EarthboundBenjy

What does the app output to the TV screen while docked? Is it literally a message saying "please remove the Nintendo Switch 2 from the dock in order to play"???

If so, that's laughably bad.

the thing that completely turned me off the game was the fact that guest racers are unvoiced. how on earth do you include Spongebob in a game and keep him completely silent???
To me it demonstrates that Sega only sees these characters as marketing opportunities and doesn't care to make sure they're depicted correctly. Completely killed my interest in the game.

@RainbowGazelle
Thanks for the link. Looks like the Switch 1 version is the worst one yet again. ..........
i'm really not pleased with having to use a Game Key Card.
So this game has unfortunately gone down in my priority list. if I see it for cheap secondhand, I'll snag it. Otherwise, I'll play other things.

I would like to have this game, but I need to know whether the Switch 2 version is a significant improvement over the Switch 1 version before I buy it. I don't know which version to get.

Ideally I'd get it on Switch 1 because I'd prefer a physical version over a Game Key Card, but if the Switch 2 version has significant improvements that make the Switch 1 version feel inferior, then I'd like to know before I decide.

It will be really satisfying to see Nintendo throw their immense legal weight around to combat generative AI and force some proper legislation to come around

I used to visit GAME a lot, but now there's just nothing there. If I want to browse games in person, CeX is the way to go. If I want the newest game, I get it online. Unfortunately GAME just doesn't fill a role any more.

ok so I wasn't going to bother with this since I bought it on PlayStation 4 years ago, but adding Goof Troop is making me want to get it now. It's like a Four Swords style multiplayer dungeon game, it's pretty cool

@N8tiveT3ch
Yeah. After the release of The Last Story on the Wii in 2012, no more stories can be made any more. it's been really inconvenient for authors and writers.

@Sirko
Does Nintendo also own Archaic Sealed Heat? I'm quite interested in trying that one if it ever got remade, since it never got an English release.
Though I think it does have a fan translation? I'll have to look into it.

@Sketcz

You know what, that's fair enough. It's not a new precedent then. But we can now see how much Nintendo cares to preserve the playability of its subscription-exclusive content: as in, not at all.

Hopefully, once the Switch 2 is older and more... uh, hackable, the homebrew community will figure out how to extract the roms. (Not advocating for anything other than preservation btw)

Too bad Mistwalker is allergic to remaking their old games. This one would absolutely benefit with a modern version, especially to reinstate the online features that no longer work on Wii.

I do like this game, but I do have some issues with it as well. It's not perfect, but it is a very cool and unique RPG for Wii, with a lovely fantasy fairy tale story. And I love how "hustle-and-bustle medieval town" the main town feels, it's not a feeling most JRPGs manage to capture well.

@Oldstalk
The precedent is Nintendo requiring a subscription to play a game with literally zero alternatives available.
All NSO games were previously available on physical media or previous Virtual Console versions.

Even the previous games Nintendo unearthed from the vault, EarthBound Beginnings and Sarfox 2, had previous versions available for purchase (EB Beginnings on Wii U VC, and Starfox 2 with the SNES Mini console).
These two are the first NSO games that don't have anything like that. They simply only exist as part of a subscription and nowhere else. And that's a new precedent.

The fact that actual new, previously unavailable games are going to be exclusive to having an ongoing subscription really rubs me the wrong way.

I think it's super cool that Nintendo cares enough to unearth these from the vault and let us have a go at them, and I'm glad they're in the collection, but....... I kind of wish there was a way to just buy them outright too. Because this is a horrible precedent to set imo.

Pikmin 2...? Would they have to take out all the product placement, or would they release it as-is? Not to mention the existing Switch 1 version that did remove the product placement.

For these reasons, I thought Pikmin 2 was one of the least-likely of all GC games to come to the service. ...but apparently not???

I do like the original Rayman. I've beaten it multiple times, and it's satisfying and fun despite its brutal difficulty.

It has so many versions, and the different versions have some notable differences in places - the Jaguar version replaces levels that rely on the sliding mechanics with completely original levels, most notably in Candy Chataeu.
The MS-DOS version relocated many of the cages within the stages for some reason.
And the GBA and DSiWare versions lowered the difficulty by giving you more health.

Not to mention all the bonus content from Rayman Designer and Rayman By His Fans, which was exclusive to the "Gold" and "Forever" releases on MS-DOS.

I wonder which version this edition will be based on? Hopefully it includes all the Gold / Forever content.

And maybe they could include a simple little emulation of the Game Boy Color games too, just for the heck of it? The GBC games are fully original games. it could be like how sonic origins includes some GG games.

maybe i'm getting my hopes up too much?

