@Chibi_Manny Presumably, I’d still be able to swap the region back to Japan to switch my icon, but I never did. No matter now, though; the problem seems to have been fixed, and I can now switch in and out of Mother 3 icons in the North American app.
I switched my region to Japan to buy these icons, and then I switched it back. Don’t do it! It totally broke my ability to change my PFP (or buy new ones) within the NSO app, an effect that continued even after changing my icon via the HOME Menu to one of the default ones. Now, I have to change my account region back to Japan in order to switch my icon again…
Please fix this, Nintendo. Yes, I know I cheated the system a bit, but I can’t even use the icons I previously bought anymore!
EDIT: It seems to have been fixed now. Region swap at your leisure.
@Nua Smash just calls it Mother 3 in English, so they’d probably just do the same here, assuming they release those icons. Smash also called Beginnings “Mother”, like in Japan, prior to Ultimate.
Nintendo’s Japanese website also says they’ll get Mother 3 icons on the 7th at 10:00 JST (01:00 UTC). Will we get those here? Probably not, but who knows?
So I have now beaten EarthBound, a phenomenal RPG and an unforgettable experience. It ironed out many of the kinks of Beginnings, now having more content and a more engaging battle system, and it also somehow managed to be even wackier. It’s about as “Nintendo” as an RPG can get, and it’s easy to see why the series is still so popular even with only three games.
Speaking of the “three games” part, it’s time to play the game’s highly revered, nearly mythological sequel: Mother 3! A couple weeks back, the game was added to Switch Online—for me, a really convenient coincidence!—and it’s easy to download the game with the Japanese version of the app, since Switch is region-free. Unfortunately, no English version has ever been officially released…but fortunately, some devoted fans dealt with that some 16 years ago, and made what is undisputedly the most famous fan translation of all time.
I’ve now played the first two chapters of the game…and it is dramatically different in tone from its predecessors. I’m not used to seeing Nintendo tell such dark stories. But it is gripping, and I am eager to see where the game takes me next. The battle system has been revamped once more, bringing back the rolling HP counter from EarthBound and adding action commands to combo enemies by attacking to that enemy’s unique rhythm. Additionally, the game seems to rotate its lead character quite a lot: in Chapter 1 you play as Flint, father of Lucas, while in Chapter 2 you play as Duster, a “Thief of Justice”. The protagonist, Lucas, has been largely absent so far, which seems to be unusual for a series that has usually centered around kids saving the world. Anyway, it is a departure from what I expected, and that is absolutely a good thing.
Additionally, I’ve also been getting back into Super Smash Bros. Ultimate—you can thank Ness—and realized I’m actually getting pretty close to completing the Spirit List (1383 out of 1524!). A few Fighter Spirits and Summons should get me most of the way there. Honestly, the more games I play, the more it amazes me to come back to Smash and take in the sheer scale of this crossover. Everyone really is here.
@the_beaver Don’t get ahead of yourself. “Nintendo Switch systems” is almost certainly referring to the OG Switch, Switch Lite and Switch OLED. Much like “Nintendo 3DS systems” before it.
A Switch 2 announcement will come with time, but this isn’t it.
Well, this week brought some…announcements. One, in particular. Mother 3 is on Switch, but only on the Japanese app, and only in Japanese. Though this was predictable, it still stings. Lucky for me, I’m still making my way through Mother 2—that’s EarthBound for SNES—which is in English and is still a fantastic game.
I currently have five Melodies and all four party members. Ness is level 53, Paula is level 45, Jeff is level 47 and Poo is level 33. I have most recently found the Melody at the Fourside Dinosaur Museum and am on my way back to Scaraba to unlock the secrets of the pyramid. It’s a good thing I have PSI Teleport now…it makes moving around much easier.
@Tempestryke Oh, believe me, I’m not defending the people who harass game developers for what they want. There are bad eggs in all fandoms, unfortunately. But too many people here are acting as if they are personally offended by the fact that people keep asking for Mother 3. It goes both ways. (And it’s rather important to distinguish between harassment and simple requests, too. One is obviously unacceptable, but people here are acting like both are.)
And honestly, I don’t have any problem with Expansion Pack subscribers pirating the game for the translation at this point (since they do have access to the Japanese version), but it’s still not exactly legal and that fact alone will significantly reduce the audience it reaches.
I am truly disgusted by all the comments here that say “shut up about it” or “move on already”. If you don’t care, fine. You don’t have to. But that’s not an excuse to mock, taunt and insult those who do.
The fact of the matter is that Japanese is not an easy language for English speakers to learn, and official translations by nature reach a far wider audience than fan translations, in addition to being easier to use and less legally dubious. The people who really want to play it probably already have, and want to share the game with others and play it in an official capacity. The passive-aggressive commenters here almost certainly are not among that group. So why, might I ask, are you here?
TL;DR: Genuine opinions of the game, good or bad, are fine. The fandom-bashing is not.
^ Can confirm that the game is available now to any NSO expansion pack subscribers with the Japanese GBA app installed.
This…is a very obvious taunt. The timing of this feels like a slap in the face. Even still, I really enjoyed Beginnings, so Ninten is my new PFP. Though it’s only 8-bit sprites (no artwork), and no unique backgrounds or frames are offered…
Give us more localizations of Japan exclusives. Yes, that includes Mother 3 (having only recently gotten into EarthBound, it’s at the top of my list right now). It also includes Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade, another no-brainer for localization that Nintendo hasn’t touched. (Mystery of the Emblem would work, too; I’m not picky.) Maybe even some newer games, like Yo-kai Watch 4 (Nintendo has published localizations for past entries). The ultimate wildcard would be the Starfy games, of course, but I’m not getting my hopes up…
Or, as far as ports go, maybe move some of the star digital exclusives for 3DS onto Switch, like Pushmo and BoxBoy (and, yes, Pocket Card Jockey). I have them due to my doomsday binge-buying, but a lot of people missed out and that’s a real shame. Even some more, very obviously missing Switch Online games would make me happy (particularly Mario Land 1, Smash 64, mainline Pokémon), and adding those would take practically zero effort.
