JJtheTexan

Got mine. Looking forward to the holiday icons, coming this December 24

My brother got a PlayStation in 1995. Battle Arena Toshinden was one of the only games he had for a little while, so I played it a lot and have a lot of nostalgia for it, even though having replayed it more recently I understand why it hasn't aged particularly well. The soundtrack is still superb, though!

I wish I could see what Mario will be like in 2081. Considering I would be 101 years old, I'm not counting on it lol

They just keep sucking me back in

I can't wait to see what happens when they spend $100 billion of Saudi Arabia's money to produce a broken, hideous nightmare of a game that looks like uncanny valley nightmare fuel and is purchased by no one. It will make Anthem look like Game of the Year

I'm not disappointed at all. I'm relieved! Good call by FromSoft and Bandai Namco.

@HammerGalladeBro thank you!!!

I'm patiently waiting for a physical release of Ball X Pit. It looks like a game I will REALLY enjoy.

Metroid II is one of my favorite Game Boy games, and most of its music (with one exception) is a perfect, often atmospheric fit. It's not exactly good for listening to on its own, though, for the most part.

(The oddball track: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3ZsfpMBRmE )

Unrelated: How the heck do I add in-text links in comments? HTML doesn't work

I got a chuckle out of your editing of my letter this month xD

Crystalis is missing from this list, sadly. There are two ways to play it on Nintendo Switch: NES Online / Classics, and SNK 40th Anniversary Collection. It's great! Please play it, everyone!

I was born in 1980, and I still have the NES I received for my birthday in 1988. I've got 44 NES cartridges, many which I had as a kid, and the rest acquired as an adult. I love my NES collection... but I hardly ever touch it. Getting older and settling down forced me to make priorities and tough choices, and it's just too much hassle to make my original hardware work on my TV, and we don't have room in our small home for a CRT.

That's why I love the Nintendo Switch / 2 so much: most of my NES games are playable there, and look great on my modern TV or the console's screen.

It's still difficult for me to think of anything newer than a Nintendo 64 as a "retro" console, though. -_-

@Hank_Scorpio oh! I missed that. I need to try firing it up again.

@Friendly someone else mentioned this, but it's still listed as incompatible on the eShop. I can't recall the exact issue but I think I read somewhere it's game-breaking, which is really saying something when you consider how many endings / routes that game has

(Stares mournfully at NieR: Automata, GRID Autosport, and Super Mega Baseball 4)

Game Freak isn't going to add voice acting because it doesn't have to. The developers aren't going to improve graphics, visual fidelity, and performance, because they don't have to. They aren't going to include the entire Pokedex, because they don't have to. They can keep cranking out the same "good but not great" level of quality games year after year, because millions of people will still buy them.

Why increase the budget to make a game great, when you can make it just decent and still sell a ton of copies? Voice acting isn't going to have a meaningful impact on sales. At least I don't think so.

Easy for me to say all this as I never particularly liked the games!

@Jarodlaraus it does... but it's Limited Run. Pre-orders just opened this week.

"developed by WIZNWAR and published by FLARB" sounds like a formula for eSlop, but this looks fantastic and I hope to see a Nintendo Life review soon!

@YoshiAngemon nope! All Nintendo Switch games work for all console regions (except the Nintendo Switch 2 launch models sold in Japan only, which are locked to Japan to prevent international scalping).

Odd that they didn't update the YouTube version. This keeps getting more perplexing

As a middle-aged DINK (Dual Income, No Kids), I am both very fortunate and somewhat embarrassed to admit I am not even close to 12 games per year. It's more like 100+ but I only buy used / on sale, mostly physical. That said, apparently I am keeping the industry afloat /s

I don't think it's anything. Yes, clearly the music borrows from Pikmin to some degree. It's not difficult to believe the same composer(s) from the game were asked to score this animation as well. The best theory I've seen is that this was simply a demo to impress investors. "Hey look, we spent a few hundred million dollars and we can make Pixar knockoffs now."

EDIT, THE NEXT DAY: welp

@PKDuckman that's too bad. Probably too optimistic but I had hoped it would sort of capture the spirit of the original build of Duke Nukem Forever. Oh well! (Great user name by the way lol)

I get the sense that this was some weird pet project / idea that some Nintendo executive had and pushed through to completion, expecting to be showered with praise for artistic achievement and instead being met with bewilderment and even disgust because nobody wants or expects their video game publisher to be making banal, saccharine animations like this.

Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if Miyamoto-san himself signed off on this.

