Time to spend 70 hours just to get the bad ending 😝

Glad it is looking good. I'm definitely considering grabbing this although I wish there was a demo.

I have quite a few of these on my wishlist but haven't managed to play any of them yet — the expensive Switch 2 games are taking too much of my time and money 😝

Happy weekend and gaming everyone. Not a ton of game time but I have been playing a bit of:

• Mad Father - My Halloween game. An RPG Maker type game where you are a little girl in a mansion. The use of sound effects makes it remarkably horrifying in parts. Also, quite gruesome - I just keep dying horribly 😅
• Hello Kitty Island Adventure - I mostly finished the DLC now and also finished the main flower quests. It's Hello Kitty's birthday so I'll play whatever the event is for that.
• Pokémon Legends: Z-A - I'll hopefully have time to rank up at least once.
• Shovel Knight Dig - Bought this game on a good sale recently so just doing some initial digging. Cute game.
• Picross LogiartGrimoire - Just a couple puzzles; I have run out of the easier ones in DLC 3.

Those are a lot of big hitters still this year. Personally I'm trying to decide between Kirby Air Riders and Zelda Warriors.

@Ramouz There is a huge free update coming in a couple months.

@Morsel @slowpoke_tail I have almost burned out several times but the update cadence has somehow worked perfectly for me. I originally thought I would be done after 30 hours. For a while I was only playing once a week (the game is much more forgiving than animal crossing in that way) but then I got Switch 2 and the game suddenly ran so well that it felt like a new game. Another time I thought I was out of things to do but I suddenly unlocked a ton of new quests. Then I was almost out of things to do for real and the huge DLC came out. It's weirdly addictive while also not being addictive.

I felt really happy watching the overview video and thinking how much I would have enjoyed the Hotel and Slumber Island... if this were 3-4 years ago. But I'm not sure if I will actually play it nowadays after being done with the game for so long.

The collabs are interesting and fitting since the game already has Mario stuff, although tying some of them to amiibos was an odd chose.

Nothing in the Switch 2 version particularly called out to me except the megaphone which is an adorable concept.

This game better have an upgrade path; I've already played 200+ hours of the Switch 1 version and no way am I starting over 😆

It's odd that all the good updates are in the free part - not really sure why they even bothered charging for the Switch 2 edition.

Some of the free updates are things I would have absolutely loved several years ago but I'm not sure if I can really get back into the game now after 600 hours of play and then a 3 year break. I may just continue to impatiently wait for a new animal crossing and not really bother with the update.

The only issue/bug I've had is levitating between buildings while my Pokemon runs in place on air. And that was more humourous than problematic.

The nostalgia bias is overwhelming for Pokemon. Maybe in 30 years everyone will say Pokemon Z-A is one of the best Pokemon ever and gen 16-18 are awful.

Personally for me... it's never been an amazing series but it's always been a fun and cute series.

@LazyDaisy I suspect the main goal of patching this is so that the 9 million people who own the collection are reminded that they own Galaxy 1 and should go buy Galaxy 2.

I'm trying to decide between Hyrule Warriors and Air Riders. I'll wait for after I try the Kirby demo to decide.

@Pillowpants Considering Z-A sold 6 million in a few days even though the better version of the game is both $70 and on a console not many people own yet and even though it's not the main game of the generation, I think it's fair to say the Pokemon Company will not be seeing diminishing returns. I expect the Switch 2 Z-A bundle will sell like fire this holiday season also.

@ShadLink I'm not sure where I would rank Z-A yet, but Arceus is number 1 for me also.

Give us time to beat Z-A before you rank it; it's only been a week 😝 I am enjoying it so far.

I wonder how the review scores from super fast players versus ones who take more than a week differ 🤔

Happy weekend and gaming everyone. This week I am playing:

• Pokémon Legends: Z-A - I haven't actually had a chance to play all week but I will have a few hours to play this weekend so I should have a chance to proceed in the main campaign. First goal is to fight some more bosses. And then maybe buy some new clothes.
• Hello Kitty Island Adventure - Trying to get my DLC friend to max friendship. Also playing to get the current event items.
• Picross LogiartGrimoire - Finished the second section of DLC 3.

I noticed there are a lot of sales so I may grab a smaller cheap game also but I'm not sure.