(this article makes it seem like the GBC game is a port of the original game, which is NOT the case. it's about as different as Sonic 1 Game Gear is to Sonic 1 Mega Drive. the GBA version on the other hand is an actual port)

nope. not getting suckered by this. whenever i play this game in the future, it'll have to be without all this stuff i guess.

i couldn't even play it if i bought it anyway because i would need to buy a new micro sd card express first. the file size is actually a barrier to entry

@StAmbrosius
Thanks for the info. Sounds like a decent but not optimal option. If I ever see the PS3 disc secondhand I might pick it up.

ugggggh. I really can't afford to keep getting all the amiibo like I used to.

Whenever Pokémon implements a "shop interface" via navigating through npc text trees, I always groan in befuddlement. Because why can't they friggin just use the regular shop interface that's already in the game, it drives me crazy.
The fact that they actually changed the berry NPCs in this update is funny. And also indicative that these things are way more important to the players who actually have to navigate through this mess than the developers seem to realise.

there was a HD version on PlayStation 3, right? Is that the best option for this game now that there'll be no remake? Not sure what the differences between versions are

Ok this version now has something tangible that the 3DS version doesn't have. That's pretty cool.

That's funny because I played this game for the first time last year - the release of the Switch version reminded me that I never played the 3DS version I already had. So I just played that one instead and didn't buy the new version.

Still no plans to play through this game again, but if I ever want to, it now makes sense to grab the Switch version.

I have not bought the DK Bananza DLC.

I have been trying to keep up with the limited-time events in Pokémon, Kirby Air Riders, Tetris 99.... I've already long given up on keeping with with Splatoon. ... how many ongoing live events does Nintendo expect their fans to keep up with??

The fact that there are missable time-limited events makes me want to never get the DK Bananza DLC to be honest. When it first came out, it was a sort of "maybe one day" kind of thing, but the fact that I won't even be able to fully complete the statue collection means that my interest has dropped down to zero.

I'm feeling a Pikmin update is on the way next - Pikmin 4 did get those additional options out of nowhere not too long ago. so they've still got developers looking at the game at the very least.

And it would be nice if they added mouse mode support to all Pikmin games and Super Mario Maker 2. And maybe Metroid Prime Remastered to match Prime 4?

Prime 4 is not what I was hoping it would be. And even judging it by its own merits, I wouldn't give it higher than 6/10. I'm leaning more towards 5/10 actually.

It's just.... it just has so many baffling game design decisions in it. The biggest offender is obviously the huge empty desert, which serves pretty much no purpose other than to waste your time. It's not a graphical showcase, it's not a gameplay showcase, it's not a storytelling showcase, and it's lacking in mood, tone, ambiance, and worldbuilding. There is nothing going on in the desert. it is literally just a timewaster.

And the main areas themselves are painfully basic and straightforward, with pretty much no room for exploring off the beaten path. The progression is strictly curated, with no opportunities to pursue your own goals aside from what is literally the next step in the linear progression.

I don't think the hate is overblown at all. In fact I think the praise is overblown. What good is it to praise the game's graphics in Fury Green or the mood in Ice Belt when the actual game structure itself is so fundamentally boring?

I'm taking a break from Pokémon Legends Z-A. I got to the credits of the Mega Dimension content, but didn't play much beyond that. I do want to complete the Pokédex and get all the legendaries at some point, but... the game has gotten too repetitive for the moment, I needed to step away from it.

I then played Plants Vs Zombies Replanted. I've always loved this game, so it was great to revisit it on Switch. I've gotten to the point where I've done pretty much all there is to do except for obtaining one of each plant in the Zen Garden for the achievement...which just relies on luck to do. I'm not sure how much I can be bothered to grind for plant drops when there isn't anything else to do in the game.

...

At the beginning of the new year, I wanted to resume my classic JRPG backlog endeavor. Too many games came out in 2025, so my backlog kind of took a backseat. But now I'm in a lull again (at least until I feel up to playing Z-A some more), so I'm getting back into it.

So at the start of January, I began playing Panzer Dragoon Saga on emulator. The only thing I really knew about this game beforehand was how rare and expensive secondhand copies are, but I never really heard much about the game itself, and so I became curious enough to want to play it myself.

Panzer Dragoon Saga is interesting - the combat system involves riding on your dragon to position yourself around the enemy, which means that the developers didn't have the option to create any on-foot dungeon areas at all. Any time you get off the dragon to explore inside an enemy airship (for example), the game has to resolve the entirety of that story point in an FMV cutscene, and then block you from entering that location again afterwards. Because there literally doesn't exist a gameplay system for combat not on a dragon.

And this game relies heavily on its FMVs - the opening cinematic alone has like five plot points going on at once before you even get to start playing the game. I suppose this is why the game came on four CD-ROMs back in the day. I was surprised when the game told me it was time to switch to disc 2, because I felt like I had barely even begun playing.

