Bondi_Surfer

Before the Atari 2600 came out, we had a system called Sportstronic. It basically had four or five variations of Pong, such as Squash, and Football, but still just paddles going up and down to hit a ball. So my first every video game was Pong!

This isn't a war - it's a needless invasion by the Russians. When the Russians are killing civilians, bombing civilian targets, executing Ukrainian soldiers, and committing many atrocities that I'll not go into - then they are very much the 'bad guys'. Let me shoot some virtual Russians in a video game, and send 20% of the Goldeneye purchase price to fund the post-war Ukrainian rebuilding effort

F2P, no thanks. I don’t want my daughter pestered by micro-transactions whilst playing a game - I want her to enjoy the full experience. I ended up subscribing to Apple Arcade just to avoid ads and micro-transactions; it makes for a much more relaxing gaming environment

Loved the battles in the first one (hated the wandering around looking for battles…), but this left me a little underwhelmed. It could be the lack of a grid that’s thrown me, or maybe it was the off-putting voice-over. I’ll wait until it’s released and see how it reviews

Just add some friggin’ games. Nintendo’s glacial pace is dissuading me from resubscribing. I’ve always been a fan, but I’m slowly losing interest…

@CharlieGirl you win the internet today!

The term ‘metroidvania’ irks me, mainly because I’ve never played a Metroid game nor a Castlevania one. But I know what a 2D side-scrolling game is. I played the fabulous Pitfall back in 1982, so I’ll refer to this genre as Pitfall-like (or Monty on the Run-esque, or…)

Can you turn off those cut-scenes when doing a super-shot? The break in action would annoy me far too much

The floating rails look so bad that I can’t even take the game seriously. I’d rather they just remade Sonic Adventure - I loved that on the Dreamcast!!

I got the NSO Expansion pack, purely so I could buy the N64 controllers, solely on the off-chance that Goldeneye would be coming to the Switch…

Thanks @Silly_G - I appreciate your thoughtful response. You’ve pretty much sold me on getting it for her!!

How do you die in a game when you’re already dead…

I threw up a little watching that…

I’ve never played Pokémon. Ever. But I’m thinking of getting this for my seven year old daughter. Two questions: age-wise is seven ok? And why are there two versions? Do you need both?

@KateGray I’m going to steal/borrow the phrase ‘getting LIIT’ - I love it! And I might shortly have a tea cake, just to remind myself that today was far from TEAdious…

Tea! During the day I’m an Assam kind of guy, and by night I go Rooibos (which is naturally caffeine-free). And when on the town, it’s a Long Island Iced Tea…

Sorry, what are we talking about?

The project is a scam, as are NFTs. Which makes it a scam within a scam … it’s borderline Inception

If the development team is only two people, then they were probably working on this before Link’s Awakening came out

Mario + Rabbids was a great game, despite the Rabbids, not because of them. I prefer my games Rabbid-less

Gibbon is also on Apple Arcade. Get a free trial subscription and you can play them both for nothing!

Cracking video - thanks Zion, and all those who contributed!

I love this Backlog Club idea. I’ve got NSO, but don’t think I’d ever be bothered trying Earthbound - but if everyone else is giving it a go this month, then why not!!

It was a new, all-inclusive way to play. And it was awesome … for a bit. But in typical Nintendo fashion, they never expanded upon it. How hard can it be to add a new golf course?!? I’d be embarrassed if I set up this phenomenal way of playing with friends, and then let it wither and die … but it unfortunately sums up how Nintendo act, which is beautiful and bizarre in equal measures

I barely play anything on NSO, but I think it’s because the games are drip-feed so slowly at random times. If there was some sort of schedule, like two new games at the start of each month, I reckon I’d be more engaged

It makes a mockery of the publisher’s name, Devolver Digital…

I very much look forward to these dropping at an irregular and snail-like pace...

My six year old daughter loves Overcooked All You Can Eat, and Lego Harry Potter; both in co-op. She also likes the SNES Super Mario games (no idea which one/s). Mario Kart gets the odd go too. (And Little Big Planet on PS4 in co-op was hilariously fun!)

