Late

New Pokémon Snap. Loving it.

Not really. I mostly buy digital nowadays.

I've been waiting for details from Pix'n Love before making my decision since they said physical was coming back when the game hit eShop. I'm currently leaning towards digital. The physical version will be pricier and it'll take some time before it arrives, meanwhile I could just go and download the game right now. It comes down to what the box contains.

There are far more copies available for this game than there are for lot of 3rd party games and they're not even remotely close to being sold out. If anyone pays more than the retail price, they're just dumb.

Awesome news. I already had the first game's soundtrack CD and BD II's is on its way but having it available on Spotify is way more convenient. Now I just hope we get the Linked Horizon album too.

Super Mario 3D All-Stars isn't even all that problematic. I still cannot understand the reasoning for pulling it out of eShop but the physical print run was way bigger than first expected. Finnish online stores say they have 100+ in stock. And I haven't heard of anyone who couldn't get the game if they wanted it. There are probably more physical copies around than what most smaller scale games have.

Fire Emblem and Mario 35 have it way worse. I'm sure Fire Emblem comes back eventually but maybe not for a good while, maybe not even until the next console. I'm not so sure about Mario 35 though. All online game servers shut down eventually but usually not this soon after release.

Interested in Root Film but don't have time to play it so nothing for me this week.

@BenAV Glad to hear the controls are at least up to snuff. I'm a fast solver so I need precise button presses. Even more crucial in this one since it penalizes for mistakes. Even Murder by Numbers, which is otherwise a very good game, had some input lag.

The hint number issue is a pretty major flaw. I'll pass for now. Thanks for making the decision easier for me.

@BenAV Oof. I was interested when I saw it yesterday while browsing Japanese eShop until I noticed it's not from Jupiter. I was still willing to give it a go but the issues you listed make me think I'll regret the decision. The controls probably aren't as precise either. Can you at least turn off the feature that grays out hint numbers?

Good to see extra games on top of the ones that have already been released and excited to hear it's Vol. 1. Now I know I can wait for Vol. 2 before buying other Neo Geo Pocket Color games.

I think I'll be skipping this one based on the comments here.

There were bunch of other games shown earlier today alongside this game. This started the New Game+ Expo stream. The start of the stream was a carbon copy of Nintendo Direct followed by live gameplay which is apparently still going. Some other things shown were Blaster Master Zero 3, Pocky & Rocky Reshrined, Disgaea (some older titles, 6 got a release date) and Azura Striker Gunvolt 3.

Glad to see Bravely series is doing fine.

I may pick up Gnosia later this week. I'd have to jump between it and Bravely Default II but I have a week long vacation next week so I'd at least have some extra free time. I may also just wait and get it later.

Still quite confused about this whole thing. Is the problem literally just the overworld character models? That's just about the only thing I see mentioned wherever I go. I also feel like the option "The original games in HD would have been fine" is what we got.

I don't have anything against the look of the game. I just need something to differentiate it from the original Diamond and Pearl to make it worthy purchase.

My focus in on Bravely Default 2. Liking it so far.

@Octane True. It was nice in a sense. I've said before how I'd rather have gym leaders speciliaze in tactics instead of types. Would make the battles more interesting.

EDIT: Now that I think about it, what they really should have done was to just add the two instead of replacing the non-electric types. The last gym leader should always have a full party.

@Silly_G I don't think anyone's saying that Porygon-Z wasn't in Diamond and Pearl but it's a Pokémon that couldn't be encountered until the post game so it's interesting that they decided to show it. Diamond and Pearl had pretty awful regional dex so it wouldn't be surprising if they went with something more akin to Platinum's Pokédex. For example, Volkner's team in DP consists of Raichu, Ambipom, Octillery and Luxray but in Platinum they took out Ambipom and Octillery and replaced them with Jolteon and Electivire, two Pokémon that weren't in the regional dex previously and that fit much better for electric type gym leader. Many new evolutions to older Pokémon were only obtainable after beating the game.

I hope they bring back Distortion World. It wouldn't be part of the main story but at least add a portal to it in Turnback Cave and maybe some post game story tied to it.

EDIT: Forgot to mention that Ponyta and Rapidash were the only fire types in addition to Chimchar line in DP's regional dex. I never noticed it on my playthrough back then since I started with Chimchar and didn't need another fire type but that's pretty bad.

It looks promising. I like the setting. I've always wanted something more akin to sequels instead of remakes and I like Sinnoh as a region. Fits well in 3D too. You should be able to see Mt. Coronet from pretty much anywhere. I think it's going in the right direction and if it ends up great, I wouldn't mind if it replaces the current style completely.

It really seems like it's still in early phases though and I hope they delay it if it ends up needing more time. I'm surprised they showed it in the condition it's in but I guess they had to show it as part of the anniversary. If it doesn't look any better by the time they decide to show it again, then there might be a problem.

