LouBlu08

I honestly wasn’t expecting to main Toad again. He used to be my MK8 main until I eventually started favouring Rosalina and Pauline. But his engineer outfit is ridiculously cute and therefore, he is my main. Aurora Rosalina is a close second though.
Oh, and Swoop too! A cute little bat driving a car, how can I say no to him?

Is it just me or does that box art look a lot like AI art? Not sure if it is, but it really feels like it. It just looks way too off especially compared to the trailer footage and I don’t like the look of it. Either way, won’t be buying this one anyways, but for the kids, hope it’ll be somewhat decent.

YEAH BABY! I summoned this into existence last night! Am I a wizard, or what?

I know it’s low hanging fruit for cynical game nerds such as myself but why on earth does EA not do this other than “money”? This is really generous for the people who brought the game considering the general rule of thumb for stuff like this in the industry

Uh-oh. I haven’t played Go in years but this feels pretty scary to me. Not sure if this will lead to the game’s inevitable demise or whatever, as it’s still incredibly popular, but I do not trust Scopely. I might have to dig up my old account and rescue my shines and mythical mons just in case however.

Wasn't expecting Mario to all of a sudden become inappropriate and rude.

Dumb. DUMB. Being able to get games in deep discount or heck, even for ZERO POUNDS in some cases, was a great incentive for me to buy a lot of other games. Sure, I didn’t use it to its greatest potential, but it was nice getting some games I wasn’t planning on playing for free with leftover points I had. Oh well. Nothing nice lasts forever.

Unsurprisingly, it’s on while I’m in college! Hooray! I can’t wait to go on YouTube and have everything in the Direct spoiled for me immediately after I come home!

I’ve been on a bit of a Sonic kick as of late after Shadow Generations blew me away, so I’m probably gonna blast through a few Sonic games that were already on my shelves in the next few months. I’m currently going through Frontiers over on my Xbox, as well as Secret Rings on the Wii, and the Classic Sonic games in Origins on Switch. Will also maybe try wrapping up Super Monkey Ball: Banana Rumble in the next few weeks.

Okay, as much as I despise gen AI and this type of shovelware, this honestly gave me a laugh. It’s still pretty disgusting though. I’m so blooming sick of these types of games, no amount of laughing at how lazy these people are will make it good all of a sudden.

I’m mostly gonna be playing Elden Ring over on my Series X this weekend. I started it a few days back and even though I have no clue what I’m even doing, I am positively hooked. I’m also still chipping away at 100% completing Sonic X Shadow Generations, I’ve been having too much fun with it and I feel that I’m slowly but surely gaining a Sonic hyperfixation.
On Switch, I wanna finish up Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble. I’m about halfway through the campaign and I feel it’ll be a quick and easy one to wrap up. I also wanna get to playing Super Paper Mario over on my Wii U. I’ve been itching to play it since finishing TTYD last year, so I should probably get to that. I also got a bunch of games for my birthday on Monday that I don’t really have the time to dive into right now, so I’ll stick those on the backlog for now.

Well, after using this site for a bit, it’s uh… well it’s not bad, but it’s a bit of a fixer upper right now. The labelling thing is a bit overboard, so much not-shovelware is marked as such. I feel there should be a separate tag for games with AI art in them as well instead of lumping everything into the shovelware department. The music also barely works on mobile. Solid effort but I think I’m gonna just use Deku from now on.

IT’S REAL
Admittedly because nearly everything got leaked I barely felt anything regarding that trailer, I’m just glad it’s finally something other than rumours or leaks. New Mario Kart as well was obvious but it looks neat!

Cool site! Definitely gonna use this alongside Deku Deals. There’s still a few AI generated shovelware games seeping through the cracks, but that’s nothing a few updates can’t fix. Also I’m not sure if there’s more music than the Wii Shop Channel music as that’s all I’ve heard, and if that’s the case, I’d love some Wii U/3DS era music.

Glad I got one for Christmas. I haven’t used it much, it’s just a cute little £90 paperweight when you don’t have it as an alarm, but now I’m in college again I’ll probably start actively using it.

