Buizel

Interesting article. The main thing it has told me is to turn my damn PS5 off...I don't use it enough to justify the 14p per week I spend keeping it on standby Dx

They...barely changed anything?

@KilloWertz funny you mention that as, as much as I love Rift Apart, no other game has managed to quolite get my attention like it since I got my Ps5 :/

Dammit, take my money.

I'm running out of reasons to play consoles other than Switch.

As much as I'll defend 3D Sonic in general, I think there are only 2 Sonic games worth playing on the Switch: Sonic Mania and Sonic Origins.

The former is arguably the best 2D Sonic of all times, whereas the latter is a decent (albeit flawed) compilation of some classics.

Team Sonic Racing is okay but underwhelming compared to other Sonic racers as well as the competition (Mario Kart, Crash Team Racing). Colours is an overrated 2D game masquerading as a 3D one (but without the excellent controls and mechanics of the actual 2D games IMO). And Forces is...Forces.

@BulkSlash Very good point.

Although that shouldn't really affect handheld games. Nor should it really affect PAL games of the PS2/Gamecube/Xbox generation as 60hz support was becoming standard then (that said, I'm not in the know as to how well these games supported 60hz...it might still be more beneficial to have an NTSC copy in any case).

I'll also say that US copies have nicer boxes a lot of the time. The European DS cases in particular are chunky and ugly compared to the much sleeker grey cases of the US. Plus I quite like that the PS1 had the slimmer jewel cases in the US.

Not yet watched the video (will pick up this evening), but one thing I've noticed in the discourse about retro game collecting is that games generally seem to be a lot more expensive in USA than Europe.

I find that quite strange considering a lot of the cult classics talked about online probably had a very limited print run in Europe. Some weren't even released here!

But then you have games like Futurama on the PS2 which are apparently rare enough to go for $150+ in the USA, but commonly sell for around £15 (< $20) here in the UK.

If I were to take a guess I'd say some of this is cultural. Maybe with everything generally being a bit smaller in Europe, people are less likely to hold on to bulky physical game collections?

Damn Square Enix, slow down.

Or, better yet, could Nintendo and SEGA start having this much interest in their back catalogues?

I never realised how much I wanted all of these games (incl. the Persona 3 demake, etc., in the following post) until now.

I remember when it was first revealed...yeah, I definitely thought it was ugly. There was a lot of sentiment around the time that Pokemon had started looking like Digimon.

But it grew on me when I finally played the game. It helps that Blaziken is quite the badass and is far and away the best fire type in Hoenn.

Still not a fan of the overly humanoid designs of the last few gens though.

@Rayquaza2510 this is useful to know. Tbh this is not far from my impression as someone who barely touched the PC version.

Surprised this has been released on Switch as a "full game". I have this on Steam and always thought it had been marketed as a tech demo / beta of sorts (i.e. a taster before a more complete game is released).

@tseliot Fantastic series, but never reaches the pure platforming bliss of Mario Odyssey IMO.

I'll defend Mario Sunshine to the death, but personally I think it's far from the best 3D Mario.

That award goes to Odyssey IMO (which may itself be the best 3D platformer of all time).

Tbh I think this collection gets too much hate. Sure, there is a lot to complain about if you're a hardcore fan (myself included), but this is still the best official way to play all of these games imo. It is certainly better than the originals and my only complaint would be that they've not done enough when remastering and repackaging them.

That said, at over £30, and this being a collection of 4/(5) 90s games without a somewhat archaic save system...is it appealing to anyone who isn't already a hardcore Sonic fan?

Coming from someone with little experience of the series, do people actually like GTA4?

Despite being ranked as one of the best games of all time in metacritic, I don't think I've ever heard a single person say a positive thing about it.

@Fizza Yeah, as much as I thought this looked like an improvement... Green Hill again, really?

Yes, give us Persona please.

Not sure why the disappointment here. Nintendo has a pretty stacked second half of 2022. Plus, they have every opportunity to announce, say, a Zelda WW + TP double-pack through other means / in a later direct.

