Coalescence

Credit where it is due, these look like nice packages which aren't saddled with too many useless knickknacks and the price isn't outrageous. 8-4 seems to have cleansed the usual LRG grubbiness out. I'm still good with my original copies, but I would have bought the soundtracks on a standalone release - assuming they're the full deals which is a detail that has been conspicuously absent on the coverage of these releases.

Great article, and I get it. I'm sure I loved the movie more having experienced it with my oldest daughter. Same with Minecraft. When it comes to video game movies I have no expectation and I really don't have a lot of interest either. But if it's an opportunity to have some laughs and good times with my kids I'm all over whatever it is. The Mario movie being a genuine delight was a bonus. I assume the next will have the same charm, and same cross-armed gamers carping about how it doesn't respect the lore or build a compelling epic story or develop deep characters.

Nicely summarized. At least they had the good sense to not mess with the soundtrack, but I'm really not interested in a mishmash of the original and manhandled WotL. The quality of life stuff is massively in the nice to have but hardly essential category. Voice acting never interests me much. The original on Vita is about as perfect as it gets for FFT.

More of this please. I vastly prefer new games in a franchise to be a fresh take or twist on the previous characters and story rather than being cornered by a timeline and having to satisfy continuity. Especially with Nintendo characters. They know there's no need to get on some delusion of grandeur ring cycle storytelling nonsense and I'm always here for it.

The Zelda timeline they created in Hyrule Historia even comes off like them just messing with people who are constantly trying to thread together continuity with everything.

Fair and well written review. One of my favorite games in recent history. I have some very specific likes with shmups and this one hits them all. Can't wait to plug that cart into the Mega SG.

Yeah the slant to paint Nintendo bad in this fails out the gate by representing the situation incorrectly. These are already outsourced jobs. They're changing our contractors for other contractors. There could be any number of reasons for this from quality to savings to other disagreements with the company supplying the contractors or the contract is up and they want to change things around. The advantage of contracted positions is the company can cleanly end when needed. Of course the contractors weren't contacted directly, that would be very unusual.

I'm assuming a lot of people have never worked contract jobs. This kind of thing happens all the time but because it's Nintendo they're trying to blow it up like a big scandal.

Absolute doomage

@MyMemory They already did that and everyone balked at the prices and wanted the netflix of retro video games instead. The audience of people who would throw even a few bucks for roms a la carte has surely only shrunk further since then.

They definitely solved my compulsive amiibo buying with those ticked up prices. I'm absolutely fine to just keep squishing the squishy Metroid amiibo from 2017 whenever I want some amiibo action.

That's bonafide sick at home show from back in the day. Right up there with Pure Moods commercials and that informercial about the benefits of being a high school dropout (Dave Thomas, founder of Wendy's was a high school dropout and so can you). Also 61 seasons of anything sounds so horribly unnatural.

People saying Metroid needs to be closed in at all times must not have played Super Metroid, which had you going through very open Crateria multiple times and had huge open areas in Maridia and Brinstar. It was not a wholly claustrophobic game by any means. Fusion was full of open breathable areas. The only truly claustrophobic Metroid is Samus Returns. The previous Prime games had a good mix similar to Super. A big open environment really doesn't strike me as incompatible with either Prime or the larger series. You're on a planet. Planets have surfaces. If it's remote, the area will be open. Traversing on a vehicle makes more sense for a technologically advantaged bounty hunter than hoofing it. Zomg the horror. They're making GTA in space not Metroid Prime 4.

Ultimately, I'm good just so long as it isn't like Dread with that massive pile of sameface in its environments where everything only existed to be little stunt tracks for item puzzles.

I'm on board. The games are outstanding and playing without the waggle & bumped up visuals seals the deal. The price isn't for everyone, it's definitely a premium sort of release that is only going to appeal to a fanatic. It's like, I bought a remastered V Empire or Dark Faerytales in Phallustein vinyl for $50 last month, an album I've had on CD since the 90s and can stream for free any time.

Great article, I love these kinds of experiences with games. I can't relate directly, as Undertale left no impression on me outside of having some great boss tunes and a fun bullet hell system, but I can definitely vibe with the spirit of this.

Definitely says something that games this old still look and play better than a lot of new stuff. I vote with my wallet for Nintendo to keep making games like this that are vibrant and fun with a dash of heart which never seem to dull with age. Hopefully this + the movie means Galaxy 3 in some form is going to happen.

Yeah, it's expensive. Gaming with Nintendo has always been an expensive part of the hobby. It's like I can get dirt cheap run of the mill vinyls all day but when I wanted that repress of Nachthymnen it ran me $60.

I was so into Amiibo for finally being affordable decent looking miniatures. It's a real shame they've crept up towards the same products I admire but will never buy. All the same I was telling myself I didn't need any more once the Smash line was done, so they're taking care of that for me. Well that, and having a bunch of butt ugly characters for the TOTK amiibo who I would never put on a shelf.

