Topic: The Chit-Chat Thread

@Pastellioli Glad to hear you're getting better at least. Ah gotcha... I've not listened to any vocaloid music so I can't comment on that. Oh that's awesome you found a couple songs you like. I don't think I've seen Megamind though. I tend to have some music/songs stuck in my head myself, lol.

Love the music for Banjo-Kazooie. It was one of my childhood games too, I used to rent it a lot when I was a kid. I wouldn't own it until much later though, so glad I still have my copy. I have Banjo-Tooie as well, but it's been ages since I last played it. I have both of them on the N64. I've heard of Conker's Bad Fur Day, but I've not played it. Most modern music doesn't interest me either, lol... I also prefer game music over them.

That's cool. Seeing games that were cancelled are fascinating to see, Sonic Xtreme being one example. It was supposed to be the Sega Saturn's flagship Sonic game, but it never came to be. Judging by some of the footage, it kind of looked difficult to play. Development looked brutally difficult for the folks at Sega as well. That's cool you're rewatching film videos. Ah gotcha... those videos you've mentioned about the controversial individuals sound a bit graphic. Probably too much so for my own tastes.

@Tyranexx Me too! Oh absolutely, they've definitely worked wonders for me. Sounds like you've been though a bit, hope you're getting better from it. I wanna try to finish Tears of the Kingdom before Echoes of Wisdom comes out. It's one of my most anticipated games from the last Nintendo Direct and I do wanna be all ready for a new Zelda game, lol.

Yep I've been to Knoebels, it's a nice amusement park for sure! They've got rides for just about everyone, too. You'll probably like the two roller coasters they have, as well... and one of them is a wooden coaster. I like the merry-go-rounds, train rides, the antique car ride, and even the teacup ride. One of the merry-go-rounds has a thing where you'd try to catch rings for your chance to get a free ride. I didn't quite get a free ride, but I still had fun anyway. And one of the train rides even has a working steam locomotive, as well... even down to the whistle being genuine. 🚂 The only ride I didn't like was the tilt-a-whirl, that spun way too fast for my liking. I do remember you said that you're not a fan of anything that spins, so definitely don't go on that tilt-a-whirl, lol. Other than that one ride, I do recommend giving Knoebels a visit if you just so happen to come to Pennsylvania. Hope my small review helped. Perhaps I'll try a roller coaster next time I go to a theme park... maybe one that just goes up and down and isn't too crazy fast and high. I don't wanna be on my own if I go on one either, lol.

Ah yeah David Wise has done a lot of awesome music... one of the best composers in the game industry. Agreed with Rare as a whole deserving accolades, they've made some of my childhood favorites as well. Yeah I wouldn't be surprised if the Disney platformers by Virgin were made that way... I think they prioritized the graphics and animation as well. Especially with Aladdin on the Genesis, I did hear that the Disney animators worked on the animation on that game. That second level in The Lion King sounds mega tough.

That's good, I didn't bother with getting every badge and recipe either. I only had a few recipes logged too, lol. Oh gosh, that boss sounds more difficult than I thought. Plus I've mostly been doing normal guards... the superguards are quite a bit more challenging to pull off. So yep, back to TotK for me!

Yep, glad I got that Super Mario Galaxy soundtrack CD! Especially since I love its music, and I love the game itself of course... definitely one of the Wii's best games. The soundtrack was a Club Nintendo reward, but it wasn't available for North America. I have the regular version. I think that came with later bundles of the Wii... kind of an odd inclusion since the Wii can't play music CDs, lol. I was going to post a picture of my SMG soundtrack, but both imgbb and Postimages don't seem to be working correctly... really sorry about that. (Tagging @DreamlandGem here, is Instagram OK to use? I have that.) Ah gotcha, I don't think I've heard of Breaking Benjamin though. I can't blame you, I have that same mentality when I go on vacations as well haha.

@Sunsy Thank you, glad I'm feeling better as well. Yeah, those cloudfare errors suck. My posts still seem to go through every time though, and I also keep a copy of my post on Word as well.

That's really sweet, I like looking at my own pictures during my vacations as well. Really glad you had an awesome time. I used to love tube slides when I was a kid, child me would've totally went on that Trolls one. I'd play Star Fox 64 a lot back then as well, it was the first Star Fox game I've ever played. I liked Star Fox Adventures as well, even though it wasn't originally intended as a Star Fox game.

