Bondi_Surfer

Yikes, I appear to be the worst Switch gamer. I played ten games for a total of 24 hours in 2023. Top 3:

Breath of the Wild: 7 hours
Unravel Two: 5 hours (and my favourite game this year)
Mario Kart: 2 hours

I will hang my head in shame...

Loved 1080. Played Jet Force, but can’t remember much about it. And have never played Harvest Moon - so looking forward to that. Great triple-drop!!

For me, all I want is Diddy Kong Racing, and I’d like that Mini Racing game (Beetle Adventure, or somesuch)

Apple Arcade is not just for gaming on your iTelephone or iTablet. I play on my TV (streaming with Apple TV) with my PS4 controllers, and it’s great - so I’ll definitely check this out

Worst review ever! How did it play? Graphics? Music and sound effects? Frame-rate? Where were the joys and cons?

Right, I need a drink, then I’ll go pick up my kids … (joking!)

I still haven’t collected 120 coins, and that’s taken me 25 years…

I lost many, many hours to sensible soccer back in the day. You’re goal scoring superstar hero…

My daughter is called Daisy, so she’ll be thrilled (as am I). Can’t wait!!

My daughter (7 years old) and I loved playing the first one, so will definitely get this. Similar style of chaotic fun to Overcooked, and I can’t say it ever felt chore-like

Herlock Shomes?!? Ripped straight from Lupin by Maurice Leblanc!!

Excuse the non-video game tangent...

I'm a kiwi who lived in London for many years, and would often go to Wales to watch the All Blacks. I went to the Llanelli vs All Blacks rematch (as they beat us in 1972!!), which was so much fun. And I've been in Snowdonia a few times too

The Welsh are some of the friendliest people I've ever met, and I loved every visit I ever had. As a kiwi, they were extra-hospitable, and love to talk rugby all the time (often accompanied by pub lock-ins. Shhhh)

Driving through Wales, I remember seeing Araf written on the roads, meaning to slow. and to this day, I tell people to araf-down, which is typically accompanied by quizzical looks

Apologies for the tangent, but the article got me thinking about Wales, and the many good times I had there (which is a world away as I now live in Oz)

I found the demo frustrating with its constant, pointless interruptions. I’ve never seen so much dialogue that says so little. I gave up after an hour, bored and disappointed

I’d like to say I played the demo, but I feel like all I did was hit the button to skip pointless dialogue. You’d get into the game for a minute or two, and then it stops, pulling you out of the moment for a cut-scene in which nothing but drivel is said. I gave up frustrated and bored after an hour

Great interview. I love NL articles like this

I wouldn’t play any of those mini-games for free

Yeah, I loved the pointer controls and do wish we had them on the Switch.

In general, I think controls and controllers are over-complicated. There’s just too many buttons - one shoulder-button on each side I can cope with, add a second and I no longer remember which one does what.

But then I much preferred joysticks that I could hold - a thumb-stick is far less accurate. Basically, give me an Atari 2600 joystick, add in an IR pointer, and we’re done…

I don’t think I’ve ever cringed so much during a video before…

But if I ever have 100 friends come over, I’ll dress up as a horse and get them all to play. At the end, I’ll have no friends, but at least I’ll have a horse costume

I really liked the first game, but disliked many aspects of it: the rabbids, the need to walk around a world looking for the next tactical battle, and the ‘humour’. And it sounded like they leant more heavily into the bits I don’t like for the sequel, plus made the strategy-part easier, and removed the grid-based system. For those reasons, I haven’t even considered getting it

Reminds me of Ten Yard Fight, which I played in the arcade as a kid growing up in NZ - loved it, even though I had no idea about American football (nor what a ‘yard’ was)

Does it have co-op? My daughter and I play Untitled Goose Game in co-op and have a blast, and would do the same with kittens in a flash!!

A lot of judgement about the parents on here. Victim blaming is never a good look. Perhaps they are teaching their child about money and responsibility, hence the credit card. Who knows?

But what I do know is that if the law in your State/country says it’s illegal to offer gambling to minors, then Nintendo has a case to answer. I’ve no idea how it’ll turn out, but that’s why a court will judge

I also know that these mechanics ruin gaming for me, and I’ll never touch a game with them in, nor let my daughter play one

I wouldn’t even play it for free, nor allow it in my house. The term micro-transactions gets bandied around as though it’s just a thing we have to accept now … but we don’t. It’s publishers deliberately stifling their game and then begging for more money to make it playable. Such a shame as the game itself looks pretty good, but it’s an easy pass from me, and I genuinely hope the game does badly

Unfortunately, I think Zelda is just too difficult for me - far too many buttons to remember what does what. I’ve played a bit of BotW, and got up to my first guardian - and having watched a guide on how to beat them, there’s no way in hell I’m pulling that off!! Maybe if this one has no boss fights I’ll get it, but I doubt that’s the case

When I was a kid, many, many years ago, my grandparents used to go to Japan every year, and they occasionally brought us back Game and Watch games. Helmet or Vermin was one of our first, and I still remember the excitement when we got the dual-screen Donkey Kong and Oil Panic. Ahh, good times

This title was brought to you by ChatGPT…

Tangentially related, a mate of my bro made the mobile game 10000000 and said he regretted the title as it made it so hard to search for (but it deservedly did very well!!)

