Burning_Spear

@Yobreeze I last played 2 in August. I remember the first match took forever to get into, but after that the wait times were about usual for that game, if I recall correctly.

@Luigia Right? It had much more of a Punk Rock vibe than the sequels.

Splatoon 2's maps are miles better than those in Splatoon 3. But I guess for everything else 3 is better.

I still think playing with the GamePad in 1 was the best experience. Having the map displayed at all times and being able to super jump with a thumb twitch was huge.

@Nintendontyouknow Jah bless, sir. That's the best laugh I've had in a long, long time!

@Misima I've been where you're standing! Keep up the good fight!

I'll be getting a very late start to the weekend, as I was exhausted last night and had little energy for anything other than a few runs on Mr Driller 2 on the GBA (not NSO).

When I get back in the cockpit, I will resume my Civ VI run as Ptolemaic Cleopatra leading Egypt to a culture victory. She has just started recruiting Egyptian rock bands, and for those familiar with the game, I'm at that point where the tourism is beginning to arrive in chunks, rather than one every turn or two. So I'm optimistic.

Happy gaming, everyone!

@Spider-Kev I wouldn't set foot in GameStop even if I were on fire and they had water.

Is GameStop making people needlessly buy merchandise to get one of these codes?

I'm back after spending last weekend on vacation with the Spearess. I spent a couple hours in Mr. Driller 2 on the GBA last night (not NSO). I improved my high scores on all three Endless difficulty settings.

On Civ VI, I'm about one-third through a run as Cleopatra leading Egypt. I'm just about fully settled and ready to start the push for a culture victory. The run as Joao III of Portugal ended in a glorious space-race victory last Friday night. Joao's trading empire let me buy my way past everyone else, and I actually would have had a culture victory if I'd chosen to play it out that way for another 10 turns or so.

Happy gaming, everyone!

I guess this means the little blue UI light is on ... again.

This looks pretty cool. I don't remember this in the arcades.

I was satisfied with Hori's Pro substitutes for Switch 1 and would buy these. They're good for when the real thing needs a charge and you're not playing a game with rumble.

I'm about halfway through a Civ VI run as Joao III of Portland. Looking good. International trade routes are producing insane amounts of loot, making it a snap to keep my military far ahead of everyone else's as I build toward a space-race victory.

I also completed this month's challenge on Mario Golf Super Rush last night.

Happy gaming, everyone!

"While we have nothing to announce about our internal business activities, the claims shared with IGN include inaccurate information."

Not saying Nintendo is lying, but as a journalist, I often receive these responses about inaccuracies and then, after pressuring the media-relations person for clarification, learn that the "inaccuracy" was a barely meaningful part of the greater story.

My physical copy of Mr. Driller 2 conveniently rests in my desk drawer, ready for a run any time my attention wanes at work. Great game!

@Robot99 I agree with just about all the points against game-key cards and wish they'd go away, but criticizing Nintendo for removing their older digital shops is not germane to this argument. You can still redownload Wii, DS, Wii U and 3DS games, which is the equivalent of redownloading a key-card code.

@Ganner Hey, man. Long time. Good job with Captain Toad. I played it on the Wii U and thought it was one of the five best games on that console. So much fun!

And good to see you're working toward that eventual 100 percent on Snowrunner!

Congrats, Jim! I beat this game back when the NES was current gen but have never found time to go back and beat it again. Too many games, too little time.

@Medic_alert I was thinking of putting the Analogue on my Christmas want list. No complaints with it?

@Medic_alert The GameBoy is always on my desk for whenever I need a short distraction. I had just finished some Tetris Plus when I saw your message.

I'm happy to say that I took a gaming break last night to book a holiday for the Spearess and me in Aruba later this year. One of the few worthwhile non-gaming pursuits for a Friday evening!

Later this morning, I'll start a new Civ VI run, this time as Joao III of Portugal. The last run as Eleanor/Britain ended gloriously on Monday with a culture victory but just one turn short of my space-race project reaching its completion, all the while with foreign cities all over my continent flashing Britain's crest, signaling their impending defection to Eleanor's rule. Gaming joy at its best!

Happy gaming, everyone!

@HugoGED Agreed. There's not a thing wrong with these games on Wii. I always prefer to play on the original console anyway. $70. What reality are they living in? Nintendo since Switch 2's release feels 100 percent corporate, zero percent fun.

This looks amazing. This and Dragon Quest VII have stolen the show so far.

Genki? Nope. Happy to help them out of business.

@Coxula I don't remember that, but it has been a while. Do you mean when the puzzle first loads, after moves or both?

@Daggot @Coxula I put 100 hours into the Switch version and don't recall performance being much of an issue. I seem to remember it crashing once or twice during puzzles, but I could be mistaken.

Like @nHSnork, I sunk 100 hours into this on Switch, beat it, and kept going until the side quests just got too repetitive. And so I'm probably a couple hours shy of 100 percenting it.

To anyone who hasn't played it, I'd say absolutely go for this version. It's super fun. But just stick to the main quest. The side quests are just busy work. Oftentimes you beat one and the person who asked for the help will say, "I may ask you to do this for me again." And they do. Rinse and repeat ... and repeat.

No more three-day weekends for a while, so instead of juggling multiple games this weekend, I'm back to just Civ VI.

It's now my third try at the Eleanor/England combo, which, if you know the game, is one of the worst leader/civ matches. No synergy. You really have to ignore one buff or the other.

This game was going along unspectacularly until Persia declared a surprise war on me. They put their entire army on one of my border cities, Birmingham, and took it. But not without heavily casualties, almost entirely on their end.

