DeltaPeng

The Japanese games, are they just in japanese (language swap), or is it actually a different game? The titles make it sound like they're the same game, which wouldn't add all that much value

@nessisonett To expand, a Ranked mode which is strangers only, and a casual mode which can include friends only OR the option to also include strangers, on the chance you have less than 3 other friends to play with at any given time (i.e. Splatoon 2 Salmon Run)

Star Ocean 2 is the best of them imo. Though I played a bit of the PSP one and I was bummed that the Voice Actors changed in it (not quite the same as I remember it), and the music may've been remixed as well. But, it may be due to a copyright issue so it's understandable albeit unfortunate. SO2 is among my top JRPG's, SO1 was not as good from what I tried. It coming to Switch gives me hope for SO2 though

I don't blame Ninty for experimenting with mobile, but I can't excuse them for not providing good value per monetization of said games. Some games (like FEH) does decently at giving out freebies such that the game can be enjoyed a fair amount without paying, but paid gatcha style with low % chance of getting what you actually want is horrendous. If you're going to do that, imo, each roll / set of characters should be sub $1 to be fair, but it's not and that's what I have and will continue to have issues with per mobile monetization (in terms of value and being consumer friendly and not predatory)

I'm quite curious to see how they pull a Mario Kart-esque / racing kind of experience off on the phone. I've doubts

The idea is interesting, from a game design standpoint they should make every separate column a different color. It's fine when you're moving length-wise, but it's not always immediately apparent when the block moves to the side. A different color or some other kind of visual indicator would help it be more playable imo

@imgrowinglegs
Just note that if you do that, they said the vouchers expire a year after you purchase them, so don't buy more than you'll use

This art is fantastic, love the Daisy/Pit, Ganon/Bayo, and Palutena/Mac pics especially

I'm curious to hear more, but my expectations are tempered as I tend not to enjoy 3D action beat em ups.

I do like it when series try something new and don't rehash too much, but I know that's the harder / riskier and hence less feasible option. When I think true innovation of game mechanics 'no one has done in the past', I think of very polished titles like genre mixing or very unique takes on genres, like Smash bros (platform/fighter), Splatoon, Crypt of the Necrodancer, Phoenix Wright, Mega Man Battle Network, Rhythm Heaven, ARMS, etc

I know ARMS didn't do too well, but I hope Nintendo is still researching IP and continue to experiment with more varied gameplay ideas, as Splatoon is fantastic and like a core franchise for them now

Imo, it seems like it's probably too late to change Sonic now, but if they can do it without over stressing themselves, the better.

Dang, he's out tomorrow eh? Happened to see the video about a couple of hours after it was out, great reveal. The stage builder and sharing looks awesome, hopefully Smash World app comes out soon

....Ken I keep them all?

That said, if it was a box of Waluigi amiibo then it may've been intentional. Guess just make sure your credit card isn't charged for all of them, make sure the receipt wasn't marked for more than one

@Diegowens Nw, if I reply to someone directly I tend/try to use the little reply tag.

As a note, my writing style is just like to write a lot in general to be detailed, for me a large amount of text is normal and doesn't mean I'm not upset or trying to pick a fight or anything like that. It's up to you if you want to chat further on the topic or not.

I don't know much about aviation painting industry and how much can be learned about it in general or from the competition (I imagine a lot of it may be competitive secrets), but where you can (like in videogaming/media), it's fun to see what others are doing to gain ideas and to potentially improve on them (for those who are game designers or the like. Or even just optionally performing critical/analyzing reviews to better understand oneself and one's preferences in games. Like, not just "I like RPG's", but being able to break down in more detail, what aspects you like or dislike of said game).

Interesting, I never got into Lego or cars much, but that's cool that you have a few diverse hobbies you enjoy. I'd one day like to learn more about the basics of how cars work, so if there's ever a problem I can have a gist/feel for what's wrong and what kind of fix might be needed. I've learned a little bit over the years from auto mechanics when certain things break down, but it'd be nice to be more knowledgeable in that field.