I liked Ion Fury, though probably not enough to buy the DLC. I was looking forward to Phantom Fury, but it reviewed poorly on other consoles and there's never been any mention of a Nintendo Switch / NS2 port.

I got this on a 90% off sale, so I don't feel too bad about losing $3. Pac-Man 99 was better

I was much more excited until I learned the game won't be available physically. A shame, but I guess it's understandable, considering the PS4 game is about 84GB, quite a bit larger than the (supposedly) largest available cart size. It's just a shame for collectors like me.

I'm not railing about game preservation or corporate greed or whatever. I just want to save storage space on my microSD Express card, and have something nice to display on my shelf!

I played this a little bit when it came out. It was... fine. It had a few decent ideas. My biggest gripe was the lack of actual Star Wars music.

"And nothing of value was lost"

@Mariotag the FDS music has more "sound channels" (I forget the precise technical term), and sounds much richer; similar to some MIDI music in games for the SEGA Mark III or Mega Drive / Genesis. There are FDS versions of The Legend of Zelda, Metroid, and Kid Icarus with similar differences in their soundtracks, compared to the NES. I like them a lot!

One thing I've always been able to say about Nintendo is it offers EXCELLENT customer service. I haven't needed to contact them often, but they have ALWAYS been fantastic. Just this month, an order I placed was "lost" by UPS. I contacted Nintendo customer service and they sent me a replacement at no charge, no questions asked.

Back in 2012, I pre-ordered a Wii U for delivery on launch day. It worked for a week, then bricked. I called customer service and they sent me a replacement while paying all expenses for shipping the defective unit. I got the new one in a few days.

I hope the days of Nintendo's best-in-class customer service are not numbered.

@Polvasti I had the same thought! I'd prefer just the grips for each Joy-Con.

I bought the physical version but haven't started playing yet, as I was hoping for this sort of thing. Great news for sure

I was a teenager when the original "slow Super Mario World vs. Sonic the Hedgehog with BLAST PROCESSING" ad they're referencing here was first shown on TV. I love the new version! I hope CrossWorlds lives up to the hype, especially on Nintendo Switch 2.

Mario Kart has been basically unchallenged for decades as the best kart racer. Nintendo could use some solid competition to inspire even better games (and improvements to MKW)!

Agreed with so many others - this absolutely belonged in the North American version of Nintendo Direct. What a miss by Nintendo and Capcom!

I begged Nintendo to bring Virtual Boy games to Nintendo 3DS, which should have been a no-brainer.

I bought the Nintendo Labo VR Kit for Nintendo Switch, thinking they might bring Virtual Boy games to that gadget.

I guess I'll settle for this!

About time. They've been working on it for what seems like Forever

They're both bad! I would have voted Japan since the option of no box art at all is the best one

Remember when Rayman was a drug-addicted TV host in that Netflix show a few years ago? This is kind of like that.

I've been listening all day. Awakening was my first Fire Emblem game and remains my favorite. It's the only one I attempted to 100% complete and played all DLC content. I love it so much! Perhaps we'll see a remake someday.

My dumb reason for being excited about this: I picked up a sealed copy of this game several years ago for $10 U.S. I never opened it. It's not really worth all that much, but I'm glad I can finally play the game without breaking the seal on my boxed cartridge!

It's great to see so many former Limited Run exclusive games getting "traditional" physical releases for anyone who missed out the first time (or who lives outside of North America, for that matter).

Incidentally, I recently restarted playing Rayman Legends. It's still really great and deserves more love.

This is very promising news, especially given the apparent state of Elden Ring.

How about Project X Zone and Project X Zone on Nintendo 3DS? The official pronunciation was "Cross". Weird

Very interesting, exciting, and informative Direct (and entertaining to boot!). My only minor complaint is that it went on a bit too long. I know they had a lot to cover, but save some for the actual game!

As a free game for NSO subscribers? Great idea.
As a pack-in with the console? No-brainer.
As a mode / DLC to something like Nintendo Switch Sports? Sure.
As a stand-alone game for $20? Dead on arrival.

@vio Scott the Woz is a YouTube personality who does a lot of Nintendo comedy videos, and Chibi-Robo! is one of his favorite games.

Scott the Woz is losing his gosh darn mind right about now

I'm amazed Yellow Taxi Goes Vroom hasn't been announced yet. Seems like it would easily find an audience on NS/2

I bought the original game for my niece, but never picked it up for myself. I guess now is the time!

If I had a nickel for every World War II-inspired vertically-scrolling arcade shoot-'em-up that released in 1984, I'd have two nickels, which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice.