Nicalis Confirms Game Boy-Style Platformer Save me Mr Tako: Tasukete Tako-San For Nintendo Switch

More games on Switch, yay! That video was so charming, I still actually have my Gameboy SP somewhere.

Plus, there can never be too many coop games.

Hope this remains Digital. This way it will cost 10€, otherwise it'll be 30€

OH F!!!!!!! yeah! THE perfect indie thing for me! Totally help that as a kid, what the little onto guy is saying in the trailer. Felt mind-blowing to carry around Mario Land and have that NES console experience anywhere.

Mixed feelings on this one.
I'm a little annoyed that we're getting yet another retro title (in only four colours, no less) but it does look somewhat entertaining from that video. Guess I can't be too annoyed.

Still, this is the Switch. A 2017 console. "Four colours is all it took to keep you entertained for hours" - Yeah, thats because we really didn't have much of a choice back then. NOW we do. Why not add some colour or something to at least bolster that magic you claim is bursting from the game? My eyes felt like they were bleeding after that video. I don't think I could handle the lack of colour in a game for an extended period of time.

That said, I do admit it still looked like an interesting, charming game. Its a shame its not to my tastes but I still hope it does well enough.

@ThatNyteDaez To each thier own, I find the lack of colors pretty amusing. I remember spending hours on my old Gameboy when I was younger. Colors < gameplay.

Looks awesome! Wait, Nicalis you say? £36.99.. never mind 😔

That is some well done nostalgia there. I want...if the price is right.

Ugh... Nicalis. So it probably won't come out until 2021 on top of being overpriced.

Love the look of this ^^

Odds for complaints about it not being a AAA 3rd party release??

Looks brilliant to me, makes me miss the chunky old Game Boy... There's something alluring about the simple hardware and old-fashioned games that to me will always be true portable gaming.

I actually adore modern games that work within the limits of previous hardware/generations. Sorta like making songs via analog 8-track recording rather than a PC/Laptop, there is value in working within set limits, especially creatively. Adding more tracks and effects can help a song, but it doesn't instantly make it better and bloat almost alwatys adds a lot of time and effort, potentially for little reward, or worse. There is definitely value in attempting to do a lot with a little.

As a grumpy old man I'm not convinced a 23 year old knows much about partying like it's '89.

But the game does look quite nice.

This game not only looks dope af and takes me back to a great era of gaming, but regardless of how many colors it has it looks like a quality gem of a game. Might finally dip into something Nicalis publishes cuz I haven't felt like double dipping at their price ranges.

This is one retro styled game everyone should be positive about. Among the best GB homages I've seen yet and it looks like it's missing nothing

I love retro games. SNES is the one I still collect for. Not as nostalgic for GameBoy..... and I'm all for classic-style games too. So 1-up for this. Just as long as we also get modern stuff too. Though to be honest so much of today's gaming is "Rated M for imMature" where they shoehorn sexuality and violence to make us feel "hardcore"........ that a return to gaming that was fun because it was creative is pretty welcome to me. Couple that with stuff like Metroid Prime 4 and Switch scratches the itch a lot more than other consoles, imho. Though I don't have one

Let the whining begin: "but it looks all retro, it looks like poop" lol.

Seriously though, it does look pretty fun. Gameboy games do have a certain charm. For example: I think Links awakening looks better then Alttp (and it is more fun too, with better controls).

But it depends on the price. On Switch everything is highly overpriced, so there you have it.

This looks amazing

@chiptoon I'm 23, and most Nintendo fans my age did indeed grow up playing the old Game Boy.

Looks awesome!!

Looks fun, will probally get it

I have no problem being inundated with billions of indie games peddling a retro aesthetic. If I were an indie developer, it's probably what I'd do.

The giants of the industry have indeed moved onto biggerer, moderner, polygonier projects, but as Sonic Mania has shown, there's still a lot you can do with a well-worn set of tools if you use some imagination.

It's not as if the bedroom devs working on pixelated passion projects somehow undo the technological progress demonstrated in most AAA titles.

Like humans and fish, they can co-exist peacefully.