We’re watching, and waiting, on the edge of our seat anticipating…

Okay I’m now buying this game.

Nintendo is doing literally anything but talk about Switch 2 and I both love and hate it at the same time. They’re just trolling us at this point and I find it incredibly funny.

I had a pretty fun Christmas! I’ve been busy with other things (family time, eating food, fanboying over the new Wallace and Gromit), so I haven’t had much time to play games, but I did get a few things for Christmas. On the Nintendo side of things, I got Mario and Luigi Brothership, Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD and Sonic Origins Plus, but currently I’m not itching to play either of them. I blasted through Sonic Generations on my Xbox Series X, and am near the end of Shadow Generations, but I might try and complete all the side missions and collect everything before I move on to something else as I’m enjoying my time with it.
Other than that, I need to get onto that backlog. I’m planning on finishing up Mario RPG soon, which I’m close to finishing but then other games got in the way. After that I’m looking into getting stuck into Pikmin 2, and finally dive into Elden Ring, which I know like, nothing about. And I gotta get on those Shiny Rayquaza raids before they end.

Merry Merry! Personally, I dunno what I will be playing this weekend, if anything. I might attempt a Shiny Rayquaza raid or two, but I don’t think I’ve got anything I’m itching on playing. Mostly just gonna tackle Christmassy art over the next few days.
Over the festive period, I’ll be playing some Super Mario Party Jamboree like I’m in a Switch commercial, I.E, with the family. Maybe Mario Kart, maybe something else, who knows. I’ve asked the being known as “Father Christmas” for a buncha Switch games, so I might boot up the games I get on the 25th over that period. Either that or they get added to my never ending backlog. And I might pop Animal Crossing back in to do the Toy Day event.

Sounds like it’ll be a busy Christmas for TV repair services.

I’ve been slacking on it long enough, so I’m making it an effort to finally wrap up Echoes of Wisdom this weekend. I also might try and finish up Mario RPG if I finish EOW quick enough, as I think I’m near the final dungeon. Also might do some Girafarig mass outbreaks in Pokemon Violet. I still haven’t finished the DLC either so I might maybe get that done before the end of the year.

Game has quite obvious AI art used at literally any moment it can. Thank you Mr. Banker, but No Deal.
Also, this is just my opinion, but I see no point in reporting on this stuff. As others have said, there’s nothing that’s directly ripping off Pokémon here. You could say this is ripping off any other TGC and it would be a similar argument. Obviously, the AI art to me is the big talking point, but to be fair, so much trash on the eShop uses AI art, and there’s no articles on here about those, so….
If anything, I’m just upset Nintendo are even allowing AI generated asset flip trash on their system. I at least can tell AI apart from actual art, but even then, Little Jimmy might not know, and waste his precious eShop voucher on rubbish like this.

Eh, wouldn’t go as far as say I cried, but it was heartwarming. Definitely a great way to end the app’s service, and once more, I’m glad they’re releasing a paid version with no always-online or microtransactions instead of throwing everything into the trash like what happened with Dr. Mario and Dragalia Lost once their service ended.

Y’know, I’m one of the 2 people who actually gives a poo for soundtracks like this. The Wii and DS era have so many awesome songs tucked away in “casual nonsense that hardcore edgy gamers despise”. The Wii Channels soundtrack being on the app at launch let me discover some really good hidden gems (on that note, please go listen to Forecast - Nighttime from the Forecast Channel, it is one of my favourite tracks on the service right now), but I wish they’d at least release 2 or 3 soundtracks a week. But I mean, it could be a lot worse, it could be bi-weekly or even (gasp!) monthly releases. But whatever. It’s still early days for the app.

Eh, I probably would have preferred that they would have done batches of games with weekly releases rather than I assume one a week. There’s so many Nintendo games out there and it would be years until we get all the titles if this is kept up. But I mean, weekly releases are better than one game once every month or something like that, so I’m not that upset.

