JaketheArbok

This game has aged very poorly. I played it on original hardware a few weeks ago, and there was no control scheme or way to play it that felt satisfying to hold. The gameplay itself is quite good for its time, and I could imagine the multiplayer would be good if you could get past the hurdle of the controls, but the hurdle's just too high for me to jump over.
Happy for people that are excited, but I was really hoping the next one would be Mario Party 3.

As a kid, finding the third star in Hands-On Hall in Super Mario 3D World. I had all the stars, all the stamps, all the golden flagpoles, I knew I just needed to get this one star. It took me like three months to figure out you could just walk the way the spikes were going and there was a whole other area.
My recent biggest frustration was presenting the Blue Badger at the end of the first Ace Attorney game. I knew what to do, I knew how to do it, I looked up about 15 guides to help, and it took forever.

I was gonna be outraged about this article, because I love water-types, but then I realized I only run with non-fish water types.
Pellipper and Buziel are staples of my teams, and I always pick the water starters, but I never bother with fish. If nothing else, they make good fodder for me to grind a grass or electric type.

What other innovative experiences will we get to try via this service? Checkers? Tic-tac-toe?

I’m joking of course, but is this really what you want to show people is a definitive game for the system? Odd choice.

NA/Europe in a layup.

Home Consoles- I’d prefer physical, but I’ll tolerate digital, as I usually have a internet connection when using them.
Portables- I’m only digital when I have no other choice, as I usually won’t have an internet connection then.

Finally finished the game… and yeah, I disagree on the score.
A lot of things said I do agree with though: the game is absolutely hideous in motion, it feels ridiculously unpolished, pop-in makes collectible hunting nigh-impossible, and Sonic tends to control either like a feather or a tank.

But idk, this game hits everything a Sonic game needs to hit. The music is the best since 06 (probably the only time you can use that phrase), the story is really intriguing, and while not everything lands, the stuff that does really does, and the Super Sonic boss fights are probably the highest amount of hype I’ve ever played in a video game.

It has so many glaring problems that I don’t doubt this was an honest review, but it’ll always be a great game in my heart, and I’m super hyped for the free DLC.

I hope this makes it in. This is the epitome of what Rainbow Road should be, gorgeous visuals, genuinely hard and unique track design, and excellent atmosphere and music.

@Dev9417
DS' would be cool too. Maybe you could have that spinning oval thingy be anti-grav, or the circular spinning area with the shortcut.
Even GBA would be nice at this point.

What about Mario Kart?
I mean, the story writes itself. Just treat everything with semi-realistic logic and maybe make it a cash prize, you could have so many narratives colliding (in some cases, literally) at once.

Okay, I’m going to preface this by saying that I had fun with a lot of Switch games published this year. But let’s break this down.

By all accounts, Xenoblade 3 is a pinnacle in RPG’S, and Kirby is one of the best 3D platformers I’ve ever played. I really liked Splatoon 3, despite people saying it’s a copy, COD gets away with far less from what I’ve seen.

That’s 3 great games in a year that have mainstream appeal.

To be quite frank, Mario Strikers and Nintendo Switch Sports have a dearth of content, Mario and Rabbids, while still a good game, lacks the charm of the original, Bayonetta was wracked in controversy, and the other few games were kind of niche.

This is to say nothing of the controversy with Pokémon. I think that it was a good year, but if you’re not into at least 2 of the 3 games at the top, then you’re going to be disappointed, and that has room to be a lot of people. Some people don’t know what a Xenoblade even is, and Splatoon already being on the platform does not bode well for 3’s success. So, saying that everyone that was disappointed is impossible to please is kind of a bad faith argument.

Finally, comparing the Switch to PlayStation and Xbox makes no sense. The crappy performance of multiplats makes the Switch live and die on exclusives, so doesn’t that make sense to judge it on?

Super Mario 3D World.

This was one of the first platformers I ever beat, and the nostalgia is strong with me. The game is varied enough that it never really gets old, and with the added benefit of multiplayer and it being on Switch, I have more excuses to pull it out.

5. Pokémon Legends Arceus (still haven’t finished enough of Scarlet to form an opinion, and open-world games aren’t necessarily my thing, but I can’t deny that it’s the most freeing Pokémon has felt ever)
4. Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope: (again, haven’t played too much, but this is such a tremendous alteration of the formula and a great action RPG.
3. Splatoon 3: Witty placement aside, this is just more great Splatoon gameplay refined to an absurd degree, I can’t wait to play more.
2: Kirby and the Forgotten Land: One of the greatest 3D platformers I’ve ever played, and such a flawless translation of the classic formula. The Colosseum is still ridiculously hard, though. Or maybe I just need to git gud, who knows…
1: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge: Was not expecting this to be so good. The best beat-em-up I have ever played, and I wasn’t even born during the Turtle craze. The environments are vibrant even on Switch, the music is amazing, it’s essentially the Sonic Mania of Turtle games, and I hope this leads to more revolutionary beat-em-up’s like this.

I’m going to capitalize on the sale to pick up Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge, as well as Kirby’s Dream Buffet.
Merry Christmas peoples!