The dungeon-maker one looked pretty cool. That Zelda game looks alright. And I would’ve been interested in the Lego racer, but isn’t it geared towards micro-transactions or season passes or something?

Bitterly disappointed that my seven year old daughter doesn’t want to see this - and she likes video-games and Mario?!?

Guess I’ll see it next time I fly…

Yeah, no. I don’t ever buy a game which begs for extra money - potential pestering from kids to buy additional bells and whistles just ain’t worth it. And that’s not even considering how the presence of additional transactions ruin game play.

Original excitement gone in a puff of 2K greed.

1982 for me.

The Atari 2600 had Pitfall, Wizard of Wor, Zaxxon, Bezerk, Defender, Pacman all published that year (and E.T., but we don’t talk about that…). I’d had my 2600 for about three years at that point, and up until then my highlights were only Combat and Space Invaders (plus whatever I’ve forgotten!)

Good times

This was my first ever Animal Crossing game, and I hate to say it, but I found it tedious. The repetitive phrases, the drawn-out process for donating fossils, having to collect so much money to expand your house, etc…

I was playing it with my young daughter, and we only play games sporadically, so we missed things that were only at a specific times of year/day, never had the band come to our island, nor did we get the opportunity to start collecting artworks. If you didn’t play it constantly it’s like you got a lesser game.

Lesson learned; it’s not for me

What a legend! Great to see and hear him on a video, having grown up with his games on my C64

Maybe Peppa Pig, but nothing else of interest to me. Peppa on the iPhone was actually pretty good, and my daughter loved it - she’s kinda past it now, but if it reviews well I might see if I can get her interested again

Well, seeing as I manufacture toilet paper, this game is a must-buy! I’m flushed with excitement

It does look beautiful, and I’d love to give it a whirl, but back-tracking irks me and I much prefer being able to save when I want to. So, not for me, but happy to hear how many are loving it!!

Well, I’d never played on a Gameboy Advance before, and I’ve never played a 2D Zelda … so I had a look at Minish Cap, and completely lost three hours!! Bliss!

Oh no! Kate, you’re a favourite writer of mine on this site! You will be missed, and I hope you enjoy your next adventure!! Good luck, and thanks for the prose

Diddy Kong Racing is the finest kart racer game ever made - so it got my vote. I played it so much back in the day, and rated it up there with Goldeneye.

I played almost every Rare game, mostly as rentals - truly a quality studio at the time

An article on game music, and no mention of Ron Hubbard?!? Monty on the Run has the finest video game music of all time. ‘nuff said.

Yes, I’m old

I purchased the Expansion pass so I could buy N64 joysticks in anticipation of Goldeneye coming to Switch. And now it’s here! The controls aren’t as I remember them, but the game is perfection…

Looks rather claustrophobic for a theme park…

My list is only one game long: Goldeneye

I’ve never played a Pokémon game, but wanted to get one for my daughter for Christmas. I’m so pleased I opted for Arceus, as S/V looks utterly terrible. GameFreak should be embarrassed, but I guess the large number of fans blindly buying whatever Pokémon game they release means they really don’t have to care.

As Digital Foundry says, ‘Pokémon fans deserve better.’

No new courses? What is this, Mario Kart?!?

Getting a console late in its life is always a great idea. I picked up a PS4 a couple of years ago, so had a massive selection of games at cheap prices. I’m tempted to WiiU too, as I never played (not even saw) one

Naming-wise, it does feel like a cheap cash-in on the Golf Story name. But the game itself looks pretty cool. I also can’t bring myself to call the sport ‘Soccer’, so mentally I’m naming it ‘Football Fiction’

I loved my Atari 2600 back in the day! But what I really miss is the joystick!! Trying to control games with a tiny thumb-stick is rubbish in comparison. And just one button! Awesome! No complicated controls you have to remember.

Yes, I’m old…

The TV show is genius. Drip-feeding in characters from all the movies was such a joy to see. Based on the tone at the start of the article, I stopped reading…

Annoying controls, breaking weapons, vast empty spaces, and I had no idea where to go or what to do … so probably not my kind of game

US$250 per hour is a great wage. If you don't like the contract, then negotiate for more, or put in a clause for a bonus if sales are above a certain level

She obviously feels like she deserved more, based off the previous games' success. But I'm pretty sure we all feel we deserve more based on the success of the various companies we work for. If you want to make the big bucks, then you really need to risk something

Both are super-fugly

Into the Breach? An ugly game is still ugly, even with an OLED screen. Not that looks are everything…