Topic: The Chit-Chat Thread

Expand

Stayed up to get some stuff done but it was worth it! A day now until Sonic 3 hits theaters and a week before Christmas I’m gonna only reply to a few responses now since I need to sleep soon, but I’ll get to the rest of the responses tomorrow.

@Mariotag Double Dash was so fun and amazing, but I absolutely want to hear it with audio.

I remember the Expansion Pack being revealed and when they briefly showed Banjo-Kazooie as part of the Expansion Pack lineup I already wanted it. The games apart of the N64 Expansion Pack at the time I got it were pretty good but the selection was way too small and I thought it was too pricey and should have had more games upon release to justify the price, and I didn’t play enough of the Sega Genesis games included on the Expansion Pack. But, from what I’ve been reading in NL headlines, the Expansion Pack seems to have really improved on the game selection and supported retro console libraries (Game Boy Advance and the Mature 17+ N64 app for higher rated games). Although I own the upgraded Xbox port of Banjo-Kazooie, I haven’t made much progress on it or completed it because I already got 100% completion on the Switch, but the data is tied to the Expansion Pack…which I don’t have anymore and can’t access now. I don’t stick to subscription services a lot anymore. I mean, some do have good games and content and I liked Xbox Game Pass (though I’ll admit I started to use it less just before the huge price hike happened), but I’ve found I’m more content just sticking to games I own instead of paying to play games on a monthly basis. I feel like just doing a one-time purchase of a game is cheaper.

Yes, the Spirits are still in the game. They still appear on the Spirit Board, and I saw them on there months after they were added.

I found the Peach amiibo was the most challenging to fight, because she often used a lot of quick moves and shielded against my attacks a lot, plus the fact she constantly picked items out from the ground and threw them at me like Bob-ombs. Inkling was far more annoying though. I’m pretty bad at reading human opponents and predicting what their next move will be. My brother is the best at Smash compared to me, and he often defeated me a ton when we played. However, I’m assuming it is probably because I only stuck to the same two fighters against him (Banjo and Hero) and he knew what moves I would likely use against him. It kind of became a cliche for him, though I defeated him a few times. My brother was far more well-rounded with his mains; he often played as characters in the base roster and some DLC fighters too.

I hope so. I feel like Microsoft is the only company at the moment that actively tries to keep up with backwards compatibility and making older games playable. They announced that they were going to stop adding more games to the backwards compatibility program (because of licensing and technical stuff) but they were reported as having assembled a new team to work on backwards compatibility again but there haven’t been any new additions as of late, I wouldn’t really be surprised if they just stopped there. I would like to see Nintendo do a good job with backwards compatibility for their next console. How long has it been since they did that for their consoles? I think it’s been 12-13 years since they last did that, which was with the Wii U and 3DS, though given the games being in discs for the Wii U and the 3DS cartridges being bigger, I am not surprised the Switch was unable to support backwards compatibility and why they released ports and remasters for older games instead. I just hope that the backwards compatibility for the next console is good.

I enjoyed the way the rest area looked and felt in All-Star Mode when I played it on the Wii U. I didn’t know that, so I am guessing later on the battles were sorted by year of debut instead?
Classic Mode is super awesome. A lot of the time I nearly got to the end of the watercolor mural as the difficulty level got higher, but every time I’d get KO’d during the final battle against Master Hand and Crazy Hand. Luckily I have a ton of those Classic Tickets, so my intensity level wouldn’t go down, but the intensity only went higher a little bit and the intensity never reached 9.9., but it nearly did. You have to perform very well and almost flawlessly to have the intensity go up significantly, and it’s pretty hard to do when the Master Hand and Crazy Hand battle occurs at a super high intensity. I forgot if all the Classic Mode routes have items enabled. I remember playing through Banjo’s route and items were enabled for all the battles, but I don’t recall the other fighter routes using items at all. But, I still think Classic Mode is one of the best game modes Ultimate has. I also enjoyed the Bonus Stage where you run from a black hole while trying to break boxes and increase your score before moving on to the final battle, as well as the credits minigame at the end.

That’s a cool fact.

I actually kept up with that when I used to read about game rumors. I can’t remember all of the stuff that led to the reveal about Midori’s identity, but I believe it stemmed from some beef between Midori and “leakers” because he borrowed leaks from them, and then an anonymous document went around accusing Midori of being someone else using a different online identity and handle and it turned out to be true when he admitted it. Prior to that, people thought Midori was a Atlus or Sega employee secretly discussing game info online, but people started to doubt that because Midori’s “leaks” started to talk about non-Sega games like Kingdom Hearts and Mana, which came shortly before he said the document about his account was true. The whole situation just seemed all over the place and super messy and seeing all the reactions toward the reveal was crazy. I recall Midori saying he started that account because he was a huge Sega and Atlus fan and wanted to show his enjoyment for their games (kind of like a fan account), but after the whole reveal, I read Midori actually wanted to work at Sega but didn’t land a job there, and started to harass employees by staying on Sega’s campus and attempting to get into their WiFi because he didn’t get hired. What he did was scummy and really awful.