So far the game is good. I'm definitely interested in seeing it all the way through, and it's not a very long or complicated game either. I like the ability to adjust your dragon's stats at any time, even during an enemy encounter, that's pretty cool. And I even found some optional hidden items such as a gun bit that turns my gun from a single shot into a multi shot, which is cool. Always like it when RPG equipment is more than just stat increases and actually has unique effects.

Never underestimate the power of memes.
If enough people get in on a joke, it becomes part of popular culture, which legitimately does increase its value.

I'm not immune to this effect by any means. The main reason I own Zero Wing on the Mega Drive physically is largely due to the All Your Base meme.
And I do have the Ghostbusters NES game too because it was the first AVGN video I watched back in the day.

As silly as it sounds, I think this is nothing but a good thing. People are enjoying a laugh, and it gives more value and "lore" to an otherwise completely unremarkable game

I have never played a Yakuza game, but I became aware of the fact that they contain classic Sega games when someone came into the Puyo Puyo reddit community asking for advice on how to get an achievement in one of the games, as they didn't know how to play Puyo. Haha.

I do agree that I would rather Sega release their classic games as standalone collections so I could get them without having to acclimatise myself with a yet another long running game series I haven't gotten into yet. Sorry to the fans, but Yakuza is rather low in my priorities for getting into new series. But I'm always up for retro collections.

I'm also still baffled at Sega delisting their previous Mega Drive collection, they still are not excused for that since they have nothing to show for it.

I bought this on PlayStation 4 a long long time ago. I played DuckTales because it was so well regarded. I thought it was decent but not as good as Capcom's other NES games such as Mega Man. I did enjoy the music a lot though - yes the Moon theme is popular, but I found myself partial to the Amazon theme more haha. I didn't play any of the other included games, though not for any particular reason, it just never happened.
If I want to try out Chip and Dale, I will probably just boot up the PS4 version I already have instead of getting it again on Switch.....unless I see the Switch version on a deep deep discount, in which case the portability wins out for me.

Do we know what was actually changed in BDSP?
The movement controls being wonky? The Spinda problem that prevents them from transferring to Home? Ekans's ridiculous following animation?
Probably none of these, huh?

@SillyPlanet92
The physical copy of UFO 50 is from Fangamer, and is not planned to have a limited production run as far as I know.

If you're waiting for something from Limited Run, you might be thinking of a different game.

My stats:

74 games and 1,448 hours

Most played:
1. UFO 50, 225 hours
2. Pokémon Legends Z-A, 169 hours
3. Hollow Knight: Silksong, 145 hours

It seems "RPG" was a highly played genre for me this year since I played Fantasian Neo Dimension in January, Romancing SaGa 2 Revenge of the Seven in February, and Omori in March. (And I 100%ed all three of these games!)

Anyways, I've been watching the stream archives over the past few days - so far I've seen the Mario Sunshine, Luigi's Mansion, Sonic Adventure, Spyro 2, Katamari, and backward Mario World romhack runs. They've all been really entertaining. Next I'm gonna watch the Metroid Prime 3 run.

Also the Fitness Boxing with Hatsune Miku run was a fun showcase - they really went on stage to do a full workout! Quite impressive

ok I find it a bit weird how an entire third of this article is spent detailing a 2022 cheating incident, is that supposed to colour my feelings toward the GDQ event or what?

@Retrodouche
It's been a while but I also remember a special ending that's only available if you transfer Ike and Soren with maximum support levels to Radiant Dawn too.

So there is a bit of exclusive content missing if memory card transferring is not available.

@TripleJump
because Prime 4 has barely anything to do with the previous trilogy? it's very standalone

This was my first Fire Emblem game, and still remains one of my favourites. In fact, I think only Three Houses has dislodged it from my number one favourite spot. There's something about the Greil Mercenaries that makes them all so endearing.

It's unfortunate that this version won't be able to interface with Radiant Dawn on the Wii, which used the memory card data from Path of Radiance to transfer character stats and stuff to the sequel. For that reason, I still think most hardcore Fire Emblem fans would prefer the GC original. But for fans who can only play on Switch, this is a great addition to the lineup!!

Proud Nordics is a Game Key Card right? A shame, I bought regular Nordics on Switch but stopped playing once I heard about Proud Nordics. Now I probably won't even get Proud Nordics. so Ys X will just remain unfinished for me.

Kinda not a fan of how they pulled an Atlus with this game, releasing a "complete" version later with no upgrade path. Which only serves to punish the fans who show up day one.

I wish Camelot would make RPGs again. I can't bring myself to care about Mario Sports unfortunately.

the whole key card situation has made me very wary of getting any new Square Enix games.

Already I haven't yet bought Octopath 0 because I don't know whether the Switch 2 version's enhancements are "worth" having to use a dang key card.

