BulkSlash

Japan’s is by far the best. The PAL one is OK but it’s squashed into that small box. Not only did PAL games have ugly borders, so did the boxes. 😩

Where did it all go wrong for Aspyr? They used to be pretty decent and made good ports of KOTOR for mobile devices back in the day. I can only assume that after they were removed from doing the KOTOR Remake that they’ve been desperate for cash and have been cutting corners to try and steady the ship.

Sadly after they didn’t bother with the KOTOR II DLC they’d promised I can’t buy anything from them on principal. This is yet another game from them that requires you to buy it on the faith that they’ll actually finish it, there’s no way I’d take that gamble with the reputation they have now.

@batmanbud2 I consider it to be part of the SNES’ holy trinity- Mario World, A Link to the Past and Super Metroid. They’re all excellent and no-one would be wrong for calling any of them the best game ever.

That's brilliant. I'd imagine this could totally break the game by letting you skip all sorts of progress triggers, but being able to punch King Zora out of the way rather than wait for him to slowly shimmy to the side must be very satisfying. Whacking "The Great" Mido out of the level was funny too.

Why is Wario Land winning? 🤣 I do love that game (I beat it with the DX colour patch just a few months back) but it’s surely not the best Mario game (the best one is Mario World).

Yes to the originality, craziness and imaginativeness of the levels, but only as long as it doesn't end up just rehashing the things we've already seen.

I'd particularly like to see the badges return (new badges though, not the same ones again!), I thought they were a great addition and really made things interesting.

Super Luigi U is the most underrated Mario game.

I got bored after a while and haven’t gone back to it. The tasks needed to complete the Pokédex were just tedious busy work (like having to catch the same thing over and over in different ways).

The main story and gameplay were pretty decent, it’s one of those games I intended to go back to and try to do the minimum to finish it, but I’m not sure I’ll ever get around to it.

Japan, because the primitive CG renders are integral to the era and the aesthetic of so many games from that time.

The stock markets have always been a bunch of people screaming "buy" and "sell" down the phone lines. They panic and sell at the first whiff of bad news and then the people in the know get to buy all those shares up at a bargain price. It's just a racket.

This is the mistake all these companies make when bringing back old arcade games. Namco killed Ridge Racer by trying to make it AAA. Sega made a similar mistake with Sega Rally Revo. These sorts of games need to be short and focused, the design needs to prioritise immediacy and replayability over waffle and padding.

Certainly it's appreciated if the graphics are amazing, but don't spend millions making some massive photo-realistic world when it's unlikely to make that money back.

Maybe they'll prove me wrong, but I suspect this will be another example of a game being stretched longer than necessary and end up being repetitive and tedious because of it.

The demo was definitely very easy, maybe this is why I was so disappointed by the game back in '04 after highly anticipating a sequel to the GB game?

@MetalKingShield I completely agree. Too often companies seem to think everything must be bloated up so it can be a AAA release. Sega would be much better making smaller, more focused games for a lower price.

I like that the sprites are massive, so many modern 2D remakes go with really titchy sprites. That said, I think they need more frames of animation. I know that's expensive (and apparently why so many modern remakes go for small sprites) but it will improve the end product immensely.

Mario Kart 8 back in the top 5 again! 😆 I can't imagine Suicide Squad will keep that spot for very long given the poor reception. I'd imagine it only got to number 1 because there was nothing big out this week.

Any time an actor publicly says they're not coming back for a sequel it's usually their way of signalling they'll only come back is if more money is involved. Still, it's good news as I really enjoyed Carrey's Eggman, even if he's nothing like the games. 😅

I quite enjoyed the demo, Mario definitely feels stiffer and less fluid to move compared to the original DK '94 and I found the 3D graphics made it a bit harder to judge jumps- a couple of times Mario's toe would graze an enemy and he'd die. I don't think he jumps as high in this game as he did in DK '94.

It's been years since I played the GBA game and I remember something about it disappointed me compared to the original, but I had fun with this demo so I'll be buying the full game.