Samus using the Phantom Cloak: "You can't see me"

As a Brit who largely grew up during the Gamecube era, this is amazing.

Nintendo has historically had a rockier time in the UK compared to other markets - it's still strange to me that their games are topping the charts so frequently, but I guess that's the power of the Switch.

Fire Emblem also had a notoriously rocky start in the West in general.

To see a Fire Emblem spin-off of all things top the charts in the UK is fantastic.

As a consumer, I'm a little disappointed with how this game is packaged. Despite the games being rebuilt from the ground up, it still feels like a bunch of roms wrapped in a shared main menu.

I can totally see Sonic Team having outsourced the development of the individual titles before stitching everything together. There isn't much cohesion here.

In particular the saving system just feels a little archaic. Although a save feature on all games is welcome, why is this limited to a linear "one and done" playthrough of the games? Why no level select? Why different save files for characters, being unable to switch characters at will? Why unable to share emeralds between characters and playthroughs? The Sonic Advance series had a better save system than this game, and it came out 20 years ago!

This looks great. The level of care they seem to be putting in looks promising.

They really didn't have to include the Story Mode / animated cutscenes.

Maybe I'm getting old, but 15 years actually does seem closer to the actual age of the game than 25 years...

Games were 8-bit 25 years ago weren't they?

Almost 5 years after Forces and 6 months before launch, and we're seeing an "early build"? Doesn't seem right.

That said, my issues with the game are more than skin-deep anyway. I couldn't care less about the animations and the draw distance or w/e. I'm just not sold on the concept.

This did catch my eye though: "use portal gears to unlock linear Sonic levels > complete linear Sonic levels to unlock chaos emeralds". Why aren't they showing off the "linear" Sonic levels? Are these more like what we've seen in other 3D Sonic games? By the sounds of it these are making up the minority of the experience.

Could this be another 3D Sonic game where the core Sonic gameplay is diluted by some mediocre gimmick?

It's still far better than the Xbox and Playstation online stores IMO.

The browser version of the latter is abysmal.

This looks amazing as a proof of concept.

I think it would get very tiresome as a full game though.

I would, however, love to see a full colour manga/comic in this style.

Not sure if that's just the poor quality of the 3DS recording, or if that's what music sounds like these days o_o

But why do you need blockchain to "own" and sell digital items within games?

Surely this can be done with current technology (i.e. "ownership" tied to a user account on a server), but game developers/publishers are vehemently against selling "owned" data in this context.

What is the difference?

Thought this already had quite a beefy demo? I feel like I played a few hours of this before taking the plunge in 2019.

For the named series? No way. I've been gaming for ~25 years, but I never would've got into Final Fantasy or Legend of Zelda had I started with their NES games.

For most series with a loose (or non-existent) continuity, usually the latest game is the most accessible way to get into the series. If you like the latest game, then you're free to go back to the beginning to see how things were. But I think it's far too risky to start with the first game - it might put you off a series that has otherwise evolved into something you may enjoy.

I'm happy they changed the colour at least. The fushia speech bubble in the old logo made it look like they were a mobile network rather than a video game company.

Sony really need to show me a convincing library of games to get me on board with £99 a year.

NSO is a no-brainer for me as Switch is my primary console, the only one I play online, and I enjoy having legacy Nintendo content on the go.

Xbox Game Pass offers tremendous value with a wide selection of indies and third party titles, as well as day-one releases of first party titles.

With these two services, why would I go PlayStation?

Amazing performance. I don't believe Kirby has ever had much presence in the UK...could this be the first time the series has topped the charts?

8 (Deluxe) is the best for multiplayer, DS best for single player IMO.

And I'd put Double Dash!! right behind those two. The two drivers mechanic still feels great today, and the game has a great roster and set of tracks. That said, while it excels in quality, I think it's missing out a bit in quantity compared to more recent Mario Kart games.

@moodycat came here to say this. With the exception of a few games that explicitly link (haha) to others (e.g. Majora's Mask following OoT, Skyward Sword being the "first" legend), it's generally felt to me that the games were conceptualised first and only retroactively placed into a shambles of a timeline.

