EarthboundBenjy

@Lizuka
Is Alolan Rattata not available from Let's Go Pikachu / Eeevee like all Alola forms?

Unless there's a weird specific thing similar to Spinda I'm not taking into account

I still play my DS. last year I went on a little journey to play all the Spyro games, I played the GBA and DS ones on my DS Lite.

Still have plans to play more DS games too. After playing Metroid Prime 4, I realised that I never really played the DS Prime Hunters, so that's now in my to-do list to play soon.

And when I finally get around to continuing my journey through the Suikoden series, I already purchased a copy of Suikoden Tierkreis to play on my DS later.

I really enjoyed Dragon Quest Builders, and Pokopia looks really cool. But I don't want to get it straight away because it's a key card. I will wait and see if I can find it deeply discounted at CeX in the future.

it's not technically a guarantee that all evolutions will be in - remember that Kleavor wasn't in the base game for Legends ZA and was only added in DLC, and it isn't even by evolution, it's just obtained as-is.

Aside from that, there was Let's Go Pikachu/Eeevee which didn't include later evolutions in order to stay consistent with the original 151 dex.

While it is extremely unlikely for evolutions to not be included, especially if they are regular exp level evolutions, there is a teensy bit of precedent for it.

easiest quiz i ever took. I got all of the monsters memorised, even the newer ones.

I just played this game for the first time recently.
It's got amazingly smooth sprite animations for Alice. I recommend checking it out just to see the spritework.

The game itself is fun and not too difficult. The level design is nothing to write home about, but it is inoffensive for the most part. Except for the part with Bill the Lizard, that part is kind of bad. I enjoyed playing the majority of the game.

Overall though this is a very fun and cute GBC platformer. A highlight of the third-party library for sure.

From the image, it looks like you won't be able to put Pokemon into FRLG from other games?
If that's the case, then they'd better release Ruby Sapphire Emerald too, because the national dex will be impossible to complete otherwise

The only one of these games I've seen before is Silver Surfer, because I watch Angry Video Game Nerd lol.

....after the Rayman collection, I'm not at all pleased to see the words "All new music" though. ... ... especially because Silver Surfer has especially amazing music for NES, it absolutely shouldn't be touched.

@DrJoson
Bubsy 4D will be physical as well
And the recently announced Indiana Jones from bethseda

@vio

Are you talking about the 2D Rayman 2 prototype that you get to play a snippet of in the PS1 version of Rayman 2 after beating Razorbeard and seeing the credits?

...The reviewer didn't say that. They just said "Rayman 2". How was I supposed to assume something that wasn't said?

@tseliot I agree that Rayman 1 is mostly a nostalgia play these days, which makes it all the more baffling why the music is gone. easily the most nostalgic aspect of the game isn't included.

I disagree that including Rayman 2 wouldn't have been such a stretch. If anything, Rayman 2 would also be a prime candidate for a collection of different ports just like this.

My childhood version was the original PC Rayman 2, and this is the one I'd want to see the most. I know the Dreamcast version is the fan-favourite version. The PS1version has some significant level design differences. And the PS2 version significantly revamps the game and introduces a hub world, adds more collectibles and powerups, and rearranges the structure of the adventure.
I would argue that the different versions of Rayman 2 are MORE different to each other than the different versions of Rayman 1 in this collection.

It's NOT a simple matter of "this collection of Rayman 1 versions should have just snuck in Rayman 2 for good measure". .... That criticism seems ridiculous to me.

@batmanbud2
i think it's cool how they made the invincibility theme last for as long as the invincibility effect lasts. music interacting with gameplay like that is fun.

@SuperWeird
If Galactic Pinball is secretly a Metroid-universe game, does that make it the prequel to Metroid Prime Pinball?