I’m surprised, because that leak was talked about a lot last year and it sounded super devastating. Unfortunately I see breaches of privacy as being too common, and how search engines can sometimes not be trusted with how they can handle personal info. I still try to be careful with how I manage my data and personal info. I don’t trust most password saver apps or like to keep my account logged in on a site every time. While I haven’t ever lost my digital devices or allowed anyone access to my personal accounts, I still get anxious over my devices like my phone getting lost and someone going onto my already logged in account. I feel like it’s better for me to be safe than sorry when I do that. The Microsoft Edge thing sounds insane. I guess it’s a good thing I don’t use it besides on my Xbox sometimes, but I find Edge on the Xbox is poor quality and loads slowly.

The Grinch Leak was one of the most notable Smash “leaks,” but funnily it wasn’t named that because the leak didn’t claim the Grinch was going to be playable. It was only named that because the photo attached to the “leak” had promotional material for Illumination’s Grinch movie in the picture. I think some people actually believed the rumor, but the poster with the photoshopped fighters on it looked super fake, though coincidentally Ken and Banjo (who were both photoshopped on the fighter poster in the “leak”) actually were added as playable characters, so the rumor was kinda right but mostly wrong. I will say I didn’t really keep up with Smash Ultimate rumors a ton prior to the game’s release and I found out about them more after the game was released and ended game updates and DLC. That Brawl “Create A Stage” thing sounds super interesting.

Expand

I'm still pretty busy IRL, and now holiday stuff is really ramping up. I doubt I'll be on the forums as much for awhile.

@Sunsy It wouldn't hurt to try Notepad++. Particularly since it's free and well known. I use it to manage multiple notes and files too. We actually use OpenOffice on our work servers for customer needs, but overall I prefer Libre Office for personal use. We're a Microsoft Office company where I work, but I don't have to pay for it lol. My only issue is formatting in Libre Office doesn't always translate well to other programs.

I've seen many different meatballs recipes, some sweeter than others. A family recipe I have uses ground beef and oatmeal in place of breadcrumbs. There's a lot of brown sugar and ketchup involved too. I've only ever dealt with oven recipes, but I know some use crock pots and other containers too.

@Mariotag Ugh, AT&T. They are unfortunately my current carrier. Sadly they have the best reception in some areas around my family; I've experimented with other carriers, and the closest that comes to them is Verizon. It stinks as some of the best deals I've found use T-Mobile bands, but it isn't viable off the beaten path around here. I think some of the Frontier Communication lines around here once belonged to Verizon, who isn't much better IMO.

I don't own a Wii, but I did confirm our family Wii growing up is GCN compatible. Unfortunately it is used - albeit rarely - so I've been turned down when I offered to buy it and save it from Just Dance and mostly other shovelware (Outside of Wii Sports). I'd have to secure the necessary controllers too.

I'd probably like Slayers then. I like comedy as long as it's well executed, and I like fantasy in general. On the HP game: No problem! I'd recommend it to any franchise fan who also doesn't mind turn-based RPGs. As for the crusher things, they stacked and only went down so far even if I dispelled the last. Still not sure if that was the developers' intent....

I recall liking the PS2 version of Prisoner of Azkaban. But it was so long ago that I don't entirely recall specifics other than it was an action/adventure setup not too dissimilar to the PC version. So 358/2 Days isn't that great? Could be it was overhyped to me. Wouldn't be the first time. Kind of sad I missed the ball on Re:Coded since you praise it so highly, but by the point I was reluctant to get into the series since I knew just enough that it can be convoluted. Probably a lame excuse from someone looking into trying out the Trails series I'll admit. I might at least try DK64 at some point if it ever comes to NSO and if I ever bother subbing to more than the basic tier.

@MarioVillager92 Thanks! Pokemon has introduced regional variants - sort of like subspecies of the same animal in real life - so Alolan Vulpix is an ice type. I actually have yet to rewatch The Polar Express this year but hope to get to it soon. Glad you really enjoyed it, especially since the movie features one of your favorite things! I don't normally check that thread but did read your positive impressions.

On EoW: Thanks! I didn't truly go for 100% since I didn't wanna get the best times in all dream dojo stages for example, but I at least finished them all. I did want all the collectibles though. Looks like you saw my impressions on it in the respective thread lol. It's a decent Zelda and one I'll play again, but I do like other titles better. Both FDC games are short but decent VNs. Though their older gameplay shows through sometimes. I did see your impressions on Mario & Luigi: Brothership. Seems like a good game from what I've read from you and others, but a bit longer than it needs to be. Which is allegedly a complaint about Dream Team too. That one is up next when I get back to the series. Enjoy MMBN!

Yeah, never go from 0 to 100 when trying something new. You gotta work your way up.

