clips of it years ago somewhere. I sort of want to watch it now after seeing Mr. Peabody and Sherman, but I don’t know where I can watch it. I don’t really want to waste money on some random streaming service I don’t know for one show only and then unsubscribing once I finish it. From what I read, there was a reboot they released on Prime Video, but I’m not sure where the original can be watched.

Instagram is the first and only social media site I use, but I’ve lately only been using it to comment and like posts. I did download Pixiv and posted a few artworks on there. If you don’t know what that is, it’s a Japanese app that’s basically social media for artists, and I’d say posting on there feels better than Instagram, plus you can moderate the comments and stuff on your posts. I have never used Twitter/X, I only used the web version without an account, but I stopped after they made it a requirement to make an account to view content on there. From what I’ve seen, Twitter is a huge cesspool of arguing, negativity and misinformation, and there is no way I am getting near that thing, plus they like to accuse artists of stuff that is not true and pretty serious. It looks and sounds so annoying. Instagram is a bit better but the userbase can act similar to Twitter users at times and the moderation there absolutely sucks. Luckily it isn’t too negative like Twitter but there have been so many questionable and awful jokes I’ve seen and read on there. I never downloaded social media apps for a while and avoided public interaction online because of how I saw how people acted on the sites via videos. I watched way too many videos of Twitter users trying to start controversies over little things that don’t matter, which is why I had a huge aversion toward social media before. I also do avoid telling personal info (plus on here it’s recommended you don’t do so) and I always try to avoid telling stuff that is super personal or I don’t get into specifics.

I also do prefer forums like these. I have found myself using Nintendo Life more recently than Instagram, and I have had a ton of friendly conversations with people. Probably because it’s has more active moderation and it’s more engaging, plus you can talk about anything. I also think the site isn’t as big as social media sites too, so it’s easier for people to spot and report awful and rude behavior. There are also forums that appeal to a lot of my hobbies and stuff, plus I’ve made a few friends on here and it’s sister sites

@Pastellioli Yeah, the official Trolls account use to do fanart challenges and a showcase called "Trolls Art Tuesday," where they showcase fan art. Pretty cool since most official accounts wouldn't do such. Mine is public too, I never post anything private to it. By "personal," I don't share it with anyone.

Oh I actually remember those segments. I once watched Rocky and Bullwinkle via reruns back when I was a kid and use to have cable. That's how I remember them, then when I saw the movie, I thought it was a really good movie.

When I first tried Twitter (I'm not calling it X, I don't think anyone calls it X, lol), I mostly just wanted to chat about games, animated movies, and shows with others. Then people just got (again, I really hate using this word), political. I'm not into that, I'm into fun stuff. I'm kind of glad I left, last I checked Twitter, the cartoon community there were giving Trolls fans a hard time over being excited for the then new movie. I would dare say no moderation. If there was moderation and rules in place, I think Twitter could be a better place. Here, break a rule, your post gets removed. On Twitter, no rules. I hear you on controversies, going back to what I said about Trolls fans. Again, why is it bad to be excited for a movie that isn't Spider-verse? (For context: what I saw, basically a Trolls fan was bullied for having Trolls Band Together as their #1 most anticipated movie, instead of Across the Spider-Verse)

Forums are much better. Forums have rules in place that help make it a safe and healthy community. Usually the few who misbehave, will get their posts removed, or banned from ever using the forum. It does have more active moderation. I always see mods here keeping the forums clean and safe. (shoutout to @eel and @DreamlandGem since I always see them here, thank you!)

Definitely, I remember forums to just about everything years ago, gaming, various cartoon series, it was great connecting with other like-minded people. Less toxic people, outside of my first gaming forum I went to, but I left that.

@Sunsy Aw thank you, glad you enjoy your time here! 🩷

@DreamlandGem You're welcome.

@MarioVillager92 I always get that feeling of "oh no, did my whole post disappear" after seeing it, so I just got into the habit of using a notepad, copying and pasting my post, just as a backup.

