I'm sad Yoshi didn't sell a million; I realize Nintendo Life gave it a kinda bad review, but It's an extremely creative and cute game and deserves more love.

I noticed this game when it came out and was amused by its existence. I'm surprised NL reviewed it.

I don't think the review mentioned that this dev is run by Giles Goddard, who worked with Nintendo on Star Fox and other things in the past.

No poll? I've already pre-ordered Zelda. Dragon Quest Monsters is a definitely eventually get on sale game. Stellar Blade and Rayman probably also in the eventually category. I don't know about Monster Hunter Wilds or Metaphor, but I'll try the demos.

Happy weekend and gaming everyone. And Happy Halloween. This week I have been playing:

• ​ Pokémon Pokopia - I got this as a birthday present a week ago so I am just starting. I'm not even up to the first Pokemon Center yet but all the Pokemon wandering around are super adorable.
• Minecraft - I downloaded the free Switch 2 upgrade so decided to play this as a Halloween game since Minecraft is kind of a survival horror game.
• Gal Guardians: Servants of the Dark - My second Halloween game I snagged on sale recently. A cute Inti Creates Castlevania-lite. Time to whip some monsters to death.
• Pokémon Legends: Z-A - Decided to step in for the new gift. I haven't played for quite awhile.
• Hello Kitty Island Adventure - Just opened the new (first?) food crafting shop in City Town. The new rainbow friend Usahana is adorable.

They really front-loaded that direct. The first 6 games are going on my wishlist. The rest didn't interest me too much, although a couple looked slightly cute. That's actually a lot of good games for one Indie Showcase; it's just funny that most of them were in a row at the start.

I'm adding moon leap, prison city, and Pampas & Selene to my wishlist. Well Dweller was already on there.

A lot of good looking shmups on the list but my shmup backlog is already infinite.

Marsupilami 2 is a game I feel like I should love but I tried the demo and it didn't quite click for me; not sure why.

Anyways, lots of good looking games and fun to read the short reviews.

Happy weekend and gaming everyone. This week I have been playing:

• Hello Kitty Island Adventure - I grabbed the DLC so now I suddenly have a zillion new quests and a new friend to level up. City Town is pretty cute.
• Splatoon Raiders - Still slowly trecking along in this game. I've been amused that people call this game a Shooter but I haven't been using any ranged weapons at all.
• Freddy Farmer - Someone on the site recommended this and it was only $2 so I decided to try it. Seems like a cute challenging retro-arcade-style platformer.
• DIY Dadish - I might regret this game because player-made level-maker games are pretty hit-or-miss but I really like this indie dev so don't mind supporting them. One of the few times I buy a game for full price.
• Cult of the Lamb - There was a free Switch 2 upgrade so I decided to check it out.

@cosmograph I never really played any of the mainline Splatoon games so I can't compare Raiders to them. It's kind of just a looter-shooter, but it's cute and well done. I suspect the time limits will be harder later in the game, but at the moment I am just having fun exploring, running around, and murdering hordes of enemies 😆 They give enough variety of attack options in different builds that it's not hard to find one you like. I'm not really sure how great it is multiplayer; I tried online co-op for one map and it felt a bit odd, but that was with randos. But if you like the Splatoon world but don't want competitive, it seems like a fun game.

Happy weekend and gaming everyone. This week I have been playing:

• Splatoon Raiders - Still early game but finally unlocking more upgrades. My favorite weapons by far are the paint brushes and I love speed tank.
• Hello Kitty Island Adventure - I booted it up for the first time in 6 months to get 100 platinum coins and immediately got sucked into new events 😅 The sale on the DLC is tempting... we'll see if I get sucked back into the game.
• Super Mario Odyssey - Time to play some Metro Kingdom. I have gotten lazy and left more collectables uncollected on prior maps so I may or may not go back later.
• BOXBOY! + BOXGIRL! - Just playing the occasional level. This game has a ton of maps.

I'll probably play some demos as well.

I also need to decide what to play as a Halloween game.

Only need three words - 'Activision Exec Says'.