Years ago I made my own copy of this book from some high res captures someone put online because my kid was always wanting to play Mario Galaxy just to go to the library. Replacing that hodgepodge print will be a great upgrade and right in time for my youngest who has started playing Mario Galaxy and similarly loves Rosalina.

Whoa. Pokemon games are being made with tactics to shamelessly move product. Didn't see that coming since Gen 1 launched as one complete game with content split into two carts + a later third.

The company who has always used the marketing tactic of branding theirs as a premium evergreen product is continuing to price according to that philosophy. Sound the alarms. Alert the Internet.

lol @ the stop liking what I don't like salt this announcement has brought out. We're going to be enjoying Virtual Boy games and no one can stop us. The library of games has always had a small handful of greats. The delivery system was the problem.

Metroid x Extreme G is not what I was expecting, but I am absolutely sold on Prime 4 now. Super glad it's not more of the exact same gameplay which had gotten stale by 3. Hopefully they tapped some of those Monolith resources to build out some giant worlds to tear through.

Best news of the Direct for me, no joke. My childhood VB finally fell to the decayed ribbon glue and I haven't gotten around to finding someone to do the fix. Red Viper on the 3DS works fine and is great with the shader update, but there's just no substitute for playing games like Teleroboxer and 3D Tetris without the eyepiece. It'd be the best if they also release a dual dpad VB controller or at least if someone makes a right joycon with a dpad.

More of this please. Fake/mimic things used to be a staple of games. It's like companies decided altogether that was too mean and I'm not there for that. Being f-ed with and having communal anger with other players is part of the fun.

Chat is going to have no idea what to spam now that silksong is out

YouTube outrage p**n right here. This is their attempt to patent. If it even gets through which it probably will not, there's obviously a massive line of precedent in games that have been doing this beforehand. Big companies with big legal arms always attempt everything they can, it's what they are hired to do. Legal stuff isn't for the easily riled and hot headed but people who are both are definitely the paydirt for outrage farmers.

Lmao. Monkey paw wish for people who didn't like Square doing game key cards. I'm sure this is somehow Nintendo's fault still.

Two things are true. The game like most games would benefit from difficulty and accessibility options - and it's surely better than issuing patches to tweak and change what people have already experienced.

And maybe if the game wasn't hyped up as a has to be perfect instant GOTY, there wouldn't be so many people who may not have even played Hollow Knight hitting this wall.

The common greatness in gamers. The notion that your yum is entirely yucked because other people aren't playing & experiencing games the right way. It doesn't even have to be a pile of options to select from. Nintendo figured out a perfect way to have games simply & non-invasively to give players a quick leg-up if they hit a wall. It would be awesome if more devs took that cue.

Whew, the difficulty gatekeeping is coming out full force with this. What is it about Hollow Knight that brings out the absolute best in gamers.

Sure hope whatever meager boost they got from the bad publicity and ever so slight head start was worth this. I mean, of all companies to try and jump in front of to sip on their Kool aid...

lol the comment section today is a speedrun on old the bingo card. Totally cool if your stance is to hate big bad Nintendo but man you people need to squeeze some original thoughts out. Maybe try something like video games are a human right.

Same old story though, some idiot doesn't do the smart thing which is to wait until the next generation to start up your operations and definitely don't take direct payments. That wouldn't be profitable, but we don't like to talk about that because it would go against the shield of games preservation or whatever.

It's all perception. Nintendo holds their high price point with the claim that they sell a premium evergreen product, and they never do deep price cuts except in extreme circumstances because it would go against the image they sell. Other companies like this shoot low and appeal to the compulsion and lean on word of mouth. Either way is a gamble. That's the fun of selling a product.

Especially because price it whatever you want, people are still going to put it through some obtuse subjective grinder of analysis, and present that as existing on an objective factually proven scale for what games should cost. 2D? Must be worth $30, tops. Crap like that.

Based on the fragility of some of the comments, heaven help you lot if you dare to give this less than a 10.

@ImpromptuR You nailed it. Vampire Survivors syndrome. Which of course came out later, but that game is probably the most blatant instance of it. A fairly good game getting the appearance of being the best ever because everyone has played it which was largely driven by the low price point. Add to that people who suck up cheap games are more likely to be younger which means they're experiencing it at a more formative age and will build nostalgia quicker and deeper than others.

Adventure of Samsara. They picked the right launch day. This is what I really want out of that genre.

They might have my money for specifically going against the trend and order to just follow the flavor of the month, especially since I'm definitely not getting Silksong. I always preferred the chunkier movement of early Metroid than the ultra nimble hyperactive glass cannon of modern games in the genre (including Metroid). Most of the cons are what I like. Actual risk in fights instead of what most games do, which is the unlimited rollback to a couple minutes ago. I liked that when Super Meat Boy and VVVVVV did it 15 years ago and it was fresh, now it just feels like a grind.