YOU DESERVE IT

five claps

YOU DESERVE IT

I’ve still got to round out playing the stuff that came out in the holidays, but right now, my money’s on Kirby and the Forgotten Land. Such a great adaptation of what made the series great, and the abilities, level gimmicks, and bosses gave me a constant smile. It wasn’t trying to be a masterpiece, but it was just a fun game all around.

I’m getting close to finishing Ace Attorney: Justice For All. I see now why everybody hates Turnabout Big Top. The leaps in logic you have to take there are so dumb, and some of the characters border on annoying.

Elsewhere, I’ll play some more Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle in preparation for Sparks of Hope. I’ve been working through it with my brother, and I’m excited to start the DK DLC, as that’s completely new to me.

Happy gaming, peoples!

The only update that would get me to play more of this game is more single player content.

Going to play some Mario Kart 8 Deluxe DLC, some Xenoblade Chronicles:Future Connected, and I might play the second Ace Attourney game or Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity if I feel like it. I’m going to watch my little brother finish Mario Odyssey as well, it’s the first game he’s finished on his own.
Happy gaming everyone!

Really solid section over all. I was not expecting Peach Gardens to have that backwards third lap, and as someone who was raised on Mario Kart DS, that got a smile out of me. Halfpipes work great as well, was not expecting them to be so seamless. In general, they used antigrav much more, which is nice to see. Least favorite course is probably London Loop. It sure is a city course, but otherwise, all the courses are great to outstanding.

He just couldn’t escape from the city.

Ok, Nintendo!
I’ve literally wanted this mode my whole life, I can finally play with ONLY coins.

I feel like we’re going to look back at this era and see the lack of fleshed-out multiplayer games as Nintendo’s biggest fly in the Switch ointment. I don’t think it’s that much to ask for a game to eclipse content from a PACK-IN GAME ON THE WII, much less a full-price Switch game in the year of our Lord 2022, to the point that we’re just happy to have GOLF after it’s been delayed so many times…
Yet we continue to shove this down our throats because we’re just so happy to have these games on the Switch at all, and casuals won’t play it enough to notice a dearth of content. And thus the cycle continues.

Happy for people that are enjoying it, and what’s here does look quite fun but this is one of the few games I will not buy for full price on principle. Maybe someday if I get a crazy discount or the game gets a lot more modes I might jump, but I gotta take a stand somewhere…

@Dr_Lugae
Sorry to bother again, but what didn’t you like about it? I’ve never played it, but I heard the story was good.

If there’s ever a sale I might pick this up. Atari history is one gaming subject I’m pretty weak on, and I’d be down to explore some of the games here, especially in a museum-like process.

@Takoda
As someone who only had the 3DS Mario Parties as a kid, I agree with your statement.

@Dr_Lugae
Just curious, which one did you hate more than Sticker Star?

Sticker Star is not the worst game that I’ve ever played. The graphics and music are nice, inoffensive fluff. There are some decently interesting locations, and there are some okay bosses.
Sticker Star is the most boring game that I’ve ever played. There was next to nothing enjoyable, all the encounters punished me for interacting with the game’s mechanics, and the story was a barren wasteland, which is a pretty serious crime in an RPG. It’s about a 5/10 on an honest scale, but even as someone that’s never played TTYD and only played a bit of the original, this game stinks.

Color Splash and Origami King slowly pushed back the creative curtain, and it was only ever a good thing. I’m fine with Paper Mario being something not an RPG (The best part of Origami King was the real-time combat against the Paper Macho Soldiers) but I’m not okay with Nintendo taking the name of a once-proud series and repeatedly dumping on it.

Yeah, def getting this on PS4. The game just looks incredible in action so I want to give it a try for myself. I really wish this would have scored better on this site for all the people that just show up to kick Sonic while he’s down, but what are you going to do?

You know, I was decently skeptical when this released, and to be honest, I’d still prefer a linear 3D platformer that’s actually in 3D, but looking at this game in motion, I’m pretty impressed. I’m definitely going to get it soon, but probably not day 1.

If you were to swap Unova with Kalos, this would be my list as well.

I heard the rumor (on this site I believe) about a year or so ago that Nintendo’s new controllers were much less prone to drifting, and I honestly take stock in that. I havent felt much drifting in my new controllers. It doesn’t make the situation right, but Nintendo may have finally fixed the problem without telling anybody. Has anyone else had problems with newer controllers?

@Johnno137426
No, for three reasons:
1: The Joy-Cons are ticking time bombs as is, so you might as well enjoy them while you can.
2: The main reason people messed up their controllers was by using their palms to rotate the sticks, so if you don’t do that, you should be fine.
3: Not that many controllers were messed up because of that, it was more so people’s palms hurt.
Hope that helped!

Is it just me, or is “Slime Speedway” an odd title for this game? It feels more like a track in the game than an actual title.
Anyway, this is more what I would expect a Nickelodeon kart-racer to be like. Bummer for anybody that was excited, but I’m not exactly shocked:

Yeah, I really liked the original, but the Donkey Kong DLC is still on my backlog. Might just finish that and wait for a sale.

This is butt a joke, people. Nobody’s actually complaining about this.

Gotta go with Japan on this one. It doesn’t exactly scream “horror” (which I’m assuming is the point of the game), but at least I can tell what I’m looking at instead of a blob.

Ah, but it’s nothing compared to Picrossy Road coming out in 2040. You solve picross puzzles while dodging real life traffic. Bonus points if it’s in a crowded highway.

I swear… literally every time the internet has posted a big outrage this year about a game (at least from what I’ve seen) they’ve been wrong. People make much ado about nothing these days I guess.
People that were hyped for this, have fun!

I’m not really feeling this one. With all the other animated Sonic projects, either the animation was fluid or the show itself was charming. This one doesn’t really have either. For 3D animation, I think Sega should just go for something with more of a comedic focus, because I don’t think they have the chops to go that way in intense action scenes. 2D Sonic animation has been gorgeous as of late, just look at the Rise of the Wisps cartoon. This show just looks a bit flat.

Gotta be Mario Party 3 for me. I like the concept of Goldeneye well enough, but I never really am able to pick a control scheme that is right for me. Maybe that’ll change this go around. I’ve heard that 3 is the best one, so I’m excited to give it a whirl.

@Friscobay
Yeah, fair point. It just seems like we’re getting less and less content with each entry. Hopefully the next editions are still acceptable.

@Arawn93
It’s perfectly fine if people like the game. If they find worth in it, good for them! But that doesn’t change the fact that the general consensus of the game is “Bought it, played for a few hours, that’s about it, which contributes to it’s anemic review score on Metacritic despite being a game in a fan favorite franchise that people have waited years for. This game is emblematic of Nintendo churning out the bare minimum, and I think that it’s worth people throwing a big stink about.
I don’t need hundreds of hours in this game to have a good time, but when I can pop in the N64 Expansion and get more gameplay hours out of Mario Tennis and Golf, that’s a problem. I don’t even want some insane amount of stuff to do; literally adding a basic story or challenge mode that could be all text or contain next to no story at all, or even just launching with around 15 characters and actual varied stages would do the trick for me. It’s not an insane amount, the N64 games did it effortlessly, why is it a problem here?

7/10 direct for me.
Way too many RPG’s and farming games for me, but when there was a hit, it was a home run.
The Nintendo 64 games announced were probably the highlight of the direct; having a way to play the Mario Parties and Goldeneye on Switch is great.
I really dug the way Peach Gardens looked, and having half pipes return to the series is cool.
Pikmin 4 is a long time coming, and I think it’ll be worth the wait.
Much like Xenoblade 3, Octopath Traveler 2 is probably going to get me to buy the original and give it a shot.
Zelda looks good, but I’m surprisingly just not hyped for it. Open-world stuff just isn’t my thing, to be honest. I’m still going to get it, and am excited for everybody else that is excited!
It Takes Two is a surprise, hyped to see that game on Switch!
The game where you age when you die looked cool, I’m excited to see how that’s going to turn out.
Mario and Rabbids continues to look really fun.
I don’t really care about Nintendo Switch sports, but I might bite with a discount and one or two more games.
Kirby’s Return to Dreamland is great on Switch, and I’m so excited to play it!

@Friscobay
To quote the YouTuber Scott the Woz (in a family-friendly fashion)
“Some may ask, why do you continue to purchase Nintendo games if they treat you like crap? Well, how do I know if they’ll treat me like crap if I don’t buy their games?”
Such is the cycle of a Mario Sports fan.

@Arawn93
I speak as someone who is the target audience for these games: someone that’s enamored with the Mario brand and has friends to engage in multiplayer showdowns: it’s still not worth it. All of the best Mario multiplayer games have varied concepts and multiplayer modes and single player modes that make practicing and improving fun. Like, people rag on Tennis Aces, but that game at least has varied courses, a bunch of characters, several different multiplayer modes that drastically change the way you play, and a decently fun story mode that’s great to blast through. Strikers has like 8 stages that all play the exact same way, an admittedly fun gameplay concept that wears painfully thin after a few hours because all the matches play the same way, and one single player mode that’s just a tournament that’s either way too easy or unfairly difficult. I just really don’t buy the, “Mario spinoffs are supposed to be devoid of content” argument when Nintendo has done much better than this.

I find it kind of ironic that the game that stole “best multiplayer game” from Nintendo at the game awards, a title that they usually win in a layup, is now on Nintendo platforms. I’ll probably pick this up at some point, it looks fun, and I like co-op games. I’ll just need to find a partner, because it’s a little too adult-oriented for my little brother.

It is finished. Other than Smash Bros and the rest of Rare’s catalogue, that’s all the meaningful games on N64 that aren’t licensed or insanely hard to obtain.

They’ve pretty much completed the service with feasible games at this point. Other than Smash Bros, I can’t think of many more games the system needs. There’s a few more Rare platformers and some licensed games, but that’s about it.

Just when I was about starved for a couch co-op game, Nintendo comes flying in from the east! As someone who liked Star Allies but thought it was a little bland, I’m excited to play what some people think is the best game in the series, and the minigames look amazing! When it comes to value, the price gouging for the original is so insane that this might still be cheaper, so any way you slice it, I’m excited to play it.