Yeah, I still look at it and can't believe I met Poppy. Hopefully going to Universal and meeting Poppy would have been on my bucket list, then I go to this event and met her. Me too, I think one of my schools had a tube slide. I would have went down it, but I didn't want to get stuck, so the wavy slide it was, lol. Playing Star Fox 64 was my life for a good couple of months. I did play the original Star Fox on Super NES too, I had it as well.

Indeed, I still remember how upset I was when my Pinocchio VHS tape broke. It did, I had to use a VCR just to play N64 and later Dreamcast and GameCube. I actually ended up getting an RF Switch for my Dreamcast just to keep it hooked up along with my GameCube. Sounds nice. I mainly keep the Wii U and Switch plugged in, and swap the HDMI with my SNES Classic and Roku whenever I play with it.

Those two are great movies, IIRC, The Lion King did return to theaters for a short time for its 30th anniversary.

The Sonic level select codes were just fun to hop to a level you wanted to play, or in the Game Gear's case, getting passed the first boss of level 1 in Sonic 2... that boss was too hard for a level 1 boss. IIRC the codes for Diddy Kong Racing ranged from silly (ARNOLD for large racers) to challenging (TIMETOLOSE for faster CPU racers) to useful (JUKEBOX to listen to music).

Little fun fact, if you have no cartridge in the GBA slot, you can download the Tiny Chao Garden from the game itself. IIRC, Sonic Adventure DX had a different mini-game whenever this was done, but it would only stay active until your GBA was turned off (it would "clone" the chao so you don't lose it).

Nah, it like like you were riding in Rhonda and just sprayed everything with glitter with a joystick and a button. It was more of a for fun thing. It did control a flashlight to help guide Rhonda underwater. It was like part movie, and part video game. It was really cool.

I agree, everyone there is so negative. As I mentioned above, I'm glad I left because the cartoon community on there bullied Trolls fans too. If only places like Twitter had rules in place like a forum does.

Hopefully one day we can. Not this weekend as I have plans, but hopefully soon.

Oh really? You might be happy to hear sonic does this a lot.

@Yousef- I didn’t really know that! It does make me happy seeing official social media accounts showcase works by really passionate fans.

Yeah, sonic twitter had a major shift in 2015-ish when Aaron Webber became part of it as brand ambassador and social media manager. He helped pave way for a brand renaissance of sort, even after his departure in 2020, the people managing Sonic’s socials basically followed in his footsteps.

Hello! It’s early morning here, so good morning!

Trying to replay Conker on the Xbox right now, but I’m stalling at this really annoying and anxiety-inducing part where I have to avoid getting killed in one-hit. Already died maybe 4-5 times, but I’m still trying. Have the audio down low so I don’t wake anyone in the house up. Listening to some Vocaloid music on my phone with earphones as an audio substitute while I play and I’m having fun, but the music is pretty dark. I’m still waiting for more people in the game club to start discussing parts of the game with each other. It’s why I voted on the game for this month…

I’ve bought the L&R remake. I’ve already experienced the original so I’ve wanted something new. I’ve gotten it at its original price instead of waiting for a sale but 9.99 is equal to 3 Kuwaiti dinar so it’s not the worst price in the world. I’ve also reinstalled Gears of War: Ultímate to prepare myself in case my vote for GoW2 wins.
The remake jokes are quite cheeky, the censors are quite bizarre, but in an endearing way. I think the graphics are extremely good and kinda prefer them over n64, but not letting you inverse camera controls has got to be the most boneheaded decision here. Not only does the N64 have them inversed by default, but it wasn’t uncommon to have an option to have an inverse camera. I play a lot of retro games, some of which lock you in in an inverse camera with no option to change it so I just decided to simply adapt instead of expecting a modern camera, plus it saves me the pain sometimes. I’ve now started inverting the camera whenever I play a modern game to emulate how retro games do it because that’s how I like it. I find the Mario 3D all star version of Mario 64 to be awful because I don’t think it lets you change the camera to how it controls on n64, so playing it via Nintendo’s official N64 emulator is the better option. Though I’m not sure if the camera change was the byproduct of Nintendo using the Shindou version of SM64.

