JasmineDragon

This looks really cool but I have extremely mixed feelings about SD Gundam. Towering mechas and cute SD design are a weird combination.

I'm also a casual Gundam fan at best, but if this had normal designs I would definitely be more interested.

@the_beaver Yeah, it's kind of weird to me that they left 13 Sentinels out of the Western Direct. It's being released here, and I feel it could sell really well on the Switch, so why not promote it?

Of course they have time constraints on Directs, so they have to pick and choose, but I think that was a mistake.

This is the announcement we needed, but ouch my wallet.

(Please please let there be a North American special edition that somewhat matches the XC2 SE.) OUCH, my wallet!!

I liked the magenta. It was fun and different, and it doesn't hurt that it's one of my favorite colors. Really the only thing I liked about the new logo. Now there's nothing.

I've had this preordered for a while now, and I'm okay with it being a relatively safe sequel. It's got a fun cast of characters that I can't wait to get acquainted with, and as long as the farming and crafting aspects are done well, I expect I'll be happy.

This looks fantastic. I am definitely checking it out.

My plush Goomba is one of my favorite gaming collectables. He's just adorable.

Sadly my Valentine has zero interest in Nintendo anything.

I had some fun with Sword and I've got no time for negativity. I'm also not super attached to any of the older games. I've played a few and enjoyed them, but never gotten into them to the point of finishing them, much less completing the Pokedex. Sword was, well, a Pokemon game. Not my Game of the Decade, but solid good times.

There's a lot of "you don't understand how bad this game is" around Sword and Shield, but the fact is people enjoy them and play them a lot. They are CONSTANTLY near the top in my Trending screen.

I've unlocked the third dungeon in Atelier Ryza 2 and confessed my undying best-friendship to (spoiler) with bracelets and all. Is it my imagination, or do they make it sound like there's quite a bit more than friendship at stake here?

I'm loving the game. Hoping to be done by the time Atelier Sophie 2 comes out.

@Kirgo That's kind of my point. When gamers talk about Microsoft they're usually thinking about XBox, and judging the company by that. And in that light, yes, XBox is just another console, and not even close to a monopoly, nothing that anybody needs to be too worried about.

But MS is so much more than XBox, it's literally one of the richest and most influential companies in the world, and their power to change the way we play games is massively disproportionate to XBox's market share.

I don't know all the latest numbers, but I know Windows has lost some ground to Chrome and Apple in the last few years, so you could be right about a 75% Windows install base. I wouldn't be too surprised. But they still have major power and a hell of a lot of money.

The fact is, they just paid $70b for a game company. There aren't many companies in any industry that have ever done that.

A lot of people are reacting like ha, ha, XBox bought a company that was in trouble anyway, go Gamepass, Master Chief for Smash!! And I'm over here hoping that Microsoft's vision for the future of gaming is not altogether dystopian, because it's happening whether I like it or not.

An announcement of an incoming Monolith game would really add some oomph to Nintendo's lineup for the year, especially if it's XC3. I'd be all over it, myself. I ended up bouncing off XC2 after a few dozen hours, but even so it had a hell of a lot going for it, and the first XC is absolutely amazing. And I never did play XCX, so even a port of that would work for me.

I mean, we all know they will circle back to this once they've figured out how to spin it better.

We do all know this, right? Please tell me we all know this.

Everyone: "None of these companies are anywhere near a monopoly! Stop spreading unfounded panic and fear!"

Microsoft: owns the OS that literally runs almost every home computer in the world, also owns a whole library of other products that it uses to maintain its dominance in the technosphere, has more money than Sony, Nintendo and Steam put together, and has left a trail of dead companies behind it by implementing its business philosophy "Embrace, Extend and Extinguish" (a phrase which mught seem made up, but has appeared in Microsoft's own internal memos).

Also, not coincidentally, spent over two decades fighting antitrust actions brought against it by the US DOJ and multiple other bodies.

@BAN It wasn't meant to be serious.

Gender-bent Link?! THE HORROR!! (Looks at avatar) Okay, never mind...

I just played the demo back in the day. I found it a neat "proof of concept" but I don't think the DS was a great platform for it. A remake would be fun. But I doubt Nintendo has any plans to revisit Hunters.

Now, let's talk about Metroid Prime Pinball! AKA the Metroid game that's still in my 3DS... that game was PERFECT for the DS.

I haven't played either of these yet, but both are on my radar, as well as Atelier Sophie 2 coming out in February.

@Wexter Honestly, I'm inclined to cut them some slack, too. I have faith the game will be done eventually, and I trust the studio to make a good game. But it's been five years and not even a release window. Every time there's another story like this, it gets a little harder to keep the faith.

@Dragonslacker1 Maybe.