The most I play these days has been actually Gameboy so yeah, this fits my interests greatly.

It's just my Switch when I have something to use, my big Gameboy (Color Adv too) library, and my laptop I bother without outside of random old system use(lately gamecube.)

Nicalis I think may end up my most purchased third party going into a full year of Switch life by the looks of things.

I like what I see in the video. While I don't have as much nostalgia for the GB as others, and prefer colorful 16-bit-era graphics, I thought this looked great. Very nice pixel art and design here. Designing workable Gameboy graphics looks like it would be tricky in its own way. I don't mind going back to monochrome games that look well designed and charming as this does. I was just playing the first Super Mario Land a couple of weeks ago. I'll definitely keep up with this one and I look forward to its Steam release.

@ACK I've always been fascinated when developers would squeeze something extra out of a system, even back in the day. So now, like you, I tend to enjoy when games have certain limits. It keeps the focus on the game design. I can only speak for myself, but when game systems got so powerful to remove a lot of limits, and took games mostly into 3D as well, I found many games to be less fun than before. That's why I loved the Gameboy Advance so much when it was current.

Yes to this and yes it's meant to look retro ... that's the point ! My only concern like others is price . I would prefer it to be digital only to keep the price down ! If it's priced like binding of Isaac ( £36 ) I won't bother

Cool

They did a good job of making this legitimately look like a Game Boy game. Anyway, if it's not too expensive, I'll definitely be getting this.

@SuperCharlie78 Yeah, I do like that Nicalis is bringing some hard copies of games to us, but when that forces the rest of us to pay an extra $10-$20 for a game, I quickly lose interest. For example, The End is Nigh. I want that game so very much, but $30 want it? Not so much.

@MarioPhD That's just being cheap dude. You do realize a physical copy costs substantially more than a digital one right? You have the few bucks into the memory chip to hold it, then the usual others and board traces and pins, the shell and sticker, then your plastic box, your cover art, marketing, packing, boxing, shipping, and in the case of Nicalis the printed extra manuals and CDs at the least, and usually +1 extra or so (keychains, bags, stickers, etc.)

That's hardly asking a lot to pay another $10 when you get a real piece of media and with many perks. That stuff doesn't come free, if you want to be cheap just get the digital one. I have no issue at all paying an added $10 for a digital game to go physical as it's common sense pricing.

@kobashi100 they have nothing this time. The game is 3rd party and the subtitle alone legitimately has three A's in it. The total count is actually... AAAAA! O_O

@Henmii I also prefer Link's Awakening over ALTTP, to the point that the former is one of my all-time favorite games, while the latter...well, I've never even finished that! Zelda is my favorite framchise, but really, ALTTP does almost nothing for me. I don't know why, it just doesn't click as much as so many others (both 2D and 3D) do. I've recently played ALBW and found it amazing, I really don't understand why I can't appreciate ALTTP.

On topic: I love retro games and graphics, and this one looks interesting, but...a 4-color palette? Really? It's sooooooo off-putting, considering there are so many retro-style games with way more elaborate graphics. Why limit yourself to 4 shades? I get the whole "GB nostalgia" stuff, but c'mon.

Luv

Luv

Looks adorable.

Looks adorable.

Looks adorable.

Hitting my right in the Kirby.

Nice! Game boy style but the play looks more fluid.

What a nice surprise! That art direction is inspired. I'm quite turned on by this.

@tanookisuit I don't care if it makes me "cheap." I want the $15 digital version of titles like The End is Nigh that PC users get; having that option stripped from me for a physical edition I didn't ask for is what bothers me. If they had both, at the different prices? Hey, choice is good! But forcing me to pay double for a game I only want digital anyway because there's a boxed version that I didn't ask for and don't want is silly. Obviously the physical game should be more expensive since it involves more production costs, but forcing the digital game to match the physical price is where it frustrates me. As far as I know, the digital version of Cave Story is $30 because of the boxed version, and I'm sorry, but $30 for a digital copy of Cave Story at this point is laughable. Physical version? Sure! But both at that price? That's madness.