Once I drew in reinforcements, I retook Birmingham and rampaged through two of their cities. And since then, I've been snowballing. Even beat everyone to the Statue of Liberty to block the AI from a cheap diplomatic victory.

And so now, it's just don't-do-anything-stupid and finish this thing off, either through tourism or the space race. And then I can finally add Eleanor/England to my Hall of Fame page.

Happy gaming, everyone!

I took a day off yesterday, so my (even) long(er) weekend is already underway.

I am in the middle of a frustrating going-nowhere run on Civ VI, as Sundiata Keita has been waging largely fruitless war on me for the better part of 2,500 years, distracting me from my victory objective.

I've also put in a bunch of time on Piczle Cross: Story of Seasons, played a little Tetris 99, because I never miss the special events, finally unlocked the Superstar Clubs for all 21 characters in Mario Golf Super Rush, clocked a little Wii and 3DS time on Animal Crossing, and even hit the GameBoy Color for some Tetris Blast. @JohnnyMind's list has nothing on mine this weekend! (Though he can write his in Japanese.)

I also picked up Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar and will be getting into that at some point. My Switch 2 is excited to be finally getting off the sidelines!

Enjoy the long weekend, everyone!

I can't even imagine the cost of this. The Switch 2 is $450 to roughly approximate a base PS4. What would a portable PS6? And if they go with PS5 specs, will Sony's power- and graphic-conscious audience accept that?

@VoidPunk I have the original, and that's fine with me. I'm not interested in seeing how Marvelous' budget team of ringer developers has changed the original development team's vision. Strawberry cows, childish costumes and the removal of any level of difficulty, I presume.

@eltomo There's no question about losing sales to other platforms. I've always been Nintendo first and probably have 10 or 15 Nintendo physical games for every PlayStation physical game in my collection, but I'm not buying anything digitally on Switch 2 if it's available on physical for PS4 or PS5.

@Coalescence No, Nintendo isn't making anyone release games on a game key card, but they're also not providing a cost-effective solution for true physical releases. They're going to sell hundreds of millions of games this generation. They should be able to mass produce a range of game cards to accommodate games of all but the very largest file sizes.

I understand the library's stance. Maybe start a bad-ideas wing?

I was off yesterday, so my weekend is already well in progress. I began with a little Mario Golf Super Rush and the victorious completion of my run as the Netherlands in Civ VI. This was one of my favorite runs ever and also one of my best, as I'm overtaking another difficulty level.

We're going on a day trip for the Spearess' birthday today. That will give me time to gameplan the next Civ run. Tomorrow will likely be Civ and ... who knows, perhaps I'll start another game.

Happy gaming, everyone!

I watched a stream this weekend. The players seemed to be moving and dipsy-doodling deftly, so someone at least has mastered the control scheme. I haven't played it, so I can't rate it, but I will say my wrists tired just from watching it, so I'm hesitant to drop $20 on it.

I saw @JohnnyMind dropping threes in this game this weekend! Looks like fun!

I'm about 175 turns into an amazingly fun Civ VI run as The Netherlands. Teddy Roosevelt inexplicably messed with us in the Medieval Era, and I've smacked him into bankruptcy with relentless military pressure. Meanwhile, my plucky Dutch citizens are happily filling the waterways with polders and dams.

Happy gaming, everyone!

"No download required" = huge patch installed upon first load, followed by multiple updates.

Good job by Nintendo, but for context, the S&P 500 is up about 300 percent in the same period.

I finished a victorious Civ VI run as Frederick Barbarossa last night and am thinking about which civ to guide next. In the meantime, I've been playing a good deal of Dr. Mario on the GameBoy as well as the WiiWare version and Dr. Luigi on the WiiU.

My poor Switch 2 continues to watch longingly from the sideline. "Can I play yet, coach?" "Sorry, son, but these other boys have been here much longer and have earned their playing time."

Happy gaming, everyone!

I preordered UFO 50, which, unfortunately, won't ship until February ... probably right about the time I finally get tired of Civilization.

@somnambulance I thought the same thing. Kind of buried the lede.

I just preordered the physical edition. A game on a cart in a box ... See how it works, Nintendo?

Let's face it: The game-key-card genie is out of the bottle and cannot be contained. I hope I'm wrong, but the survey seems like fake concern, or maybe Nintendo is throwing a Hail Mary, hoping to get enough positive feedback to say it's reasonably well received.

Let it be forever noted that Nintendo put the final nail in the coffin of widespread physical releases.

The Spearess and I are back from vacation, but it's such a beautiful weekend that I may need to get right back outside. With the remaining time, I'm going to unlock the DK theme in Tetris 99 and continue my latest run in Civ VI.

Happy gaming, everyone!

I've been holding off on a PS5, but a price drop will get me there now. This could be the first generation my collection has more games for a non-Nintendo system.

Wow, I might have to pick up that Pac-Man Edition 2600+.

I'll be finishing a Civ VI run as Frederick Barbarossa. I've got a space-race victory in my back pocket ... except two of the AI players are on the cusp of a diplomacy victory (lame way to win), so I'll likely need luck and ingenuity at the next World Congress session to prevail.

Otherwise, the Spearess and I will be taking a vacation next week, so I need to prepare the house for little Spear. But I think as you all can relate, NO WAY I go on vacation with unfinished business in Civ.

Hey, @JohnnyMind, I caught some of your Zelda Japanese tutorial this week. Awesome stuff! Much better than Rosetta Stone!

Happy gaming, everyone!

@sethfranum And when I read this story a couple of days ago, I asked why the option of paying more for a full game on a cart was not included in Nintendo's survey. To be honest, if it comes down to a choice between a game key card or a physical copy on the PS4, I'm going PS4. Until now, that would have been the rare exception.