Sure, there are references between games - but that's not quite the same as a thought-out continuity (and small references may contradict each other in this sense).

Post-game was so tedious that I don't really want to touch the game for a long time.

It's a shame because I otherwise really enjoyed it.

Maybe it's just the art style, but this is the first Pokemon clone to grab my interest. I played a bit of the Steam demo and had some fun, so I'll definitely pick it up on the Switch once it launches.

But Metroid isn't Resident Evil - it's all about Samus' repertoire of skills and getting around in neat ways.

That's precisely why the EMMIs work IMO. Your use of Samus' abilities are put to the test when confronted with an undefeatable pursuer. It's a nice change of pace to the series' core gameplay and - IMO - every EMMI was killed off before they had time to become stale.

As fun as the catching was in Legends Arceus...maybe it's best kept in a Legends sub-series.

I'm not the biggest fan of this "catching first" approach used in Go, Let's Go and Legends Arceus for the main series. In these games, you are rewarded for catching as many Pokemon as possible, which IMO makes every Pokemon feel disposable. I'm happy for the main games to focus on traditional catching mechanics if it means that they're more focused on battling and team-building rather than catching multiple of everything.

Quite sad, but we all knew this day was coming.

Personally? These eShops have been pretty dead to me since they stopped doing discounts. I've got most of the VC games I want and - for retail releases - I've resigned myself to the idea that, if I've not bought it yet, I'll probably never find time for it anyway.

Damn, voted wrong on this one. I assumed the question in the poll was framed in the same way as the title so I clicked "no" as in "no I'm not bothered" rather than "Yes, I'm really feeling it".

I love the accents in the Xenoblade series. Gaming needs more Brits.

I've not played the game...but I think it looks fine?

Very much what I'd expect from a remaster of a PS1 game.

Surprised just how many answered "I think I'll like Legends: Arceus more than past games".

I've had my doubts, but I've become more hyped as time goes on. I think I'll enjoy this one as I've enjoyed almost all main-series Pokemon games, but it remains to be seen whether I'll enjoy it more than the typical formula.

This actually looks kinda interesting just for the novelty xD

So many of these creatures are blatant rip-offs of existing Pokemon though. I'd be surprised if The Pokemon Company didn't try to shut this down.

@Nanaki valid criticism of Yooka Laylee but personally one that didn't bother me much. I quite enjoyed Y-L for what it is.

Personally I feel the genre has evolved a lot since the N64 days. I appreciate SM64 and Banjo for what they did over 20 years ago (and I do think that Banjo is the best platformer on the system), but in this day and age I'd usually opt for Odyssey.

I'd take the 10 score with a pinch of salt. N64 games are clearly held to a different standard to modern titles. If a game like this were released today it would get a much less favourable score (see: Yooka-Laylee).

Personally I find the game enjoyable enough...but the controls are kinda clunky and there are just a few too many levels that I dread playing.

Still, looking forward to giving this a go for at least a few hours this weekend.

Eh, pricing could've been worse.

That said, I'm going to be overtly malicious here and hope that this bombs. The Switch shouldn't be getting cloud versions of 20-year-old games.

I was lucky enough to get an invitation to the UK event in Hammersmith 5 years ago.

The January presentation left me excited but I had my reservations, especially about the price and the emphasis on more casual/gimmicky titles like 1, 2, Switch and Arms.

However I was immediately sold on the system when I got my hands on it in Hammersmith. Just playing Mario Kart 8 in handheld mode was enough to sell me on this thing.

This is honestly surprising considering that PS5 and Xbox seemed to be much more widely available in the UK this holiday season than they previously had been (I even managed to grab a Series X myself) - that said there are still shortages for those consoles. Good to hear though!

If you can't make fun of conspiracy nuts the only alternative is for them to be taken seriously - and you don't want that.

Personally I don't find this very funny (I personally don't really find any humour in the pandemic), but I'm also personally not offended by it. Does seem it should be age-restricted though.