@w1p3out yeah they blow chunks and I'll always take the opportunity to talk that up, but Yuzo is a hell of a guy and the game is killer. I'm not above giving money to some crappy people if I get to enjoy something a lot.

lol the pearl clutching that gaming companies treated their products like products and not irreplaceable treasures to be perfectly preserved in limestone vaults. That's the reality, champs. We love something the creating companies often regard as disposable toys & faceless products. That beloved experience from our childhood to them is only as useful as its ability to make money and storage becomes a premium when it comes to cutting costs. This is nothing new.

Classic rental game here, absolute blast in small bursts and definitely Descent for the N64. Looking forward to playing this again.

I'm good. I'd just as soon stick with the classics than see modern Squeenix manhandling and milking them. Especially with them having the gall to call this the definitive FFT. We all know these usually stand for Definitively the Least Amount of Effort spent to make money on an old game.

If it's like HK as it appears to be, the price is right. That was definitely a $15-20 game.

I love my Vita and still use it regularly, but Sony had their chance. The 3DS had a very weak launch, was underpowered on hardware, and was still trying to gain momentum when the Vita launched. They could have knocked Nintendo down, maybe not as hard as with the PS1, but at least made portable consoles a two sided field. But after the 3DS eventually took hold and now so many years of Switch dominance, they don't have a chance in hell unless they're planning to fight the long fight of clawing their way in with sustained support and solid exclusives, but even then, that's maybe an insurmountable climb. There's any number of portables with more power and more bells and whistles, but they can't dent Nintendo's stride because the brand power, third party support, and install base are all off the charts and only getting stronger.

Looks like Nintendo really nailed the timing on this. Xbox has nothing really on the horizon, Playstation is in that near late gen lull by still going but ultimately starting the wind down. Other console owners and especially those who never bought a Switch are ripe to buy into something new and shiny and people have been clamoring for a Switch upgrade. And when MS and Sony circle back around, the Switch 2 will have their strong foothold in place already. It's looking to play out like the opposite of what happened when the Dreamcast was straddling console generations.

@Koda1000 That's how calculating change works. (Sales this year - sales last year) / sales last year. If they sold 175 this year and 100 last year it would be (175 - 100) / 100 = 0.75, indicting a 75% increase year-over-year.

Mouse support for Picross is cool but after trying it I went right back to controller. Probably because that's how I've always played it, but the mouse felt way too tedious to use.

Most of the people who bought Mario Kart World probably sold it. Most of the sales are probably parents buying it for their spoiled kids. Most of the sales are just incel man babies with unlimited income anyway. My friend doesn't have a Switch 2 so I suspect these sales aren't real. Next month there's going to be a huge crash because I did the math and that's when all the bootlickers will have gotten theirs.

The salt flows so freely whenever Nintendo does well.

Way more interested in this game than Silksong. Annoying fans shouting in every comment box have really given a perception that the entire gaming world is going to shut down to play Silksong and that's far and away from the truth.

This was the game that got me to buy a DS, having clocked more hours on the GBA with Castlevania than anything. I've been replaying it recently on the Wii U (injection since they missed that huge opportunity to do it officially) and it's alright, though definitely a step down from its predecessor in a lot of ways. Soundtrack is killer and I actually like the touch screen seal. The Castlevania III-style bonus mode though is top notch and is possibly my favorite extra of any title in the series.

Ridiculous. No game that isn't a Mario, Zelda, or Final Fantasy should hold this much perceived sway.

They're in touch except when you ask a very small vocal subset who will never come to grips with their being a very small subset.

He got it right they anticipated the dip after the pandemic. Nintendo's toy company roots aid them best in not oversaturating the market. They have the resources to have made five more 2D Metroids or pumped every IP they own at least once but they keep it all even handed and don't overextend.

I hope they bring back Mario 35 as Mario 40 and include some other games in the series. That game was so much fun. Some form of Galaxy 2 returning would be awesome, that game is still a stunner. And long as I'm dreaming 3D Land Deluxe.

Of course, they're not actual physical media. Funny Nintendo gets all the heat for this. Nintendo isn't making anyone do key cards nor have they phased out physical carts. These publishers can still do physical carts. If key cards go away, those companies are just going to do digital only or code in a box as they had been and would be if key cards weren't an option. Key cards probably will go away, and all the whinging can shift back to code in a box.

Not that I care much either way. Modern games are preserved six ways from Sunday yet people act like they're teetering on extinction. Switch games are ripped the moment they release and archived all over. And every third gamer is also bent on making their own Noah's Ark with physical copies. The damage is already done on the older stuff.