Happy weekend and gaming everyone. This week I have been playing:

• Splatoon Raiders - I haven't really played Splatoon games in the past but I was able to get this game for 50% off and couldn't resist. I'm still basically in the intro but fun so far and very cute.
• Super Mario Odyssey - Took a bit of a break on this playthrough but I believe I just got to Lost Kingdom so I will jump back in there. I have a few collectables from previous kingdoms to go back and grab although I've gotten most of them.
• BOXBOY! + BOXGIRL! - Finally getting to some stages which are a bit challenging, or at least a bit challenging to get rank S on. I may continue forward and go back for S rank later.
• Castlevania: Belmont's Curse (demo) - Absolutely love the art and the controls in the demo. I'll look forward to playing the full game eventually.
• The Witcher III: Wild Hunt - Remastered - I haven't played much yet, but I enjoy the graphical upgrade and I was playing with mods since having mods on Switch is so rare. If I have time I will delve in and play some for real.

Whoops... I submitted one before realizing it was featured in a previous reader recommendation article. Sorry staff!

I submitted a second one; hopefully I wasn't blind a second time and this one is actually valid.

I encourage everyone to try it; extremely cute game. I spent far too much of my life playing it 😅

@JamieDodger9016 They improved some parts but there are still some weird translations/phrasings.

The basic story and gameplay rpg aspect of the game was quite decent and I played it for many hours. The live service and multiplayer aspects were not particularly good. It would have made a better standalone release.

@Bobb They improved the translation eventually which implies they knew it had issues but never fixed it completely. It was bad in a kind of funny way though.

I've been busy and then traveling this week so I've had almost no game time, but I played a little Witcher 3 at the start of the week to try the remaster and I hope to play the Tetris 99 event before it ends so I can snag the new theme.

Fun Results. The order of the top 10 favorite franchises is especially interesting. I wouldn't have guessed Zelda would be so far above Mario. And it seems like more people prefer docked than last survey for some reason.

Zelda OoT I'll get day-one.

Packed couple months though; I'll likely get Castlevania, Stellar Blade, and Final Fantasy Resonance eventually on sale. Oh, and Minecraft if the upgrade path is free or cheap.

Happy weekend and gaming everyone. This week I have been playing:

• BOXBOY! + BOXGIRL! - Got S rank in some of the early stages and then moved to section 5. It's really fun using timing and precision platforming to avoid using many boxes.
• Monument Valley - I snagged this on a recent sale. I played one of these games on mobile before but never the first one so I decided to try it on Switch. Relaxing game.
• Stellar Blade (demo) - Played through the demo. Seems fun and looks good apart from Eve's hair. I'll definitely get the full game eventually.
• Dynamite Headdy - Playing on Sega Genesis Classics collection. This game is so weird I can only play in short bursts but I'll do a little more this weekend.
• Super Mario Odyssey - Still chugging along in the Wooded Kingdom.

I commented last week but I'll say it again - this article is much more useful with the sales section (and new demos too now!)

As for 'new' games, I pre-ordered Witcher since it was free. I'll consider whether I should snag Alba or TOEM on those good sales.

As someone who is not really a fan of perfect parry type mechanics in most games ... I quite enjoyed the demo. Fortunately, dodge works fine and parry isn't really necessary in the game. That said, I kept parrying by accident when I wasn't trying to.

I had to temporarily change the settings on my phone to get out of that error soft lock.

I had to guess the amount of hours, but I play many dozens of indies a year. Possibly 100s if you count demos.

Played the demo; pretty fun and looked fairly good. The hair is kinda scuffed but you can turn off the ponytail which helps.

I think the author of the backtracking letter answered their own question when they added 'tests your memorization'; most game players trying to relax for a few minutes after work or school don't want a graded pop quiz on what happened two weeks ago as part of the experience. I love some good exploration and metroidvania games, but they better have a good map and well marked log of objectives so it doesn't become a memorization or wondering around in circles lost game.

As for the Eshop.. I scroll through the list every week and there were a record 155 new eshop entries last week. Sure, some of those were duplicates (e.g. normal version versus deluxe version of a game), but the amount of trash is still almost inconceivable. On the H games issue, I believe Nintendo did change the rules earlier this year because brand new (not just re-bundled) rated M for nudity H games have stopped appearing. The company's reaction to this rule change has been to make ecchi AI puzzle games which are now rated T for teen (or sometimes even E for everybody) instead. Im not sure this is actually an improvement since now parental filters won't even filter this junk out.

The demo isn't in the NA eShop yet either; maybe it arrives at the end of the day.

