Topic: What Game(s) are You Currently Playing?

@ChameleonBros Wasn't aware the Japanese version had an improved OST, thanks for letting me know! I'll probably play through both versions anyway in order to get the full CV3 experience as it's probably the entry I'm looking forward to the most out of the available crop on Castlevania Anniversary Collection but I'll definitely start with Akumajou Densetsu first!

Decided to go play that immensely inventive, critically-acclaimed 2D platformer that basically the entire world has talked about and loved.

This is the one everyone's been talking about lately, right?

(all jokes aside, Inside has been really REALLY good so far like holy hell man)

Just had a nearly 2 hour long game of Mario Party 2 with my visiting sister and good lord: I don't think I've laughed quite as hard as I did tonight. So many insane things happened during our session; Hidden Blocks everywhere, bonkers luck across all sides and some of the funniest minigames I've ever experienced (I nearly wet myself when we played through Toad's Roadstand for the first time). I ended up taking home the entire thing with 5 Stars and 30 Coins (thanks in large part to some very devious Star Stealing/Curse inflictions here and there) and it's honestly made me fall in love with MP2 even more than I already did. Gonna try and play through the rest of the N64-era MP games with her over the coming months (hopefully by then MP3 will have come out grumble grumble) and I might even dip my toes into the Switch-era titles as well depending on how things pan out 👀

Started Sonic Superstars and I like it. Completed Pinball Carnivall. Moving around feels fun and the tone is fun and happy. Sonic is definitely cool.

I'm VERY BUSY IRL lately, but here's what I currently have going.

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (Switch) - That's right, I've FINALLY started playing through Ace Attorney Trilogy after saying I'd do it for (checks) almost four years now. Ever since I bought an import of the physical Japanese version around the time I bought my Switch. The collection has continuously been backlogged since. I'm only a few hours in and hope to finish case 2 this evening. I'll admit it wasn't very gripping at first, but now that Phoenix will be in the defendant's seat thanks to the crooked Redd White, needless to say I'm more intrigued about the proceedings. The first case was deceptively short. I quite like the visuals, though I do admit there's something a bit more charming about the pixel style I've seen in YT videos of older game versions.

Super Mario Bros. Wonder - I'm taking my time with this one since it's technically my "side" game, or the "My brain can't process text at this time" game. I've cleared World 1 and have started on World 2. I'm trying to get all the Wonder Seeds and three big purple coins in each level before continuing. A beautiful, solid Mario platformer, one that's very refreshing after the tired formula of the "New" series. Though I didn't dislike NSMB.

Been playing Super Mario Bros. Wonder since launch, and oh man... it's totally awesome!!! This might be right up there with the likes of Super Mario World, Yoshi's Island, and Donkey Kong Country 2 as Nintendo's finest 2D platformers... and I've been playing Nintendo games since the 90s. I'm not even done with the game just yet, either!

Nice, Detective Pikachu Returns is even better, than I thought it would be. Really great vibes and simply very relaxed. Music is also nice. Truly a very atmospheric game. I love Nintendo games so much. Simply good food for my soul.

Solved my first big case today.

Trying to finally beat spiderman. Then it’s back to either TOTK or Horizon.

Pikmin 4 and Alan wake 2

Started my very first horror game tonight in Dead Space on PS3.

@Fizza I thought about playing DS remake on gp. I might after Alan wake 2

Playing Splatoon 3 because of the Splatfest. I also haven't tried Eggstra Work yet so may as well play that for the first time while I'm at it. Then it's back to Mario Wonder.

My family has had a Switch for years, yet I've never actually played anything on it other than party games like Mario Kart or Mario Party. Thanks to losing access to my PC recently, I felt there was no better time than now to check out some singleplayer Switch exclusives. In the end my decision came down to Xenoblade Chronicles, Bayonetta or Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope. I ended up going for that last one. Why didn't I start with Kingdom Battle? Well, partly because I had heard the gameplay of the sequel was improved, but mostly because I couldn't resist getting straight to my favourite Mario character, Rosalina (who upsettingly hasn't yet shown up in the nine-ish hours I've put in so far)!

I had always been casually intrigued by this spin-off franchise, but it's not until recently I looked into it more. You see, I just watched part of a full playthrough by one of my favourite YouTubers of... X-Com 2. Ever since, I've been aching for something to try out that has that turn-based style of combat. Mixing that recent feeling with the want to play something on Switch, this seemed like the perfect candidate all things considered. And so far, I think it has lived up to that expectation.

