AndyMcDonald

Oh wow, has it been ten years? I had the Wii U version and really enjoyed it, despite the clunky mechanics. I was also morbidly fascinated by Japan's suicide forest at the time, which the game is partially based on (I even wrote an article comparing the two.)

I've since sold my special edition copy, only to find out years later it now goes for hundreds!

I knew physical sales were declining but 35% in a year is still quite surprising. I imagine it's a trend set to continue though, just given the convergence of technology and overall convenience of digital. One positive by-product is that it's at least a bit better for the environment.

I still buy physical copies where available, especially since you can sell them second-hand instead of being stuck with a game you end up not liking. Maybe they'll make a resurgence one day, like vinyl records and, more recently and inexplicably, tapes.

How the hell did I miss the initial announcement of Little Nightmares 3 last year? This is actually the first I'm hearing of it. Loved the first two, so I'm excited for this.

Ah, fantastic. As a Japanese learner, this looks great, even just as an immersive way to pick up some new words and phrases.

I forgot all about this! I've played the original already but I might pick it up depending on the price and how well the new features are reviewed.

That all sounds a bit tedious and disappointing, given the dark and mysterious way it was announced. I'll give the demos a try though.

I don't think I have much in my Switch backlog, in terms of exclusives anyway, I've done all the ones I want to. Just need to finish Mario Wonder and play Kirby and the Forgotten Land... and perhaps finally upload my Mario Maker levels. It's Steam where the real backlog's at.

I still think of the Switch as a relatively new console and I've absolutely loved it but I'm excited to see what's next.

Getting big Mario Odyssey and Link Between Worlds vibes from the 2D parts. Looks like it could be a lot of fun, beautiful visuals too, so I'm definitely interested.

The Thousand-Year Door, of course! I'd actually been enjoying Ori and the Will of the Wisps from my back catalogue but then the latest Paper Mario arrived on launch day and I couldn't resist its gossamer charms.

Wonderful news. The original is one of my favourite games of all time and I'm glad the remake is a worthy one. I'm looking forward to getting stuck into it.

I took my time with TOTK with sizeable gaps in between playing so didn't finish it until last last year or early this year, but yes, I have. I did all the sidequests, upgrades and collectables, then I went under Hyrule Castle and smashed his face in with the jaggiest stuff I could glue to my sword. It was a lovely time.

@aaronsullivan Thank you!

@JohnnyMind Thanks for reading, it was a great concert!

I have a bit of a complicated relationship with TOTK. Overall, it was amazing and improved on pretty much aspect of BOTW, which is no mean feat, but reusing the same Hyrule just with new mechanics and lacklustre new areas made it feel like a do-over rather than a true sequel.

Some highlights that spring to mind are the Great Sky Island (I wanted so much more of that), the Stormwind Ark (fusing an icicle to a broken lever to be able to move it was such a satisfying puzzle mechanic), the Lightning Temple (great use of the recall ability for the light puzzles) and (spoiler warning) the final battle, both Ganondorf using the parry against me and then the sheer scope of the Demon Dragon showdown.

@FawfulsFury Yeah, I first encountered one in a cave and had a total "WTF!?" moment. Then when I managed to defeat it, it just casually morphs into Phantom Ganon? Freaked me out, it was great.

Interest piqued! Although I should maybe get around to doing Ori 2 first...

I've pre-ordered it so it's seemingly not a deal-breaker for me! It's a bit disappointing but I think the more stylized world masks the lower framerate a bit and I'm still eager to see how they've remade one of my favourite games.

I've always maintained that sprite artwork still holds up in this day and age, but the jagged polygons of the '90s are just more reminiscent of technical limitations of the time rather than a valid stylistic choice. I'm a big fan of Mario 64, Banjo etc and I loved A Hat in Time, so I'm still open to this kind of game, I'm just not really a fan of deliberately making it look like this.

I was conflicted about getting it if it was mainly a graphical overhaul, plus I find the halved frame rate a wee bit jarring... but the original is one of my favourite games ever and for £37 I'll give it a go.

Great article! I can definitely relate to using games as a form of escapism in tough times growing up and can also remember where I first played key moments through the Pokémon series, having started with Blue all those years ago.