…As you can tell, I think the Switch has a lot of potential as the ultimate hub of Nintendo game preservation. Oh, if only Nintendo could see it…
So I beat EarthBound Beginnings last Sunday. It was genuinely one of the greatest NES games I’ve played. The random encounters are annoying and might be a turn-off for some, but there’s a lot of spirit in this game (for lack of a better word), and I loved the story and world-building and especially those scenes where you watch 8-bit characters dance for a minute to catchy music.
Of course, now it’s time for me to play its highly revered sequel, EarthBound: The War Against Giygas! …or just EarthBound, as it’s better known. Already, I can see it has a lot of the same spirit as its predecessor, and I’m not just talking about the obvious parallels between Ninten and Ness. The battle system is significantly improved, no longer reliant on random encounters and now with a rolling HP counter that allows Ness to win battles even after a mortal wound, if he’s fast enough. I have only recently met Paula (basically Ana 2.0, complete with frying pans, psychic powers and all that) and am currently trying to get her to a half-decent level. I have two of the Eight Melodies.
Probably my only gripe so far is that they scrapped Telepathy. That feature was kind of underutilized in Beginnings, and I was kind of hoping they’d do more with it this time around…
…weren’t we supposed to get Switch Pro in 2022 or something?
You know, I do have a real appetite for rumors, but these Switch Pro/Switch 2 rumors are kind of annoying. Anyone can just keep pushing out the date until they get a score…
EarthBound Beginnings on Switch. I’ve progressed quite a bit since last weekend: Ana has joined my team, I now have six pieces of the queen’s melody, and I recently unlocked the Teleport ability in Youngtown. Ninten is level 29, Lloyd is level 23, and Ana is level 19. The game’s gotten pretty difficult by this point, but it’s a lot easier once your allies are at high levels. Of course, I’ll have to start from square one once Teddy joins my team…
I’ve mostly been jumping between three games this weekend:
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time - Just got Epona and escaped from the ranch wacko. Also got Biggoron’s Sword from the long, annoying side quest. I’m probably about ready to return to Kokiri Village to begin my real quest as an adult.
EarthBound Beginnings - Been a while since I booted this one up. Random encounters are still annoying, but they’ve helped me get pretty strong. I just befriended Lloyd. Also wandered around in a panic trying to cure Ninten’s cold while Lloyd died twice. Thank goodness we have walkthroughs.
Portal - A new game for me. Beat level 15 of chapter 1. An intriguing puzzle game, and also super bizarre. Even early game, it can be pretty challenging, too.
Look, I get it. It’s tough to wait. Looking up the ending of a game can be very tempting. But once you’ve done it, two things will likely happen: one, you’ll want to play the game, and two, your experience will be badly skewed when you do play it.
Nostalgic players often wish they could play a certain game for the first time again. But when you already know the ending, you’ve robbed yourself of the chance to play it for the first time at all.
The anti-spoiler sentiment is not overblown. It is completely and fully justified, especially in an age when they are ever more inevitable. If you want to know how a game ends, just play the game. That’s all there is to it.
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time on Switch. “But didn’t you say you were going to play Majora’s Mask?” Yeah, but I figured I should probably finish its predecessor first.
I have obtained the Ocarina of Time at long last. And then…I slept for seven years. I can only imagine how disturbing it is to wake up one day and find that you’ve aged seven years! But however it came to be that way, Link is young no longer, and the quest to defeat Ganondorf may begin at last.
Yo-kai Watch 4++, continuing from Chapter 3 with YouTube and Google Lens. Playing a game this way is actually pretty exhausting, but at the same time, I’m really intrigued by the story. Hey, maybe some time from now my Japanese will be at a level where I don’t need the extra assistance to play these games.
Will likely also start playing The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask. Hey, it’s about time, right?
Some weeks ago I beat the Yo-kai Watch 3DS trilogy, and ever since then I’ve been wishing for more. There was in fact a fourth entry released on Switch in 2019, but only in Japanese (and later Chinese). “Oh, do I have to take a year of Duolingo Japanese in order to continue the story?” Nope! Google Translate and fan translation videos save the day! So I got a physical import copy of Yo-kai Watch 4++.
I’ve beaten Chapter 1 and it’s already pretty wild. The world is more detailed than ever before, now in a fully three-dimensional environment. Battles are now real-time, and Nate (or, well, Keita) now participates in them directly. The music is exceptionally catchy. Oh yeah, and somehow he met his daughter Summer from thirty years in the future? I didn’t think it could get much wilder than YW3’s aliens and UFOs, but here we are.
For anyone still concerned about the language barrier, Google Translate works fine for the most part, and the main story has a fan translation patch for when it doesn’t. (You don’t have to hack your Switch, just look up some videos of the game in English.) Though the Duolingo route is probably the best way to enjoy the game, rest assured that you don’t need to know any kanji; all (or most) text is written out in kana (syllabic characters).
The Legendary Starfy 4 on DS. I actually started this game, the last of the four Japan-only Starfy games, quite a while back, but I took a break largely because of the frustrating language barrier. But this has been sitting in my collection ever since, and in all likelihood, it will never be localized, so I decided to pick up where I left off in World 5. Though no unofficial translation ROM hack exists, I’m able to progress with the help of Google Lens and a series of videos by YouTube user Autumchild with translated text. It’s not ideal, but we’re probably never getting another Starfy game, so I might as well take what I can get.
Oh, believe me, it was on my birthday that my sister went around complaining about how all I wanted to do was play video games. A few days later, we took a week-long trip to the beach, and practically all she did there was binge Netflix. Sometimes, people just look for excuses to be difficult.
I’m actually not entirely sure what my plans are. I should probably beat the True Arena in Kirby’s Return to Dream Land Deluxe before the New Year. Beyond that, though, it’s anyone’s guess. Maybe for New Year’s, I’ll try something a little different. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, perhaps? I started it a while back, but it has been a while…
Kirby’s Return to Dream Land Deluxe on Switch for me. I’m now at 96 % completion; all that remains is the True Arena, which is now even bigger and tougher than it was on the Wii. Even Star Allies’ Soul Melter EX had only 14 rounds…but this one has 21! But I’ve never been one to back down from a challenge (just ask the boss rush modes in Kirby’s Adventure and Kirby 64, both of which I beat this past week), so get ready, because Kirby’s about to win another cake!