@Pastellioli You tend to respond pretty late by my time zone (I'm in US/CA Central Time), so I always assumed you're towards the West Coast. I do try to name drop artists if I borrow from their stuff and can find their names...but I usually try to use promotional material from Nintendo, etc. when possible.

I am curious about what they'll add to NSO next year too....I just wish the frequency was as common as the Nintendo Music app. Though that's comparing apples to oranges. Not sure if there will be any more NSO drops this month with the holidays, but this is Nintendo lol.

I'm not against genre switches in games if they make sense, and definitely not in spinoffs as long as it's communicated in advance. Not everyone likes a certain genre. That Banjo-Kazooie game doesn't sound like my cup of tea unfortunately. Sometimes I like genre switches though, like with Star Fox Adventures since it's not an on-rails shooter. I've played the original and Star Fox 64 3D. They aren't bad games at all and are decent. Just not really my thing.

I think localization speed and the fact it was ultimately a fad is what hurt the Yo-Kai Watch series. Which is a shame since I thought it had some good potential. Maybe Level-5 will do right with the Holy Horror Mansion concept.

Expand

@Mariotag I’m content with not being subbed to a subscription service on my Xbox or any game console really. I do like owning stuff more than having to pay monthly to play/use something, plus with Game Pass getting constant price hikes and how they are locking some games behind the Ultimate sub and making the cheaper sub have less games, I kind of lost interest in the service. I remember that just a week before they announced Game Pass price hikes, I had the Game Pass for Console sub (which was their cheapest) but cancelled it since I wasn’t really using it, though I intended to get it back and some point…but my move was pretty bad timing, because the next week they announced price hikes, they also discontinued Game Pass for Console and replaced it with Game Pass Standard (which comes with online play but has less games in its library) and they said that you would be unable to use Game Pass for Console if you cancelled it, but people who still were subbed to that tier could still use it. Plus there are a lot of good game deals on the Microsoft Store (purchasing Rare Replay for $7 during a Spring Sale last year has got to be one of my best purchases instead of paying monthly to play it) but I think now is the time for me to purchase more games, though there is a few in my library I need to play soon, like Marvel Rivals.

I find amiibos are significantly more harder to fight. It would probably be how I maxed out the amiibo level to 50 and changed their stats, which probably played a factor in how they defeated me swiftly. My play style and fighting patterns with the characters I used is probably why I lost a bunch against my brother. I won more in online battles against other players around the world, probably because I don’t play online Smash a lot and they haven’t encountered me before, so they wouldn’t really know much about how I like to play and what attacks I favor using.

I do think the Xbox has a good selection of backwards compatible games, but in actuality only half of the games are backwards compatible and a lot of games are missing. The 360 has 631 out of 2,155 that are backwards compatible on modem hardware, but the OG Xbox only has 63 games that are playable on modern hardware, which shocks me a bit, but I’d assume maybe OG Xbox games have a few technical issues and the fact a few popular OG games have a ton of licensing issues; I can recall when I played the Conker remake on the Series S, the game had a few technical issues (sometimes the game would slow down and scenes would occasionally become blurry), but I don’t know if it’s from the game being old or it not running smoothly on newer hardware. I am hoping they can increase the number of playable games with the new team they assembled, but I unfortunately would not be surprised if it took a bit till they release a new batch of backwards compatible games since backwards compatibility is something they are not focusing on at the moment. Virtual Console was nice, and a lot of people preferred it over NSO and saying VC had better emulation than NSO, mainly pertaining to the N64 games, which I heard had a few issues shortly after the Expansion Pack was released. I would like to own some of the NSO games more than subbing to keep access to them. But I sadly feel like that NSO won’t ever have an option that lets you buy a game and own it.

I recall that the WiiU version did oldest to newest, and the All-Star mob mode in Ultimate also did oldest to newest, though I think a few older characters made earlier appearances in different games but the game goes by their first appearance in their home series instead. So, I would assume that the 3DS version did newest to oldest order instead. I didn’t know you fought a different boss in WiiU if you reached an intensity of 8.0. or higher! Back when I played the WiiU a ton, I was pretty bad at playing Smash, and while I did play Classic Mode before, I never reached such a super high intensity compared to Ultimate. I think what Ultimate does is for specific routes, if the intensity is super high, you fight both Master Hand and Crazy Hand simultaneously, but if it’s lower you fight just Master Hand. I can’t remember what specific intensity it has to be at for that to happen though. I know some fighters have a different boss at the end of their routes besides Master Hand or Crazy Hand.

Yeah, I can remember hearing more about what Midori did once that whole situation went down and it was shocking and scummy to see, but what I didn’t really know was how some people borrow “leaks” from other “leakers.” I never once heard of a thing like “borrowing leaks.” Closest that’s similar to it is when leaker 1 says one thing and then leaker 2, reiterates the same thing and uses the other person’s “leak” as a basis or support toward their own “leak.” Usually I saw that happen with more unreliable leakers reiterating the same info from more reliable and popular leakers.