I've been having a great time with it. Sure, it's fairly easy up until this point. I've cleared three of the big Darkmess puddles you need to get the purified whatever, so I've practically finished 1.5 planet. Maybe the difficulty ramps up from here still, but if I'm honest... I prefer when my gameplay is leaning towards easy with the occasional challenge. I don't need to steamroll anyone or anything, but I don't usually get fun out of getting my ass handed to me and replaying sections. Cuphead was probably the one notable exception on that front and I think the fact that I played it in co-op probably had a lot to do with that. Point being, the difficulty or lack thereof has not been an issue for me in any way. I find it highly satisfying to plan out my approach and watch it all unfold gloriously (or occasionally incredibly stupidly).

I will say I'm a bit overwhelmed by the amount of Sparks available in the game and upgrading them. It just seems like there keeps being more and more of them and I honestly can't keep up with what I have and am getting anymore at this point. I also made it a point to switch out characters constantly on the first planet, but on the second so far I've just been playing an endless Peach + Luigi + Emo Rabbid tag team. I've found those three a very effective pairing. Peach for the protection and short-range, Luigi for the long-range snipes and overwatches and Emo Rabbid for taking out multiple enemies at a time from wherever. I know Emo Rabbid has a name, but I've forgotten it and this is now the codename he's taken up in turn.

I do worry that the planets are filled with a lot of side content. Okay, maybe not that much all things considered since you can clear it in a few hours, but it does essentially just repeat the combat over and over. So far I've not had a problem with that necessarily, but I fear it might start feeling repetitive sooner rather than later. I hope they keep introducing new mechanics and enemy types to keep things fresh and interesting, which I would say has been the case so far. I have the curse of feeling the compulsion to 100% whatever I do in games, so if this takes a turn for the worse it could really affect my enjoyment of the game. I'll just have to force myself to mainline the main content then, I suppose.

Anyone else played this and can either assuage my fears or confirm them?

Finally back to playing Mario Wonder after taking a slight detour to Splatoon 3's Halloween Splatfest.

After sitting in my backlog for years, I've finally got around to playing Yo-Kai Watch. Pretty fun so far. Baku is precious and must be protected at all costs.
The battle theme sounds like one song from FFIX (Jesters of the Moon to be precise) and keeps getting it stuck in my head though. And I swear the menu sound effects were reused from Professor Layton.

Started Hot Wheels Unleashed 2 Turbocharged today and am already loving it. It really is alot more fun, especially taking the curves. The game even has a campaign now. The vibes are simply awesome, like everything just wants you to have a great time for all time, I love it. The music is also really cool.

I bought the Pure Fire Edition and this is what the game is. Now I have my first real Hot Wheels car, the Twin Mill. I am also racing this car in the game.

My 'Random Genre Generator' picked 'Arcade' for my next game, so played a bit of Dig Dug from Namco Museum Arcade PAC.

Surprised I haven't played this before now to be honest. It's maybe a little old for me to have played it in the Arcades back in the day, but I'm sure I've got/had this on various collections over the years on multiple consoles so no idea how it's passed me by thus far.

Anyway, played it in handheld mode on Switch and it's pretty small - I did zoom to fit which made it slightly better, but I could do with playing docked or digging out the Flip-Grip and playing in TATE to make it a bit easier to see what's going on.

Pretty basic game by today's standards, but still really fun to play. Controls are a bit odd though, as it felt as if there were certain points that I couldn't change direction when I wanted to. I suspect it's to do with the technical limitations of the time and there's maybe a fixed movement 'grid' that restricts the characters movement. Not sure if I'll spend a huge amount of time on it, but maybe something for a quick pick-up-and-play session when I don't want to think too much about a plot.

Playing some of the new gb/nes online games. I'm also playing pikmin 4 which I absolutely love.

Still playing alan wake 2 on xbox

Ni No Kuni II (Series X). I loved the first one in spite of the messy combat. I've played the sequel for 14 hours now and I'm being put off. It has beautiful graphics. The music is a bit too epic and repetitive. Lots of interesting ideas from the genre are put together but the result feels half-baked and tedious. Everything is basically a tutorial or an errand. For instance and mandatory, find me a rose to access this book, find this girl to teach you a spell to find the rose, the girl asks you to defeat some monsters... The UI and map are worse than in the first game, too. The story of the first game gripped me quickly, but I don't care about this so far.

The idea of managing a kingdom is nice in theory, but it also feels tedious because you need to do that kind of side quests to get people and, basically, you upgrade the facilities to get armour, items, etc. I also see a little inspiration in the armies by Little King's Story (Wii), one of the best games I've ever played, but here it's just another superficial piece of this huge puzzle of ideas that are not working as smoothly as the developer thinks.

Opinions?

Since Mario RPG isn’t out for a few weeks, I’m just playing Madden to fill the time. Extremely flawed game but it’s decent this year. You can customize draft classes and progression/regression. So Running-backs can decline when they are younger while QB’s stay better into their 30’s. Plus superstar mode and mini games are back. Probably a 6/10 game and the best Madden since 25.