They also picked the best starter Pokémon for the game.

As expected. I hope they have something cool in store.

Nice. Seeing as their other games got Switch ports eventually, this didn't really come as a surprise but I'm happy it got confirmed this soon. I liked the tease too.

I'd like a sequel to one of these:

• Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan/Elite Beat Agents
• Daigasso! Band Brothers/Jam with the Band
• (Advance) Wars

None of these are very likely but I still have some hope for the latter two series. Other than that, I just want them to surprise me. I don't think I'll be disappointed, no matter what they decide to show us.

That's one hefty Direct. I hope it still focuses mainly on quick announcements instead of spending 5+ minutes per game. It's at midnight for me which is not ideal but it seems like a big deal so I want to be there live.

So I'd say localization for The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles is pretty much confirmed then. That's awesome. Let's see if they follow up with Investigations collection. I've been studying Japanese and I'm starting to get to the point where I could actually get a Japanese copy of Investigations 2 and enjoy it that way but I'd prefer it on Switch.

I've been playing Donkey Kong Land series for the past couple of weeks. I'll probably finish Land 3 tomorrow. These games deserve more attention.

Donkey Kong Land is (too) clunky but interesting, Land 2 is very similar to Country 2 all around with slightly different level design and Land 3 is bit inconsistent when it comes to world themes and extremely easy but otherwise really good. It's so interesting how well they adapted to GB limitations.

How's Romance of the Three Kingdoms? I only learned of the series 3+ years ago when I was browsing Japanese eShop. I like Civilization. How does it compare? Are they even similar?

Dead Cells
This is the new roguelike from last year that everyone talks about, right? What'd you say? That's Hades? Well, I may be a bit behind when it comes to new releases...

Recently tried out Dead Cells thanks to the Switch Online thing. I've been eyeing it since its release and finally bought it. It's good. I like how smooth it plays.

Donkey Kong Land 2
Finished Donkey Kong Land earlier this week and started the sequel right away. Bought the trilogy back when they came to 3DS but only played the first half of first Land game so now I'm back to see how the games are.

I liked how ambitious Land was. It looked like portable Country and it mostly played like one too, just stiffer. The music transitioned nicely too. I kind of like how they tied saving into KONG letters but at the same time, I feel like they're more hidden this time around so you may end up missing them. I played on 3DS so things blending in wasn't much of a problem but I can see why it wasn't as well suited for GB. Unfortunately the game had some really annoying bugs which makes it hard to recommend. Sometimes you just die from one hit even though you had a second Kong in reserve. It's way too common.

Now that I've played the first world of Land 2, I can say they improved on every front. They took some away some detail from the backgrounds so its easier to see things and they tweaked the controls. Now they're almost on par with Country. At the same time, now it feels more like portable Country 2, instead of its own game. I haven't played Country 2 as much as the other two from the Country trilogy but the levels so far are really similar to its early stages. The first Land game had unique levels and gimmicks.

Trauma Center: Under the Knife
In chapter 3, I believe. I've only played through New Blood on Wii but this game is very similar so far. It seems to be hitting on the same story beats which doesn't really come to me as a surprise. The game's good though. I'm just as bad at it as I was years ago on Wii. I finish almost every mission with a C rank and I've already failed multiple times too.

That's fun. I'll give it a watch. I liked how they always had voice actors on Fire Emblem Cipher streams. Voice actors don't generally get much attention though there are some exceptions, like Joe Zieja (Claude, Three Houses). I was already pretty much ready to start my first playthrough with Golden Deer but his campaign before the game's launch solidified my decision.

Of course it's an RPG. It has leveling up, stats, a skill tree, turn based battles, items that heal/buff., equipment, crafting, etc. It's more in depth than some other RPGs but it also doubles as a fitness game. And if you get tired of the RPG stuff, you can enjoy it as a rhythm game instead. It's really well made and totally deserves its sales numbers.

I got it last year and played it for 50 days. Then the summer vacation hit and I spent the next 4 weeks with my family. I haven't gone back to it since. It helped me lose some weight and I truly enjoyed my time with it. I'm sure I'll pick it up again sooner or later. I just haven't had as much time for it lately.

I was thinking of saying this last week but didn't: I don't think this is something that needs weekly updates.

Just did the last puzzle in Picross 3D: Round 2. Took me just over an hour. Now I can finally say it's 100% completed. Total time played was 58 hours. I wish they made more Picross games like this instead of focusing on the e/s series. I played through e3 recently and it lasted me under 7 hours. So I guess if you play e-e8 you get about the same amount of hours but that costs you more. And I got Round 2 for 10€ so that was also nice.

I think I'm going to play the first Trauma Center on DS next.