@Kirgo I get what you're saying and there is something to the "just stand out" approach, but does TS actually stand out? We'll probably never have a good answer to this, but I'd be willing to bet that if you presented 100 random gamers with lists of 20 actual video game titles that (somehow) none of them were familiar with, and Triangle Strategy was one of them, and all other things were equal, it would end up being one of the most unpopular picks. It sounds generic, low effort, low budget and skippable. If I saw this on the shelf and didn't already know what this game is, I would 100% skip right past it.

The only defense I can see for this title is that somehow it just sounds much better to someone who knows English but isn't really fluent in it.

(Sorry if I come on a little strong here, I'm actually looking forward to this game - but I think the title is atrocious, and I will die on this hill).

I've said it before, probably an obnoxious number of times. This is a trash tier name for a video game.

People who defend this title tend to lead with "why is it trash, what do names mean anyway" but I strongly disagree. Names DO mean something. If they didn't, we would all have screen names like "User_1984B12* and "The Other Guy Who Likes Mario".

A good title shouldn't necessarily spoil the whole story, and doesn't have to be the most unique and special title ever, but it should do SOMETHING other than tell you this is a strategy game with a rock-paper-scissors approach.

(Edited because I submitted before I was done writing.)

In times like these, I think about Casino Royale. Writing on that movie started in March 2004. It was going to be Pierce Brosnan's fifth Bond movie and continue right on from Die Another Day. In the next two years it went through multiple rewrites, turned into a reboot with a new Bond, got a new director, filmed all of its scenes with mostly physical stunts - including some shot on a custom built, larger than ever, water-filled soundstage and one scene where a stunt car rolled over more times than any other car has ever been rolled before. Production involved thousands of people, real life locations around the world, and a budget of $150 million. 32 months after writing began, the film was in cinemas. And it was good.

Bayonetta 3 was announced in 2017, five years later doesn't even have an estimated release date.

Granted, Covid did happen. But shockingly enough, some companies have been able to release a game or two during the last two years. Not to mention the millions of other things people all around the world have been able to get done since Covid-19 started.

At some point you just have to stop saying "well, Covid" and start wondering what's really happening.

The only thing I'm interested in this February is Atelier Sophie 2.

@Sonos You're thinking about it the wrong way around. The NYC store needed to do something to commemorate the launch of a hot new game in one of Nintendo's premier franchises. It doesn't matter if it looks good on a website, Nintendo's flagship store in New York City isn't going to just ignore the launch of a new Pokemon game.

@Sonos There's no "don't do it in NYC" option. NYC is where the Nintendo Store is located.

I just bought Cadence of Hyrule. I'll probably bounce around between that, Atelier Ryza 2 and Divinity: Original Sin 2 while the wind and the snow pummel my house.

This is one of the games I'm most looking forward to. I tried Lydie and Suelle but wasn't super into it, but the Ryza games have been great. The changes they're making here sound interesting, I don't know if this better than Ryza's combat system (which is great) but I'm excited to find out.

I should go back to the first one. I got stuck in a puzzle for a few days, picked up some other game and never went back to AI. I did enjoy it, though.

I will buy the sequel right away, regardless. I waited to buy the first game and the price went way up by the time I panic-bought it.

More stickers, please!

@ThomastheDankEngine Honestly, I think the core problem with Pokemon fandom is that people fell in love with it as kids and kept playing every release because you "gotta catch them all!", but they expected the games would mature with them, and they categorically just didn't. Pokemon is a franchise meant for kids, that accidentally has an adult fandom. From Nintendo's POV, there's little point in changing Pokemon for the adult fans - the kids outnumber them ten to one (a totally made-up statistic, don't come at me) and they are where the big money comes from.

PLA may be their attempt to please the adult Poke-veterans as well as the kids, but I would bet real money they're going to continue focusing on kids until the sales fall off a cliff. And adult fans will continue to be frustrated, for the most part.

(FYI, no judgement on anyone who is a hardcore adult fan of Pokemon - I love a lot of things that are made for kids. Hell, I like Pokemon too. I bought myself a little Bulbasaur plushie last time I went to New York. I'm not above this. But you can't judge Winnie the Pooh by the same standards as War and Peace. It just doesn't work.)

I'm not going to buy this yet, because I have so much left to do in 2PH. Great game though, warmly recommended.

@Pak-Man I can relate to that, 100%. I despise help systems that try to mimic human behavior and dialogue. You are not my robot buddy, you're a piece of software that I have to get through so I can talk to a live person who might have an outside chance of actually figuring out what my problem is.

There will come a time when every company can afford AI help systems that will actually be up to the job. Unfortunately, that time is not now, but every single company has to have the talking help system anyway because it saves them some payroll money and makes them seem modern.

(Oddly enough and on topic, I never hated Navi and don't get why so many people do.)

I really like the looks of this. Aztec mythology is great inspiration for fantasies like this. And I hope that music is actually in the game.