This is a plausible outcome, I think the Switch got a bit of an unexpected shot in the arm during lockdown with Animal Crossing and the chances of lightning striking twice are somewhat slim… that said, the original GameBoy struck gold with Pokemon reinvigorating sales, so Nintendo has form for defying the odds.

It will be interesting to see if the Switch 2 really is iterative or does do something unexpectedly new. If it has some unique gimmick then all bets could be off.

I remember being really disappointed by this, it just wasn't as good as DK '94. Before it released on the GBA the early footage showed something much closer to DK '94 and there was even going to be a level editor, but it all changed at some point.

That said, it's been so long since I last played it I can't actually remember what I didn't like about it. The Minis games were terrible too. Maybe I'll give this a try if there's a demo.

While a bigger screen is nice, it possibly also implies Nvidia and Nintendo have struggled to make something more powerful without needing a bigger case to house a bigger battery. That would probably explain why the rumours say it's something in the region of the PS4's power.

Transistor density just isn't increasing fast enough or getting cheap enough to allow for huge leaps in power. This is why the Steam Deck is quite large and why its more powerful competitors have hardly any battery life when running a recent AAA game at full speed.

I’ve beaten the recent Quake II remaster 5 times since I got it; so another game in that vein would go down very well with me.

@ferryb001 Same, I can’t see how that new control scheme could mesh with the grid based platforming either, it will be very interesting to see how it works.

Japan by a mile. The game is visually based on the cartoon, which this cover matches and there aren’t actually any Triceratons in the game, so why is one on the cover? They’ve just nicked one of the covers to the comics for this.

Unless your iPhone X is broken, it does support wireless charging, it was one of the first iPhones to do so. I’d probably be more worried about OLED screen burn leaving the screen on all the time on a (presumably) static image. If the screen changes then it shouldn’t be an issue.

I don't know anyone in the UK that says S-ness, most say either snez or super nez.

Whatever name Nintendo picks, they need to really make it clear to consumers it's a new system with games that (probably!) won't run on the old console. Otherwise it will just be another Wii U situation where people think it's just a new variant or peripheral that they don't need to buy.

I'm starting to get GTA Trilogy vibes from this. Might be best to wait for the reviews before buying.

Interestingly he's worked on many Zelda games I didn't really care for! 😅 Who directed A Link Between Worlds? I'd like to see them do the next Zelda game.

Kudos to the devs for ensuring we get a decent frame rate on Switch for once. 30fps just isn't acceptable except when doing "impossible ports" like Doom Eternal.

It's weird to think egg throwing is somehow too complicated when there are quite a few badges in the game that make the game play quite differently. It's probably more likely that throwing eggs broke the way most levels worked and they didn't want a single character to play differently from the rest so they dropped it.

Saying it was too complicated is probably just an excuse for not including it.

Perhaps they could sell off some more winning studios so they can go all in on AI, just like they did with NFTs? Just make good games Squeenix, stop trying to chase the latest buzzwords.

I just hope it has an auto-fire option, having to hammer the fire button was the one shortcoming of Contra 4. I like how they’ve snuck in references to things like Probotector too.

It’s funny that Operation Galuga shortens to OG, as this is a remake of the “OG Contra” I wonder if the choice was deliberate?

@whitespy12 Thank you. It’s nice someone recognises that the GB game was actually pretty good instead of just parroting the AVGN’s review of it. It might not be the best game ever on the GB, but it’s a fun little game in the same vein as Donkey Kong ‘94.

Too late Nintendo, I’m just about to start the Face Shrine on my Steam Deck. I like this better than the remake, not least because it hasn’t been drawn out with bloat and has a steady framerate.

Why not work with creators to make things like this available on the Switch? I know you can’t condone or turn a blind eye to copyright infringement as it can weaken your claims over the IP in future legal actions. But when things as good as this and AM2R come along you’re leaving money on the table by not working with the creator. Yes, you have your own (inferior) remakes to sell, but there’s nothing wrong with having both versions (and the originals!) available.

City is my favourite of the set too, the Wii U version was pretty good and the GamePad extras were great. I must have replayed that one 10 times when the Wii U was my main system.

It’s weird how Asylum has worse performance yet isn’t as big as City!