@Thedoodlindork

I don't even pay for NSO expansion tier. I pay for the basic tier because I like to play Smash Bros and Puyo Puyo online, and getting the NES and SNES games on top of that was a bonus more than anything. Already to me the NSO higher tier was never worth it. (especially since i am a collector and have the original cartridges of most of the offered games anyway)

They never promised Pokémon would appear on NSO, and if you're familiar with how restrictive Game Freak tends to be with Pokémon in order to prevent duplication methods (no cloud saves, no rewinds), it was never in the cards.

Because I don't pay for NSO expansion tier, being able to buy FRLG separately is actually a benefit for me. I would be even more upset if they were locked behind a subscription.

@FawfulsFury
It's not a scam. We know exactly what this product entails. There is nothing duplicitous here. If the price is not worth it for you, then don't buy it.

yup that sure is fire red leaf green all right

@Lizuka

I do wonder whether them releasing the old games on the eShop like this is a response to the lukewarm reception to Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl.

If we never get a gen 5 remake, instead getting Black and White, Black 2 and White 2 on the eShop, I'd actually be all the happier. I'd rather they not tarnish gen 5 with another subpar remake.

The main thing that concerns me about FireRed and LeafGreen is how, without Ruby Sapphire and Emerald, it's not going to be possible to complete the National Dex. This problem didn't exist when they originally came out because they released after Ruby and Sapphire.
If they get HOME compatibility, that's one thing I suppose. But I would really prefer them to also release Ruby Sapphire and Emerald.
And ideally, they would also include compatibility with Colosseum on GameCube NSO, but that's going into pipe dream territory.

@AussieMcBucket

The different versions are not too different overall, but there are significant differences between them.

If we take the PS1 version as a baseline, then compared to it, the other versions are:

Jaguar version doesn't have slippery surfaces, so any challenges based on sliding were redesigned, and there are a few levels that are completely different, most notably part 1 of Mr Dark's Dare. There are many other aesthetic differences that stem from being on weaker hardware (no FMV intro, no weather effects, different sound effects, missing animations, etc).

DOS version changes the locations of many of the cages, many of which are much more difficult to come across.
(I don't tend to need a guide when playing Rayman PS1, but I frequently miss cages in DOS. maybe it's a matter of familiarity, idk).
It also has a few level design tweaks, and one level in particular is completely different (part 1 of Bongo Hills)

DOS version also features tons of bonus levels - Rayman Designer was a level editor, which sadly is not implemented in this collection, but the built-in default levels from the Designer software are playable here. There is also "Rayman By His Fans" which was a later release featuring levels made using the level editor that were specially chosen by Ubisoft. And lastly "Rayman 60 levels" which is just 60 more levels made via the level editor by Ubisoft. All of this content is included, except for the actual level editor itself.

GBA version is based on the DOS version in terms of cage placement, but there have been many changes to reduce the difficulty of the game. Extra platforms added in certain places, you earn more lives, among other things. Most notably, the invisible trigger points are visible in this version.

GBC version is not the same game. It's just a different game entirely. If you're familiar with Sonic, imagine the difference between Sonic on the Mega Drive vs Sonic on the Game Gear.
Same basic premise, but it has its own set of levels, some of which might superficially resemble ones from the main game, but overall, it's its own thing.

For people who have no frame of reference for the soundtrack, I read a pretty good comparison in the rayman subreddit that would make sense to Nintendo fans:

Imagine they made a version of Donkey Kong Country 2 that replaced Stickerbrush Symphony with something else.

That's what it feels like to be a Rayman fan and to step into Band Land and to hear....... NOT the Band Land theme.

Like, even if the replacement was an amazing track, there's still something fundamentally wrong here that cannot be overlooked.

(and yes i know dkc is no stranger to soundtrack replacement, with gba dkc3 and all)

I would recommend waiting for a patch before getting Rayman 30th.

The game doesn't save properly, and I've heard reports of crashes, and save corruption too. And obviously the soundtrack, which would have been a dealbreaker for me if I hadn't already bought it before I knew what they did haha.