I also get afraid of my electronics getting stolen or lost. Luckily it’s never happened, but I still get anxious over that possibility and I’d be freaking out if it did happen. My anxiety toward cybersecurity and data breaches was pretty bad a few months ago, to the point I’d constantly check my phone to make sure no one got into any of my digital accounts and got ahold of private info. The thought of that was on my mind a ton. Its not really bad anymore, but I still have some fear about that. I just really don’t like losing anything and it possibly falling into the wrong hands.

It was funny, but I didn’t read more about the Grinch leak until later and I initially didn’t even know it was something that happened. People who saw the entire thing happen said it made the Smash community divided on whether or not it was true. Some people thought it was real, some thought it wasn’t. I read on a Smash wiki that why people thought it was real was because the artwork for the photoshopped fighters in the mural was no where to be found on the internet nor were reused fanart made by other people, and there was unseen promotional material for the Grinch movie in the “leak,” and people thought the person who did the fake leak actually had real info. But, I feel like if the photoshopped fighter artwork was apparently nowhere to be found on the internet, there could have been a chance someone else could have made the artwork and kept the art private instead of posting it, or it was drawn by someone for the “leak” especially. I even think after the leak happened, it turned out the leak was actually a group effort and not done by a single person.

Your idea for that stage sounded super cool. Those types of contests sounded fun, but too bad they don’t do those anymore especially with the Stage Builder feature in Smash 4 and Ultimate. I’ve never participated in contests like that but they sound like good fun.

@Anti-Matter Sorry I got to replying late! I’ve been busy a bit.

I do like the Sonic movies, but I’ll admit I don’t recall a lot of the first one and think it’s weaker than 2 (can’t say anything on 3 since I haven’t seen it yet). I think I don’t remember the movie much because it didn’t have a lot of elements from the games and had scenes that used elements that were unlike the games, like that bar fight scene you mentioned. I like the second film way more because it used more elements and plot points from the games, which definitely made it more memorable in my opinion, but it’s fine if you don’t like the movies or don’t want to watch them.

I’ve heard a lotta good things about Wicked but I don’t really know much about it and I’ve only heard a few songs from the original musical it’s based on. I was in the middle of watching a review of it but I didn’t finish it. What did you like most about it? I haven’t really gone to the movie theaters in a while, it’s probably super fun to go to the theater a ton. I only go maybe once or twice a year, but I’m supposed to see Sonic 3 soon in theaters. I am excited to be back in a theater again. Last year I saw Puss in Boots: The Last Wish and The Super Mario Bros. Movie in theaters and experiencing those two in theaters was great, but I rarely go see movies in theaters because I don’t find some of the films interesting, but it has to be because I’m not a movie fanatic or someone who watches movies a ton, though from October-November I watched a ton of films at home.

I also heard a bit about Moana 2, but I heard some people say it wasn’t as good as the first one, but people say that could be attributed to the fact Moana 2 was originally a Disney+ show repurposed into a movie. I’m kind of surprised I haven’t really seen advertising or commercials for Mufasa, given that it’s a prequel to the highest-grossing Disney remake and they would want lots of people to see it. I am wondering how it will do in the box-office, since it just released the same day as Sonic 3 and those two will probably be competing with each other because of the IPs they are apart of both being popular.

@Tyranexx Yeah, plus it’s hard to find the original artist for some artworks a lot, so I like to just stick to using images from video games or stuff, like screenshots from a game or an official game render of a character. There’s a ton of nice fanart I could use as a profile picture but I only want to do it if I can find an attributed artist for the picture so I can credit them when I use the art, plus some people would like to get permission when you use fanart for stuff like profile pictures or banners, so I don’t want to upset or make anyone uncomfortable.

I don’t really use the Switch anymore or have the Expansion Pack, but I really want to see what games they have planned for NSO. I saw they released a bunch of games throughout December, and they seem to be dropping them faster this time. I wonder what games they will add to the N64 NSO now, and when they will add the next games on there, but since October had three N64 games rather than one or two, I wonder if it’ll take longer for them to add the next N64 game on there. It is nice they added a lot of Rare’s games on there, since everyone initially thought it was going to be next to impossible to get their games on there from licensing issues with Microsoft. People have been wanting Donkey Kong 64 on there, which would make sense and it’s a kind of surprising omission on there, given a lot of N64 games released on Virtual Console were already added to NSO.

It’s pretty hard for me to get used to the genre switch in Nuts and Bolts, but I’m going to probably start a new file and try to get the hang of it with the help of some game walkthroughs. The genre switch is one of the main things people didn’t like with that game, also the fact there was a line in the opening sequence that made fun of the previous games being platformers (as well as collectathon platformers in general). I think if the game was more of a spin-off and not a mainline entry, people would have liked it more. I’m still going to try to get the hang of building stuff and racing in cars the entire game, since I really wanna beat the game cuz I’ve held off of playing it for maybe around a year, almost two years next year.