Arkham Knight struggled even on the PS4, they’d have been much better off trying to port Origins I think.

@ozwally Ah right, the article says it matches the 2016 versions that Virtuos did, so I assumed they'd based it on those. That's even worse then if they can't get 360 era games to run well on the Switch! 😩

They should have ported the original Unreal Engine 3 versions, not the shoddy Unreal Engine 4 versions released on Xbox One and PS4. They never ran well even on the Xbox One X (which was capped at 40fps for some reason).

Aha, it's WayForward, I wondered why it looked good. I love that they've kept the hookshot from Contra 4, I just hope they include auto-fire this time, hammering the fire button in Contra 4 was exhausting! 😂

It looks like they've kept the weapon upgrade system from Contra 4 as well, which is excellent. This looks like it will be a return to form after the disappointing Rogue Corps.

I always made my Scarecrow song the Konami code (well as much of it as will fit anyway).

If Ninty want to sell me another Switch they should do a nice Mario Wonder special edition, I'd be down for that. I don't get why Zelda, Smash, Pokemon and even Animal Crossing all got special Switches yet Mario Odyssey and Wonder didn't. 😢

A shame it’s not great, but I’ll definitely be buying to support Yu Suzuki.

I suspect WarioWare isn't doing huge numbers because it's mostly multi-player and mostly motion controls (and it's a busy time of year).

Maybe it will find legs over Christmas as people look for something the family can play together?

I think Miyazaki would pitch a fit if he saw those 3D backgrounds, he gets so grumpy about CGI. 😂

I wish that Booster Course pack was a physical copy, I’d buy it in a heartbeat if it was. The hated “NO GAME INCLUDED” makes it worthless. 😢

I think we need to discuss if it’s a problem that the prince of the Flower Kingdom is a caterpillar and all the Poplins are plants…

Bigger Joy-Cons would be nice. The buttons are too small and they’re too close to the analogue stick on the right Joy-Con which means I often move it when I’m trying to press the buttons.

It still amazes me we never got any special Joy-Cons for specific games, like a fishing rod reel or a Guitar Hero controller.

In terms of other stuff, I’d like to see being able to remap controls on a per game basis, rather than having to go into the settings app to load a different preset all the time. Being able to enable gyro in any game when developers forget to include support would be nice too (the Steam Deck allows you to do this).

I think the difficulty is just right. Mario games don't need to have me pulling out my hair to be fun (in fact I don't think any game should be like that). That said, the "Final-Final Test Badge Marathon" level was very hard and almost did have me pulling my hair out, mainly due to having to re-do earlier sections just to get back to the bit I was trying to practice. A checkpoint every two sections would have been ideal I think.

I did love the addition of badges. At first I thought the game was a bit lacking on power-ups, but I kind of think of the badges as power-ups and they add a lot of variety to the game. I particularly like the Piranha Plant one.

Overall it was a lot of fun and probably just edges Luigi U as the best 2D Mario since World for me. I need to replay it a few times to decide if it really is better or not, but I'm definitely going to start a new game soon I think!

@WaffleRaptor01 I think it's mostly so people can check the game hasn't been too badly compromised when squeezed onto the Switch. Sometimes not enough time or care has been taken, e.g. Mortal Kombat 1, to get the game running acceptably.

Japan. It gives us the best view of that lovely artwork.

Looks very low budget sadly. The characters are very well realised but we only really see two fighting areas (a courtyard and a forest clearing) and it's just the characters fighting each other.

I'd much rather something where you're fighting actual curses like the anime instead of this.

I never properly appreciated the fact that by making a system digital-only it helps to kill the second hand market. That’s really quite devious. That might be a genuine reason for Nintendo to actually sell a digital-only console.

I had initially thought a digital-only Switch 2 to be extremely unlikely purely because the cartridge module on the Switch is a very simple component and it wouldn’t save Nintendo much money by removing it. It’s not like a Blu-Ray drive with lots of moving parts and security chips to prevent piracy. The cost of manufacturing different casings, maintaining separate production lines and having separate packaging would eat into any savings too.

So I don’t think Nintendo would do it to make a cheaper console, but maybe they would to trap people into buying more expensive digital releases.