Baker1000

15th anniversary in Japan, we still had to wait until March in the west. Crazy to think there was a time when consoles launched that far apart in different territories.

My pick is the New 3DS. Owned every iteration of the 3DS, and the XL N3DS just wasn't as nice as the original. Bigger screen but made games that much more pixelated having them stretched over a bigger area. And it did away with the (admittedly underused in the west) changeable faceplates. Still have my N3DS fitted with the lovely Majora's Mask plate.

Meh, I don't have a 4K TV and I wrapped this game up last year, so I was never going to invest in the upgrade anyway.

It's just the amiibo but big. Would be nice if they used a different pose. This was the same pose for that huge lifesized statue they were hulking around at trade shows. Surely they can create other Link poses from TOTK

Open was way better than Fever and Aces I'm sorry.

Me and, pretty much everyone who ordered direct from Nintendo UK, already had it delivered today. Just can't use it to play VB games yet since the app isn't out.

Sounds like it's a bit bare bones for single players. Why can't they just have a long story mode the same way the GBA Tennis and Golf games did back in the day? Get Camelot back on Golden Sun.

Wasn't that interested in upgrading for multiplayer minigames, so glad to hear I won't be adding this to my backlog

Personally can't believe the guys at Push Square thought Intergrade was only good enough for an 8. One of the best RPG experiences I've had so far, everything is so cinematic. I guess these PlayStation gamers have really high standards, what with their fancy hyper realistic graphics and ultra smooth gameplay.

It's days are numbered sadly. Used to pre-order everything with them at one time, but haven't in years. The shop in my city, Bristol, has closed down and is now just a small corner in the upstairs of a Sports Direct. There's so little there, it's not even worth going to look at. I don't see it being around by the time Microsoft, Sony or Nintendo release their next console.

Still don't know why the daily updates on this app appear to be completely different for every user. I see stuff shared on social media that has never ever appeared in my app, even when it's from franchises I play.

Bought a new 512gb micro SD especially for this, and the following 2 games. Because ain't no way it's fitting on my current SD or internal Switch memory!

Let's be honest, if they actually had a race I don't think you'd even see Sonic's feet. He'd be long gone

@Misima sounds like that's an opinion rather than a fact

And it's in cinemas to begin with, so just watch it then. Watching it in the cinema isn't supporting Netflix lol

Switch 2 Pro here we come!

@Misima why would that be a reason not to watch it?

(part 2)

And then there's the difficulty. Ok, it's aimed at children, maybe it shouldn't be blisteringly hard. But the original Red/Blue games were brutal. You'd have to backtrack to heal up your team after a few battles because you couldn't heal them on the fly, nor even swap them out for fresh Pokemon. Ok so swapping them out on the fly is a convenience, but the difficulty isn't there anymore. You level up so quickly, you're suddenly 10 levels above the next trainer you fight. Even gym leaders, they rarely field a full team of 6. It's things like this which make a game that's already not hard even easier. You end up going through the motions in most battles rather than applying any sort of real strategy. It's not even that we've grown up and got better at the games, because when you go back those games are still just as hard. Nowadays they throw so many items at you in the field, recovery items, items you can sell for money, etc that you never struggle to buy anything. This is one of the biggest reasons why the games just feel "good" and not excellent. They're a breeze to get through. Scarlet/Violet tried to give you an open world where you could fight stronger Pokemon early on instead of being gated off, but without level scaling you just ended up walking through the low level areas intended for early in the game and having no challenge whatsoever.

So, these are my assessments as to why Pokemon games just aren't as great as they used to be.

I stopped playing Pokemon between Crystal and Sun/Moon, so I guess I missed out on the golden years somewhat. But I've said this for years now, they don't spend nearly long enough on developing the games. It always feels like they're more concerned with pumping out new games that have tie-in merch than taking time to develop something truly great. A new gen of Pokemon, along with new plushies to line store shelves, more cards, more figurines. That's where the money is.

Think about it, how long does it take on average to develop a new Mario or Zelda? Sure we get various spin-offs or remakes/ports between, but we haven't had a new full console Mario since 2018. Wonder is a different series within the franchise, but the last NSMB game before that was years ago.

The time between Skyward Sword and BotW was 6 years, and then another 6 to TotK. There's a new gen of Pokemon games every 3 years, and it really is THAT exact schedule between every release side from a 4 year gap between some of the DS games. It's like they have a schedule to keep and won't deviate from it, because the longer it takes to push out a new gen, the less new merch there is. This short development time was perfectly executable when the games were small handheld games. 3 years to make a Game Boy Advance game? Say no more. You just can't do it with a 3D game on a home console. This is why they end up looking rough. They need to just take more time with it to get it right. This is something I say about Sonic as well, where Sega seem to pump out a game every single year, usually around October or November, and they're often mediocre.

The other issue, I'm afraid to say, is the battle format. When was the last time they truly changed it in the mainline series? They haven't. They've added a few gimmicks over the years, gigantamax, mega evolution, that weird crystal thing in the last games. But the core has stayed exactly the same. Ok, it works. But most RPGs completely overhaul the battle mechanics every single time, so it never feels like the same game. It's gotten stale, predictable. Games like the Legends series, where they experiment with different systems, they're great! It feels fresh. But I don't think they'll ever risk changing the mainline battle system, and the biggest reason for that I believe is the competitive scene. People have their strategies, team builds, etc and they carry those through every release, tinkering to adapt to new Pokemon and moves. But if you suddenly ripped it all up and made it multi-pokemon battles, or real time fighting, or Active-Time Battle like the current Legends game, or even giving each Pokemon access to a 5th move, the competitive scene would be in absolute uproar. Perfect teams and strategies, Pokemon they've kept in their teams for 20 years - gone.

(part 1 as it's too long to post)

@Don I have no idea tbh, I've never bought stocks before lol

Sounds like a great time to buy Nintendo stock

You make something limited availability and this is what happens. And Lego knows this, it's why they have the gift with purchase items

For me the open world area didn't work. Just didn't feel like there was tons to do, a bit empty. Much prefer the connected areas approach, which geographically might not make sense but you only need to add a lift or shuttle loading screen between them. Which is another thing that irritated me about this hub world, the fact there was a loading screen between each area. Not so unexpected, but when you have to travel back and forth between Fury Green so often that cannon sequence gets frustrating. That one area should have been seamlessly connected to the hub, at least. If hubs are the future of Metroid Prime, at least make them in space and traversed with the gunship imo. Much like MP3 was set on different planets. I guess the idea of Samus being trapped on this world meant such an option wasn't possible this time.

The game length was also quite disappointing. For the length of time it took to develop, I expected a far bigger world. The maps were really quite small and at times not even that complex. I think an online multiplayer mode would've been a great addition to beef up the playtime. But I suppose we'd have still been waiting for it if they did. All in all, enjoyed the game but wouldn't put it in the same conversation as the original trilogy. Just hoping there is a follow up, and that it isn't so long until we get confirmation of it and get to play it.

I have that exact Pikmin Terrarium I got from the blind box I picked up at the Nintendo Pop-Up London

A gaming related tradition I have is listening to "A Snow Light", the theme music for Flanoir in Tales of Symphonia. I've done this every Christmas Day for maybe 15 years now. Just makes me feel all wintery and Christmassy.

Had no idea Nintendo owned part of a football team. Looks like I've got a Japanese team I can support

Not anotherrrrrrr one. But seriously, these things are being pumped out so fast I wonder how anyone has time to play them before the next one is out

This is how I find out "Mysterious Golem" is a playable character

@thesilverbrick I was the same when the DLC dropped for Scarlet and Violet, telling myself I'll pick it up at some point...and just never did. Sometimes DLC is just unnecessary.

@swoose that isn't OCD at all btw

As I've got got several other games I'm waiting to play, I'll get around to this probably this time next year lol. I didn't play OT2 until a year after release for the same reason. They always release these when there's so much else releasing too. So yeah, I have it coming but it'll have to wait sadly.

@Exerion76 mate have you not played the other ones? They're all as big lol

No ta, why would I wanna watch someone else play it when I can play it myself? 😂

Played this since launch and had no idea this was even a thing

This whole trilogy is going to need a dedicated SD card. No way am I gonna get it on the card I have already

Ugh so soon, and so close to the FFVII Remake release, and DQVII Re-imagined. I haven't even had chance to start playing the last Tales remaster!

Looking forward to this. Not looking forward to the constant whining about certain details not being how people want them and overly harsh judgement and criticism of everything. Already people on here saying it looks bad. BAD HOW? It's three photos. It's going to be unbearable when the trailer comes out and we hear them both talk. Some people are literally beyond pleasing and waiting for something to complain about.

Shocked that Ring Fit Adventure made it onto the list, honestly

From my experience, some of the cutscenes played with out of sync voice acting on Switch 2. Namely the final scenes of the base game and the final scenes of the additional story, which was massively annoying and inconvenient timing.

Cinema staff will be taking vacation

So I'm confused, is there a way to trigger seeing them all in the sky like the photo or....

It's obviously a movie. It makes sense to make a standard kids film and throw Pikmin into it rather than explicitly make "a Pikmin movie". It's a niche series, not many non-gamers know it. This way they've got kids wanting to go watch this movie and discovering Pikmin and all the associated media and merchandise is already waiting for them. It's a good way to introduce the franchise to more people

@Ryo_Hazuki it does have normal controls, you can use Y for the waggle input for Mario's spin. Only thing you need the gyro for is using the pointer but that's literally just optional if you don't care about collecting all the star bits. And if you play handheld then it's touch screen based anyway so really there's no waving your hand around

The Shadow ones look pretty sick actually

I thought Dedede in the middle of the picture was one of the bonus items

That is absolutely huge!

Definitely testing the waters to see if there's a market for a permanent store. Glad they've chosen London! I just hope the queues aren't crazy like the Pokemon Centre was and that they keep it well stocked. You ended up queuing for 5 hours and eventually getting inside where all the cool stuff had been snapped up, and stock was rationed out each day.

That'll be like 20GB then. Hopefully the progress carries over

I wish they'd add back in the option to hold items behind you with a button too. I feel like people just accepted the auto-hold addition in this game too easily. At least have the option to turn it off for people who don't want it. I'd like a choice of when to deploy a banana or shell as a shield. If you withhold it, for example, people throw red shells at you thinking you're open and then sneaky sneaky, I've been holding this banana ready to defend myself this whole time. I miss that.

Definitely some welcome improvements. Though not really sure why they've decreased the item box refresh time? Did people complain they took too long? One of the few tactics available to you in Mario Kart is preventing your opponents getting an item box if they're following too close behind, and you nab it first (even when your item slots are full).

So now they'll be able to get them easier, that's lame. Especially since the intermission courses almost eliminate the effectiveness of placing bananas behind item boxes so people drive into them, because you only drive through each row of boxes once. And they should bring back the fake item box too, I can't believe they took those out.

Softening the force of landing on opponents and increasing invincibility after being hit is also an irritating slide towards making the game easier as well imo. Had no issues with either. Also, I didn't play Free Roam a huge amount but still spent a few hours in there...I had NO idea UFOs were a thing.

It'll be a diorama of that artwork with Link fighting Ganondorf