Kirby's Return to Dream Land Deluxe on Switch. I have 100 % completion for the main mode as well as Merry Magoland, so now I can get to the new stuff…the Magolor Epilogue. It’s a pretty interesting approach to Kirby, where you start out weak and gradually get your strength back as you progress. Most of Magolor’s moves from Star Allies are back, but they’re still considerably weaker at my current state in the game. Looking forward to playing more.
Back to Kirby’s Return to Dream Land Deluxe on Switch, for me. I’m currently on White Wafers (level 4), stage 5. I’ve even played a bit of the game in Spanish, which was pretty interesting and (a tiny bit) educational. Merry Magoland is pretty great, especially Checkerboard Chase, which is so faithful to the Kirby 64 original it’s actually scary. Ah, this game really is a classic.
So I’ve finished the Yo-kai Watch trilogy now. I could go back for 100 % or something, or start on Blasters, but I think I’m going to stick with Kirby's Return to Dream Land Deluxe on Switch for now. I beat the original with 200 % completion, probably more than once, but I figured I might as well do it again for the extra content. I haven’t played a lot of Kirby in a while, so it’s nice to go back to it.
The Wii U deserved a lot better than it got. Yeah, the advertising was pretty muddy and the GamePad was criminally underused at times, but it had a lot of gems, and I’m glad they can reach a wider audience on Switch.
Of course, there are some gems that are never going to make the jump, like Kirby and the Rainbow Curse and Paper Mario: Color Splash. Enough reasons for me not to put the old Wii U to pasture.
Back to Yo-kai Watch 3 on 3DS for me. I have reached the final chapter, and the game’s become pretty bizarre at this point. But I’m probably overleveled and have a bunch of powerful Yo-kai, so I don’t think it’ll be too much trouble. It’s a bit of a shame that this is pretty much the end of the saga, considering the fourth game is still Japan-only, but I suppose I have a lot of postgame content in the trilogy still waiting for me afterward.
Ghost Trick is truly a masterpiece and it makes me happy to see more people play it.
As for me, I shall once again be playing Yo-kai Watch 3 on 3DS. This game is much more ambitious than I’d ever anticipated, and there seems to be no end to the amount of content packed here, to the extent that I’d feel bad listing it all here. Two stories, two countries, a side mode, a parallel universe, a rafting minigame, nearly 600 Yo-kai…it’s unreal.
I’m now in Chapter 6, where our two protagonists meet at last. I can’t believe they even added a time difference between the two countries…even if it just seems to be a simplified 12 hours. Come to think of it, this was foreshadowed early in the game…which is pretty neat! I’m looking forward to playing more and seeing what happens from here.
60 USD is hard to swallow for what is essentially just the SNES game with better graphics…but wow, those graphics are beautiful. I still have the original on Wii U, though (and that was only 8 USD!), so I don’t know. Some parts were a pain (tricky platforming with a less-than-ideal camera angle), but I had fun with this one overall.
Also, any difference between “remaster”, “remake”, “rerelease”, “port” and so on is completely arbitrary. I suppose these words can be useful in identifying how much was changed, but I don’t believe there’s much about these definitions that’s generally agreed upon. Ultimately, if it’s the same game, it’s the same game, and if it isn’t, it isn’t.
@JimNorman Do it! Play Ghost Trick. Trust me…you won’t regret it.
With that out of the way…this weekend I’ll be playing Yo-kai Watch 3. This was one of the very last 3DS games published in the West, so the physical version is exceptionally expensive, especially in North America. However, my brilliant foresight (read: eShop FOMO) landed me this game for the comparatively reasonable price of 40 USD.
So what are the more reasonable spenders missing out on, exactly? Well, somehow, this game manages to go even bigger and better than the second, featuring our familiar protagonist Nate Adams moving to a new country called America BBQ, where people drive on the right, eat large burgers, speak in a stereotypical Southern US dialect, and where hundreds of “‘Merican Yo-kai” are just waiting to be befriended. Back in Springdale, there’s a new protagonist, Hailey Thomas, an anime geek if there ever was one. Each protagonist has his or her own story, and you switch between these two stories throughout the game. (Sorry, Katie fans…you’re out of luck this time around.)
It works pretty well, I think. I’m on Chapter 4 in both stories. It’s certainly had its bizarre moments already. The battle system is completely overhauled, too, featuring much more room for player input, and therefore even more strategy. The sad part is that when I play as Hailey and talk to Nate’s old friend Bear, he talks about how much he misses Nate. I always liked seeing Nate’s escapades with his trio of friends, so I hope they’re reunited soon enough.
Continuing Yo-kai Watch 2: Psychic Specters on 3DS. This game turned out a lot crazier than I expected. I can time-travel to meet my grandfather 60 years ago, who happens to look nearly identical to Nate, in addition to having a nearly identical name (Nathaniel)? What’s more, I’m free to abuse this time-travel power to complete various side-quests, because it seems 11-year-olds don’t care about the space-time continuum! Being the only kid who can see Yo-kai has its perks.
I’m currently on the last chapter, though, so I suppose all good things must come to an end. Of course, I’ve also got Yo-kai Watch 3 in the pipeline…
I’ll probably also play a bit of Among Us on Switch this weekend. I’ve been getting back into it since the Fungle map came out, and public lobbies are as stupid as ever. But it’s still addictive, for some reason.
Yo-kai Watch 2: Psychic Specters on 3DS. I’m on the fourth chapter, in which 11-year-old Nate decides to visit his grandmother alone for the first time. Of course, I wanted to stay behind for a little longer and do the game night sidequest with Eddie and Bear, but the plot will do what it will.
