GregamanX

After beating Axiom Verge 2 (great metroidvania, hampered by some key points with awful design choices where you have no clue what to do) and The Last Campfire (an amazing little puzzle story game that I would absolutely recommend) last weekend, I'm now playing Neo: The World Ends With You. It's pretty great so far. I think I like it more than the original (which was also great). My only complaints are slow loading times between battles and a few quests that have felt tedious. But I really love the battle system and voice acting. I'm definitely immersed in this one.

@Bolt_Strike it could really be the opening areas of the game where things are kept relatively simple for people to adjust moving Kirby in 3D. Remember, most Kirby games have incredibly easy opening areas.

This and Bayonetta 3 were the highlights of the direct for me. I'm pleasantly surprised by the footage. I dont even care if it's kind of easy. Kirby games are supposed to be relaxing. The only thing I hope is that it's not too barren or devoid of puzzles/exploration. But I'll wait and see what the reviews have to say about that.

Honestly, there's nothing I hope to see from a nintendo direct anymore. Mario Golf Super Rush and the last Smash reveal were such massive disappointments to me, and they were the only things I had hopes going into last time. Now, I have no faith in Nintendo's first party choices. I guess hearing about a little botw2 info may be kind of nice, but that's it for me. Or if they could remake Oracle of Ages and Seasons like the Link's Awakening remake, that would be nice too. I'm not even looking forward to the last Smash reveal anymore though. I've lost complete faith that it will be something I find remotely decent. Its probably just Waluigi or a pokemon or a Fortnite character.

I really hope a remaster collection would also contain the original version of Klonoa 1 as well as the Wii version. Also, I would buy a physical version day one. And having access to Klonoa 2 without digging up my ps2 would be awesome.

For anyone who hasnt played these games, they are ABSOLUTE GEMS. If this comes to light, it will be Klonoa's last chance. Please don't pass them up or wait for a sale. There is not a minute where these games don't shine.

I hardly think of the Dreamcast Sonic games as "failures", considering the audience they have. That title should be thrown out to the likes of 06, Boom, Lost World and Forces. I would use the term, "Rough around the edges".

And obviously 16-bit Sonic is my favourite, with Sonic 2, 3 & Knuckles and Mania leading the way. Adventure 1 and 2 follow that, along with Colors and Generations.

After beating Spiritfarer last week (a really good cozy management game where you ferry lost souls to their final destination), I decided to start up Axiom Verge 2, so I'll be playing that. I'm digging it quite a bit so far. My only real complaint is that its visually very muted and pale in comparison to the last game. It's just weird to play a sequel that doesnt look as good. Aside from that, I've been craving a good metroidvania, so I'm still hooked. So far the map has been quite enjoyable to explore.

I also wish I was playing Cruisin' Blast, but I decided to save that as a future Christmas idea.

I'll be continuing my journey with Spiritfarer. The game is a lot longer than I thought it would be. Sometimes to the point of tedium, as i find some objectives are rather vague in terms of not knowing where to find certain materials. Yet despite all of that, this game does have an addictive gameplay cycle, the music and visuals are incredible, and i love the characters. Its certainly up there in my top 10 games that I've played in 2021. Would totally recommend.

I beat Persona 5 Strikers last week (which was rather awesome. It was way better than I thought it would be, possibly surpassing the original game), so now I'm playing Spiritfarer (which I just picked up on the 50% off sale). I'm hopelessly addicted to this game. Its very relaxing, but it has all of these tasks to do that overlap with each other that constantly gives you things to do. Micromanaging the needs of my guests, while in a constant cycle of travelling/building/harvesting/collecting materials never gets old. And I haven't even had to say goodbye to any of my guests yet, in which I could see being pretty gutting, as I really love the characters in this game. The visuals are also fantastic, the music is chill and atmospheric, and Stella's cat is just adorable. What more could I ask for?

I'm still waiting on a 90% discount for Bloodstained. If they had just released it without bugs in the first place, I would have paid full price for it.

More Persona 5 Strikers for me. I'm sending out the calling card for the 6th jail now, so I know it will be coming to an end soon. I may be able to finish it sometime between this weekend and the next. Still loving it. I'm surprised how much I'm enjoying this one.