I was talking about this recently but it feels like we're starting to see game shops go the way of video rentals, with digital outpacing physical to the point that the latter becomes unsustainable. I was in GAME a couple of weeks ago and it was mainly game-related merchandise for sale as opposed to games themselves. Still, on a human level, it's a horrible example of exploitative zero-hours contracts leaving people facing such financial uncertainty.

I can't believe how much new content has been added, given that it was originally meant to be mainly a few coding tweaks for modders and minor in-game changes. He's some guy, Eric Barone.

Awful news. Chrono Trigger is one of my favourite games of all time and his artwork plays such a big part in that. I think another playthrough in his memory is in order.

Cool, I've been a bit undecided on this one so a demo is very welcome to get a feel for it.

@RupeeClock Yeah, that's well put. When a console has the modern sophistication of the 3DS with its smart connectivity (if it counts as a smart device) it can be hard to view it as retro or outdated, even when it's 13 years old and its online servers are on the way out.

I'm not expecting this to go down as a classic in the annals of Nintendo history or anything but it does look kinda fun. I'll pick it up at some point.

I finished the story and caught all the Pokémon - I don't think I completed every Pokédex entry by doing enough of the subtasks though. It was very ropey in places but quite addictive, definitely the most fun I've had with the series in years. Scarlet and Violet felt like such a step back.

Kind of tempted to have another playthrough of PLA now!

I'll wait till I see some gameplay footage before getting excited but it's refreshing to see that there's nothing significant in the pipeline this year; hopefully it means they're finally giving the games the polish they sorely need.

I tried the 3DS demo and it wasn't for me, but it's cool to see an eShop exclusive re-released and not lost to time.

I think I'll finish off SMRPG - I'm on the last area and it's been a joy to play through the remade version. Then I can finally get stuck into Wonder.

I thought I had escaped TOTK's clutches after finally completing it recently but I've realised I didn't get the Hylian Shield, so I might need to jump back into Hyrule and get it just for that sense of completion.

Spooky, I was just watching that video when I opened the NL home page to see it on there too (I mean, they're two Nintendo-related things so maybe not spooky, but a coincidence.)

I love how TOTK (and BOTW) offered really deep levels of creativity and problem solving that can make you feel really smart, then you see folk doing things like this who are just operating on another level entirely.

I'm in the final stages of Pokémon Violet (only bought it second-hand late last year) and Tears of the Kingdom (been rinsing as much out of that as I could) then I'll be rekindling my love for Mario with Wonder and RPG, both of which I got for Christmas!

I had a cheat cartridge for the original Game Boy which ended in disaster a few times, totally corrupting my save files. I do miss that naïve sense of wanderlust in gaming though, like wondering what was past the grass at the edge of Pallet Town or behind Bill's Cottage (spoiler: nothing.) The infamous "Glitch City" trick had a similar effect on imaginative young minds but was just a mess of coding and assets at the end of the day.

I still have an Action Replay for the GBA and what I find fun with it these days is to spawn a team of six Pokémon at low levels and play through LeafGreen or Sapphire with ones you'd never normally see in the early stages (if at all.)

I think I'd stopped playing by the time the DLC characters started coming out, but they were still a lot of fun to watch. Banjo and Kazooie were my favourite, I'm a huge fan of the originals. Tempted to get them and play more SSBU now.

I had always longed for a Resident Evil character but sadly it wasn't to be.

Oh cripes, has it been 20 years? I probably still have it somewhere. I would have still been really into Sonic at the time before Sonic Heroes started a downward trend. I just remember it being a bit repetitive, especially because one character - Sonic maybe - had a sort of breakdance move where you could just continually volley your opponent into the air like playing keepy-uppies until you won.

Ooh, tough call. For my top three, I'd probably have TTYD first above all else, Paper Mario a close second then SMRPG either on a par or very closely behind.

Only watched the first couple of minutes as I'd like it to be as much of a surprise as possible (relatively speaking - I know the original very well) but this honestly looks like a delight. There have been calls for it to be remade/re-released since the GBA days and I'm really excited to see it get more recognition.