@JedRock Here's hoping they patch some of that in later, it may end up feeling campy, but it'd give it a lot more personality and something (even if it's cheesy) for fans to rally behind

@Diegowens I'm mostly referencing Sony here, and that businesses would be wise to keep their competitive edge and the like by being at least aware of what their main competition is doing.

On a personal level, it's all pretty optional, because it doesn't really matter much (if you scope other brands) other than becoming a more rounded person (by experiencing a variety of products/experiences). Unless it also relates to personal side projects and stuff you're trying to make money on, then there's not really a time limit or need to be cutting edge.

So I guess it depends on the reason why you want to do it, and personal preference. For myself, I like making computer games/demos as a hobbyist, though I haven't had much motivation or time for it, my focus instead has been on finding a new job and I deemed that to be more worth my time for the moment. Setting aside a passion for a bit, so I could hopefully land a better career earlier, hence make more money, and hopefully benefit more in the long run. I don't often check out the 'competition' per Microsoft/Sony, being more a Nintendo fan, but I do watch Youtube vids of popular games, and like to try/playtest a lot of games in general, to at least get a feel for the mechanics or 'hook' of the game. Most games have certain aspects which make them most unique, so figuring out what those are, whether I deem them to be fun, and figuring out how to improve on them is something I do personally for fun, and for later if I ever get truly serious about game dev, I'll have a wealth of experiences already there.

What is your goal / hobby that you want to spend time on? It sounds like you've ~already found a ultimate-like hobby, it's fantastic that you are in a career that you not just enjoy, but love. That's a big blessing, not everyone has that opportunity / position. Since you're there, it may be worth just focusing on that. But if your trade is your hobby and you want to be the best, than there's a natural benefit to scoping competition = learning how others do it = learning everything you can about it.

It's smart, you should be checking out what the competition is doing

Depends on the player, for me, being too easy makes it less fun, whereas it is a more enjoyable experience when it's challenging or technically difficult in a fair way

If they want to go with the relaxed vibe that's up to them, but I wouldn't say that's more emphasis on fun vs difficulty

Nice! These free chars look great, and visually distinct from the current roster

In playing a bit more lately, I think the game could use more voice acting, not having iconic battle quotes ( during the intro pre fight, during, and victory quote) or more dramatic KO's does make the characters feel a bit empty feeling, compared to a lot of other fighting games. I guess if you're familiar with the source material that may help, but in lieu of being able to get the official VA's, unknown if hardcore fans would think it better or not to have random ppl voicing. From a game standpoint of getting players more interested or rallying behind certain fighters, I still think it'd help tho

I think the pricing's not too bad, $20 to start, and it looks like $15 for season1 (+3 chars, per Nintendo eshop) and prob the same for season 2 ($15 for 3 more chars, as some saw a roster of 15 char slots). So total that's about $50.

I do think it could use more villian monster baddie representation, but assumably they'll be in the DLC. Since most fighters release at $40-60, breaking it up this way is a decent way to allow people to try it for a reasonable starting price. Yeah, it could use more characters and content, but it's a new fighter game also and not from a pre-existing fighting game series / coming from devs with a fighting game series history.

The overworld music bug should certainly be fixed asap, the overworld music is amazing, and it plays a lot to the feel and atmosphere of the game and story.

Having it always restart at the beginning after battles ruins that

A sequel to LoZ 2 would be cool

Nintendo Directs are fantastic, I love how informal and so much more down-to-earth Nintendo is (or, at least the way they present themselves) largely because they tend to be more fun and casual in their presentations (in NDirects, and E3). For the longest time, Nintendo presentations seem more like fun, and the regular appearances of their executives made them seem more friendly and personable, where I'd say the competition at say E3 felt to me like business men giving business presentations

I think the Nintendo's approach is much better at keeping it light and fun, which is what presentations about entertainment and gaming should be like.

