JohnnyC

Metroid Prime 1 was the franchise's "Breath of the Wild" moment.

The box art is a nice companion to Link's Awakening, but from the outset this looked to me to be more connected to Link to the Past.

@HotGoomba Agreed, hope it supports Pro Controller. Looking forward to this.

More than makes up for no Expansion Pack update in May. Was hoping this would be the reason why.

Some deep cut references to picking up and throwing ala Super Mario Bros 2, and some of the less iconic but still exotic moments from Super Mario Land would be great. I'm not saying whole sequences to baffle the general public, but just little background nods ala Deadpool and Wolverine for the long-time fans.

Pokémon red and blue? When they released in the west, the original Game Boy was pushing 10 years old (depending whether you lived in the US or Europe) and suddenly you saw them everywhere.

Even taking into account the original 1996 Japan release, the hardware was still 7 years old. Can't think of another software release that's so successfully resurrected a platform.

Edit: apologies, just read the disclaimer about excluding Game Boy games. I still think those are the definitive example of this subject though.

Pikmin 2 from last year's Pikmin 1+2 double pack is getting the backlog treatment this weekend, after I finished Pokken Tournament DX earlier in the week.

Already beat Pikmin 1 when I got the pack last year, started Pikmin 2 but never got around to finishing it.

@steruphan I got this on Wii U about a decade ago and didn't bother double-dipping as (1) the Wii U version seemed to get all the upgrades, (2) this isn't a game that will benefit from more powerful hardware as it's purposefully retro, and (3) appreciate I'm in the minority, but I didn't think it lived up to the hype it got when it first came out.

I may take this opportunity to finally upgrade and give it another go though, not least because my gamepad is on its last legs.

Waiting on a call from Nintendo? Yeah, like Chris Rock's waiting on that call from Rihanna.

Pfft. Wake me up when Lego God of War: The Complete Saga arrives.

As long as MSN Messenger functionality on the Switch remains unchanged, I'm happy.

Normally I'm a sucker for a next-gen port/upgrade, telling myself I'm playing the game in better quality on hardware likely to last longer. To illustrate the point, I'm someone who dropped £50 each on New Super Mario Bros U Deluxe and Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze (among others) despite having a Wii U that still works well and discs that still played fine.

But to this I have said no. Keeping my PS3 and PS4 versions of these games. Kojima put the love into these games and his absence is felt.

@DripDropCop146 Agreed. Some of them are nice figures, but that one in particular shouldn't even have been dlc, it should have just been in the game.

Said this before, but I'm not a fan of having dlc locked behind difficult-to-find-at-RRP figures. There should be an option to buy the outfits in Zelda games for a small fee if you don't want the figures.

The worst excesses of the Wii U era (Mario Party 10 and Splatoon 1 where substantial amounts of content were locked behind amiibo spring to mind) are thankfully a thing of the past, which is good to see.

Got all the Teensies in Rayman Legends last night, so next to finish in my backlog is Pokken Tournament DX. Currently on the Iron League.

Nothing for Expansion Pak owners in May. Hopefully that gets corrected this month!

@ferryb001 I'd understood physical-only.

Unusual to see a single-player-only game do this well for this long. It seems to have fallen into a sweet spot where it's a well-made, well-reviewed game that people feel they can play regardless of their demographic.

@glennthefrog However offensive a person's private opinions/beliefs might be, they're entitled to hold them. What I struggle with is where those views are forced on others. I'm fine with healthy discussion along the lines of "please consider..." on either side of a topic, but where the tone is more "how dare you..." then it immediately is a debate I'm not interested in as the intention is to be provocative and emotional rather than rational and reasonable. As you say, people are entitled to choose not to buy a form of entertainment if they find it's content objectionable or for any reason.

For me personally, I'm not interested in it because I've got more games to play than I've probably got gaming time left in my life at this point, so I no longer buy games unless it's something I'm determined to make time to play through and frankly this game doesn't look anything special to me. Like every other game, I read the reviews, watch the online footage and try to make an informed decision as to whether something is for me or not. At the end of the day they're just games though, and a hundred years from now nobody's going to care at all which ones we played or didn't. They're certainly not worth abuse or threats of violence.

This game wasn't on my radar. It still isn't. This year has been backlog year for me, and I've been having a great time.

I don't know how much truth is in this and frankly life's too horrible at the moment for me to want to find out how horrible some people are being to someone else, but there has been shocking behaviour in the past from some in the gaming community which has played up to the worst stereotypes gamers are accused of. I'm thinking of death threats against developers for not delivering dlc on time, threats of sexual violence against women for daring to make a game that didn't align with the player's vision etc, and it's all disgusting.

If you don't like a game for any reason, don't play/buy it. Voting with your wallet has always been the most effective way to implement change in a capitalist society.

Anything prior to the PS2/GC/Xbox era, in my opinion.

In terms of handhelds, GBA-gen and earlier.

Rayman Legends Definitive Edition. Beat the main story ages ago, but decided to go back and try and get all the teensies. Got them all on the Legends levels, and got about 3/4 of the ones on the Origins levels.

@Gavin Lane, add God of War and the 2016 Ratchet and Clank to that list, if they're your thing. Both great games. Concrete Genie is a short but sweet lesser known first party delight that's worth a go.

Depends what it is. Link's Awakening was worth it due to the hefty overhaul. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe had the excellent new battle mode and a few extra characters when it launched in 2017 so personally I felt that justified the price. Mario 3D World alone would have felt a rip-off, but the excellent Bowser's Fury made it's case.