Happy weekend and gaming everyone. This week I have been playing:

• Dynamite Headdy - Playing on Sega Genesis Classics collection but it's also on NSO Expansion Pack. This is one of the weirdest games I have ever played. Hard to even describe.
• Super Mario Odyssey - After finding the missing purple coins in the Sand Kingdom, finally playing the Wooded Kingdom.
• BOXBOY + BOXGIRL - Grabbed this at the current US Nintendo sale. No idea why I never played this game before; it's very cute.
• Blaster Master: Enemy Below (NSO GBC) - Blaster Master is fun, but I really wish this game had a map.
• Super Mario Maker 2 - Just a bit of Endless as usual lately.

I checked out the demo. It seems well made but it had a bit too much of that repetitive addictive mobile-game-like feel for me (even though it's not on mobile). It's very pretty though.

The featured sales is a nice addition to this article.

I played the demo on Switch 2 a few days ago; looks beautiful and it's really fun.

Happy weekend and gaming everyone. Some of my game time this week has been watching directs (Kirby looks great!) but I have also played a little of:

• Super Mario Odyssey - Got all the moons in Sand Kingdom, but missing several purple coins... not sure if I care about the coins enough to spend a zillion hours looking.
• Dragon Quest Monsters: The Withered World (demo) - playing through the demo. Absolutely lovely game. Looking forward to playing it completely.
• Super Mario Maker 2 - Sadly no mario maker Direct announcement. Playing some endless.
• Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2 - I picked a random game from my collection to play for a bit and this was it.
• Squeakross: Home Squeak Home - Just a couple puzzles this week.

The new 3D Kirby looks great and I bet we'll get a random spinoff or remaster of another Kirby as well. It should be a good Kirby year.

Happy weekend and gaming everyone. This week I have been playing:

• Super Mario Odyssey - Working in the Sand Kingdom, getting all the moons I can find. I'm not sure if I'll end up 100%ing the game, but I will for the early bits at least.
• Final Fantasy Resonance (demo) - Downloaded the demo but haven't started yet. The game looks fun though. I plan to play through the demo and decide if the game will go on my wishlist.
• Kirby's Dream Land 3 (nso) - Continuing with my only-fish-companion playthrough. I may finish this weekend or I may not.
• Super Mario Maker 2 - My desperation for a mario maker 3 announcement is getting higher. I'm just playing some random endless levels.
• Squeakross: Home Squeak Home - Picross is my puzzle game for the week.

Mario Maker 3 is my number 1 hope as it is all directs.

I haven't bought any of these, but I played the demo of Duskfade and really enjoyed it.

The list needs Zelda Echoes of Wisdom. That may legitimately be my favorite open world game on Switch.

Happy weekend and gaming everyone. This week I have been playing:

• Onimusha: Way of the Sword (demo) - Working through the demo. I'm not usually a huge fan of photo-realism but this game has a neat vibe. The combat is fun, although I suck at parrying consistently 😆
• Super Mario Odyssey - Randomly decided to start a new save file. Haven't actually played for a very long time. I don't have any specific goals in mind, but it's fun to be back in the game.
• Tetris Effect: Connected - Was in the mood for Tetris and I haven't played Tetris Effect for quite awhile.
• Kirby's Dream Land 3 (nso) - Halfway through so I should play some more. It's a very cute game. I don't think I will 100% it though.
• Super Mario Maker 2 - Just a few levels. It's getting near Direct season so I will be praying for a super mario maker 3 announcement yet again.

@Nintoz oooh. I messed up the 'how many games do you own' question because I was just counting all my games I have on Switch 2, which are mostly Switch 1 games but I don't usually think about that distinction.

In fact, Switch 2 doesn't let you sort your games by which ones are Switch 2, so I have no idea how many I have.

The survey gave me an 'out of range' error for the number of digital games I own.

I used to use this app a lot when I was traveling. Nice to have a larger screen than a phone to watch stuff.

I feel like some styles of art are being tainted by over-use by AI.

That said... that was a weird and not very good trailer, regardless of how it was made.