Unlike the first game, this one went full Pokémon in releasing a total of three versions, all with different version-exclusive Yo-kai. Psychic Specters is generally regarded as the “definitive edition”, though, as it basically lets you switch between the two sets of version-exclusive Yo-kai by buying donuts. (It’s as weird as it sounds.)
So what’s new here, exactly? Well, we have new areas to explore, an awesome new soundtrack and characters who seem to get amnesia whenever the game needs to repeat a tutorial from the first game (even beyond chapter 1). Jaywalking is still a thing, and Katie has been reduced to scolding me for “barging into a girl’s room”. Hey, what happened to the unique dialog I got for visiting you in the first game?
I’m playing through the Yo-kai Watch trilogy on 3DS for the first time right now. Gives me an incredible sense of nostalgia and I wish this series did better over here than it did. Is it just wishful thinking that, even now, I hope a localization of the fourth game will be among these announcements?
Lost Levels, no contest. (Particularly the original 8-bit version.) That’s not to say that no other Mario game is hard, but only Lost Levels has levels of that difficulty with only three lives to complete a world and requiring the player to beat the grueling gauntlet of a game eight times to play the even more grueling postgame.
It’s the face of Nintendo Hard for a darn good reason, and its difficulty is the most famous reason that, outside Japan, we got an Arabian Nights game featuring Mario instead.
Yes! Finally, finally I can play this game! I’ve been waiting for this since the day it was announced! (Which was well over a year ago, by the way!)
Feels like a bit of a flex that once I get Mario Party 5 and 6, I’ll be able to play the entire series. I suppose I’m a little more into this series than most are.
I mean, this is the guy who can play Smash with two controllers at once. It’s not much of a stretch to say he can play two games on two consoles at once…
I don’t have a PS5 so I can’t play Spider-Man 2, but maybe I’ll change that before long…
Mario Wonder’s out, you say? I don’t have it just yet…but that’s definitely a “yet”. I’m definitely getting it within the next few months.
In the meantime, Yo-kai Watch 1 for 3DS will once again keep me occupied. My new cartridge came in and I’ve finally caught up to the seventh chapter, where I was before on my bad cartridge. Finally, new material! (…As new as material from a 2015 game can be, anyway.)
As someone who still has very little experience with Pokémon (yeah, I know, I know…), I’ve quite liked this game so far. The battles are rather unique, but they seem to work and are more dependent on player action than it might seem at first. Actually, there’s a lot of strategy involved, and maybe I’m just underleveled, but these bosses can be tough! The dialog is hilarious and I can’t begin to count the number of satirized tropes here. And the attention to detail here is incredible: you can visit the house of your best friend (who happens to be the protagonist you don’t choose) just to hear one totally optional line of dialog each chapter, and the game cares a lot about jaywalking and will penalize you if you do it too much. (Beware if you have a tendency to run recklessly through city streets!)
To those of you confused as to why the review here is two points higher than the one on PushSquare:
Remember that any review, whether it be for a movie, series, game or something else entirely, is really just one person’s opinion. What separates critics from the casual audience is their experience in going over the objective facts of the product and sorting them into pros and cons. Ultimately, however, the score is just an arbitrary number, evaluated from the weight of the pros relative to that of the cons. The relative importance of each of these pros and cons is something that varies from player to player, so it’s only natural that different reviewers give different scores.
The purpose of reviews is to help buyers make informed decisions about what they’re buying. The score measures how much an individual reviewer liked the game, but it can’t replace a buyer’s individual evaluation of the pros and cons.
There exists only one review that will be completely accurate to your experience of the game, and that’s your own. Reviews aren’t supposed to answer the question, “Will I enjoy it?”; they only intend to give reasons you might and reasons you might not.
I’m actually surprised that this hadn’t happened already. It seems to occur for every major first-party game well in advance of the release date. It’s a real shame and just ruins the experience for everyone else, but it’s pretty much a fact of life now. Hopefully Switch 2 will implement some security measures against this.
And yes, you absolutely can spoil a Mario game. It’s just that the major spoilers relate to different levels, bosses and secrets rather than story details.
Comments 329
Re: Mother 3 Switch Icons Out Now, But They're Only Available In Japan
@Mario_maniac Yes. This is correct. Just make sure you have no unused eShop balance; you can’t region swap otherwise!
Re: Mother 3 Switch Icons Out Now, But They're Only Available In Japan
@Chibi_Manny Presumably, I’d still be able to swap the region back to Japan to switch my icon, but I never did. No matter now, though; the problem seems to have been fixed, and I can now switch in and out of Mother 3 icons in the North American app.
Re: Mother 3 Switch Icons Out Now In Japan
@Burning_Spear It’s pretty much just because they’re cute and you can’t really use your platinum coins on much else.
Re: Mother 3 Switch Icons Out Now In Japan
I switched my region to Japan to buy these icons, and then I switched it back. Don’t do it! It totally broke my ability to change my PFP (or buy new ones) within the NSO app, an effect that continued even after changing my icon via the HOME Menu to one of the default ones. Now, I have to change my account region back to Japan in order to switch my icon again…
Please fix this, Nintendo. Yes, I know I cheated the system a bit, but I can’t even use the icons I previously bought anymore!
EDIT: It seems to have been fixed now. Region swap at your leisure.
Re: Switch Online's Missions & Rewards Adds New Icons You Can Only "Get By Playing"
@Nua Smash just calls it Mother 3 in English, so they’d probably just do the same here, assuming they release those icons. Smash also called Beginnings “Mother”, like in Japan, prior to Ultimate.
Re: Switch Online's Missions & Rewards Adds New Icons You Can Only "Get By Playing"
Nintendo’s Japanese website also says they’ll get Mother 3 icons on the 7th at 10:00 JST (01:00 UTC). Will we get those here? Probably not, but who knows?
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (March 2nd)
So I have now beaten EarthBound, a phenomenal RPG and an unforgettable experience. It ironed out many of the kinks of Beginnings, now having more content and a more engaging battle system, and it also somehow managed to be even wackier. It’s about as “Nintendo” as an RPG can get, and it’s easy to see why the series is still so popular even with only three games.