Nice, that's what it sounds like to me as well... growing with the audience as the series went on. I'm still upset about my Beauty and the Beast tape breaking... since it is one of my favorite Disney movies. I do have a blu-ray copy at least, but still. I get pretty sentimental with stuff I have. Lol, yeah things can get a bit complicated if you're not hooking up your consoles directly to your TV. I have some of my things hooked up to my HDMI switch actually, namely my Wii U, PS3, and Roku. My Nintendo Switch is directly plugged into one of my TV's own HDMI ports. Haven't played any of my retro consoles for a good while.

Yeah, really glad I gave that movie a watch. I think I still have my childhood VHS as well. It's one of my childhood favorites as well... 101 Dalmatians and The Lion King were other huge favorites of mine. Nice, that's awesome.

I remember those level select codes in the Sonic games, I used to play around with those. They were especially useful for trying out levels that I just never made it to normally. I don't think I used the Diddy Kong Racing cheats though.

That's awesome, I played a good chunk of the Chao Garden on the GameCube version, but not as much as a lot of others. I like how you can transfer your Chao to Sonic Advance's Tiny Chao Garden, as well.

Indeed I do. That's awesome you got the Poppy hair, sounds like a good thing to put on during Halloween. Nice, that's really cool... that game where you're spraying glitter on everything sounds a lot like Splatoon, were there any glitter turf wars? Probably not, but I thought I'd ask, lol.

And yeah, I also can't stand Twitter... I used to use it, but I don't anymore, due to nearly everyone there being negative nancies. It was not good for my well-being, so I deleted my account. I'm so glad I did.

Also no pressure, Sunsy, but do you wanna play Super Mario 3D World online with me sometime? We can continue from where we left off.

@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.

@Sunsy I haven’t really seen any official accounts do art showcases, but I can remember that every Friday, Rare’s official social media accounts show one or two pieces of fanart on there. It would be a dream to get shown on there, but I know it ain’t happening lol. I don’t know if there’s this eligibility or requirement to get shown, I probably don’t use the right tags for it. I’m pretty bad at picking relevant and gold tags for my art posts. Plus I don’t post consistently and I’d only want my good looking art to get shown if I did.

Yeah, I can remember Rocky and Bullwinkle but pretty vaguely, I remember Mr. Peabody and Sherman way more than the show they were both apart of. I’d still love to see Rocky and Bullwinkle one day, I do like watching some cartoons, but it has been a while since I have. I think the last cartoon I watched was Chip ‘n’ Dale’s Rescue Rangers about two years ago. I loved it and binged it throughout June after I saw the Disney+ film before. That movie was pretty decent, though Ugly Sonic and the character cameos were actually being talked more than the actual film. Plus, one of the main characters of Rocky and Bullwinkle is a flying squirrel, and I love squirrels and rodents so much!

I do think X is a pretty bad name. It’s so generic, and it seemed that the Twitter rebrand was in an attempt to sound cool, but it just doesn’t sound memorable. The moderation on Twitter I think was a bit better before, but it’s almost nonexistent now after the buyout a few years ago. Twitter had gained notoriety for being that one place with no moderation and having no respect for opinions at all. Again, I only have experience with the web version of Twitter with no account, and I’d only use it to look at art and gaming stuff. I also think a few of the people working at Twitter got fired after the buyout, so I think that could be an explanation for why the moderation there is so bad. I absolutely do appreciate the mods here, they are super active and quickly deal with any awful behavior here. Instagram would maybe be up there with Twitter for worst social media moderation.

@MarioVillager92 Vocaloid is this music genre where the song is sung by vocal synthesizer voice banks or similar software, and the other aspects like music and lyrics are done by humans. It’s not AI music, and Vocaloid is popular online, but it’s way more popular in Japan thanks to vocal synths like Hatsune Miku. I’ve listened to a lot of Vocaloid producers, and there is this artist named MARETU that I have listened a bit to, but I think I hear his Vocaloid music way too much and it makes me feel a bit awful, cuz his songs are extremely dark and can come off as disturbing. I only really listen to his songs that are more vague, but there are multiple interpretations I have read for the vague songs and they still come off as dark. I haven’t been listening to him a ton, maybe only one song or two, since I have been listening to other non-Vocaloid artists. I have heard Double Life from Despicable Me 4 by Pharrell Williams recently and I really love how it sounds. I swear, whenever he makes a song for Despicable Me, it always sounds so catchy and good! Haven’t heard the Banjo soundtracks in a while, but I still love them.