Only get it pre-patch if you are mostly interested in the documentary content. ...Or if you want to play the GBC version I guess, since it's a password save game and therefore immune to save corruption. (though they even changed the GBC soundtrack, which is a bit baffling to me)

For alternate Rayman 1 versions that work better:
The old "PSOne Classic" version is still there on the digital store if you have a PS3 or Vita and don't mind jumping through some hoops to access the store (which amazingly is still up)

if you want to track down the PlayStation Classic mini console, one of the included games is Rayman, fully intact.

And on GOG, Rayman Forever is pretty cheap, though you will want to install a fan-made music mod. (the original CD-ROM version of Forever removed some tracks to make room for bonus levels)

So this is a game about walking around and soaking in the atmosphere? kinda like Yume Nikki? seems interesting

@Broosh
in an effort to convey more personality to their poll options, Nintendo Life often leaves out the ability for many readers to answer accurately.

The lack of a "No, I'm not interested" option is quite an oversight in this case tbh.

I don't like how the Japanese one has the render of Rayman riding the rocket from Rayman 2 because that thing isn't in the GBC game

@NeonPizza
I was born in 1991.
My main gaming platform as a young kid was Game Boy Color. And you can see every individual pixel on that beautiful dot matrix screen.

I did also play Mega Drive, but as a kid I didn't particularly have a strong opinion about this, funnily enough. I just wanted to play Sonic.

When I was in my teens, my primary way of playing retro games was Wii Virtual Console. At first we had the Wii on a CRT, but even after getting a flatscreen, I never thought the Wii VC games looked bad on it.

I hate CRT filters because I don't want to artificially scribble all over the game screen with pretend lines. I want to see the actual graphics of the game unimpeded.

@NeonPizza
I'm not the one to ask about CRT filters, I always turn them off without exception. I hate the way they look. I need my pixels as visibly pixelated as possible.

OKAY! I got an update, and it's not looking good!:

For context, the issue in regards to saving is:
The Jaguar and MS-DOS versions do not actually save at all.
If you ever at any point press the "Reset Game" option in the menu, then you can say goodbye to your progress because you will only see three "empty game" save slots.
The only thing these versions do when you save the game is set the current restore-point savestate to the moment you touched the save point. That's it. Nothing gets written to memory as far as the emulated game is concerned.

PS1 and GBA versions seem to save correctly.

So I sent a 30-second Switch video of me pressing Reset Game and my save file going poof in the Jaguar version to Ubisoft customer support.

And this was their response:

Hello,

Thank you for reaching us back.

We appreciate that you have sent us video showing the issue where when you reset the game, your progression got deleted within the process.
We apologize for the inconvenience that was caused.

Within this issue, we would like to inform you that, we have now stopped post-launch support on this game, as our development team has moved on to other projects.
We have no further updates planned for this title, so this issue will most likely remain in the game.

We understand that this is not the outcome that you are looking for.
We hope you will still be able to enjoy your time playing and apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.

Since there is no further action, we are going to close this ticket.
Kindly note if you have encountered any other difficulties in the future with a different issue, please don't hesitate to contact us - by re-opening this ticket or open a new ticket.

Best regards,
Ubisoft Support

I got the game digitally the moment it went live on the eShop and I was extremely disappointed to find out firsthand that the soundtrack has been completely replaced, and the in-game
saving doesn't work correctly.

I highly recommend people do not buy this version of Rayman unless Ubisoft releases an update to fix these issues.

I just encountered another issue!!!
The Jaguar version and MS DOS versions don't seem to save correctly.
When you go to a save point and it says "Game Saved", it doesn't seem to actually save anything to your save file. All it does is set your current savestate to the moment the "Game Saved" text appears.
If you ever select "Reset game" to see the title screen again, you'll see that all save files are blank. ... And I don't know what happened, but it also repalced my load savestate to being at the blank file select menu, which means I lost everything.