I have quite a few songs I could listen to for 10 hours:
Possum Springs - Night in the Woods
Rivers in the Desert - Persona 5
Night Valek Mountain Theme - Xenoblade
Welcome to Fyrestone- Borderlands
Reach for the Summit - Celeste
Main Theme - A Short Hike
Primordia (Day theme) - Xenoblade X
Main Theme - Ori and the Will of the Wisps

I'll be spending my weekend in Okinawa...in Persona 5 Strikers. Actually, I've heard the jail in that area is pretty small, so probably what lies beyond it as well. I'm surprised how much I've been getting into this game. I thought it would be a borderline 7 out of 10 game, but it's more like a high 8. Its incredibly enjoyable.

Yesterday I happened to pick up Axiom Verge 2 and The Last Campfire (the latter of which is on a hefty sale), but I'm still playing Persona 5 Strikers, and I suppose I'll be at it for awhile before giving them a go. It is getting more enjoyable with time though, and I think I'm starting to prefer this Koei Tecmo game over Age of Calamity (which was still a good game, nonetheless).

I played through this game before the review, and even with the 15% sale going on right now, I would recommend waiting until a 50% discount before picking it up. Its not that it was bad. A 7 out of 10 seems about right, but along with the sticky movement issues, the sidequests and campground customization really weren't very rewarding. There are so many camps on the map, and your choices for items to put in them are extremely limited. Resource collecting can be a pain since you can only hold so much, and once you pick up resources, they don't respawn over time. So you'll be scouring the whole map for a little bit of wood to build 1 or 2 items for 1 out of 10 of your campsites. With no fast travel or helpful map markers, it can become very tedious. There is a marketplace you can build to sell resources that you dont want or to buy new ones with. But it's quite a costly endeavor, so I was only able to buy one at a campsite near the bottom of the map. It was a pain to go to that one site to gain more materials. I could have made another marketplace at the top of the map, but by that point, I just lost interest in camp building all together. There's just no real interesting reward for doing so.

There are things to enjoy though. Once I played long enough, the island does have a pretty good design to it, and I did enjoy the main trek to the top of it. There is a mellow, peaceful atmosphere present. But if you haven't played A Short Hike yet, the choice is obvious of what to go for.

I played through Haven Park today. It's pretty good, but maybe more like a 5 out of 10 kind of game. It's no Short Hike, that's for sure. And I know it's not trying to be the same thing exactly, but the lack of polish kind of hurt the experience, along with a lack of direction (which SH also doesn't give you, but exploration feels more natural and rewarding in that game). The building of camp sites felt pretty pointless in Haven Park though. It's extremely limited, the visitors dont say anything interesting, and you get nothing really out of it. The natural exploration and finding your way up the mountain is relatively satisfying, but the main path alone only takes a couple of hours, and isn't as fun of an ascension as SH. I'm glad I only paid $10 for it.

I started the weekend by playing Johnny Turbo's Night Slashers with my wife last night. I picked it up on sale for a couple of bucks, and it was such a delightfully cheesy beat em up. It's a pretty awesome feeling suplexing Dracula.

Aside from that, it's gonna be more Persona 5 Strikers when I can fit some gaming time in. Although I've just found the Persona 4 anime online, so my wife and I will be re-experiecing the story with that during any spare time that we have.

I'll be playing the real version of Pure Pool. We got our 8 ft red felt slate pool table into our game room last night and have been having an absolute blast with it, playing well into the night. Pure Pool is great, but I really missed the real thing.

Aside from that, I did start Persona 5 Strikers a couple days ago, so I'll be playing that over the next month or two. Not really sure what to say about it yet, since I'm only an hour and a half into it. I do like it so far, but it's taking a little bit to get rolling for me. Oh yeah, and my wife is playing TWEWY NEO and absolutely loving it.

Since I beat Jenny LeClue: Detectivu this week (a really great adventure title that i recently picked up on massive discount), I decided to start Doki Doki Literature Club last night. Of course, it's all sunshine and rainbows in the beginning, so I've got a ways to go before all of the crazy stuff starts happening. Whatever happens, I'm sure my character, Canuck Norris, can handle whatever comes his way.