Probably 8/10? I'm not done yet so it is possible that will change, but it's 8 at the moment. I am really enjoying the atmosphere of the game and even though the region is small, exploring and fighting in parks and platforming around roofs are all quite fun. And I love the clothing options after the S/V school uniforms.

I don't like the combat as much as in Arceus (in theory there is potential for lots of strategy but with the annoying timers counting down in practice I am much less strategic than I am in a normal Pokemon game) and the boss fights are not my favorite. The night time fight club thing is more fun than I thought it would be though.

I personally quite like the art style, not sure why people complain about it. And the soundtrack is catchy.

I could take or leave the megas.

Overall, quite enjoying the game although I am not in as love with it as I was Arceus (which I gave 9/10).

Given that the Switch 1 version sounds like it has some issues and not many people own a Switch 2 yet, lower sales were inevitable.

That said.... this is one of the last games which takes vouchers so I bought digital. We'll have to wait a few months for Nintendo to publish the true sales with physical plus digital.

Only 13/21. I think I got every one I wasn't 100% sure of wrong 😅 There were a few where the correct answer was my second guess and some I just didn't really know the game at all.

I explored the city so much in the first couple hours that I am drowning in money. Although I keep spending it on clothes 😆

Happy weekend and gaming everyone. This week I am playing:

• Pokémon Legends: Z-A - Having lots of fun so far. Enjoying the city exploration a lot more than I expected. I'm not a huge fan of the new combat system but it hasn't detracted too much from the rest of the game. And everything runs like a dream on Switch 2.
• Hello Kitty Island Adventure - I have now found all but two of the collectables on the DLC map. I have zero clue where the missing ones are hiding 😆
• Picross LogiartGrimoire - Starting the 3rd DLC pack.
• Super Mario Maker 2 - Just a few levels here and there.

good 'ol Chikorita here even though it has a goofy mega evolution

Ironically the loading times are so fast on Switch 2 that I never get a chance to read the helpful hints displayed during loading screens. 😆

@N00BiSH Imagine having to rotate the entire open world map to look at different angles

Captain Toad sequel please.

I'm not totally sold by what I've seen but I have a voucher from last year which is about to expire and Nintendo has had almost no voucher-able games this year sooo... I may have no choice 😆 I loved Arceus so I guess I'll just hope I like this game also.

Interesting list as always.

Adding Cato and Super Alloy Ranger to my wishlist and I'll try the demo of Anna Holinski saves the universe.

Cogen, Hyper Team, Toree Saturn, and Witch On The Holy Night were already on my wishlist but it's nice to see a mini review of them.

I'm glad Be Brave Barb was included - all the games by the Dadish dev are remarkably good and deserve more love.

Adding it to my wishlist. Although I have a long Atelier backlog.

Happy weekend and gaming everyone. Same games for me this week as last week:

• Hello Kitty Island Adventure - I finally got to the highest region on the DLC map and also made my final gem wands so I have done a lot of the DLC now although I still need to finish the plot arcs after leveling friendship more with the new character.
• Be Brave, Barb - Finished all 100 levels. A simple but very unique and satisfying puzzle platformer. About 4 hours total but it only cost $2 so a good deal.
• Donkey Kong Bananza - Not much this week other than grabbing a few bananas I missed here and there.
• Picross LogiartGrimoire - Back to working on the DLC puzzles.

Neat sounding. I'll add it to my wishlist.

I don't usually double dip with 2 versions of a game on one console, but I'm very tempted here.

@rallydefault @N00BiSH I'm not convinced half the people who complain about frame rate can even visually tell the difference between a really consistent 30 fps and a 60 fps.

And everyone is inevitably arguing about what 'new' means. I buy a lot of games but fairly rarely one that isn't on sale. But I would certainly still count them.

@KociolekDoSyta Some of us need an 'about once a week' category.

Far more than 12 but a lot of those are $3 games

It had pikmin related music, the type of objects which pikmin carry floating around and the pikmin series anniversary is this month soo... pikmin.

Pikmin 5 teaser?

I'll definitely get Hades 2 someday but so far I haven't played any of these.

My one eShop game of the month was Hello Kitty Island Adventure - Wheatflour Wonderland which has been great DLC for a great game.

@eaglebob345 It's Sega colored.

As someone who didn't buy either... I'm looking forward to Kirby Air Riders.