PS1 version does seem to save correctly as far as I can tell. haven't treid GBA version.

@RoboCube

I sent a complaint to Ubisoft customer support about the soundtrack just now lol.

...had to make an account on their website to send it, but if anything's gonna force me to do that, it'll be for the purposes of expressing my displeasure for sure.

Hopefully if enough fans send customer support letters regarding Rayman 30th's soundtrack, they might patch in a toggle?

....I just bought this game. ... Is there seriously no option to play with the original soundtrack??? It's just the updated version, and that's all we get?
If that's the case, then..... damn. I really really really hope they update this game to include a soundtrack toggle.
...This actually is kind of a dealbreaker? Kind of sad they thought this was acceptable.

I also wanted to say, I really like the direction they went with this collection.

When you have a game that has so many ports that each have their own unique differences in content, releasing it as a collection like this is actually a really cool way of keeping everyone happy.

Actually, Rayman 1 and 2 are quite similar to each other in this regard - all the different versions of Rayman 2 also feature significant differences, and there is no agreed-upon definitive version of the game.

If Ubisoft has the same idea of including multiple versions for a potential Rayman 2 collection, we could get:
PC, PlayStation, Dreamcast, PS2
(plus the GBC game thrown in)

...I think the N64 version isn't so necessary since it's almost identical to the PC version but worse (and it's on NSO anyway)
and the DS and 3DS versions are very much not necessary - DS is just N64 but worse, 3DS is just Dreamcast but worse.

And to finish up this thought, if they want to go ahead and do Rayman 3 too.... I think just a port of the HD version that released on PS3 would be fine - unlike Rayman 1 and 2, the different console ports of 3 didn't really have too many differences. I think the GameCube version might have had GBA link cable functionality - maybe they could put that content in as a bonus if they wanted.
And of course they should throw in the GBA Rayman 3, GBA Hoodlum's Revenge, and also the GBA and DS Raving Rabbids games, since they were actually platfomers despite appearances.

I'm genuinely impressed that everything I was hoping for seems to actually be included???

Jaguar version, MS-DOS version, and including all the Gold and Forever levels too? And the GBC game thrown in for good measure? AND a never-before-released SNES prototype too??
Genuinely amazing collection.

...
I suppose the only thing that isn't here is the level editor that came with Rayman Designer....
but that thing was kind of jank anyway - you had to design the terrain in a completely separate Windows application, by copy+pasting tiles from a preset tileset graphic sheet. And then in order to populate the levels with objects and enemies, you had to launch the game and add them from an in-game debug tool. And if the terrain needed adjusting again, you had to quit the game, and relaunch the tileset editor program thing.... Not surprised they didn't bother including this.

anyway. I'm definitely getting this. I hope it runs well, and I hope Ubisoft doesn't try to make me sign up for an account when I press start on the title screen or some other unnecessary rubbish like that.

Oh good, it is coming to Switch after all. I get worried when an obviously perfect-for-Switch game gets a PlayStation exclusive trailer. I just made a post on the Push Square article (first time I posted there haha) with my comments about the trailer.

Anyways. My opinion on this is... the impression this trailer gave me was that Konami seem to be targeting fans of "indie metroidvania" style games, rather than fans of Castlevania itself.
The aesthetic feels very much designed to appeal to that sort of crowd. This aesthetic doesn't really feel "Castlevania" to me.

Looking forward to playing it regardless.

i played this game on Xbox 360 a long long time ago. I thought it was kind of interesting with the rewind stuff, but I always disliked the aesthetic and I never even bothered trying to engage with whatever story may or may not have existed.

I do really like The Witness though. I think they prioritised the wrong game to bring to Switch 2.

I loved Dragon Quest Builders, but I'm not really all that eager to play Pokopia. For a few reasons. Mostly is that I kind of don't trust Pokémon games, especially Pokémon spinoffs. Secondly, it being a Game Key Card just completely kills the mood for me as a collector. If I find it cheap secondhand, then maybe. But I'm not getting it at launch.