I like this. It doesn't seem like it does a ton, but it does add a little variety. I think in no time at all, hunting for the biggest and smallest Pokemon will be a thing just like shiny hunting.

@Richardtd What do the first six people who report your spam post get? I think I might be eligible for that one.

I did the exact same thing as @KateGray for the exact same reason and have so much regert. All those Gamecube , GBA and DS games... lost... like tears in the rain.

But seriously, I try not to hold on to regrets. I did what I did, and I got to play more games than I would otherwise. So it evens out. But yeah, I traded away some absolute classics.

Tasomachi looks stunning, but after a bit it started to creep me out that there is no evidence of any other living creature in the world you're exploring. There is something shooting at the PC towards the end, but it's not clear (on my phone screen) if it's an enemy or just a trap.

Honestly, I really hope that something is alive in this world, because the game looks gorgeous but I feel like it would get monotonous without any creatures to interact with.

Both games are intriguing, though. Will be looking for reviews.

@Joeynator3000 I ALWAYS go for homing weapons. It's cheesy, of course, but they're always fun to play and I can focus on staying out of harm's way. I'm not the greatest shmupper and I'll take a cheesy weapon if it helps me stay alive.

Eschatos sounds right up my alley, and it's already been recommended to me. I think I'll be buying it soon. Hype intensifies...

I'm into this, but that price makes it a "wait for reviews" rather than an instabuy. There are shmups that are definitely worth $40 or more, but I have no evidence this is one of them.

I've been playing some Slay the Spire this morning. Still trying to beat the game with the Watcher. It is infuriating.

Next up is probably Atelier Ryza 2. I would like to finish it before Sophie 2 comes out. I think I'm getting addicted to Atelier.

If I don't feel like Ryza, I'll probably go for some Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker or DKC:TF.

@JohnnyLew I was thinking the 20th Century Fox fanfare.

Ah, Kingdom Hearts, great series. Too bad they never released it on the Switch, I would have paid good money for it.

Not my favorite era, but I'm always down for urban fantasy. Tentatively interested.

@Diogmites God is inordinately fond of beetles. And stars.

@JakedaArbok There will only be a price drop if the set doesn't sell. Successful Lego sets almost never go on sale through Lego themselves. Big box stores like Walmart and Target do targeted discounts on the sets that aren't flying off the shelves so they can make room for ones that do, but betting on a specific set to go on discount is like betting that Nintendo will slash prices on a Zelda game.

This is doubly true for Ideas sets, which usually have a shorter lifespan than regular Lgo themes. They don't make a lot of Ideas sets, because they simplu don't plan on keeping them around for very long. All standard Lego themes stay on the shelves for at least a year and a half, and usually two years. Ideas sets often get retired after less than a year.

@noobish_hat They still make everything they used to make, up to and including several different sizes of tubs full of generic bricks and pieces for you to do whatever you want with. They also still make Creator 3-in-1 sets that use mostly traditional pieces, with very few specialized parts and only generic minifigs. They ALSO make the classic Lego City sets, which come out in two waves a year like clockwork, if you want the good old Lego Police and firefighters. They have never stopped making them.

But they also make licensed themes and original Lego action themes, and guess which sets people buy? Zero points if you guessed "traditional use-your-imagination Lego blocks".

People overwhelmingly favor the licensed themes. Like this set, or Star Wars, Harry Potter and superheroes. It's what sells.

I was at my local Lego store yesterday hoping they had restocked from the holiday sales. No such luck, they had none of the sets I wanted. In fact, the Harry Potter, Star Wars and Creator Expert (the big sets that go for $$$) shelves were nearly empty. Guess which shelves were NOT empty?

Yep, the City, Creator 3-in-1, Friends, Technic and Classic shelves were packed full of sets waiting for someone to notice them. Hoping in vain, because kids and adults alike these days would rather build Marvel and DC superheroes than classic Lego themes.

Whenever there is any mention in mainstream news outlets (read: not Lego fansites) about new Ideas sets like this one, there's always someone who starts talking about how Lego isn't what it used to be. Well, the good news is, that good old-fashioned Lego is still on the shelves, waiting for you to buy it. The bad news is, nobody does.

(Edited for typos)

I need another deckbuilding obsession like I need a hole in the head, but I'll be watching this. Looks like a lot of fun.

@Gavintendo Super Monkey Ball on the GBA was like actual witchcraft to me. I was astounded that they got that working. It really made the GBA feel next-gen.

@thenewguy It truly is. I can get stuck for hours! Synthesize, report, gather, explore, improve equipment, synthesize, report...

I just started getting serious about Atelier Ryza 2, and now I'm 30 hours in and loving every minute of it.

@OorWullie Thanks for the update! I need to eliminate some backlog before I buy it, but it's officially on the list.