I really hope Holy Horror Mansion is good. I can’t wait to see what they’ll reveal about it since the concept trailer seems to show the game will deviate a bit from the original Yo-kai Watch games. Level-5 seems to be wanting to do simultaneous worldwide releases now, which I think will definitely help Holy Horror Mansion’s sales. I hope so, since I want to see Yo-kai Watch come back again.

Expand

@Mariotag the game gets discounted a ton, and I’m glad I bought it at the right time. GoldenEye 007 was a nice addition to it, but I haven’t completed it and it’s been nearly two years since I last played it. I think it would have been nice if they did include GoldenEye on physical copies of Rare Replay like what they did for digital copies, but they never did, which stinks to hear.

I’ve just really lost interest in subscription services for gaming. I’m content with the game collection I have already so I don’t really have a want to get a subscription service on my Xbox, though I feel like nowadays there are a million subscription services in general. There isn’t many game subscriptions compared to film and television subscriptions, but so many game companies want to also start their own services like Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft, but I really don’t want gaming to have a million of those game subscriptions and having specific games tied to those services and delisting games. I read recently Sega said they were considering starting their own subscription service, but I just feel like that would be a disaster, and some people in the comments of NL’s article did a good job explaining why it likely wouldn’t work. For some reason, every time a game company makes their own subscription service, it always doesn’t get attention or does poorly. One of the comments mentioned there already being Genesis games apart of NSO, which I do think would make a Sega subscription service kind of redundant. Subscription services were fine years ago, but now I feel like there are way too many now after almost every company saw how successful Disney+ was and wanted to replicate the same success, but I hate how sometimes some media is split between services. As an example, I wanted to watch The Matrix for the first time months ago and we had HBO Max, and since Warner Bros. owns HBO Max and The Matrix, surely they would have all the movies and the first one on there, right? Instead, Max had all of The Matrix movies on there except the first one, which was on Netflix instead for some reason, and it’s weird because Warner doesn’t even own Netflix. It just bothers me that subscription services don’t even have everything all in one place and you have to sub to multiple to watch film series you wanna see.

If I go against an amiibo, I know for sure I’m instantly losing haha. They are so skilled, it’s kind of like playing against a competitive player.

To my surprise that’s all of the 360 games they have playable on newer hardware. It’s still nice but I just realized they don’t cover a lot of games for backwards compatibility. The OG Xbox backwards compatibility is bad with how most games are incompatible with the Xbone and Series X and S. I remember watching a video that released a few days after the Expansion Pack released, and the video was going over Nintendo’s emulation for older games (which covered the retro game library for NSO on Switch and Virtual Console) and the video pointed out the Virtual Console games were darker looking compared to NSO, but people said Virtual Console’s emulation was better than NSO’s emulation in the Expansion Pack for N64 games, because everyone was pointing out that the NSO’s emulation for the N64 games were poor, at least when they were first released, though I also think it was because the N64 games were emulated versions of the originals and kept in stuff like the frame rates getting slower for some games instead of remastering, remaking or enhancing the games for newer hardware since some of the games in NSO have remasters or remakes that aren’t playable on the Switch or any Nintendo hardware. I didn’t catch a lot of the emulation issues since I’m not much of a technical person and it was my first time playing a lot of the N64 games on there, but some games did get slower frame rates at times when I was playing though.

That sounds so cool! I wish I could have experienced that. It sounds like the previous Smash games had a lot of fun stuff and modes that Ultimate didn’t bring over unfortunately. I still like Ultimate and it’s Classic Mode, but it could have had way more variety with the other game modes instead of making a lot of them mob modes or kind of tedious fight after fight.

Crime makes me worried quite a lot, as well as losing stuff or having private info accessed by others and leaked online. I usually envision stuff in my head and stuff that will happen in the future, but it tends to be negative and scary stuff and it lingers for a bit. Usually my paranoia stops if I do something fun or if I get reassurance from a family member that something bad won’t happen. My self-esteem is pretty low and I’m negative too much, but I try to imagine positive stuff and thinking about the future in a positive light, sometimes me just thinking of something happy or something I enjoy (like my video game) help me a lot and take my mind of negative things. I am sorry you have felt paranoid sometimes.

I think the Midori situation was the first time I saw leakers actually getting angry at each other and starting beef with each other because of leaks being “borrowed” and “stolen,” but I wonder what leaker culture actually is with people who leak stuff because I think there has to be more to it beyond “borrowing” leaks and leaking game info. Midori was scummy and one of the reasons I just stopped reading rumors and leaks, along with that rant Pyoro went on just after getting a single “leak” wrong because he had a flawless reputation when it came to Nintendo leaks. If I recall, prior to the June 2024 Direct, he claimed there was going to be another Zelda remake in the same style of the Link’s Awakening remake, and while the Direct did have a Zelda game in the same style as Link’s Awakening, Echoes of Wisdom was a completely new game and not a remake. I think that’s what caused Pyoro to get upset, but despite that, I just stopped because I realized that leakers don’t have a good reason for releasing game info besides just for clout and popularity.