Conker is maybe one of my favorite games of all time, and I am playing it today since a game club I’m in is playing it for August, but it is a bit gross and graphic at times, plus the ending is a bit depressing too. I heard some of the music in there more while playing and it’s so cinematic and fitting for a ton of the scenes in there. Maybe the most technically and musically impressive N64 game out there. Unfortunately no one in the game club has been really talking about the progress they have made in the game, but I think it’s because we are just getting started, plus the game club isn’t that big. It’s hosted on Pure Xbox, which is one of Nintendo Life’s least popular sister sites.

I love Megamind, it’s maybe one of DreamWorks’ best movies and there was this analysis I watched that went over how it was a well-done subversion of the superhero genre. A sequel to the film was wanted for a while, so you can imagine how disappointed everyone got when it was followed up with a poorly-written and animated television series and “movie” that was really just a pilot for the show trying to sell itself as a movie. I never watched the show (and won’t, cuz it looks and sounds bad and I’ve watched videos that go over its problems) but I still love the theme song for the show. I’m sure the budget went all into making it sound good.

I love hearing stuff about cancelled games, just hearing the stories and stuff behind them. I love going to random YouTube videos and sometimes going on Unseen64 for N64 games, but I always used it for games by Rare. Rare Replay does have these videos that go over cancelled projects and games, but I haven’t gotten enough stamps to view them, plus there was way, WAY more games they had in development that the game didn’t go over, so I just instead read a few articles on them. Unseen64 is nice, but some articles haven’t been updated in a while and some are full of errors, but I recall that the site was run by a small group of people.

I have been getting into watching movies a bit more, so maybe that is why I am watching film and show videos a ton. Recently I watched The Matrix a few weeks ago, The Truman Show, and finished Mr. Peabody and Sherman a few nights ago. It’s a pretty small and random list, but there are more stuff I want to see soon. I am considering watching The Matrix sequels, but those are apparently not great…I wanna see Saving Private Ryan as well, but I wonder if I could possibly handle the violence and content in that one. I can handle stronger violence if it’s in a cartoony or unrealistic art style and way, but realistic violence is a no for me. I also watched anime this year, but the last time I saw one was in May. I maybe watched 3-4 shows. I did watch episodes of some but didn’t finish them. Not really interested in a lot of animes, also cuz a lot of them are based on mangas I don’t read or know about.

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.

My 4 year old nephew just spent the last thirty minutes telling me how the lady sitting next to him on the airplane was really pretty and how he told her she was pretty, and how she told him he was cute, and how he wishes his mom looked like her.

Oh and that mentos make soda go up.

What a deep metaphor for “the world goes around”. Wise 4 year old.

@Sunsy Lol same here, that's why I always copy and paste my post and save it locally. As cliche as it may sound, it's better to be safe than sorry.

That's really awesome, I'm definitely happy for you. Is going to Universal still on your bucket list? I'd go there for the Nintendo park alone, I'm so getting a picture of me with my favorite character, Mario! I don't think I'd fit into a tube slide anymore either, lol. That's cool. Surprisingly enough, I didn't have Star Fox for the SNES until much, much later. My dad also didn't have that game when he had his SNES back in the 90s so I have no nostalgia for it. I thought it was a good game, the graphics looked really impressive for the hardware and it's got an awesome soundtrack, but Star Fox 64 will always be my favorite one.

Yeah... I can't blame you. VHS tapes seem to be really, really fragile... that's the one flaw with them. I do think VHS tapes have their charm too, at least for folks like me who have grown up watching movies on them. So it really sucks if the tape gets caught up in your VCR. That's cool, I think I recall using some kind of RF cable to play my N64 on that Quasar TV that I mentioned earlier. My SNES Classic is in one of my drawers currently. Actually I might hook up one of my Sega Genesis Minis to my TV sometime. There's still some games I'd like to play on them.

I remember hearing that The Lion King came back to theaters for a bit... I would have seen it in theaters, but too bad it wasn't available in my area.