Aside from that, I'll be spending the weekend meeting my new nephew, and eagerly waiting for my pool table to be delivered on Monday. Finally, a couple good things to look forward to for myself in 2021.

A mix of Crash 4 and Jenny Leclue: Detectivu for me. Jenny Leclue in particular is an absolute hidden gem that I just picked up on sale for around 80% off. If it's still on sale, I HIGHLY recommend picking it up. Visually, it's got a bit of this Night in the Woods feel, it's writing is clever, its fully voice acted, and it's a chill game that's sucking me right into its atmosphere. I had no clue that this game existed before i saw it on sale. It's a little game that seems to be gushing with passion from the developers. Pretty sure I'll be playing this most of the weekend.

@blindsquarel Nope, I got it at ebgames. Was just right in the 7 day return window with my edge card, in which they gave me a full exchange in return. I bought Crash 4 and a $30 eshop card with that credit.

Oh, just realized I should have disregarded that. Oh well.

I'll be playing more Crash 4 this weekend. I'm SO glad that I got my full money back for Mario Golf Super Rush and put it toward this. Crash 4 is an absolute blast, and reminds me of why I loved Crash so much back on the PS1.

I also used some extra eshop credit money that I got from the exchange to pick up Doki Doki Literature Club Plus, and Jenny Leclue: Detectivu on discounts, but I'll be playing those some other time. I may also have to give Sky: Children of Light another play someday. I had a fantastic 2 hour session with it a little over a week ago, so I definitely want to return to that when I can.

Oh, and I'll most likely wrap up some Halo 1 co-op with my wife. It's our special game, since it was the first thing we played together almost 20 years ago.

I think last week I was in denial when I picked up Mario Golf: Super Rush. I LOVED World Tour, and I think I wanted to love this game so much that I was telling myself that Super Rush was at least good...but it's not. It was a huge disappointment for me. It's not even the emphasis on speed golf that turned me off, but it just doesn't feel good to play. I don't like how they handled slopes and spinning the ball, putting feels terrible, courses feel very uninspired, characters look like soulless dolls devoid of expression, etc...the list goes on. Just about everything felt off to me.

Luckily, I took Mario Golf back to ebgames, and I was able to get my full value back for the game, so I picked up Crash 4, and $30 worth of eshop credit, in which I've at least bought Doki Doki Literature Club Plus with so far. Crash 4 has been awesome so far, and I've really wanted to see what doki doki was about for years, but I'm not a PC Gamer, so I'll finally jump in when I'm done Crash 4.

@Dog Technically any character can have moveset potential if they are put in the game. The developers have to work with something. But I've watched the demonstration, and I personally don't find his moveset that interesting beyond throwing some punches and kicks, sprouting wings in 3 directions and firing off a little laser. When I compare it to a character like Shantae, who can hair whip, transform into all different kinds of animals, use various pirate tools as well as a plethora of item types, I find it lacking. But remember, this is only my opinion. I respect that there's a fanbase for people who like Kazuya, but this is personally the most disappointing reveal that I've experienced.

@BulbasaurusRex I beg to differ, but to each their own.

Nintendo: So let's make Kazuya, a guy who would have been perfectly suited as mii brawler, an actual character, but let's make Shantae and Dante, characters with massive moveset potential and fan demand as mii fighters.

LOGIC!

Wow, not much of a mention for Mario Golf Super Rush in this article. I picked it up yesterday, and I'm having a ball with it so far. I'm pretty sure that this will be my go-to game for the summer. Also, I've noticed some people saying that they were disappointed in the review and didnt pick it up. I decided early to not even click on the review and just pick it up and play it instead. I'm so glad that I didnt listen to anyone else and get these preconceived notions in my head. I'm having a blast with it. Mario Golf World Tour wasnt reviewed that well either, and that game has sat in my Top 10 games of all time for years.