Pokken Tournament, Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze and New Super Mario Bros U Deluxe are where I struggle, as there wasn't a lot added to those games and the same price was charged as when they launched on the Wii U. Where it's just a re-release, better to bundle it with another game if you want to charge full price, like the Bayonetta double pack.

Looks great, but I'm telling myself "you can't have everything." Got a few 18+ Lego sets over the years and really don't have the space for more. This sadly falls into the ever-growing category of things to admire from afar.

Giggidy giggidy!

Street Fighter VI, with classic rock playing over the background. Great stress-release.

Played a bit of Splatfest, finished the God of War Ragnarok dlc (excellent!), played Super Mario Land on the Game Boy app (love that soundtrack!) and planning to visit another game from my backlog and finish Final Fantasy 7 Remake so I'm ready to pick up Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth. Think I was up to level 7 when I got distracted with other things.

Happy days. Loved all three of these games. If 3 follows the pattern of it's predecessors, we'll hopefully see continued content for the remainder of 2024. I expect Splatoon 4 to be a Year 1 title for Switch 2, if it isn't a launch title.

@zool If you've got Mario Wonder and haven't played it, my recommendation is simple: play it.

I logged into Splatoon 3 to sign up for next week's splatfest.

Got the new theme on Tetris 99 - always a pleasure to return to that game for a quick blast.

Having finished the Side Order DLC with all weapons this week, I decided to return to the single-player mode on Splatoon 2 and see if I could beat that with some different weapons. Already beaten it with 3, working on a fourth now. Honestly, it feels like a bit of a slog compared to the multiplayer modes and the fast-paced nature of Side Order, so not sure how long I'll stick with this but I do like feeling like I've 100% completed a game.

Otherwise, I got the platinum on God of War Ragnarok last week, so I've been working on the free Valhalla dlc. Despite all their current problems (where's the 1st-party games???), I have to give a massive shout-out to Sony for what's got to be the best free dlc I can remember in... ever?

@Uncle_Franklin One of the most popular games last year was Power Wash simulator, so a painting and decorating one could be just around the corner!

Catching up to GTAV. Well done lads!

In all seriousness, good for them. After Nintendo, Capcom are probably my favourite gaming company these days.

Metroid Prime 4 will be a cross-platform launch with the new console, if it comes to Switch at all. I expect B-list releases, spin-offs and remasters to pad out the year, which I'm absolutely fine with at this stage in the Switch's life.

Luigi's Mansion 2 HD physical for me. These remasters usually take up hardly any space on the memory card. Maybe a tiny patch. I prefer to save memory card space for DLC, digital-only games etc.

I didn't mind Kirby and the Rainbow Paintbrush, but if they could make it work with normal controls that would be a massive improvement.

Gold goes to Super Mario Odyssey. 3D platforming perfection.

Bowser's Fury was a short-but-ever-so-sweet delight.

The icons are nice and I'll have the Tetris 99 theme.

Nice surprise. I remember Extreme G on the shelves back in the day, but as a teenager on paper-round money £40-£50 was a lot to take a punt on a game I knew nothing about back then. Never heard of Iggy's but I'll give it a go, always nice to see some of the lower-profile games given a second chance via this system.

Nintendo have found another stable. Have they taken a picture and mounted it on the wall to the satisfaction of the owner though?

I saw a documentary about Middle-Earth enterprises, where the forest was to make way for the fire of industry.

If I remember correctly, it didn't work out well for the CEO.

In terms of overlooked games which have never again seen the light of day, can I add Pyramids of Ra.

Great puzzle game and - as far as I'm aware - fairly unique. Closest I've seen to it was Cuboid on the PS3.

Mario but in hell already exists. It's called Crown World on Super Mario 3D World.

I wonder what story he'll be making up for the other inmates if he ends up in prison. Can't see anyone wanting to own this story in an English prison, but maybe things are different in Japan.

As the industry seems to shift more towards microtransactions and live service, my backlog is finally getting the attention it's long deserved and needed.

Just got no interest at all in this kind of stuff.

Some bargains in there when I went in at the weekend. They were doing 50% off lowest price, which effectively meant games like Demon's Souls, Ghost of Tsushima and Horizon Forbidden West on the PS5 were £15 each. Whatever their history, I'm glad to have a gaming shop on the high street among all the cafes and clothes shops.

My personal favourite is the 2008 reboot. Excellent game, great combat, great visuals, great exploration. The dlc epilogue was an early example of dlc done right as well.

@Yalloo Yep, they're not as hard when you do all the levels one after another with each of the characters. I beat the whole game with Mario a year or two ago, and then came back to it in the last few months to beat with the other characters. First time doing Challenge Road and that last mystery house level therefore didn't have the benefit of muscle memory, so took quite a few fails to get the hang of it again. Must have died dozens of times on those levels as Mario on my first play through. Thanks, same to you.

Ok, hands up. Who bought 5 million new PS2 consoles in the last year?

Finally got 100% on Super Mario 3D World yesterday. 55 hours playtime, off and on for the last few years since it came out. To be clear, I mean beat every level with every character. Hard work for the last couple, but satisfying!

Back to God of War Ragnarok and Side Order dlc for the rest of the weekend's gaming time.

Breath of the Wild for being amazing, fresh, engrossing.

Tears of the Kingdom for adding substantially and telling a new original story on the same foundations.

A wonderful pair of games that compliment each other beautifully. The Godfather and The Godfather Part II of the gaming world.