Speaking of the “three games” part, it’s time to play the game’s highly revered, nearly mythological sequel: Mother 3! A couple weeks back, the game was added to Switch Online—for me, a really convenient coincidence!—and it’s easy to download the game with the Japanese version of the app, since Switch is region-free. Unfortunately, no English version has ever been officially released…but fortunately, some devoted fans dealt with that some 16 years ago, and made what is undisputedly the most famous fan translation of all time.
I’ve now played the first two chapters of the game…and it is dramatically different in tone from its predecessors. I’m not used to seeing Nintendo tell such dark stories. But it is gripping, and I am eager to see where the game takes me next. The battle system has been revamped once more, bringing back the rolling HP counter from EarthBound and adding action commands to combo enemies by attacking to that enemy’s unique rhythm. Additionally, the game seems to rotate its lead character quite a lot: in Chapter 1 you play as Flint, father of Lucas, while in Chapter 2 you play as Duster, a “Thief of Justice”. The protagonist, Lucas, has been largely absent so far, which seems to be unusual for a series that has usually centered around kids saving the world. Anyway, it is a departure from what I expected, and that is absolutely a good thing.
Additionally, I’ve also been getting back into Super Smash Bros. Ultimate—you can thank Ness—and realized I’m actually getting pretty close to completing the Spirit List (1383 out of 1524!). A few Fighter Spirits and Summons should get me most of the way there. Honestly, the more games I play, the more it amazes me to come back to Smash and take in the sheer scale of this crossover. Everyone really is here.
Re: Pokémon Legends: Z-A Announced, Coming To Switch In 2025
@the_beaver Don’t get ahead of yourself. “Nintendo Switch systems” is almost certainly referring to the OG Switch, Switch Lite and Switch OLED. Much like “Nintendo 3DS systems” before it.
A Switch 2 announcement will come with time, but this isn’t it.
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (February 24th)
Well, this week brought some…announcements. One, in particular. Mother 3 is on Switch, but only on the Japanese app, and only in Japanese. Though this was predictable, it still stings. Lucky for me, I’m still making my way through Mother 2—that’s EarthBound for SNES—which is in English and is still a fantastic game.
I currently have five Melodies and all four party members. Ness is level 53, Paula is level 45, Jeff is level 47 and Poo is level 33. I have most recently found the Melody at the Fourside Dinosaur Museum and am on my way back to Scaraba to unlock the secrets of the pyramid. It’s a good thing I have PSI Teleport now…it makes moving around much easier.
Re: Mother Creator On Third Game's Localisation: "Please Talk To Nintendo About That"
@Tempestryke Oh, believe me, I’m not defending the people who harass game developers for what they want. There are bad eggs in all fandoms, unfortunately. But too many people here are acting as if they are personally offended by the fact that people keep asking for Mother 3. It goes both ways. (And it’s rather important to distinguish between harassment and simple requests, too. One is obviously unacceptable, but people here are acting like both are.)
And honestly, I don’t have any problem with Expansion Pack subscribers pirating the game for the translation at this point (since they do have access to the Japanese version), but it’s still not exactly legal and that fact alone will significantly reduce the audience it reaches.
Re: Mother Creator On Third Game's Localisation: "Please Talk To Nintendo About That"
I am truly disgusted by all the comments here that say “shut up about it” or “move on already”. If you don’t care, fine. You don’t have to. But that’s not an excuse to mock, taunt and insult those who do.
The fact of the matter is that Japanese is not an easy language for English speakers to learn, and official translations by nature reach a far wider audience than fan translations, in addition to being easier to use and less legally dubious. The people who really want to play it probably already have, and want to share the game with others and play it in an official capacity. The passive-aggressive commenters here almost certainly are not among that group. So why, might I ask, are you here?
TL;DR: Genuine opinions of the game, good or bad, are fine. The fandom-bashing is not.
Re: Nintendo Releases New EarthBound Beginnings Switch Online Icons
^ Can confirm that the game is available now to any NSO expansion pack subscribers with the Japanese GBA app installed.
This…is a very obvious taunt. The timing of this feels like a slap in the face. Even still, I really enjoyed Beginnings, so Ninten is my new PFP. Though it’s only 8-bit sprites (no artwork), and no unique backgrounds or frames are offered…
Re: Talking Point: If 'Switch 2' Isn't Coming Until 2025, What's Nintendo Got Up Its Sleeve This Year?
Give us more localizations of Japan exclusives. Yes, that includes Mother 3 (having only recently gotten into EarthBound, it’s at the top of my list right now). It also includes Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade, another no-brainer for localization that Nintendo hasn’t touched. (Mystery of the Emblem would work, too; I’m not picky.) Maybe even some newer games, like Yo-kai Watch 4 (Nintendo has published localizations for past entries). The ultimate wildcard would be the Starfy games, of course, but I’m not getting my hopes up…
Or, as far as ports go, maybe move some of the star digital exclusives for 3DS onto Switch, like Pushmo and BoxBoy (and, yes, Pocket Card Jockey). I have them due to my doomsday binge-buying, but a lot of people missed out and that’s a real shame. Even some more, very obviously missing Switch Online games would make me happy (particularly Mario Land 1, Smash 64, mainline Pokémon), and adding those would take practically zero effort.
…As you can tell, I think the Switch has a lot of potential as the ultimate hub of Nintendo game preservation. Oh, if only Nintendo could see it…
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (February 17th)
So I beat EarthBound Beginnings last Sunday. It was genuinely one of the greatest NES games I’ve played. The random encounters are annoying and might be a turn-off for some, but there’s a lot of spirit in this game (for lack of a better word), and I loved the story and world-building and especially those scenes where you watch 8-bit characters dance for a minute to catchy music.
Of course, now it’s time for me to play its highly revered sequel, EarthBound: The War Against Giygas! …or just EarthBound, as it’s better known. Already, I can see it has a lot of the same spirit as its predecessor, and I’m not just talking about the obvious parallels between Ninten and Ness. The battle system is significantly improved, no longer reliant on random encounters and now with a rolling HP counter that allows Ness to win battles even after a mortal wound, if he’s fast enough. I have only recently met Paula (basically Ana 2.0, complete with frying pans, psychic powers and all that) and am currently trying to get her to a half-decent level. I have two of the Eight Melodies.