At first I thought "A Gameboy platformer? I dunno..." but after the video I have really warmed up to it. I would like it to have a physical copy, but they should lower the prices for the digital version. The physical version of Cave Story came with a CD and a key chain, but that doesn't excuse why the digital version is the same price.

@Maxz I couldn't have said it better myself! I agree %1000.

People have to understand that complaining about the retro aesthetic is pointless because these are INDIE games. You know whats necessary for those high poly count games? MONEY and lots of it, which is something that most of these teams of 1-3 don't have. To most, using pixel art is a necessity! Plus it makes game dev shorter which is very appealing when you don't want to spend 5 years of your life working on a single game.

Another thing is that most of these games are PASSION projects! Are you seriously gonna complain about a small team working on a game they wanted to make for a long time. These teams all grew up in the pixel art era so of course they want to pay tribute.

It's okay to not be into these types of games but what's not okay is to hate all over these teams for just trying to do what they love. Game development.
P.S I hope you have a nice day

Cute trailer.
I'll be keeping an eye on this one.

Wow, this looks legit

Yep, Gameboy games looked pretty bad. Did we need an full game to remind us?

Nothing against games using a retro aesthetic, but trying to use it as a selling point or marketing gimmick makes me think the game behind it isn't very good. Games like Shovel Knight, Stardew Valley, and Axiom Verge are very obviously inspired by other games visually, but also provide great gameplay that also uses what was great about those same retro classics.

Yes! I've seen its trailer years ago, but I couldn't remember the title or even the fact it had an octopus in it, so I couldn't really search for it. Looks really fun, though, I will absolutely take a look when it comes out.

*it's

@clvr,

Yeah, Albw. I did like it (more then Alttp), but I wasn't blown away. For example, the dungeons where far to short.

@Henmii I actually loved it. Yeah, dungeons are a bit on the short side, but they're sooooo well-designed! Some of them are pure genius I think. Also, I love the general "feel" of the game: just walking around the world as Link "feels" extremely good, I don't really know how to explain that lol

Looks like Kirby's Dreamland or some other really good detailed Game Boy game.

Even though Nicalis is often weird, at least they bring good indies to retail when no one else does.

I skipped Cave Story+ and The Binding of Isaac Afterbirth+ because I already have Cave Story (WiiWare) and The Binding of Isaac Rebirth (Wii U eShop) on my Wii U. If I hadn't those I would buy them now for Switch, but since I still have them on an active console readily available, I wait for the Switch versions to drop the price a bit. I won't shell out 29,99 or 39,99 for better versions of games I already own and paid much less for: 12,00 and 14,99 respectively, but I'm very interested in new Switch retail games coming from Nicalis.

They should also make the download prices 10 bucks lower than the cartridge prices. Charging now almost 3 times as much than before for essentially the same game is a bit excessive.

@MarioPhD Then stop complaining and buy it on PC. This is the Switch and people asked for real owned tangible versions of the games and they're getting them. Actual reality vs a digital lease costs money because real items cost money to produce. I don't like it anymore than you do, but that's just Nintendo and the greedy industry on pretty much the whole. They won't cut a break on digital because stupid people will pay it and they see it as a way to make more money as they win all they don't pay to make a real copy of the game out of. That's why the industry wants ownership dead because of stuff like that, and because you can still pay years later full price as a download, or go to a Target clearance isle and get the game for 50+% off and they hate that.

Personally I will NEVER buy a digital lease on a game unless it is truly the only option ever and typically my upper ceiling is $10-15 tops because I don't own it and can lose it at their whims at any time which seems fair to me. So yeah I get the annoyance, like hell I'll pay $60 for Breath of the Wind as a borrowed copy vs buying a keeper on my shelf I control for the same value. To me people who do are manipulated suckers who just do what the industry tells them to without using their brains or willing to just take it because of laziness as it's faster than swapping out a game (oh no!)

In reality download prices should be like $10 maybe $15 less depending on where it retails at because the physical creation, transport and sales expenses are removed.