See, making a port of Zero would require a lot of effort due to the game’s drastic use of the gamepad, and I’d just rather they’d make a new one. No reused plot, no shoehorned gimmicks, just a new story with new locations and a new big bad with a similar gameplay style and mission structure like all the other games, but with new elements that make it feel fresh and don’t make the game harder to play. I never played Zero (or most of the Star Fox games if I’m honest, I played a bit of 64 on NSO but that’s it), but I’d be a bit interested in picking up a new game in the series, and I’d hope that they could take feedback from the previous entries (Zero especially) to make a new game.

That was quick. I think it would be neat if they did daily updates for the first 2 or so months. Knock out a few more of the heavy hitter Switch games first (TOTK, Kirby and the Forgotten Land, Metroid Dread, Luigi’s Mansion 3, etc.), then add a few legacy titles, and we should be gold. Then as time goes on, do a few batches of soundtracks a week for less popular Switch games and legacy titles. That’s probably how I’d do it.

Aw man, I thought this was Wii Music for Switch. (/jk)
In all seriousness, why didn’t they do this sooner? Nintendo’s been hunting video game music channels on YT and never release their stuff on Spotify or on CD’s, so I’m surprised it took them this long to do something like this. The spoiler prevention feature is also a really nice touch.
Also, I like how Nintendo’s doing EVERYTHING but mention their next console. I just find it funny,

I’m surprised they didn’t do this sooner, especially as now the Wii U eShop’s gone, there were a bunch of performance improving patches that were on the eShop that I don’t think are available anymore. But hey, there’s not much time left until the next console comes out so you may as well release it now. I might pick it up as I kinda want to try the Xenoblade series, but I have a billion other games on my backlog so this might have to wait.

I’m surprised that they’re adding some more content to this version. I thought they’d just offer the game without microtransactions and the online features, and that would be it, but they’re adding a new area and some new events, so it’s nice they’re adding more stuff to keep people busy rather than just have only repeated events. I think that the price is a bit too much if I’m being honest ($20?) but at least they’re offering an early bird discount. I’ll probably still get it as I’d probably play Pocket Camp more without the always online stuff baked into it, and I think it fits this style of game more. I could just pick it up during a journey or if I don’t know what else I want to do.
And once again, why they didn’t do this with Dr. Mario World and Dragalia Lost still puzzles me.

I honestly do not really care. I mean I haven’t played the original so I would have never guessed that these scenes were censored or that Amy’s bio was different (I am not caught up on Sonic lore by the way). I think it’s a little silly to not buy a game just cause Amy doesn’t punch Knuckles into a tree if I’m being honest.

I’m glad that everyone I’ve seen agrees that Gate Keypers just sucks. It’s the only minigame in this game that delivers groans and then shouts of low level profanity from me and the other people playing in the room. But hey, it’s Mario Party. It’s gotta have rubbish like that.
In terms of the new free for alls, Hot Cross Blocks, Sandwiched, and Cold Front are my favourites. Domination, Stamp Out and Granite Getaway are my favourites of the returning games. I kinda wish there were more returning ones as despite their being more in the package than any previous game, I feel like a lot of the minigames repeat themselves too much (side note, I haven’t played with the motion controls due to my family not having 4 Joy Cons to spare), and more returning ones could have boosted the amount of total games a little but eh, it doesn’t matter that much.
Pretty much all of the Showdown minigames are really good. Peach’s Day Off is a really cute concept and game, even if it’s just doing busywork. Luigi Rescue Operation and Yoshi’s Mountain Race are probably my favourites in the package though. The Waluigi Pinball one is cute too but I am not really good at pinball games so I kinda suck at it.
Rocky Rope Race, Prime Cut, Tricky Turntable and Cookie Cutters are my favourite 1 Vs. Rivals games.
I honestly have no opinion on which rhythm game is better than the others. They’re all kinda the same to me, just with different music and different food you’re making.
In terms of boss minigames, I think Mega Rocky Wrench Wreckers is my favourite. I thought it was cute seeing boss games return as the Mario Parties I grew up with (or in other words, the kinda mediocre ones) had lots of boss minigames so it was a kinda fun nostalgia trip.

