Einherjar

In a perfect world, he would be driven out of the industry and barred from it.
But knowing filth like this, he will most likely fall upwards.

So, you gave it a 4 for being Dr. Mario and you don't like Dr. Mario?
Man, every time i think NL's review standards can't possibly dip any lower you guys find ways to surprise me!

@Patendo My fan desintegrated...i doubt a hard reset will help here...

Since my switch died and a new one is incredibly hard to come by, SMTV will have to wait.

So it is more Forza Horizon 5.

I'm still baffled that Wii [U/Switch] Sports hasn't become a household thing by now. Bowling, Boxing and Tennis have been excellent family games, heck, i still know people who have hooked up a Wii for bowling alone.

Wii Sports and Nintendo Land are imho still THE killer launch apps for their respective platforms.
Not only did they show the systems capabilities beautifully, they were games with quite some substance to it, instead of whatever 1.2.Switch was supposed to be.

@BAN I wouldn't quite agree with the pandemic part, as it has put China through the ringer as well. There are a lot of other factors playing into it to give the CCP the solitary blame for it.

But there's plenty of atrocities left that get brushed under the rug and conveniently brushed off with -isms and -phobias.
And it truly makes you think if this is how 1933 worked as well.
If suddenly, there were a lot of "Germanophobes" out there...

Same with all the "But what about the others?"
Yes, what about them? Let's talk again when EA is supporting a cultural genocide...
EA are premium scumbags, peak turbo-capitalists...but that's about it.
They are no ActiBlizz, committing small scale human rights infringements AND protecting the afforementioned regime (The Blitzchung controversy).

Yes, i also avoid anything ActiBlizz touches like the plague.
And it's the only thing i can do. I'm one insignificant person with a hobby, and the only voice i have is "If you are in cahoots with monster like that, you won't see my money".

Want a real overlooked hidden gem?
Go play "Gotcha Force" and thank me later.

@BAN It pretty much is what many of these comments read like, sadly.
But i guess it's an easy and convenient coping mechanism instead of realizing that we're living in a world where everyone's turning a blind eye to a fascist state because they won at the money game...
So i can't really blame anyone either.

@CactusMan "What are ´´Chinese people´?"
Are you attempting to troll here?
The population of China, the people, in contrast to its government, the political organisation.

@CharlieGirl Oh please...
Since when is it a secret that the BAT (Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent) have become the backbone of many of the CCP's operations, like further developing their surveillance state.
Or the CIA investigation reporting that Tencent got their seed capital from the MSS (China's Secret Police) to work on China's firewall (https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/12/23/china-tech-giants-process-stolen-data-spy-agencies/)

@AzzyC I'd say there's a difference between a rotten individual and a fascistic government. But that might just be me...

@CharlieGirl Sinophobia?
Boycotting a company that is a direct arm of a government that operates, among many other things, concentration and reeducation camps to cleanse the country of muslims or is currently removing Queer depictions in media is how exactly "a sentiment against Chinese people and culture"?
I mean, if that stuff is "pearl clutching" to you, i'd advise some soul searching...

I know some of these words...i guess...
Who? Or maybe what?

@StarPoint Haven't Smash Bros patchnotes also been rather in depth? Certainly not explaining the reasoning behind the changes, but still.
It's mostly their OS Updates that are completely opaque.

They bought the studio and IP, so good on them! XBOX desperately needed more exclusive titles under their hood anyways.

All i hope for is that MS will insist on more quality control.
Bethesda has been releasing garbage for quite a while now. This is a good opportunity for both to profit off of each other.

Did you really write an entire article about what "personal taste" is? O.o
This is the game journo version of the Jeremy Clarkson "But i like this" meme...

@twztid13 I also finally got around to play their 3DS Metroid, and it's the same there. The audio design is just utter garbage. And while this one has the minor item fanfare, i had a massive laughing fit because they decided that Samus getting hit needed to sound like someone kicking an empty oil drum xD

But i have to be honest, Jaffe's ego is big enough to have its own postal code. It's not the first time that man tried to sell his own incompetence as someone else's.
I'd go so far as to say that his gameplay was comparable to Dean Takahashi not being able to clear Cuphead's tutorial.
Though Jaffe later admitted that at that time, he was high as a kite as well.

Imho, the pixel hunting, which makes a Metroid a Metroid in my book, really wasn't a big issue especially thanks to Dread's fluent control scheme.
As much as i personally hated it, but constant analog aiming helped to scout for breakable blocks without taking away too much momentum.