Happy weekend and gaming everyone. This week I have been playing:

• Lovish - I think I've played all the post-game levels and bosses now. I'm just wrapping up a few collectables. Very cute game. It's not 100% polished, but the creativity put it up to an 8/10 for me.
• Kirby's Dream Land 3 (nso) - My current NSO game. I just finished world 3. I am trying to play through the entire game with the fish companion and the fire power-up. There are a couple places where that is impossible, but I always immediately go back to firefish afterwards.
• Squeakross: Home Squeak Home - I opened up a new room to decorate, so doing a little of that between puzzles.
• Super Mario Maker 2 - For a couple years I was playing Hello Kitty or Fantasy Life i enough that I always automatically got my weekly NSO platininum points for 'game supporting online'. Now that I don't play those I am back to playing mario maker once a week just to get my platinum points 😅
• Yoshi and the Mysterious Book - Just messing around in the post-game maps. The game makes me very sleepy so I tend to just go in and do like one task at a time.

tbh, I feel like it's largely kids/teens who most enjoy eviscerations, decapitations, swearing, etc. After you've grown out of the phase, you just want high quality enjoyable games.

Happy weekend and gaming everyone. This week I have been playing:

• Lovish - I rolled the credits and then went back to get 150 collectables to open bonus levels. I apparently need to get different special hidden collectables to play the last 2 (?) post-game levels, so I may work on those.
• BALL x PIT - I finally went back to try the latest free update. Of the two new characters, one is really neat - it lets you have 10 special balls all at once in exchange for no passives. This adds some interesting strategy and makes the older classes which don't have baby balls less useless.
• Super Mario Sunshine - The NSO release has me starting a fresh playthrough, although I'm actually playing on 3D all-stars. This game is... not as good as most Mario games, but it's still fun to revisit every once in awhile.
• Super Mario Maker 2 - Mostly just playing some random endless.

@rjejr @-wc- @Spider-Kev I remember people complaining that the 3DS folders are not in fact real file directories/computer folders by the traditional definition, they were just visual groupings of shortcuts/icons. Which is 100% true - neither the 3DS or Switch versions of these things are true folders. The Switch ones are similar to the 3ds ones but with some nice added capabilities — they hold more games each and you can put one game in multiple groups which is extremely useful.

I think what most people dislike is not the arbitrary naming convention, but the fact that Switch decided to keep the default view uncluttered and instead put folders/groups under a different menu.

@Davestator Extremely different than Astalon, but very fun and ... none of the game play is unique individually but the way it was all put together is very creative and humorous. I don't want to put more spoilers than the early game ones I already did, but it gets more and more hilarious the deeper you get into the game. And the way it deals with collectables and adding new powers is quite creative and weirdly nonlinear for such a simple linear game. I think this is a game I will have to 100% just to see all the insanity, although I'm not super looking forward to doing the speed trials for the bosses.

Happy weekend and gaming everyone. This week I have been playing:

• Dunkadillo - Just finished the game. Another really fun game by the Dadish dev. The character is an armadillo who rolls into a ball and bounces to get past platforming challenges although can do a non-ball double jump so you have more control than most auto-bouncers.
• Tetris 99 - Played for the new Splatoon theme. I should have gotten rank 1 once but I completely sabatoged myself at the very end 😅
• Lovish - This game is fantastic in a hard to explain way. It's sort of your basic level-based one-room action-platformer with some upgrades you can buy to various things but there are weird jokes which range from stepping in poop to randomly having to do an entire vampire surviviors mini game to making bosses love you.
• Final Fantasy XIV - I started the free trial. The controls are extremely messy with pro controller but I am semi starting to understand them. I had a fun time with the character generator and have just been doing the intro quests. I'm not sure if I'll stick with the game, but it looks fantastic and the music is great.
• Squeakross: Home Squeak Home - Just doing the occasional puzzle.

Yay. This is a pretty adorable theme.

I tried the demo of Denshattack and although I can understand the appeal, I didn't personally enjoy it.

The only July eShop game I bought was Wake up, Lia, a cute dark precision platformer where you play as a traumatized girl. There are screen-orientation shenanigans, but overall it's a pretty good game.

Happy weekend and gaming everyone. This week I have been playing:

• Dunkadillo - Silly cute little game. Auto-bouncers can be hard to do but this game does it pretty well. I'm on world 2.
• Super Mario Maker 2 - I hadn't played for awhile so I had a hankering. Just doing some endless.
• Squeakross: Home Squeak Home - Doing some smaller size puzzles which is a nice break after finishing the big ones in LogiartGrimoire DLC.
• Wake Up, Lia! - Cute little precision platformer with an adorable dark story. I'm in a platforming mood this weekend. Partially because I don't have much game time so short levels are convenient.