Graphics look more Mother 3-ish than EarthBound-ish to me.

The focus on a body-horror "pulsating mass" does not really make the game sound very appealing to me lol, but I think I might give it a try anyway. I enjoyed Omori and Yume Nikki which, to be fair, both have their fair share of pulsating masses at various points haha.

Myles isn't an issue inherently, but there certainly are multiple game design problems that involve him.

• Myles tells you you can look for the keys in any order you like. But this is a lie. The game is very very linear.
• Myles radios you and tells you exactly where to go before you even have a chance to start working it out yourself.
• Myles radios you after spending time in the desert, thinking you might be lost, whereas in actuality, we're spending so much time in the desert because we're hunting down those stupid green crystals.
• Any time I ever actually pressed the radio button in my menu, it didn't work. It always said communication unavailable. Extremely strange.
• Having to return to Myles to install the shot chips exists purely because otherwise there would be no incentive to return to base camp often enough to see the GF members between areas. It feels very artificial and annoying.

I have no issue with the GF characters, and Myles's personality is fine with me. It's the game design problems I have a huge issue with.

Here's a tip to deal more damage during the very brief moments Sylux is vulnerable in phase one.

Before lassoing off the final tentacle, place a psychic Power Bomb in midair by holding the R button in morphball mode. Then unmorph, Lasso the tentacle, then immediately switch to Psychic visor and grab and throw the Power Bomb at Sylux. Then just spam regular shots.

I think this is the most damage you can do when he's vulnerable, though I'm not 100% sure.

I'm also eagerly anticipating the new Rhythm Heaven game. It will be wonderful to finally have some new material to obsess over for the rest of my life after so long.

@rvcolem1
tbh I actually have no problem with Samus in a bikini. I'm not prudish by any means. I just think it's interesting to contrast what was considered representation back in the olden days compared to now.

And it feels so natural too. It doesn't feel like any of the characters in this game exist as "pandering". The world of Silksong is so perfectly fully fleshed out, it would feel wrong if it was any other way.

I'm so glad videogames have come such a long way since "Samus in a bikini" was the best representation you could find.

I find Tetris 99 and Puyo Puyo way more comfortable with the split joy-con buttons than with a normal D-pad. The Pro Controller D-pad very often leads me to accidentally pressing up, which results in a hard drop in Tetris. I never get mis-inputs when I have the split buttons.

Also... PC gamers who play on keyboard use separate keys for movement all the time...? This feels like such a weird thing to make a big deal out of.

@Phantomensch1987
It's disappointing because it strays even further from what made Metroid Prime 1 so amazing in the first place. For a fan of Metroid Prime 1, Prime 4 offers basically nothing of note. The only "new" thing it does is the boring desert. And all of the "not new" elements are all done worse than in Prime 1.

...this isn't a game that's disappointing because it came out in the wrong era. This game would be seen as a huge disappointment even if it was released 1 year after Other M.

alright, I did my part - I rated UFO 50 with a ten star score. now everyone else do the same thing.

after finishing and being disappointed by Metroid Prime 4, I.... for some reason I felt compelled to return to my 3DS backlog and start playing Metroid Prime Federation Force for the first time. I bought this game a long time ago at a CeX for real cheap since I am a Metroid fan, but I never gave it a proper chance until now.

I guess I wanted to gain a clearer picture of what every Metroid Prime has been like, not just the main ones.

Federation Force isn't bad for what it is. I'm obviously playing solo, but the "Lone Wolf" equipment that doubles damage and defense during singleplayer is letting me get through the levels without too much issue.

The biggest issue I have with the game is the controls on the 3DS. This little handheld was not really made with twinstick shooters in mind, and it just cramps my hands like crazy trying to play one on it. I'm playing on a New 3DS XL so I have to use the tiny c stick nub. it's torturous.

....after playing Nintendo Switch in tabletop mode, I'm kind of wishing I could do the same here. I wish I could just wirelessly play 3DS with a pro controller. ... - Nintendo just hadn't thought of the idea yet, so it's not possible.

But yeah. I'm having a good time despite needing to take frequent hand-resting breaks. I can't believe this is the only Metroid Prime game that lets you do a side-dash at any time without having to be locked on. ...but the side-dash is faster than walking forwards, so in order to beat the target times for the medals, I guess we have to not look where we're going??? haha.

I'm not sure I want to go for 100% medals in this game - maybe after i've beaten all the missions I'll be satisfied enough.

I think this game could be salvaged in the eyes of fans if they made an expanded remake on Switch 2. If they made a Hunters + Federation Force double pack, that would be enough value for fans to give it another chance I think. As long as they do it right. This honestly would be more valuable to me than Prime 2 and 3 HD remasters, since those games aren't "stuck" with awkward handheld controls.