So, I'm all for Sony transitioning to what N's doing. It make take some time to get there, but gotta start somewhere. State of Play sounds a bit too formal imo. Let's go see how they did....(off to watch vid)

Oh wow, this is coming out much sooner than expected. Love that some of the classic power ranger style is represented. It looks like it plays pretty well as a fighter too, I'm tempted...

I'm open to buying into the standard edition early, but I want to know if I can switch or add-on the digital collector's content later if desired (and if so, what's the price).

Interesting, design does look quite sleek and techy.

Looks too thin though to be held comfortably though, at least by adults

I've seen this before and considered it. Give me the right price and I'm in

Old 3D doesn't age as well as pixel art

It's a good policy to have, I agree majority mobile games and microtransactions have terrible pay schemes per the player. Particularly the free to play ones.

Well I appreciate their sentiment on the topic, I don't think they should chime in till they fix the pay to value ratio for Dragalia Lost and Fire Emblem Heroes. Sure, FE Heroes gives out a lot of freebies, but when you actually pay, the price is way too high for what you get. At least per traditional game pricing, where you can cap it and get a great/full/total experience for around $40, 60, or maybe $80-100 when dlc, the cap is way higher and every amount you pay you won't get much added value (and it's randomized, so you could pay hundreds $ and not even get what you want. Or get the right hero w the incorrect IV's, and so on and so forth).

(Unsure of DL's freebies. FEH might not be managed by Nintendo directly, but DL should be)

It is. Now Nintendo, sue them for copyright infringement!!
(jk jk ;p)

Aww, love the Peach with the stuffed Toad!

Cool, I heard this had potential to release on Switch, glad to hear official news it's coming soon!

It's gotta be that E.T. Atari game

I remember being pokemon TCG (Trading Card Game) being a blast when it came out. The gameboy game that came out for it was superbly done, great music and a good selection of the beginning sets of cards

I feel like trading card games in general has gotten too pricey...it was already a bit expensive being essentially physical loot boxes / random 'dlc', but really the cards are like paper/cardboard, they shouldn't have gone up in price. That, plus last time I played Pokemon TCG I felt like the balance had gone out the window. Some cards, particularly Mega Evolution and EX cards, are way too OP (especially basic level EX pokemon, cause you can throw them out right away, so you get excessive HP and power without any need for card combinations)

These two key items would need to be fixed before I consider any TCG

Digital TCG's have potential, but most are grindy as heck to actually get good cards or a decent collection, without paying hand over fist (which is a problem most mobile / free to play games have)

@Lizuka There's certainly a lot of creativity that comes with this game, but with anything with vast amount of content, filtering to find stuff that appeals to you can be very difficult. I agree there was a lot of troll-y stages, too many.

I think this could be solved if they gave a way for community to tag and vote on specific aspects of stage (i.e. rate level of difficulty, rate level of fairness, etc), and provide easier ways to follow certain stage creators or the like

Link's Awakening is, imo, the best (originally) portable Zelda game ever (not counting the N64 games that were ported)

I'm curious to hear more details on that reveal, is it primarily a port (with enhanced graphics), or are they also adding content? I know it's on Switch, but I hope it starts at $40. Too many games just bump the price up, but with Steam and mobile games, I really don't think most console games should be sticking to that $50-60 price point unless they are jam packed with quality content (like Smash)

Finally! Pre-ordered the Daisy amiibo

@thesilverbrick I totally agree, I thought $13 was a great price point, so it's too bad they hiked it up a fair amount. I hope the quality of the figures goes up with that, and that it's not just an inflation increase...but for now my amiibo buying has slowed down anyway, guess I'll just have to be even pickier about which ones I get

That said, still hoping/waiting for ARMS amiibo to show up

Not really a fan of tetris, but hey for Free, I'll give it a shot. Puyo's more my thing, but I'd be interested to see how I compare to the rest

I have so many figures I don't tend to buy much amiibo these days, I've always only bought the ones I thought looked good over buying the whole collection. I know the dlc side of it has been majority light, but I prefer not locking out major content from the game, and like the figures as collectibles. Some of them decorate my office space at work and my coworkers have fun rearranging them.