That rumor was probably the funniest Smash “leak” I’ve heard of and probably the one that got the most attention when it came to Smash Ultimate “leaks.”

I am excited to see Sonic 3 very soon. I’ve been avoiding spoilers and reading/watching most reviews for the film and luckily haven’t seen any spoilers, but I’ve seen a bit of what some other NL users have said about it in the movie thread. I am aware of there being a post-credit scene, and I’m super excited to find out which character they have been teasing and what game the next movie is going to take inspiration from.

@Tyranexx Yeah, usually for my profile pictures, I stick to official renders of characters or game screenshots (like the one I have right now), and I feel like it’s easier for people to identify where the screenshot or character in my avatar is from. When I use fanart or fan content as an avatar, I feel like it’s hard for someone glancing at my avatar to know where it came from since finding credits for the creator is hard online, especially if the person doesn’t have a signature or if the artwork is a repost from another person on another site. It’s also hard if the artist has deleted social accounts and can’t be found anywhere else.

I used to have the Expansion Pack for around a year, but only used it for the N64 games, mainly Banjo-Kazooie but I recall playing some of Star Fox 64/Lylat Wars, Paper Mario, and Mario 64, but I also used the Sega Genesis app for Sonic games. My sub ended before they added significantly more titles and retro consoles to the service, and I just have the standard sub with the NES and SNES games. I liked the Expansion Pack when it released, but I think it’s because I never played a majority of the N64 games on there before and I would say I’m an easy to please person when it comes to games. I know some of the N64 games apparently had emulation and technical issues when they were released, and I understood why people disliked how some heavily requested N64 games for Switch were locked behind a subscription service, plus the game roster with the N64 app at the time was small and games were released very slowly, I think it was one game per month but sometimes it would take more months for them to release games on there.

I tried to replay the game back in August with the intent of beating it, but I couldn’t remember what to do next and my first mistake was not using a walkthrough, so I lost interest in playing it and quit. I intend to start a new file and actually use a walkthrough so I know what to do. I used to be able to complete games without walkthroughs, but I find I struggle a bit with some games nowadays and figuring out what to do, including retro games. I used one when playing through the first Banjo game and a lot of games included in Rare Replay. I had to use a walkthrough the most with Conker’s Bad Fur Day because the game has a huge spike in its difficulty level much later on (though some objectives and levels were easy to figure out) and one for Perfect Dark because the game kinda does a terrible job at explaining objectives and making them obvious. The final level was the worst in that regard and I had to actually use a YouTube comment to help me figure out what I needed to do. The game did look like a spin-off, but it has references to previous games and it’s supposed to be a sequel (the intro I believe says the game takes place 8 years after Tooie) but it kind of doesn’t feel like a sequel because of the genre shift and the game not being a traditional platformer. I’ll still be trying to play Nuts and Bolts soon, hoping I can complete it swiftly like the N64 games.

I heard of those other two games. They look cool too and are the most hyped for sure. Hopefully I hear good things about them when they release.

@Anti-Matter that sounds like a really cool take on the Wizard of Oz. I knew the musical was super popular, and what you told me sounds super interesting. Maybe I could give it a watch. Usually the only musical movies I watch are animated Disney movies.

Expand

@Mariotag I do see a lot of good games go on sale on the Microsoft Store near holidays or spring. Since I have a Series S every game I buy has to be digital, so I haven’t been to a game store like GameStop in years. That deal I haven’t heard of and it sounds pretty good! Does GameStop do any of those sort of deals anymore? I haven’t kept up with GameStop in a while and all I recall reading was that they were starting up stores selling retro games and consoles but people thought they didn’t have any good deals for retro games.

I only used my amiibo in occasions, but I leveled them up fast from battling them a ton. I won against the amiibos initially, but they got harder to fight against the more their levels increased, plus the amiibos have these kinds of fighting behaviors they get and develop from learning during fights. Since a few of the amiibos I have were used in Smash 4 and were already at Level 50, they already started at Level 12 when I used them in Ultimate, so they had an early head start when leveling up. I never sent the amiibos on any amiibo Journeys to gain experience. All the experience the amiibos got was just from fighting me, and them seeing my play style is probably why the amiibos developed fighting behaviors that counteracted my attacks.

I only really got Xbox Game Pass to get extra points and accomplish missions for games I owned that were apart of the Game Pass library, though I cancelled it later and got Game Pass Core/Live Gold for online play for a few games, but I didn’t use it much because of the time I had and the fact some of the online games I had were free-to-play, and Microsoft says that free online games do not require a sub to play. I only have one service for anime and that’s Crunchyroll, but I saw it’s missing a few well-known animes and films, and a few shows I wanted to watch on there were not on Crunchyroll and were likely on some obscure streaming service I had no interest in subbing to. I found Disney+ worked kind of fine for me, but I think all the companies seeing the large amount of subscribers Disney got shortly after releasing Disney+ wanted the same too and copied what Disney did, either to success or failure. That comment Ubisoft said about owning games just sounds ignorant. All everyone wants is for companies to give everyone options, either to buy stuff physically or digitally.