Frankly, I’m not quite fond of the level design. I get that Conker is known more for its crass and suggestive themes, however I struggle to find joy in level design in most levels. I find it quite odd that they went the route of making the campaign a series of fetch quests and isolate minigames all loosely interconnected narratively as opposed rather than mechanically. The combat and jumping I also find rather leaving a lot to be desired.

It’s pretty strange having this route for a platformer, rather than something like an rpg where you usually get a reward that connects you to the usual RPG feedback loop of task > reward > repeat. Removing those core elements heavily reduces the game to being a series of glorified story triggers under the vague guise of a campaign rather than a mechanically satisfying platformer like Banjo, Mario, Kirby, Jak, Ratchet, Ape Escape or Donkey Kong.

Sorry, I wish I could’ve connected with this more. Shockingly enough, I’d still consider it a game worth playing it and not something I intend to disrespect or disregard. Rather, it’s difficult not to point out these stuff as a game design freak when I feel comfortably confident I can objectively back up my claims. This isn’t strictly to comment on the game’s overall artistic merit as a whole but it does feel as if it’s carried by its novelty of being a game filled with nasty arseholes. If parody is the only thing a person cares about, gta would be better in that regard.

@Yousef- That is fine, I do actually think the game is more well known for its crass writing and charming but a-holey characters rather than the gameplay, in fact, a lot of people don’t talk about the gameplay and some of the level design.

To be frank, I also do like the game more for its characters and writing, including its message, more than the actual gameplay. It’s pretty bad in the original, like being slow, the camera is absolute crud at times and can even lead you to your death since you can’t see anything, there’s this out of place and annoying racing minigame they throw in on this one level that is so, SO annoying, and there isn’t an aiming reticle during some shooting segments. Even though I have given the original and its remake high scores on this site, if I am being honest, the high scores are more directed towards the writing and narrative than the gameplay.

I think the game clicked with me more because the message it has really resonated with me (mostly from some personal issues I have; I wrote about that in another forum on NL) and the bizarreness and moments were so goofy and it helped give me joy at a time where I didn’t have a ton of time to play games. The gameplay is pretty garbage at times and I was close to dropping it maybe twice when I first played it. I didn’t mind some of the repetition, mostly since Rare has made games that are far more annoying and worse in this aspect (looking at you Grabbed by the Ghoulies). One of the better aspects of the gameplay is that it isn’t a huge collectathon, which I don’t mind, but I do sometimes like progressing through a game without being required to get certain items to finish it. If I am being honest, Rare’s other platformers like Banjo-Kazooie never felt repetitive, and the gameplay I think was done better there than Conker, despite how much of a fan I am of the former. There was only one part of Banjo that I found infuriating. Conker? Got super frustrated more than once when playing the original. Conker’s strength really is the intentionally stupid and comedic tone and writing and the characters, so much that it overshadows the bad gameplay and is likely why no one talks about how bad it can play at times and the sometimes poor level design that occasionally peaks out.

It’s fine if you didn’t like it. It’s one of my favorite games of all time, but I would never really call it a masterpiece mostly from the bad gameplay. The characters and writing are great in my opinion, but I don’t think I’ll touch the game for a while after I finish this second playthrough. I sort of forgot how bad the gameplay is since I always used this chapter function to replay specific parts of the game that were easy and enjoyable.

Switching to Gears was a lot more fun. I’d have to tolerate Conker to finish it.
I’m shocked the actual camera in Conker never quite bothered me. It’s rather this overall feeling of the mechanics being an afterthought.
Switching back into Gears, I’m glad I’ve had Ultimate, it’s such a step up from the 360 version. Just a lot smoother to play. Boggles me there’s no Ultimate for Gears 2 and 3 and Judgment.

@Yousef- it’s ok if you don’t feel like finishing it. Just play what makes you happy! I’m going to still see if I can finish the original again. I made a bit more progress, got to the prehistoric level but that one I really hate a bunch. I maybe have three or four more chapters left to complete. I’ll try more later, I might be able to complete the game later today if I can play uninterrupted. Surprised I didn’t mind a lot of the bad gameplay when I first played it. Probably just the characters and writing that overshadowed it for me.

The camera in the remake was better. It was the one in the original that made me a bit annoyed, mostly during this tower segment when collecting cash and the terrible underwater fan segment.