They're both amazing perfect games!!!

Despite saying that, I felt compelled to vote Silksong anyway. It feels more evolved.

i'm not really into shooters but something about this one caught my attention. maybe it's the cute girl haha. But it seems to be more strategic than just shooting, with the hacking puzzle mechanics. so I may actually want to give this one a try at some point. even though it's not normally my genre.

But the fact that it's a game key card is gonna make me not get it straight away

@batmanbud2
Chu Chu Rocket...? like the wheel battle system? That's an interesting comparison.

I'm one of the Paper Mario fans who holds Super Paper Mario in super high regard, actually. I don't think Origami King could hold a candle to Super if it still isn't allowed to have real characters with names. Since one of Super's biggest strengths is its characters and story.

I never got around to playing Origami King because I was catastrophically disappointed by Sticker Star, and Color Splash wasn't that much better. Everything I've heard about Origami King is that it's just "sticker star 3", so it's currently very low in my priority list in the backlog.
I am really really curious to see what the next Paper Mario game will be like. If it can win me over, maybe I'll be a little more inclined to give Origami King a chance.

@Friendly
Some people also consider Star Ocean Second Story R to be HD-2D, though I don't think it is officially considered so.

After finishing Panzer Dragoon Saga on emulator the other day, I decided to keep playing Saturn RPGs, since I got the emulator up and running already. I started Shining The Holy Ark.

As far as classic dungeon-crawlers go, this one seems pretty user-friendly - you can see the map at any time (Unlike the previous game Shining in the Darkness where looking at the map was a limited resource), and I enjoy the JRPG combat system.

...it seems I keep jumping back and forth between game series... last year I played Lufia 1 because I wanted to play it before I played the acclaimed Lufia 2, but I didn't get around to it, and now I'm just playing other things anyway?? .... sometimes the momentum to start a game on my backlog is completely up to whimsy it seems. Maybe after The Holy Ark, I'll get back on track with Lufia 2. haha...

After playing the English version of moon Remix RPG Adventure on Switch, I was hoping UFO A Day in the Life would be translated next. But if it's on Console Archives, it's not gonna be in English, is it. :/

@KingMike
I'm a big Castlevania nerd, so I own all 4 Konami GB Collections, since Vol 1 and Vol 4 have colourised Castlevanias on em. I've booted up the Goemon game contained in Vol 3 once or twice but didn't get very far. I may give the series another chance soon.

Salubra not shutting the heck up was actually my number one complaint with Hollow Knight. It was minor, but it killed the vibe of the game so horribly, you could no longer just chill on a bench and soak in the scenery because she'd be there going oooo ooo ooo ooo the whole time.

The game is now perfect.

@GoldenSunRM
I see. I'm not a Goemon afficionado so I don't know all the games. All I know is that it's generally a game about running around and whacking stuff in a funny cartoonified Japan setting.
But I guess if there are full RPGs, then yeah, Konami is either planning a later English version down the line (which is why it was absent from the international Directs) or they just aren't going to bother for such a niche series.

Even if this does stay exclusive to Japan, hopefully it includes the English roms whenever applicable anyway, like how Castlevania Anniversary lets you pick between US and JP versions. Best case scenario would be every game gets a full localisation, but that might be more effort than Konami is willing to do when there are so many Japan exclusive games.

@ChaoticIgnorance
I just had a look at the pre order page on Square Enix's UK store website, and.... dang, the switch 2 box art shows the key card....
... ... ... ...
... ... ... ...

ok so. I really really really don't like key cards. But I also really do want to play this game. I will not pre order it like i would have done, but I will wait to see if I can find the key card for cheaper secondhand.

Very bizarre seeing Ninja Gaiden II appear like this when it was added to NSO not too long ago. This means that anything's fair game.