Aside from that, I'm rained out today, and there's nothing really open to go out and do, so my wife and I will play some Arcade 1ups, along with maybe trying a few Switch party games I've had sitting in my digital library forever, like Ultimate Chicken Horse and Screencheat. Oh, and maybe some Boomerang Fu, which I just picked up yesterday with my remaining gold coins. Its 89% off and actually looks like a lot of fun.

I know probably about 60 to 75% of them. This is an amazing piece of art. SUPER HAPPY to see Mae and Bea from Night in the Woods and Claire from A Short Hike in there. I would have also have liked to see some Shantae, Dead Cells, Rogue Legacy, Freedom Planet, Cat Quest, Kunai, Plants vs Zombies, Joe Danger, Splosion Man, Grow Home, Firewatch, Lonely Mountains, Limbo, Donut County, Gunvolt, etc...but I guess you can't have em all.

Not a whole lot, as I'm waiting for Mario Golf next week. I did beat Okami HD this week, so now I'm just puttering with small games for now, like Pure Pool and my Arcade 1ups.

It won't happen, because that would be a choice that actually makes sense to have in Smash. At this point, that would be giving Nintendo way too much credit. I'm 100% sure that their last character is going to be 1st party.

@KirbysAdventure I'm sure we've all had a reveal that has crushed our soul in some way. We can't be happy with everything, and this was NOT my day (made even more crushing because any other 3rd party characters are most likely out of the running).

But yes, I have tried Tekken, and I can't get into it because it feels so stiff and plain to me. I'm more into more high energy, flashy fighters like Marvel vs. Capcom, Street Fighter 4, Mortal Kombat 2, Power Stone, etc. Heck, I even like some that are a little more grounded like Soul Calibur and Dead or Alive 3, 4 and 5. But Tekken and Virtua Fighter are on the other end of the spectrum to me, and I really personally feel that they dont fit with Smash Bros' atmosphere and play style. It's kind of like comparing Gran Turismo to arcade racers. Or Halo/Borderlands to Call of Duty. Maybe simulation or technical-style fighters may be a way of putting Tekken, where I'm into more arcade-y fighters.

@GrailUK I'm only saying he's generic to me. Nothing against fans of tekken, but that's how I feel on a personal level.

Yay, generic punch and kicking guy who generic-ly punches and kicks people. Thanks Nintendo. This was by far, the most colossally disappointing smash reveal I've ever experienced. I understand there are some fans of Tekken, but its the worst fighting game I've personally played, so this is literally a 0 out of 10 reveal for me. I don't even care for the next reveal anymore. I'm done and out.

Nice! I LOVED Mario + Rabbids. I'll just wait 6 months after its release for a 75% off sale.

@dmcc0 I'm in wawku shrine, and I just obtained my 13th and final celestial brush power. From what I remember playing 15 years ago, I'm pretty sure the snowy mountain region of Nippon was the 2nd final area, apart from the place where the final boss is. Also note that I'm not doing all the side content. I'm not getting into unnecessary battles or hunting for bounties or anything. Just getting praise and chests wherever I can along the way.

Still more Okami HD. I've been making slow progress with it, but I'm nearing the end of the game. I'm at the Snow area's shrine, with around 25 hours played so far.

Other than that, still more Arcade 1ups. I did order a pool table for the basement as well yesterday (first day out of lockdown in 2.5 months), so maybe I'll play some Pure Pool to brush up on my shot angles before then.

@masterLEON The pedals on Outrun work absolutely fine for me. I was wary before I decided to buy it because people were calling the pedals cheap looking, but obviously Arcade 1up needs to make the units affordable, and cant use the highest quality controls (that pretty much goes for all of the materials/controls used on all of the cabinets in general, and I havent run into any issues on any if my cabinets).

@Zidentia very cool. Nice little rare find there!

@Zidentia I've never heard of the pacman plus cabinet. Do you mean the namco legacy cabinet, or the pacman 40th anniversary one?