Review score wise, i'd say it's a solid 6-7.
I don't hated my time with it, i even enjoyed its bosses, but all in all, it's a game i finished once and don't care nearly enough to do it again.
I guess Nintendos massive PR campaign also included a couple perfect review scores...

@twztid13 While i wouldn't word it quite as strongly, i have to mostly agree.
My first run was also a 100% run (Which was easy enough with the abundance of help the ingame map offers) and i think that i won't touch Dread again in the foreseeable future, while i directly did a Super Metroid run after it as a palet cleanser xD

I'm just not sure what hit the game most:
The EMMI passages ruining its fantastic momentum provided by its fluent movement tools, grinding them to a screaching halt
Or the complete absence of any real music or sound design.
Like changing the last bars of the famous item jingle for lesser items to what can only be described as digital gurgling while there is not a single piece of music i can remember.
So much so that i couldn't confidently say that there was music.
The atmosphere just wasn't there at all.

So yeah, as ridiculously dumb Other-M's story was, it was, by far, the more memorable videogame.
Granted, i loved most of Dread's bosses, simply because they were oldschool pattern recognition bosses, but that's it really.
The rest has already left my memory completely because it was so unremarkable.

The little hat the horse is wearing reminds me of something...
I want to say it's an old Monster Hunter Palico thingy? I'm not sure, but it looks familiar.

Also, good for him <3
A well deserved and long overdue break.

Was looking forward to bite into SMTV, but my Switch bit the dust first...
So my All-Achievements run of FFV-Pixel Remaster it is instead.

And i would be playing it...IF my Switch didn't decide to "die" on me now... (Fan is dead, sounds like a dentist drill. Proper parts are hard to come by atm.)
But from what little i could play (about 2h) it's great!

@NEStalgia Well, Samus got experimented on to survive her X infection. So they spliced her with Metroid DNA.
I can see this as a twist of her mutating. That genuinely was the least of my issues with it

And the thing with the EMMI is...i never even felt the need to hide. The game offers you so many fluent movement tools that you can simply outpace them, even the speedbooster one.

And when you manage to corner yourself, their AI is stupid as a brick. They simply pathfind to the last ping you created. Set one off, cloak behind it and it will go there, see nothing, turn around.

If you ask me, making direct confrontation with them an instant death QTE was the final nail in the coffin.
There is no "Dread" if the result of an encounter is a binary.
For instance, what made Resident Evil's "Nemesis" enemies (Both Mr. X and the Nemesis T-Type) much more frightening was that they damaged you.
They were an unbeatable source of hurt in a game where resources to recover are scarce.
Encounters weren't inherently deadly, but they threatened your progress in general.
You dread dealing with them because they take up precious resources.

With the EMMI's, you either avoid them completely or you reload the room. There is no repercussion whatsoever.
Imagine the EMMI causing permanent damage to you. Their hits reduce your max HP until you get to a refill station.
THIS would make them infinitely more scary, because the encounter has consequences.

@NEStalgia Thanks for the hint with the spoiler tags ^^

@NEStalgia Now i DO know how Spoiler tags work

Other-M was a prime example of someone continuing a story without understanding what made any of it work in the first place.
The game was pretty OK, but the characterization was astonishingly bad, even if you see it as a standalone product.

Now, Dread nailed Samus as a character (especially through body language) but i still don't have a clue who thought the villains plan made even a lick of sense.

Overall, i thought that both were rather lukewarm experiences at best.

I just love that these "crossovers" make less and less sense as they are just skins instead o implementing proper animations and models to avoid them using guns...

You know, i don't expect someone to redo all Smash Bros stages so they can implement plenty of Minecraft mechanics into a fighting game...

But for the cost of these skins, it's a pretty shameful display if you ask me...

@VexingInsanity Yup, wholeheartedly agreed.
Not only do these "half updates" often feel hollow and unsatisfying, it can also become rather confusing what parts of what update got released when without studying changelogs and comparing them to previews etc.

@nimnio If you're content with the vanilla experience of Minecraft, the Switch version is as good as any ^^
Controller controls are a bit fiddly but perfectly serviceable.

Just be aware that if you want anything more than the vanilla experience, Bedrock (That's the name of the console and Win10 version) comes with an ingame micro transaction shop.
And said shop is a nightmare on Switch. Laggy, unresponsive and prone to drop connections or freeze.

And beyond that, any Bedrock edition will always be inferior to the PC's original Java Edition for its massive mod support alone, which, if you ask me, is the real meat and potatoes of playing Minecraft,

From a manufacturers standpoint, it makes perfect sense, cuts down a lot of costs and effort.
It just shows how antiquated the dual release model is for "AAA" products (in quote because gosh darn look at pokemon games these days...Indies are running laps around them in terms of quality and fidelity...).