@Cipher36 For a large minority of people, Klonoa instantly crashes on Switch 2. This is for the digital version. It may also depend on region, not sure, but I believe the physical version works. I've spoken to Nintendo support a couple times and they have just shrugged and continued to sell it on the eShop marked as compatible although they partially refunded me and have refunded others I have spoken to.

They found the same number of problems as they fixed. At that rate they will never finish 😆

I'm still hoping they fix Klonoa eventually — that's the only major Switch 1 game I have which won't even load on Switch 2 although I have some smaller games with issues.

Unfortunately there isn't always much motivation for third parties to to do these type of patches if the game is somewhat old and they don't really expect to sell many more copies.

Edit: Interestingly, I just now tried to download a demo of a game that is not out yet and it wouldn't let me because they said it doesn't work on Switch 2. So apparently compatibility is still an issue with future games, which I guess makes sense for devs who don't have Switch 2 dev kits yet.

Bananza deserves to be nominated for overall GotY as well (I don't think it will win, but it deserves to be nominated).

@PikminMarioKirby It is an extremely good controller.

@Nintendomatt64 I mean... that category has a console, a controller, a hard drive, a camera, a laptop, and a CPU. Seems like it is any type of hardware which is being sold to use with gaming.

Cute article.

I've found a lot of games through these articles. Now that the eShop has gotten even worse in terms of the amount of junk, it's even harder to find the good games so I look forward to the article.

I may submit one myself; I'll have to look through my list.

Happy weekend and gaming everyone. Not a ton of game time and nothing new this week, but I have been playing a bit of:

• Hello Kitty Island Adventure - I discovered a whole part of the DLC map I somehow hadn't noticed so I am mainly exploring while leveling friendship of the new character.
• Donkey Kong Bananza - After a break I decided to go back and do some more of the post-game. I don't think I will go for 100% because a few things seem less fun, but I may go in and grab a few bananas or fossils when I feel like it.
• Be Brave, Barb - About 60 levels in. Such a goofy and simple but creative game.
• Picross LogiartGrimoire - Replaying some hard levels with no types of hints and no rewinding.

Doesn't look all that different to me, but I'll be getting Galaxy 2 regardless. I'm hoping Nintendo will eventually have every single mainline Super Mario game available on Switch.

@ShieldHero It's different because there are fair-use laws regarding copywrited materials. The AI tools are arguably blatantly breaking those rules as has already been decided in some court cases. In a way that a random fan artist doesn't. Since we're on a game site, let's pretend AI gets a little better and can make a full video game. AI tools making a general rpg with public domain types of character models? No problem (no legal problem anyways). AI training off of super mario rpg playthrough video and directly stealing/recreating most of the assets to make a game with a different plot but which looks like mario rpg? That's a problem. The fact that the end result is 'cool' doesn't relate much to the legality or moral implications (if you don't care about the moral implications of stealing from a large company, a better example might be stealing from an indie artist or game maker and both profiting from their work while simultaneously putting them out of a job).

It's not the concept of generative AI that is at fault, it is the almost completely unregulated way it is currently being used. If some lawsuits help sane laws and regulations be passed? All the better.

Finally, a non-controversial lawsuit. I hope the big companies getting annoyed leads to laws which also protect the independent artists.

@ShieldHero The tool trained on copywrited data which directly leads to them getting money. Normal art supplies weren't designed to magically create copywrited images more easily as a major selling point so it is a very different scenario.

I wish this game got some DLC and a Switch 2 edition, but I'll take the music; there are some very cute songs.

Happy weekend and gaming everyone. Pretty busy week so only a smidge of gaming time, but I played some bits and pieces:

• Hello Kitty Island Adventure - Playing through the new DLC. The new map is lovely. Also trying to get yet more visitors to move in permanently. Finally finished the really long flower quest as well.
• Be Brave, Barb - Just played a couple levels this week, but it included a boss. Bosses in a game where you can do nothing but walk in a straight line and jump and can't touch enemies are pretty silly
• Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter (demo) - Played enough of the demo to decide to add the game to my wishlist. Very cute and fun looking.
• Earthbound (NSO) - My current NSO game. Just played the intro so far.
• Super Mario Maker 2 - Just played a few random levels.

The magical talking monkeys either have a very short lifespan (so the ones we see in each game are actually different generations of characters with the same names) or very long lifespans because... why not, they are magical talking monkeys.