Probably my only gripe so far is that they scrapped Telepathy. That feature was kind of underutilized in Beginnings, and I was kind of hoping they’d do more with it this time around…
Re: Rumour: Switch Successor Might Not Be Launching Until 2025
…weren’t we supposed to get Switch Pro in 2022 or something?
You know, I do have a real appetite for rumors, but these Switch Pro/Switch 2 rumors are kind of annoying. Anyone can just keep pushing out the date until they get a score…
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (February 10th)
EarthBound Beginnings on Switch. I’ve progressed quite a bit since last weekend: Ana has joined my team, I now have six pieces of the queen’s melody, and I recently unlocked the Teleport ability in Youngtown. Ninten is level 29, Lloyd is level 23, and Ana is level 19. The game’s gotten pretty difficult by this point, but it’s a lot easier once your allies are at high levels. Of course, I’ll have to start from square one once Teddy joins my team…
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (February 3rd)
I’ve mostly been jumping between three games this weekend:
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time - Just got Epona and escaped from the ranch wacko. Also got Biggoron’s Sword from the long, annoying side quest. I’m probably about ready to return to Kokiri Village to begin my real quest as an adult.
EarthBound Beginnings - Been a while since I booted this one up. Random encounters are still annoying, but they’ve helped me get pretty strong. I just befriended Lloyd. Also wandered around in a panic trying to cure Ninten’s cold while Lloyd died twice. Thank goodness we have walkthroughs.
Portal - A new game for me. Beat level 15 of chapter 1. An intriguing puzzle game, and also super bizarre. Even early game, it can be pretty challenging, too.
Re: Talking Point: Is Knowing A Game's Ending Really That Bad?
Yes. It really is that bad.
Look, I get it. It’s tough to wait. Looking up the ending of a game can be very tempting. But once you’ve done it, two things will likely happen: one, you’ll want to play the game, and two, your experience will be badly skewed when you do play it.
Nostalgic players often wish they could play a certain game for the first time again. But when you already know the ending, you’ve robbed yourself of the chance to play it for the first time at all.
The anti-spoiler sentiment is not overblown. It is completely and fully justified, especially in an age when they are ever more inevitable. If you want to know how a game ends, just play the game. That’s all there is to it.
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (January 27th)
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time on Switch. “But didn’t you say you were going to play Majora’s Mask?” Yeah, but I figured I should probably finish its predecessor first.
I have obtained the Ocarina of Time at long last. And then…I slept for seven years. I can only imagine how disturbing it is to wake up one day and find that you’ve aged seven years! But however it came to be that way, Link is young no longer, and the quest to defeat Ganondorf may begin at last.
Re: Nintendo Download: 25th January (North America)
Apollo Justice Trilogy is a great buy. I already have the 3DS versions, though, so I’ll wait for a sale.
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (January 20th)
Yo-kai Watch 4++, continuing from Chapter 3 with YouTube and Google Lens. Playing a game this way is actually pretty exhausting, but at the same time, I’m really intrigued by the story. Hey, maybe some time from now my Japanese will be at a level where I don’t need the extra assistance to play these games.
Will likely also start playing The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask. Hey, it’s about time, right?
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (January 13th)
Some weeks ago I beat the Yo-kai Watch 3DS trilogy, and ever since then I’ve been wishing for more. There was in fact a fourth entry released on Switch in 2019, but only in Japanese (and later Chinese). “Oh, do I have to take a year of Duolingo Japanese in order to continue the story?” Nope! Google Translate and fan translation videos save the day! So I got a physical import copy of Yo-kai Watch 4++.
I’ve beaten Chapter 1 and it’s already pretty wild. The world is more detailed than ever before, now in a fully three-dimensional environment. Battles are now real-time, and Nate (or, well, Keita) now participates in them directly. The music is exceptionally catchy. Oh yeah, and somehow he met his daughter Summer from thirty years in the future? I didn’t think it could get much wilder than YW3’s aliens and UFOs, but here we are.
For anyone still concerned about the language barrier, Google Translate works fine for the most part, and the main story has a fan translation patch for when it doesn’t. (You don’t have to hack your Switch, just look up some videos of the game in English.) Though the Duolingo route is probably the best way to enjoy the game, rest assured that you don’t need to know any kanji; all (or most) text is written out in kana (syllabic characters).
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (January 6th)
The Legendary Starfy 4 on DS. I actually started this game, the last of the four Japan-only Starfy games, quite a while back, but I took a break largely because of the frustrating language barrier. But this has been sitting in my collection ever since, and in all likelihood, it will never be localized, so I decided to pick up where I left off in World 5. Though no unofficial translation ROM hack exists, I’m able to progress with the help of Google Lens and a series of videos by YouTube user Autumchild with translated text. It’s not ideal, but we’re probably never getting another Starfy game, so I might as well take what I can get.
Re: Soapbox: "Go Outside, Get Some Fresh Air" - Why Won't Outmoded Gamer Stereotypes Die?
Oh, believe me, it was on my birthday that my sister went around complaining about how all I wanted to do was play video games. A few days later, we took a week-long trip to the beach, and practically all she did there was binge Netflix. Sometimes, people just look for excuses to be difficult.
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (December 30th)
I’m actually not entirely sure what my plans are. I should probably beat the True Arena in Kirby’s Return to Dream Land Deluxe before the New Year. Beyond that, though, it’s anyone’s guess. Maybe for New Year’s, I’ll try something a little different. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, perhaps? I started it a while back, but it has been a while…
Re: New 3DS And Wii U Users Can No Longer Go Online In Games
…Merry Christmas to you too, Nintendo.
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (Christmas 2023 Edition)
Kirby’s Return to Dream Land Deluxe on Switch for me. I’m now at 96 % completion; all that remains is the True Arena, which is now even bigger and tougher than it was on the Wii. Even Star Allies’ Soul Melter EX had only 14 rounds…but this one has 21! But I’ve never been one to back down from a challenge (just ask the boss rush modes in Kirby’s Adventure and Kirby 64, both of which I beat this past week), so get ready, because Kirby’s about to win another cake!
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (December 16th)
Kirby's Return to Dream Land Deluxe on Switch. I have 100 % completion for the main mode as well as Merry Magoland, so now I can get to the new stuff…the Magolor Epilogue. It’s a pretty interesting approach to Kirby, where you start out weak and gradually get your strength back as you progress. Most of Magolor’s moves from Star Allies are back, but they’re still considerably weaker at my current state in the game. Looking forward to playing more.
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (December 9th)
Back to Kirby’s Return to Dream Land Deluxe on Switch, for me. I’m currently on White Wafers (level 4), stage 5. I’ve even played a bit of the game in Spanish, which was pretty interesting and (a tiny bit) educational. Merry Magoland is pretty great, especially Checkerboard Chase, which is so faithful to the Kirby 64 original it’s actually scary. Ah, this game really is a classic.
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (December 2nd)
So I’ve finished the Yo-kai Watch trilogy now. I could go back for 100 % or something, or start on Blasters, but I think I’m going to stick with Kirby's Return to Dream Land Deluxe on Switch for now. I beat the original with 200 % completion, probably more than once, but I figured I might as well do it again for the extra content. I haven’t played a lot of Kirby in a while, so it’s nice to go back to it.
Re: Round Up: Everything Announced At The Level-5 Vision 2023 November Showcase
Is that last bit a teaser for Yo-kai Watch 5? It looks like it might be…
Maybe that game will finally give Level-5 an excuse to translate 4 into English.
Re: Feature: Why I Still Love My Wii U
@Classic603 To each his own. I quite enjoyed Color Splash, but I also enjoyed Sticker Star, so maybe my opinion doesn’t count for much
Re: Feature: Why I Still Love My Wii U
The Wii U deserved a lot better than it got. Yeah, the advertising was pretty muddy and the GamePad was criminally underused at times, but it had a lot of gems, and I’m glad they can reach a wider audience on Switch.
Of course, there are some gems that are never going to make the jump, like Kirby and the Rainbow Curse and Paper Mario: Color Splash. Enough reasons for me not to put the old Wii U to pasture.
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (November 25th)
Back to Yo-kai Watch 3 on 3DS for me. I have reached the final chapter, and the game’s become pretty bizarre at this point. But I’m probably overleveled and have a bunch of powerful Yo-kai, so I don’t think it’ll be too much trouble. It’s a bit of a shame that this is pretty much the end of the saga, considering the fourth game is still Japan-only, but I suppose I have a lot of postgame content in the trilogy still waiting for me afterward.
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (November 18th)
Ghost Trick is truly a masterpiece and it makes me happy to see more people play it.
As for me, I shall once again be playing Yo-kai Watch 3 on 3DS. This game is much more ambitious than I’d ever anticipated, and there seems to be no end to the amount of content packed here, to the extent that I’d feel bad listing it all here. Two stories, two countries, a side mode, a parallel universe, a rafting minigame, nearly 600 Yo-kai…it’s unreal.
I’m now in Chapter 6, where our two protagonists meet at last. I can’t believe they even added a time difference between the two countries…even if it just seems to be a simplified 12 hours. Come to think of it, this was foreshadowed early in the game…which is pretty neat! I’m looking forward to playing more and seeing what happens from here.
Re: Review: Super Mario RPG - A Timeless Classic Returns In A Remake Done Right
60 USD is hard to swallow for what is essentially just the SNES game with better graphics…but wow, those graphics are beautiful. I still have the original on Wii U, though (and that was only 8 USD!), so I don’t know. Some parts were a pain (tricky platforming with a less-than-ideal camera angle), but I had fun with this one overall.
Also, any difference between “remaster”, “remake”, “rerelease”, “port” and so on is completely arbitrary. I suppose these words can be useful in identifying how much was changed, but I don’t believe there’s much about these definitions that’s generally agreed upon. Ultimately, if it’s the same game, it’s the same game, and if it isn’t, it isn’t.
Re: Switch Online Nintendo 64 Controllers Restocked In North America
I finally got one! Finally!
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (November 11th)
@JimNorman Do it! Play Ghost Trick. Trust me…you won’t regret it.
With that out of the way…this weekend I’ll be playing Yo-kai Watch 3. This was one of the very last 3DS games published in the West, so the physical version is exceptionally expensive, especially in North America. However, my brilliant foresight (read: eShop FOMO) landed me this game for the comparatively reasonable price of 40 USD.
So what are the more reasonable spenders missing out on, exactly? Well, somehow, this game manages to go even bigger and better than the second, featuring our familiar protagonist Nate Adams moving to a new country called
AmericaBBQ, where people drive on the right, eat large burgers, speak in a stereotypical Southern US dialect, and where hundreds of “‘Merican Yo-kai” are just waiting to be befriended. Back in Springdale, there’s a new protagonist, Hailey Thomas, an anime geek if there ever was one. Each protagonist has his or her own story, and you switch between these two stories throughout the game. (Sorry, Katie fans…you’re out of luck this time around.)It works pretty well, I think. I’m on Chapter 4 in both stories. It’s certainly had its bizarre moments already. The battle system is completely overhauled, too, featuring much more room for player input, and therefore even more strategy. The sad part is that when I play as Hailey and talk to Nate’s old friend Bear, he talks about how much he misses Nate. I always liked seeing Nate’s escapades with his trio of friends, so I hope they’re reunited soon enough.
Re: Surprise! Nintendo Is Officially Working On A Live-Action Legend Of Zelda Movie
I will scream if Link does not say, “Well, excuuuuse me, Princess!” at least once in the movie.