@MysticX Yeah, that's always so jarring to me in the Switch games - there's no real cohesiveness to the world. It's often like a pile of random Pokemon are dropped into an area just to wander around.

@Aaron00 BD/SP are just shoddy and an unfortunate place to pick things up again, it's definitely worth trying some other titles. HeartGold and SoulSilver - remakes of the second generation games Gold and Silver - are maybe the perfect distillation of the core Pokémon experience and widely considered some of the best in the series. Legends Arceus, on the other hand, was an attempt at a Breath of the Wild style open world that lets you hunt and throw balls at wild Pokémon, who can also attack your player. It's far from perfect - this is Game Freak we're talking about - but it's pretty addictive. Hopefully you'll get enjoyment out of those sometime!

@sdelfin I don't think I ever had Tetris either so I'm in that minority too! I seem to recall getting the Game Boy with a carry case and maybe Super Mario Land with it. The GB Mario games were endearingly odd.

I started with the original big, grey, clunky Game Boy but I later got the yellow Pikachu GBC for free - it was in the lost and found of a pub where my dad was friendly with the barman and he kindly gave it to me. I loved how the power light was Pikachu's cheek.

Great games in the Game Boy catalogue though - the amount of hours (and batteries) I must have sank into the first two Pokemon gens, the Mario Land series, Wario Land 2, Pocket Bomberman... Can't remember which others I had but very happy times!

@KidSparta We don't know for sure but it would undoubtedly have been a pair of sequels, i.e. XZ and YZ (I originally speculated these titles in the article but had to make some cuts to meet the word length!) They'd perhaps have had Zygarde's two new forms on the covers. Given the fact they never got round to making even one sequel in the usual timeframe, it's almost impossible that they'd be thinking about doing another original game set in Kalos.

I found US&UM to be the most insulting and cash-grabby in terms of third instalments. You could make that argument about Yellow, Crystal, Emerald and Platinum, but those felt more like retellings with different features. US&UM, as you say, just felt like they had rushed S&M out the door to meet the anniversary deadline then got around to finishing them.

@ShonenJump121 I've seen a fair few people express a desire for the games to return to 2D sprite-based graphics. It's probably a bit of a regressive, nostalgic take, but I can see what it comes from - Game Freak are very visibly struggling to make a cohesive 3D Pokémon world.

@traceman They're certainly not perfect but they didn't really have to be on the first attempt - X&Y are a perfectly fine blueprint for making a 3D Pokémon world. The problem is, as you mentioned, that they still haven't really built on it or got more experienced designers in to help refine it, making things just look worse and worse as hardware improves and expectations get higher.

@Zaruboggan The music on Route 15 and on the way to the snow cave is one of my favourite pieces from the series. I love the Santalune Forest music too as well as the trainer battle theme with that lead guitar lick!

@Axecon Gen V felt very different to any other game in the series until that point (and still does.) It was probably due to there being no old Pokémon involved until the post-game and the designers really pushing the boundaries in terms of what the new ones could look like. I personally enjoyed them and only using new 'mons is something I'd love to see them try again in future but I can also see why it's a divisive choice.

@betterthanvegas Yeah, I feel like X&Y finally made things a lot clearer in terms of EV training your Pokémon so there was scope for many more people to get into the competitive side of things. I even wrote a guide on it at the time which got me into gaming journalism!

@acuphoria Fair enough but I found that Sun & Moon had a much more interesting story than X & Y - a family drama centred around Lusamine's obsession with her missing husband and the Ultra Beasts. I don't even really remember much about Lysandre other than he wanted to blow everyone up to make the world prettier.

I don't think Pokémon's ever really been about the story for me but I'd say Gens III, V and VII are strongest if we're judging by that metric.

@SpoonySpoons Yeah, that's a good point. X and Y felt like a trial run for something bigger and a solid jumping-off point for future 3D games but ten years later it feels like they still haven't nailed it. I'd say they've even regressed in a lot of ways.

I've been playing Dredge and the Resident Evil 4 DLC but I've finished those now so I'll probably get back on Tears of the Kingdom. I've been exploring every region and doing all the sidequests as I go so I've only just made it to Gerudo Town and still have Zora's Domain to go after that. I see by the results it's still the one most people are playing so I'm obviously not alone!