Oh my goodness, I remember 8-bit Sonic 2's first boss... it was near impossible to beat! On the Game Gear at the very least, never played the Master System version. That larger screen would help me a ton, honestly, since I don't like screen crunch. I remember doing the level select code and I played through that game's Green Hills Zone. Yep, with a plural, lol. I like the names of those codes, lol. Especially TIMETOLOSE for the super hard CPU players.

I actually didn't know that, that's cool you can download the Tiny Chao Garden to your GBA. I thought you had to have Sonic Advance for that.

Ah OK gotcha, that does sound pretty cool regardless. Nice that you're given something to play with during your ride on Rhonda.

Yeah exactly... if only Twitter had moderators, lol. Plenty of posts that are, um, not nice... and a bunch of naughty language too. I feel awful for the Trolls fans you mentioned too. Reminds me of how I got bullied in middle school... I feel for them.

OK, that's fine. Hopefully we can play soon, but I hope your weekend goes well.

@Pastellioli Gotcha, I've heard of Hatsune Miku, though I only dabbled into her stuff for a tiny bit. So I kind of know what vocaloid music is like. Gotcha, not sure if I'd like Maretu from the sounds of it.

That's cool you're liking Conker. I did see how naughty this game can get, lol... I've seen a few videos on it. Not sure if that game would be my thing to be honest, but it is cool you like it. I did see that game club you mentioned for a little bit, that's cool that the folks at Pure Xbox do that.

That does sound like it's a pretty good movie. Admittedly, I didn't see much of DreamWorks' stuff outside of a couple of Shrek movies. I did see an anime that has a similar superhero concept to Megamind, which is My Hero Academia. It's a good anime for sure, my cousin has showed it to me during one of my vacations. That Megamind TV series doesn't sound too good, lol. I can understand why people were disappointed, plus I'm a bit more of a movie person than a TV show person.

Cool to see that Rare Replay has videos on Rare's cancelled games. I'd actually like to have that collection sometime, but I don't have an Xbox. I don't know if or when I'd want one either... my backlog is a bit out of control and I've always been a Nintendo guy.

That's cool, I've seen The Matrix as well and that is a good movie for sure. Love those cool slow-motion parts in it, lol. I can't speak for its sequels however, didn't see those. I actually do like anime quite a bit, what ones did you see if you don't mind me asking?

@MarioVillager92 I did watch a few random ones, but a few well known ones. I watched the first season of Jujutsu Kaisen, Bocchi the Rock!, Chainsaw Man, and Wonder Egg Priority. absolutely loved Jujutsu Kaisen, had heard of it for many years and watched it for fun. Chainsaw Man was nice too, but it’s a bit too gory and suggestive, and there was maybe one episode that I didn’t like a lot cuz I found a character there to act really disgusting, so I skipped a few parts of the episode, but I really loved the animation and the opening and ending songs. Wonder Egg Priority was a nice magical girl-esque anime, but it’s writing gets worse nearing the end, so I unfortunately didn’t like it once I finished it, plus it never really wrapped up its story and the way it treated some characters in there was questionable. I was watching Bocchi in May, but I never finished it. I put a few more animes on my watchlist, but I haven’t gotten to watching them. I have heard of My Hero Academia, but I never watched it and have only seen clips of it.

Yeah, MARETU wouldn’t be your thing. His music sounds great but the subject matter is very dark and questionable.

Some people have been chatting more in the game club, but I think some people have already stopped playing the game. I love the writing and characters and the goofiness of it but the gameplay and level design is sort of bad. I don’t remember it being too poor, and it sometimes does feel like the gameplay was an afterthought. There was a remake I bought and finished that is loads better with the gameplay since there is attempts to make it less repetitive and a bit more easy, but I chose to play the original on my Xbox for some reason. I can’t back out now since I am already midway through on my second playthrough. Probably not going to attempt a full third playthrough ever since it’s making me a but frustrated.

Rare Replay was absolutely worth the money for me, but it is a bit disappointing its stuck on Xbox. I would like to see it maybe come to Switch or a future Nintendo console since Microsoft has been saying they are considering making some games of theirs multiplatform (plus four exclusives went multiplatform earlier this year) but I don’t really know how Rare Replay could work on the Switch, since the Xbox games included on there are separate downloads and they take up a bit of space and I don’t know if the Switch could handle that. I have also been more Nintendo than Xbox, I only really wanted an Xbox because of Rare’s games since I played a few on the Switch. So many of the games included on there fit the Nintendo ecosystem way more than Xbox, and I think a lot of Rare fans are Nintendo gamers rather than Xbox gamers.

@Pastellioli I wish Nintendo was more predictable when it comes to NSO drops, then I remember who we're discussing. XD Roadmaps are good, but I do admit it's quite nice to be surprised sometimes too. It's why I'm not the biggest fan of leaks. Personally, I'd like to see more Game Boy titles come to NSO. There are still plenty of great options for both the GB and GBA services that haven't been released yet. Most prominently classic Pokemon titles and some of their excellent spinoffs.

"Don't judge a book (or game) by its cover" is appropriate in this case. We don't truly know something or someone unless we spend time talking with them or researching it. Makes sense that older games might not have ESRB descriptions. It's possible any detailed records they kept at the time either...weren't great, or have been lost to time. Part of the problem though is people don't want to take the time out to do research. I get it, life can be busy, but this is why time management is a thing. I am by no means perfect in this regard, but it really has helped me.

@Sunsy I like going to the theater to watch movies, though it has to be something I really want to see. My local theater has $5 Tuesdays all day, so that makes it easy to duck in after work sometimes. Their morning matinees are $5 too, but those are usually hard for me to pull off since I work during the week. I do like what I've seen of Despicable Me, though the Minions can easily annoy me.

Yep, the chain is called Ramen Danbo. It's Fukuoka-style Tonkotsu Ramen. Technically, that one New York location is in Brooklyn (Though in my mind, they're geographically close enough to be almost the same lol).

@MarioVillager92 I hope you're still having a lot of fun with Tears of the Kingdom. No rush, though I want to grab Echoes of Wisdom on release...but I probably won't get to it until the day after (Friday). No clue why Nintendo decided Thursday releases are now in.

Sounds like Knoebels is one of those theme parks where you have to pay for the rides then? Not sure how I feel about that. I suppose it depends on the cost, problem is I really like riding rides repeatedly if possible. Wouldn't be against trying a park like that though; the closest equivalent I've been to is a carnival. The best parks suit all ages. I can do rides that spin...but not with a lot of force. It doesn't scramble my stomach, but the pressure in my brain.

I do recall the Disney platformers being real lookers, so they had the visuals going for them at least lol. If only they came with difficulty levels....With TTYD, I did think about trying for more of the badges, but I was satisfied with what I already had. The recipes seemed like a pain, so I only dealt with those related to Troubles. I did experiment a couple of times though. I never quite got the hang of Super guards sadly.

Super Mario Galaxy is a worthy contender for a top Wii game in my book. I like it more than its successor, and it's hands down my favorite Mario title on the system. That OST was a good find in any case. Breaking Benjamin is an alternative metal band. Some of their most well known songs are Diary of Jane, Breath, and Had Enough. They're also supposed to be touring with Staind and will have a couple other names I admittedly don't know at the concert...if I decide to go.

@Tyranexx
I personally do not like Super Mario Galaxy 1 & 2 games after i have played them because the games keep resetting my multiple lives accumulation back to 4 or 5 lives everytime i loaded the games.
That makes the games became hard to play as it sucks for unable to keep my accumulation lives to anticipate difficult stages to clear.
I have finished the first game but it wasn't really impressive after some thought.
I still haven't continued the second game as i already felt done with Mario Galaxy games.
I personally prefer Ratchet & Clank Rift Apart PS5 and A Crack in Time PS3 for having great gameplay and storyline that touched my heart than the Super Mario Galaxy games.

Until today, i still have very low hype and interest level with Mario franchise despite i still buy & play certain Mario games.
I didn't really feel the charm from Mario franchise blowing away my mind as my gaming experience have been shaped from a lot of 3rd party games especially from PlayStation games.
In my age almost 40 years, if i write the percentage of my hype level of Mario franchise, it will be around 10 - 20 %.
Well, pretty much i'm already tired with perpetual damsel in distress from Mario games while i have experienced with different scenario and storyline model from 3rd party games that color me intrigued.