I've got 8 cabinets (NBA JAM, TMNT, Golden Tee, X-Men vs Street Fighter, Ms. Pacman, Marvel Pinball, Outrun and Big Buck Hunter). They may be pretty expensive, but I love the heck our of them. Still, the 4 player cabinets take up a lot of room, and I only have room for 2 or 3 more. Plus, i only need one beat em up cab (TMNT), so the Simpsons is out. I'll just patiently wait for NFL Blitz, a Robotron/Smash TV mashup, and Silver Strike Bowling instead.

I was the exact same way when I was a kid. Goldeneye and Mariokart 64 were my jam, and I would absolutely DESTROY my friends at those games. I have a few more games that I've been highly proficient in, like Sonic 2, Halo 1 and 2 and a few others. Otherwise, I'm usually good enough at games to reach the end credits. There are some games that I'm miserable at, such as archaic designed retro games that I didnt play as a kid, and some roguelikes. Overall, I'd probably average out as a 4 on the list.

@NintendoByNature Actually, there are leaks this e3 that Arcade 1up is rereleasing the tmnt cabinet, but it will feature turtles in time as the side art instead of the original arcade game. So you still most likely have a chance of grabbing it. Rampage was also released on the new Midway Legacy cabinet, but it's not the marquee title and it's only 2 player. I havent even played my NBA Jam online yet, but if you ever send a request, I'll try to respond.

@NintendoByNature Nice to see another Arcade 1up owner. NBA Jam is probably my favourite cabinet I own. Which game on the cabinet do you like best? I'm partial to Hangtime myself, but Tournament Edition is awesome too. The original is also good. No bad titles on that cabinet, that's for sure.

Same as last week. Okami HD (now over halfway through), and more Arcade 1ups (had a blast playing NBA JAM Tournament Edition with my wife last night). Itll probably be similar to this until Mario Golf Super Rush comes out this month. Hopefully it's good, because I want to leave all of my time open for that game.

Sonic 2 still remains my favourite game of all time, even after playing over 1000 games in my lifetime. Every single time I come back to it, it hasnt aged in the least, and it makes for a perfectly comfortable playthrough in a short amount of time.

Just as a tip for the end, as metal sonic comes down, start revving in a spin dash and you'll hit him about 6 times before you can dash out of the way before he goes into a spin dash. With robotnik, just stay away from him, wait for him to fly in the air. When he's about to land, move to the side a bit to dodge him, and when he bends his knees on impact, jump and hit him ONCE, then run to the opposite side of the screen and wait for him to take off again. With this slower war of attrition, you can easily beat him in 4 to 5 minutes with no risk of taking damage.

Some more Okami HD for me. Just finished the Moon Cave dungeon last night, at 11 hours in. It's still really fun after all of these years. That'll pretty much be it for me, and maybe a bit of Arcade 1ups tonight.

The 30 second mark of that trailer sounded like the Avengers Infinity War (or maybe it was Endgame?) trailer music. Haha. I can't wait for the news. I've got that day off for a dentist appointment, so hopefully the news will be good once I return to cheer me up (pretty sure I'm dealing with a cracked tooth, and its super painful).

After beating Cuphead last week, I've pretty much beaten every unplayed game in my backlog, so I decided to start up Okami HD. I've beaten it before but havent played the HD remaster. Even after almost 20 years, it still holds up amazingly.

Last year I've had 2 games crack my top 5. A Short Hike and NBA Hangtime (the latter which I rediscovered after getting the Arcade 1up). My Top 5 are Sonic 2, Night in the Woods, A Short Hike, NBA Hangtime and #5 fluctuates between certain golf games like Mario Golf: World Tour, Golden Tee (Arcade 1up) and Everybody's Golf. The latter 2 golf games which I also discovered last year, so it's almost like 3 games have cracked my Top 5 recently.

However, after all my years of gaming, my Top 20 or so is so rock solid that any of these could take a Top 5 spot depending on my mood when I replay them: Mario 64, Borderlands, Halo, Towerfall Ascension, Duck Game, Klonoa, Zelda Ocarina of Time, Starfox 64, Ghost Trick, Persona 4, the Ori games, Dead Cells, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: The Game, Big Buck Hunter World (Arcade 1up).

I really do hope that its Crash for Smash. Cortex could be in the trailer, but then appear after as a Mii Gunner costume.