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (November 4th)
Continuing Yo-kai Watch 2: Psychic Specters on 3DS. This game turned out a lot crazier than I expected. I can time-travel to meet my grandfather 60 years ago, who happens to look nearly identical to Nate, in addition to having a nearly identical name (Nathaniel)? What’s more, I’m free to abuse this time-travel power to complete various side-quests, because it seems 11-year-olds don’t care about the space-time continuum! Being the only kid who can see Yo-kai has its perks.
I’m currently on the last chapter, though, so I suppose all good things must come to an end. Of course, I’ve also got Yo-kai Watch 3 in the pipeline…
I’ll probably also play a bit of Among Us on Switch this weekend. I’ve been getting back into it since the Fungle map came out, and public lobbies are as stupid as ever. But it’s still addictive, for some reason.
Re: Capcom Has A "Major" Unannounced Title Scheduled To Arrive Before March 2024
Yeah, it’s definitely not Ace Attorney. Too soon after the Apollo Justice trilogy.
…But I’ll be hoping anyway.
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (October 28th)
Yo-kai Watch 2: Psychic Specters on 3DS. I’m on the fourth chapter, in which 11-year-old Nate decides to visit his grandmother alone for the first time. Of course, I wanted to stay behind for a little longer and do the game night sidequest with Eddie and Bear, but the plot will do what it will.
Unlike the first game, this one went full Pokémon in releasing a total of three versions, all with different version-exclusive Yo-kai. Psychic Specters is generally regarded as the “definitive edition”, though, as it basically lets you switch between the two sets of version-exclusive Yo-kai by buying donuts. (It’s as weird as it sounds.)
So what’s new here, exactly? Well, we have new areas to explore, an awesome new soundtrack and characters who seem to get amnesia whenever the game needs to repeat a tutorial from the first game (even beyond chapter 1). Jaywalking is still a thing, and Katie has been reduced to scolding me for “barging into a girl’s room”. Hey, what happened to the unique dialog I got for visiting you in the first game?
Re: Level-5 To Celebrate 25th Anniversary With Release Date Announcements
I’m playing through the Yo-kai Watch trilogy on 3DS for the first time right now. Gives me an incredible sense of nostalgia and I wish this series did better over here than it did. Is it just wishful thinking that, even now, I hope a localization of the fourth game will be among these announcements?
Re: Talking Point: What's The Most Difficult Mainline Mario Game?
Lost Levels, no contest. (Particularly the original 8-bit version.) That’s not to say that no other Mario game is hard, but only Lost Levels has levels of that difficulty with only three lives to complete a world and requiring the player to beat the grueling gauntlet of a game eight times to play the even more grueling postgame.
It’s the face of Nintendo Hard for a darn good reason, and its difficulty is the most famous reason that, outside Japan, we got an Arabian Nights game featuring Mario instead.
Re: Nintendo Expands Its Switch Online N64 Library With Another Game This Week
Yes! Finally, finally I can play this game! I’ve been waiting for this since the day it was announced! (Which was well over a year ago, by the way!)
Feels like a bit of a flex that once I get Mario Party 5 and 6, I’ll be able to play the entire series. I suppose I’m a little more into this series than most are.
Re: Random: Sakurai Reckons Both Mario Wonder And Spider-Man 2 Are Masterpieces
I mean, this is the guy who can play Smash with two controllers at once. It’s not much of a stretch to say he can play two games on two consoles at once…
I don’t have a PS5 so I can’t play Spider-Man 2, but maybe I’ll change that before long…
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (October 21st)
Mario Wonder’s out, you say? I don’t have it just yet…but that’s definitely a “yet”. I’m definitely getting it within the next few months.
In the meantime, Yo-kai Watch 1 for 3DS will once again keep me occupied. My new cartridge came in and I’ve finally caught up to the seventh chapter, where I was before on my bad cartridge. Finally, new material! (…As new as material from a 2015 game can be, anyway.)
As someone who still has very little experience with Pokémon (yeah, I know, I know…), I’ve quite liked this game so far. The battles are rather unique, but they seem to work and are more dependent on player action than it might seem at first. Actually, there’s a lot of strategy involved, and maybe I’m just underleveled, but these bosses can be tough! The dialog is hilarious and I can’t begin to count the number of satirized tropes here. And the attention to detail here is incredible: you can visit the house of your best friend (who happens to be the protagonist you don’t choose) just to hear one totally optional line of dialog each chapter, and the game cares a lot about jaywalking and will penalize you if you do it too much. (Beware if you have a tendency to run recklessly through city streets!)
Re: Review: Super Mario Bros. Wonder - The Best 2D Mario Since The Super NES
So it’s a 9/10, but “excellent” just wasn’t a wonderful enough word, eh?
Anyway, I was going to get it anyway but I’m happy to know it lives up to the hype.
Re: Review: Sonic Superstars - A Fine, Authentic-Feeling Return That Runs Great On Switch
To those of you confused as to why the review here is two points higher than the one on PushSquare:
Remember that any review, whether it be for a movie, series, game or something else entirely, is really just one person’s opinion. What separates critics from the casual audience is their experience in going over the objective facts of the product and sorting them into pros and cons. Ultimately, however, the score is just an arbitrary number, evaluated from the weight of the pros relative to that of the cons. The relative importance of each of these pros and cons is something that varies from player to player, so it’s only natural that different reviewers give different scores.
The purpose of reviews is to help buyers make informed decisions about what they’re buying. The score measures how much an individual reviewer liked the game, but it can’t replace a buyer’s individual evaluation of the pros and cons.
There exists only one review that will be completely accurate to your experience of the game, and that’s your own. Reviews aren’t supposed to answer the question, “Will I enjoy it?”; they only intend to give reasons you might and reasons you might not.
Re: Super Mario Bros. Wonder Leaked Online Ahead Of Next Week's Release
I’m actually surprised that this hadn’t happened already. It seems to occur for every major first-party game well in advance of the release date. It’s a real shame and just ruins the experience for everyone else, but it’s pretty much a fact of life now. Hopefully Switch 2 will implement some security measures against this.
And yes, you absolutely can spoil a Mario game. It’s just that the major spoilers relate to different levels, bosses and secrets rather than story details.