JohnnyC

@Smackosynthesis The Hoth battle was breathtaking in those early trailers for the N64. That and the footage of Mario spinning Bowser around.

To this day, the leap from 2D to 3D has been the biggest "wow" moment I can recall computer game history.

I want Starfighter. That was a fun launch-window tech-demo game for the PS2. Oh, and the Rogue trilogy and Shadows of the Empire. Yes, I know Shadows of the Empire was a pain to play even back in the day and the years won't have done it any favours, but I liked the story, and the flying levels were great.

Happy with the Expansion Pack, as long as N64/GBA games keep getting added monthly. We've had good value from the Animal Crossing and Mario Kart dlc too. I already owned the Splatoon 2 dlc when it was added to the bundle.

Mine is due in October, and currently I'm unsure whether I'll be renewing. Not Nintendo's fault, but like a lot of people I'm asking the question "can I live without this?" about a lot of things at the moment due to the way things are going with bills, and unlikely to change under the next government.

I remember when I completed all the panels I had on the go. Proper chuffed!

Then I started getting pieces for new ones, and now I've got at least half a dozen with just a few pieces. Gave up on this years ago though.

Yay! Still wishing for a Mario Odyssey, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and Breath of the Wild theme. Never gonna happen at this point, sadly. Fingers crossed for OS themes on the Switch 2.

Buying it physical so not an issue. That way it also has some trade-in value for when either I or the Switch are dead.

I just like looking at a nice collection on the shelf, which honestly is the main reason for me.

I still go and buy physical games. A lot of the time, their discounted and new titles were fairly consistent with online prices. If there was a saving of more than a fiver to be had, I'd go online.

Smyths is the best physical game retailer now in my opinion, now that Game seems to be dead. Decent selection of titles and good prices.

While I wait for the new Zelda in September (probably the first game I'll be buying in 2024), I'm continuing my backlog. Pikmin 2 on Switch, and nearly finished a Crushing difficulty playthrough of Uncharted 4.

Edit: Also playing some N64 games via the NSO apps. Tried Perfect Dark for the first time, but have no idea what I'm doing. I know we have the internet and can look things up, but would it kill Nintendo to scan the old manuals that came with the games as they did on the Wii VC?

I missed Conker first time round. The rest, I'd give a go if they were added to the app but can't say I'm desperate to play any of them.

When it finishes, please caption the results article with "did you get very far?"

About 10 years ago we got Lego Lord of the Rings and Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor within the space of a couple of years, both very good games.

A decade of technological leaps and bounds and what do we get? Gollum and Return to Moria. Hopefully this bucks the trend, but sadly it doesn't look like it to me at least. Happy to be proven wrong if and when it's hailed as a classic.

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?