Btw, have you tried any random games you have never played before?
Recently i have finished Puss in Boots PS3, first time played Monkey King Hero Is Back PS4, etc.
I have played Princess Peach Showtime as my promise before but it seems i tend to get sleepy whenever i played Princess Peach Showtime.
I don't know, maybe the charm of 2.5 D platform er games that too familiar made me get sleepy.

I’m almost done with my second playthrough of Conker but I sometimes forget how bad the gameplay is at times. I think the writing and characters are good and definitely a huge highlight of the game, but the gameplay is sometimes a hit or miss. They had so many fun ideas in the gameplay but some of those ideas aren’t executed well, and it seems like the gameplay was an afterthought since the game focuses on being more cinematic and its characters. Still love the game, I just think I should have played the remake instead this time.

I have been writing my progress on the Pure Xbox game club, but unfortunately discussion has been very dead there…I think I’ve only been talking with one of the heads of the game club, and some people I talk to that decided to play the game dropped it already since it sadly wasn’t their thing. There are more people apart of the club, but I am assuming most forgot about it, they are busy with other stuff or they are playing Conker but haven’t commented on the forum about it. This discussion thing isn’t as fun as I hoped it would be, but it’s on Pure Xbox, which is one of Hookshot’s least popular sites, and the only time it really gets popular is if there are articles on the future of Xbox and reports on bad news for the Xbox.

Good morning.
Today (4 August) is birthday anniversary of my fictional character from B.S.P.D (Brilliant Star Police Department), Edward George.
He was the main character from my B.S.P.D with other characters Jennifer White, Dr Marc Drummond, Charlie Vaughan and Clark Hugo.
That fictional police department i have created since when i was grade 11 long time ago.

@Pastellioli That's cool, I don't think I've seen those four shows you mentioned though. Been watching One Piece recently, you've probably heard of that show... it's the anime version. I'm done with the first three seasons. It's quite a bit better than I thought actually, I remember it came out on Fox Box back in about 2004, but at the time I thought it looked a bit silly and I wasn't too interested in its whole pirate theme, lol. I was huge into Sonic at the time (and by extension, Sonic X since it was on the same channel). I heard the 4Kids version of One Piece got a bit censored when it aired on Fox Box too, the dub I'm seeing on Netflix does have some violent parts and has a different voice acting cast.

Ah... gotcha. Its gameplay and level design aren't super great, huh? Kinda disappointing to hear since I like Rare's other stuff like Donkey Kong Country and Banjo-Kazooie. What are your thoughts on Kameo: Elements of Power? It's a game I've been mildly curious about since it came out on the 360 so many years ago, but just didn't have it.

Yeah, I'd love to have Rare Replay on a Nintendo console at least... and yeah I'm told that it can't really happen since some of those games are straight-up 360 games, and it requires the Xbox One/Series X|S to be into a "360 mode" of sorts. Something that the Switch doesn't have obviously.

@Tyranexx Yep I'm having fun with it. It's a good game to kick back and relax with before going to bed, lol. Looks like I finally found a side quest for the bubbul gems... really glad I can work towards that now. Yeah I'm not sure either. Been used to having new Nintendo games coming out on Fridays, lol.

Actually in Knoebels, you'd buy ride tickets before going to the rides themselves. Then you'd spend said tickets once you're through the lines. Each ride asks for a different amount of tickets. I like riding rides more than once too, if I really like them. I agree, the best parks suit all ages. Ah OK, gotcha... that tilt-a-whirl definitely spun with a lot of force. It felt like I was about to be tossed off the ride, lol... plus I had to close my eyes shut right when it spun like 5,000 miles per hour. OK, I'm exaggerating about the specific speed, but it sure as heck felt like it, lol. The teacup ride was so much better. It did spin, but not nearly as much. The teacups mainly slid around real fast... I laughed throughout that entire ride because I enjoyed myself that much!

Difficulty levels definitely would've came in handy. Especially since a lot of children like Disney cartoons and movies. Gotcha, I tried out any badges I thought I'd like, but did have to unequip the ones I didn't like or weren't good at. I was also happy with whatever I had.

The first Super Mario Galaxy is my favorite Mario game on the Wii as well, I also like it more than its sequel (which is also fantastic). That's cool, thanks for telling me about them. Maybe I'll give them a listen sometime.