It’s kind of shocking that Sonic 06 isn’t backwards compatible with newer Xbox hardware compared to the older Sonic games released for 360, but I also think it could be because Sega delisted the game from the Microsoft Store because it got not so great reviews and they probably don’t want to release 06 again. Game collections/compilations are super good and have such great value. I think Rare Replay is probably one of the best with its presentation, effort and quality, but I know there are a ton more with great effort that I could find and buy too.

Wow, Event Match mode sounds interesting, and that battle sounds super fun to play. I just read, and Event Match mode was actually in WiiU and I played it but I didn’t remember until now. I’m reading some of the conditions for a few battles in the mode, and they sound way more fun than the ones in Spirit Battles because some of them have specific goals that need to be met besides fighting and KO’ing opponents; I just read an article about some Game and Watch battle where you win by attacking the opponent with a number 9 Judge attack, and it says that KO’ing the opponent without a 9 makes the match still go on and the opponent respawns. The special conditions on those battles depending on the character sound way more fun and I’d say it sounds like they have more variety. It would have been so cool if they were brought back in Ultimate and maybe did some for DLC fighters too, though Spirit battles I think replaced that with specific conditions and rules, though I find Spirit battles sometimes reuse the same conditions and rules and can sometimes be tedious to play through.

I’m trying to get better with my positivity, but it’s going to take me a lot of work to not act so negative. I’m often self-deprecating, but I need to break out of that bad habit and just thinking about stuff that is positive, like something I’m excited about or something I like, helps my thoughts a lot. You’re welcome, I hope you are doing fine.

I think the Midori situation was the only time I saw leakers fight with each other. I never really saw that happen with any other leakers besides that one situation.

That’s good to hear about the movie being great. I wonder if its better than the previous two movies…. I will stay and see what the post-credit scene is when the movie is almost over! Super excited to see what character they’ll be revealing this time. The post-credit scene I think is what most people are talking about right now, and I like how the scenes in the films indicate what game the next film is going to take inspiration from. I am wondering if the theaters will be full, given this film was hyped up all year and it being near the holidays so everyone and their families are off of work, but I won’t mind a kind of crowded theater. I like sharing the same experiences and reactions with people, and I found some of the audience’s reactions was fun when I saw Sonic 2 two years ago.

Happy holidays to you as well! Thank you! Hope you have a good time with your family celebrating.

Expand

@Mariotag That deal kind of sounded like a steal back then and now, I think it’s super rare for game stores and shops to do deals like that for used games and having them really cheaper than their original price, cuz now if you bought maybe 4 used games the prices would add up rather than just being $30 total altogether. I think nowadays it’d be hard to find game deals like that given prices are getting higher. I only see similar deals like that with non-video game stores. There was an art store I used to go to called Michaels for my art supplies and they did similar deals like that, like “buy one, get two free.” Michaels was super pricey though, and I don’t buy stuff from there anymore, and most of the time the items were still kinda pricey even with those deals and coupons, even before prices started to get higher.

I know that retro games are super pricey to buy and retro game collecting is a popular but expensive hobby. I find it is really hard to find inexpensive prices for most retro games, especially if they are hard to get and find. Even though some retro games are available on modern platforms (usually for cheaper) the original versions still go up for high prices. There are probably a few notable retro games that are super expensive to buy, but one that comes to my mind is the original N64 cartridge of Conker’s Bad Fur Day. If I remember reading, the game goes for at least $500 or higher mainly because of its uniqueness with the gameplay, it being different from most platformer games, and it being considered one of the most technically impressive N64 games of all time. The remake goes for way lower than that (usually around $15-$20) and a lot of N64 copies of Bad Fur Day went unsold since the game failed commercially, but it’s crazy its that expensive when it’s available on Rare Replay for way cheaper and has some enhancements and improvements because of the newer hardware the game is on, though I read on an N64 subreddit that some people have been able to snag N64 copies for cheaper, because I recall someone got a copy for $20 I believe on the Facebook marketplace. I think getting retro games at a price like that is hard (plus online shipping can make the game price even more expensive), but I think with enough searching you can find a good deal.

I only have a few Smash 4 amiibos and Splatoon amiibos, so my collection is limited but I don’t use amiibos a ton. I would buy more but probably just one and that’s all, but I’m not into figure collection or collecting amiibos and game equipment.