After reading the first sentence, I knew this article was written by Kate! Love it!!

Why does everyone keep referring to prequels, sequels and trilogies? As far as I can tell, there were only two Star Wars films - Star Wars, and The Empire Strikes Back…

The Legend of Zelda: Breathe in the Wild

So everyone in here seems to want a free copy of a Nintendo guidebook. And Nintendo don’t want everyone to have a free copy of their guidebook. Well, naughty Nintendo for expressing what they want to happen with their stuff - don’t they realise people feel entitled to have it!!

Diddy Kong Racing is the best Mario Kart ever. Great single player adventure, and awesome power-ups mechanic that feels 100% fair

I like how a skateboarding game gets reviewed by someone named Ollie

I was surprised Fortnite is still so popular. Most of the kids I knew who played it have moved on, or seem to play it less that they used to. But then you see Epic raise US$50M in 24 hours for the Ukranian humanitarian effort, and you realise this game is a behemoth!

I checked it out a few years ago, but was terrible at it, and the building mechanic was well beyond my skill level. Without building, I might give it another whirl - do they have lobbies for newbies?

I made one called Games, and put all my games in it … am I doing it wrong

I just had a few races with my six year old daughter here in Australia - we loved the new tracks. I thought the graphics were fine (didn’t notice any difference from the usual tracks), and my little one commented on how cool she thought the music was in the Paris one, and loved seeing the Eiffel Tower!!

This is not a design patent, so the layout shown in the diagram is not indicative of how any future controller will look. The patent is based around structure, and how to arrange the internal components to make a controller more compact

I’ll have to check my gamer credentials, as I don’t have a single one of those games…

BotW beat me in about ten hours. After the hundredth weapon broke, and I had no idea where I should be going, I gave up…

I still found some parts of the game very clever, and loved the look of the world, but for me it was too frustrating

My C64 was running Hardball by Accolade almost four years ago, so you’d think the Switch could cope with a baseball game. Not that I expect The Show to be anywhere near as good as Hardball…

He committed a crime and got punished for it. The fact that he didn’t make as much money as others involved is more his own foolishness. The debt he owes he will never have to pay, and the custodial sentence was pushed for by the Attorney General, not by Nintendo.

Where I draw the line is having his sentence set more harshly as an example to others - the sentence should match the crime committed, and the additional deterrent part of the sentence is complete BS

I was underwhelmed. The new additions: giant ball soccer (?) and badminton didn’t look particularly fun; and the other sports I’ve played enough of in the Wii days

My favourite event, Golf, is not coming until later - and if that has more than two nine-hole courses, then I may be tempted, depending on how good the joy-con movement is

Great article, thanks guys. I’ve never played a Pokémon game, but have considered getting this for my six year old daughter - is it ok for little kids (i.e. not too complicated)? And can you play co-op?

Can you only play as a triangle, or are other polygons available?

I’d like an easy option: more durable weapons, more hearts to start with, and some indication of where to go and what to do within the game

I play about an hour a month, and would love to see all the cool stuff, but I’m basically lost with breaking weapons and frequent deaths. So I’m down to playing every six months where I give it another go and leave after an hour, frustrated

I haven’t played the video game, but Pandemic the board game is excellent!

For those that don’t know, it’s a co-op game that slowly escalates as viruses spread globally, and you work together to cure them. I played it with a group of friends on a rainy holiday, and it took us three days to finally win a game! Highly recommend!

Someone I’ve never heard of gets scammed. I’m trying to care … but nope, there’s zero sympathy for someone paying $3.5M for a deck of cards

I always love a Kate review, as they’re beautifully written.

I thought this game looked intriguing, but when a review has the word ‘jank’ mentioned seven times, I know the game ain’t for me

@KateGray Zynga has over 168M monthly users, and revenue last quarter of $706M. The mobile game sector is said to be worth $100B in 2022. So Take-Two are now set-up to make mobile versions of their numerous IPs to take advantage of this massive gaming sector

Basically, mobile versions of games generate bank, and this’ll probably look like a bargain in two years’ time

I’ll give you two NFTs for a Pocket Analogue…