@tanookisuit I actually get major "AAA" releases being the same cost across platforms, but I buy all my major titles in boxed copies so I can sell them later if I want to and get new games. Using that, Amazon discounts, and hunting for bargains I haven't truly "spent" money on a game for a very, very long time. I'm definitely on board with ownership of games and everyone who's up for that.

But for Nicalis to treat smaller indie games like full-on retail titles and double their cost across environments is bananas. Cave Story being $9.99 on the 3DS eShop versus $30 on Switch boggles my mind. I think Rime has shown us how to handle this the right way: make the boxed copy a "Deluxe Edition" and charge more for the extra goodies, and let the digital copy cost what it's supposed to. It's an easy fix, but I'm guessing Nicalis knows plenty of people will just want the game digitally and will shell out double for the privilege despite getting none of the items that justify that extra cost, and happily take the bonus paycheck. I do wonder if that's part of their massive push on Switch and why everything they're porting over seems to have a physical edition.

@MarioPhD I use the Amazon Prime setup too for that 20% off. I find a lot of people will go with that or abuse the ever living hell out of the coupons and loopholes Best Buy has for even more. You pay $50 for like 2-3yrs and get 20% off but they give out coupons for like another percent or straight amount, plus their weird point system and they stack it with some other service too. My brother spams it hard, got like a $2300 fridge for $1600 which infuriated the store that day. He's done it with games getting them usually 1/2 off or better at times when they're new/fairly new. Too much hoops for me as I don't buy a lot of new so the 20% works for me as it removes the 'physical tax' if you like.

RIME I'll grab, not happy about the delays and if pushes further I'll abandon it for GoG since I can make that physical too easily enough, same goes for Yooka Laylee. I can't support dumb developers who delay so hard, don't fix it price wise, then whine no one buys it to abandon ship like the WiiU (though rightly) suffered.

Whatever Nicalis motive is I take the 20% amazon cut and let it come in the mail so it doesn't phase me much when a $30 game drops to $24 or $40 goes to $32, it basically removes the up charge for physicality other than a couple bucks which seems fair to me. But even if I didn't and I went to retail depending on a case by case basis I would or wouldn't mind.

I had their Isaac release already and I was largely let down, but since it was the preorder release I either broke even or made $2-3 on it so I didn't care. Game just should have stayed a flash release on browsers as the balancing is so bad the unlocking of anything was insufferable. Cave Story I have in the mail, preorder release for around $25, going to sell that 3DS release with the 3D slip case to cover it since I've not used it in years.

Ugh, there is such a thing as too retro, people! This is just another lame example of ugly monchrome graphics that shouldn't exist in 2017.

@Shushyroll Pixel art is one thing, but making bad pixel art on purpose is another. Nobody cares about the "GameBoy aestectic" these days. There's no reason they couldn't have used higher quality pixel art in full color. Games like "Shovel Knight" that both look and play well do "retro" the right way.

@BulbasaurusRex who are you to say what people like and don't. Just by skimming through this here comment section you'll find a bunch of people interested. The developers of this game are clearly very fond of the Gameboy aesthetics so if this is what THEY wanted to do then I don't see the problem, it's their game to make and it's not like this game existing is making other retro type games that adhere to YOUR specific tastes from also being made.

@Shushyroll Most of the people here are only interested in the game due to its gameplay, some of them despite the bad graphics. It doesn't matter if it's what they want to do. It's their own fault for purposely making a game worse than it otherwise would be, and they'll feel it in their wallets. It's not about graphic design or my opinion either, as more colors and higher resolution sprites are simply objectively better looking.

The only one who actually prefers this aestetic is the oddball ACK (and Henmii with one specific example), who somehow thinks working under such limits somehow makes the game better. Newsflash, it doesn't. If they're good enough to make a tightly designed game under such limits, then they can just as easily design it just as well by removing those limits while actually making it look decent and with a few additional modern features. They just need to keep the right mindset. While fewer limits can encourage some sloppy design, people who fall into that trap would never be able to pull it off under such limits, anyway.

@clvr,

The ice-dungeon is the biggest and hardest dungeon of the game, and I admit its one of the best dungeons the series has to offer.