@somebread Do yourself the favor and look all those profiles up :3 They pretty much only exist to spam Larson stuff xD

@Fangleman32 She's still a white woman preaching about the plight of black people in the mainstream movie industry without taking a step back and giving her co-star the role as a much more beloved character.
This gesture alone would have said more than her preaching ever could. It's all just vapid nonsense if no action follows.

But personally, i really have no horse in this race in any way.

@BloodNinja "Why is she not a good person"
Most people think she came off as a preachy hypocrite around the whole Captain Marvel PR stuff.

For instance, she played a rather unpopular version of CM, Carol Danvers, while the much more beloved Monica Rambeau, a canon black character played by a black actress, was shoved into a support role. Meanwhile, she held big speeches about how hard it is for black actors to get roles in Hollywood and such.
In short, she's preaching water and drinking wine.

Completely insignificant in the grand scheme of things, but people find that rather unappealing.

@kobashi100 Would you do me a favor and point to where i said that "PR is taking away money from somewhere else"?

"Take what you put into X and put it into Y instead" does not imply that it was meant for Y from the get go.

@gcunit Which would be?
Working moms? Kids?

I'm pretty sure kids love 00's forgotten starlets way more than a trailer with just colorful Pokemon.

I really wish Nintendo would put the money these "totally genuine" ads cost into improving their actual services...
Nothing against a proper PR campaign, but i fail to see who the target audience for these things is...
Pump that money into your server infrastructure and run an add how well your online service now works!

Have to agree, probably one of the best on-rails shooters out there.
And a tip to first timers: Remember your melee attacks!
Super easy to forget and probably one of your most important tools.

A moral system in a game where your main character is fuled by the reverence of the people...is a pretty silly idea...
I'd also wished they had said no to the visual novel levels of text in this game...

Usually, i'm rather kind hearted, but i do hope this wish isn't granted.
Other M showed how easily Samus as a character can be utterly ruined, while Dread showed that Samus is at her best if she doesn't even talk and let body language do the work.

So no, no more videogame movies. They never work.

Someone's smelling their next, big money making scheme.

Dangit! Was really looking forward to it!
As long as it eventually comes out, i'm fine ^^

I did my 100% run on normal and have to admit, i'll probably won't pick it up again anytime soon.
I really loved the boss fights, but the rest was pretty meh.
I think its absolutely lackluster soundtrack and the pointless EMMI sections ruined any interest for a second playthrough.
So without any drastic changes, it's a shelf item for me ^^

Anyways, i'm still glad they kept on ironing out the game.

Nintendo should really cancel BotW 2 and focus all of their manpower on properly emulating OoT!
They also owe everyone of us an apology and consolidation payments!
Sacrificing 2 or 3 virgins also wouldn't go amiss to pay for their crimes!
How dare they! The audacity of this company!

@MsJubilee I'd recommend not quitting your day job to pursue a career as a stand-up then...

@MsJubilee And why exactly should they not?

"From the creators of Blast Processing™"

@BloodNinja Yes, and like i said, i totally get that.
No amount of sugarcoating can cover that the online service alone, completely disregarding the other stuff, is absolutely lackluster.

I'm not trying to say that critique or even vocal disappointment is wrong. Far from it!
But for something optional that costs 20bucks a year to blow it up to be the worst thing ever is a bit much in my book.
That's really all i'm trying to say here ^^

@boxyguy Mind explaining to me who's forcing you to buy it? Who's making them "get away with it"?
Their online services still cost the same as before, which is under 2 bucks a month.
If you want, you can double that and expand the offered retro library...or you don't and stick with what you payed before...20 or nothing...

I still stand by it:
If this is such a massive problem be thankful that it exists, because your life seems rather mellow otherwise.

You gotta love how completely overblown and out of proportion this nonsense has become.
If a bunch of perfectly working N64 games for 3 bucks a month is the worst thing to ever happen in your life, you should be thankful.

Please stay angry.

@SalvorHardin It's a trend that continued on for quite some time with other franchises as well.
Look no further than Paper Mario or outright ignoring the F-Zero franchise.
The recent return to form for Metroid might be an indicator for change. Let's wait and see ^^

Still one of my leas favorite games of all time.
A highscore game with the grace and finesse of a chainsaw.

I also always downright hated its presentation and setting.
This "pursuit of happiness" by mindlessly eating and the "happy frenzy" also gave of some heavy drug abuse vibes...in a game about a green dinosaur...

That Metroid umbrella is just too good!