I think the figures are of great quality and well-priced (pre-amiibo, good looking videogame figures tended to range more like $40+), so it definitely hit a needed spot in the market. I think the $13 price point was golden, unsure about the price increase

I love the figures I do have, and wouldn't mind buying more based on the figure (still waiting for ARMS amiibo)

Great way to provide a 'discount' on the system, yet also maintain profit/ keep the money in the eshop. The more savings the merrier of course, but more flexible than providing a specific downloadable title (albeit less savings), but allows indies to benefit off the deal

That's cool, another two quality titles in one month! Good stuff

The art style looks cool, I'm in for $1

Honestly, XBOX has never appealed to me. I hear Damon works with promoting third party content, so, if he can help try to make the XBOX sound appealing and become relevant to me, all the better per improving healthy competition in the gaming industry

If not, no skin off my back, I've got Splatoon and Smash, and a lot of the neat indies joining the eshop

Piranha Plant is quite the interesting character. Took some time to get used to, but he's quite good. He feels quite heavy / hard to knock off, and it's quite fun trying to poison gas and neutral B spiny hit ppl

@shaneoh I think that game was in development for like....5 years too right? They must keep costs pretty low O_O

Granted, I thought I heard somewhere that members can work on multiple projects at a time, so perhaps that's what balances all the costs out

The pikachu printed black shirt, and the Eevee blouse w skirt look nice. The others....not as much so

Classic Ash voice is the best

I only recently played the Walking Dead Season 1 and 2. Pretty good stuff, especially the first season.

Third season I'm undecided on per if I like the style, but the final seems to be looking better. I am waiting to hear of the full completion of the game before I consider it further, based on the turmoil of the studio

@Paraka Well, I guess in part it depends what kind of gamer you are, any game that plays like Smash does (and does it well) is a win in my book. I'm more about the mechanics of games though. It is hard because the movesets of the characters were based off of the characters themselves. Had generic characters been used, perhaps the characters movesets would have been different and not as unique. As long as the characters weren't overly bland, and again, if it had the opportunity to be in the spotlight, I think smash would've done great on mechanics and idea alone. For one, Smash 64 is a blocky mess in terms of graphics, but it plays better than a lot of other games do, in general.

None of the smash clones I've played come close to the level of polish. Haven't tried Rivals of Aether, but I have some trouble with your comparison because it was released in 2017, while Smash was released in Jan 1999. Smash was big, in part, because it was new and quite literally, years ahead of the competition, the first of its kind

Even if Rivals of Aether happens to even be better than current Smash, there's no denying it takes inspiration from it. Had Smash never come out and created the Smash style of gameplay, it's possible Rivals of Aether wouldn't even have existed. And it's hard to compare Rivals of Aether, completely on it's own merits or 'in a universe where Smash never existed' since Smash does exist, and people have the option between playing that or similar fighters. If RoA existed in a world without Smash, then it'd be interesting to compare how others might do

@Paraka It's possible it would likely not have hit the same level of popularity it has now were it not using Nintendo characters. That's the power of branding and marketing, after all.

However, from a mechanical / gameplay perspective though, I'd say no other game of this style (All Stars, TMNT Smash, etc) comes close to the gameplay control polish and fun of the Smash Bros series. The simplified controls, 4 players fighting simultaneously, and % and essentially being a mixed genre (platformer fighter) all made it unique and special. Watch some competitive smash play videos, and all the advanced mechanics (L cancelling, wave dashing) also created a lot of depth/replayability in the game and sparked a lot of interest from the fan base.

So even if it did use generic characters, I think it still would have done well on mechanics alone, if it were able to at least get a decent enough player base to become known amongst the general public

@Silly_G
lol....Alolan Exeggutor? I can just imagine how big his hurtbox would be

That'd be pretty cool if it came by, would mean you could watch your own movie files on the Switch. Would be a good way to use all the extra GB's I purchased until I'm ready for them per Switch games