Learned about these yesterday and spent a solid 30 minutes browsing the website. They are all just fantastic.

I saw this on eShop's coming soon list couple of weeks ago. My kind of game. Keeping an eye on it.

I rarely find a need to grind. I actually enjoy games more if I'm a bit under leveled. RPGs give you plenty of options to deal with particularly hard enemy: items, skills, magic, etc. but some disregard most if not all of those and grind until they can beat the enemy by just pressing A until they win.

Beat it in under half an hour. Fun little game with great new mechanic that still feels similar to Celeste's dashing. Picked up 12 strawberries. I'm too tired to try and get them all right now.

I need to get back to Celeste. I played it at launch, pretty much the first person to sing its praises here, and beat it back then. I was perfectly content with just finishing the game. Only did couple extra things. There's so much stuff I haven't even seen.

Wow. I had no idea it was on Steam now. I may have to get it once it hits Switch. Loved it back in the day.

Quite different from how I'd rank them but it seems we can all agree that Robobot deserves the top spot.

I want to get back to Stardew and actually try out the multiplayer mode with my sister. She doesn't have the game so I'm keeping an eye out on discounts so she can get it for cheaper in case she doesn't like it as much as I do. Or I could just buy the game for her myself. I believe 1.5 includes local multiplayer so that would also be a good way to try it out.

@AmplifyMJ Then I'd guess the game wants you to beat every level before the one you're trying to unlock. Make sure that you have beaten each stage at least once. There should be a star icon and a number indicating how many times you've beaten a stage.

@Peteykins 7-4 is a weird stage. I remember trying to find the correct path when I first played Super Mario Bros. back in the day. That stage can really screw you over in Mario 35 if you don't know where you're going since the only way to get time back during that looping section is by killing enemies sent by other players.

@Peteykins @AmplifyMJ You don't have to wait for the stage to show up randomly. As far as I know, you can unlock stages by beating the previous stages. So choose 8-3 before starting a match and do your best to survive until it shows up and beat it. That should unlock the next level which is 8-4. What I don't know is if you have to have beaten all the previous stages too since I went in order. If that's the case, just look that you have a star in each stage. I started playing last month and I'm only level 50 or so with all levels unlocked.

Pocket Card Jockey is such a fun game. I got it at launch and played it for months. I should go back to it someday.

As for what I'm playing right now... Mainly Picross 3D: Round 2. I wrote last week that I was about to finish it but little did I know that a big chunk of the game is locked until you beat it.

I think it was the right call to keep the scoring similar to the original. That was part of the charm. And now that you can easily share your photos online on social media, you get ton of additional judges who probably don't require the Pokémon to be at the center.

Yes. This is exactly what I wanted the moment they started releasing Neo Geo Pocket Color games on Switch, Capcom collaborations. Now I'm pretty sure we'll get Card Fighters too.

Waiting for European release for now. According to Matthew Taranto, they want to release it in other regions but it's proven to be more difficult than expected. The great thing about Switch is that I can always go to US eShop and get it from there if it seems like it won't come to Europe.

I've been meaning to get it from the start since I loved Theme Hospital. It has seen some nice discounts from time to time and I've been really close to buying it but I'm still yet to actually buy it. One day I will.

I thought I'd be done with Picross 3D: Round 2 but apparently 1/5th of the game is unlocked after beating it. I didn't think there would be more puzzles since I already had 9/10 crowns on my save file. I guess I'll be playing this one for little longer.

I have three that compete for the top spot.

1. Kirby's Adventure - The first game I ever remember beating. I go back to it quite often and I still love it as much as I did back then.

2. Kirby & The Amazing Mirror - The weird non-linear Kirby game. I've beaten this one multiple times too. Even went for 100% twice since I just find it fun to complete.

3. Kirby: Planet Robobot - The best game by today's standards. I didn't expect it to skyrocket to one of my favorite 3DS games when I first got it. I skipped Triple Deluxe initially because the Wii entry left me disappointed but Robobot made me go back to it. Triple Deluxe is pretty good too but not quite on the same level.

Finishing Picross 3D: Round 2. I started playing it about a month ago. 10 puzzles to go. Playing on Hard. I also did the amiibo puzzles. At least the ones I could. I'm missing two compatible amiibos so I can't access the puzzles locked behind them. Other than that, I'll be done with the game by tomorrow.

Made the same mistake with Lapras. Honestly didn't even notice it was a choice before I had already clicked on Cloyster. Others were so easy I could have answered them without multiple choices.

That was pretty epic. I wasn't going to buy the game again but now I'll at least consider it if I ever see it for a good price.

I backed the Kickstarter back in the day since I love Matthew's other work. (I own physical BitF books.) I only ended up playing the demo though. I don't remember exactly what the deal was but Europe didn't get the Wii U version so I ended up with a Steam key instead.