I still liked Game Pass when I had it, but I just don’t use it anymore or have the want to subscribe to it. I used to be apart of a Game Pass game club on Pure Xbox, which was kinda fun and I did it so I could get the most out of Game Pass, but I only participated at least three times (Rise of the Tomb Raider in April, Conker in August, and Banjo-Tooie in September) but I dropped Tomb Raider and Banjo very early (also cuz I was busy) and I only completed Conker, but discussion on that game was dead (it was only me and the guy leading the game club that discussed it) so I didn’t even have much fun. Either some participants dropped the game very early, some people played the game but didn’t post about it, or a lot of game club members were busy when we were playing it, so we chose a bad time to play it. I just think online game clubs are unreliable because of that, because sometimes discussion is popular but other times it’s dead. My lack of time is also why I didn’t use Game Pass much and only for one game or so.

Oh so Crunchyroll did have a ton of anime but their licenses expired and they removed a few popular shows? I didn’t know that, as well as the fact Funimation had a few movies that can’t be streamed on CR. I know Crunchyroll has films on there but I don’t know how many, I feel like it could be less than the anime shows they have on there. Disney+, with me, would disconnect, but only on occasions and it was the internet causing it because our internet in the past would cut off at the worst times ever and would take minutes to turn back on, and sometimes when you reconnected to it, it would work for a minute or a few seconds before disconnecting again. It wasn’t good especially if I was trying to do something important or play online games.

Oh yeah, we were discussing 06 one time! I do remember maybe a month ago one of the members of Sonic Team said he was interested in remaking 06. Months ago before he said he wanted to remake 06 there were reports that a remake of Heroes was greenlit and in development but there haven’t been any updates on that one ever since that report came out, plus the remake hasn’t been officially announced so no one knows if it is actually real and being worked on. The Adventure games are also heavily requested remakes and I am a but surprised they haven’t made them yet, given the Adventure games are super popular and everyone loves them, I think a lot of people would buy an Adventure remake really fast if one did exist.

I had so much fun with the Event Match battles in WiiU, and I just really think Spirit battles aren’t as fun as Event Match. I did find Spirit battles fun when I was into Smash a ton, but I find only a few are fun and the rest tend to be tedious and sometimes repetitive and difficult. I am still glad I nearly completed the Spirit collection, but I really think the battles are kind of unfun. The only easy spirits to get are Fighter Spirits (since you can buy them from the store when they pop up or get them at the end of Classic Mode routes) and Spirits that have a low difficulty level. The Spirit battles try to reference the Spirit characters with the character, stage and items, but I feel like that some of the scenarios and conditions are repeated for a few of the other Spirits instead so it’s not as fun and interesting in my opinion, where with Event Match I felt that the conditions and rules felt more fair and had variety. I definitely agree that the roster, Classic mode, and stages have gotten better and improved a ton. I am curious to see what the next Smash game will do for those three.

Oh, are you ok? Not getting sleep because of something bad happening is awful. Sometimes negative thoughts can keep me up or just bother me throughout the day. They can go away but it takes me doing something like an hobby to make my negativity go away.

The crowd I was with when I saw Sonic 2 mainly consisted of adults and families with children. The younger audience members absolutely loved the movie a ton, and the post-credit scene in 2 with Shadow excited them so much, I could even hear a lot of the audience gasping at the scene once they saw what character was on-screen. I already knew it was coming up because I chose to spoil it for myself for some reason. When I see any movie I like to stay during the credits and see if there are any extra scenes left. I remember online I saw this photo that showed a sign in a theater that told customers what films had post-credit or mid-credit scenes so they would know if they needed to stay to see the scene before leaving, which sounded pretty helpful. I can’t wait to see what character they have for 3 at the end. There was a NL article they recently published where the director was talking about two characters requested for live-action, but I avoided reading it because I didn’t want to spoil myself and get a hint at who it is they had in 3’s post-credit scene, though luckily the headline didn’t say anything about what two characters the director was talking about. I have a good feeling 3 might be better than the previous films, but I need to see it first before coming to a conclusion! I can’t recall much of the first movie but I remember 2 so much and liked it way more the the first one. Sorry that you felt like that when you saw it, are you okay?

Me and my family don’t really do get-togethers with other members during the holidays since everyone is away. Christmas is pretty fun for me, though we don’t do much besides doing fun stuff and eating sweet food and maybe a little bit of shopping. I love eating a ton of candy during the holidays haha. I hope you still have a good time during the holidays and do fun stuff.

@Anti-Matter 06 still is on the PlayStation? I’m surprised they didn’t delist it there too given Sega delisted a ton of low-rated Sonic games off the Xbox at one point, and I would have assumed they did the same with other consoles given that have had a bad reputation and is disliked a lot.

I think the backwards compatibility on Xbox is good, but it only covers half of the 360 library and only a handful of OG Xbox games, and I realized they didn’t add backwards compatibility for smaller and more niche games. Most of the games apart of backwards compatibility are more well-known or popular games. They also don’t really cover licensed games either.

I think the Wii and most Nintendo consoles supported backwards compatibility for most of all game I think? I understand liking the backwards compatibility on those a bit more because of the bigger game library it supports, but I have to look up what games Nintendo’s backward compatibility supports.