Why do most Switch ads push games that are several years old? I know these are targeted towards people who love Raye but don’t know what a Switch is, but if I were Nintendo’s UK advertising department, I would probably want to push this year’s holiday titles (Mario Party comes to mind, maybe Zelda and Mario & Luigi too, etc.) so it would appeal to a wider audience. Nearly everyone who has a Switch owns MK8DX, and a large chunk own Animal Crossing as well.
Also, yea, I dunno who Raye is either. I barely listen to what people call “real music”.

I’m honestly surprised that The Smurfs of all franchises seems to be one of the few franchises pumping out above cromulent licensed kids games these days. I haven’t played any of them as I have barely any interest in the franchise but i heard that some of the other ones weren’t all that bad. I might check this one out whenever it goes on sale.

Surprise surprise, I'm still not done with Echoes of Wisdom. I've been really busy, but I've got one more week of college until half term, so I'll hopefully get it done then.
Mario Party Jamboree has been distracting me from booting up EOW a lot. I wrapped up Party Planner Trek yesterday, and I'm currently playing a 15 turn game of Mega Wiggler's Tree Party against the CPU as I speak. As well as that, I wanted to maybe do a few troubles and badge hunt in TTYD. Also I might boot Skylanders Swap Force as I never got around to getting 3 stars on the adventure pack levels. I haven't played those levels in years and barely remember Sheep Wreck Island, so that'll just be something for me to do after a game of Mario Party.

@rjejr Scenarios like this make me really hope they bring back Download Play for Switch 2. Either that, or they could have just released a “Party Guest” app on the eShop. Star Rush on the 3DS did that and let you play every game with another friend if they had a copy of the full release. Even Clubhouse Games had a little demo that did the same thing.

Well I’ll be surprised, they finally pulled it off! I’m gonna wait for my copy to arrive to judge for myself, but hearing nearly everyone praise for this game is great. As someone who was introduced to the series via some of it’s most middling points, it’s nice to see a game come out that isn’t over two decades old and expensive on the second hand market that rivals the older entires in terms of quality, as well as keeping the quantity up from some of Nintendo Cube’s other entries. Hearing the minigames are also great isn’t surprising, but considering Superstars had a lot of bullpoo (I had to educate my family on the Tug of War lawsuit from MP1) it’s nice they all seem to be of a good quality.

I haven’t got far in EOW due to college work and overall business, but hopefully I’ll try to dig into it more this weekend. I’ll also probably play Mario Party Superstars all by my lonesome to get me in the mood for Jambouree. Also I might want to wrap up Kirby: Planet Robobot soon as well as I’m on World 6, never finished it as a kid so I might wanna have something to tick off of the backlog this week.

Kinda surprised but then again, not really. Personally I’m in the middle with avoiding spoilers for a game like this. I’ve seen more previews and videos online than I usually do for a new Nintendo release as there isn’t much of a story, but I’ll probably go dark now, as I don’t want a lot of the surprise elements in the boards, late game unlocks, or the bosses in (I assume) Party Planner Trek to be spoiled for me.

I mean, it’s no surprise that they said Nintendo Switch Has Games all those years ago.
The Switch just has one of the best libraries of any Nintendo console. Hundreds of really good stuff comes out every year, so much so that I don’t even know of all the hidden gems on the thing, but the games I have played are mostly all really good and are strongly recommended. Pair it with Switch online’s large back catalogue of older games and you’ve got years worth of games to play through. And you can take them with you too!
But it goes without saying man, Nintendo really needs to clean up their act with the eShop on the next console though. The amount of questionable anime games often with the “h” word in their title, games with AI generated assets, pointless calculator and clock apps to buy, and straight up lawsuity games on there is staggering and depressing. Especially when you think of the people who don’t know this trash exists. I mean, Nintendo isn’t known for keeping to their seal of quality, but to sink to the low of having their eShop filled with stuff like that is a bit of a bad look for them.

I really do hope they don’t use AI for the final release. Even if it’s just for concept, it’s a sad and worrying sight to see, especially as someone who wants to get into a creative field when he’s older. I think they should have kept the game under wraps for longer so they could have made human-made backgrounds and we wouldn’t have suspected a thing.
And even then, I’m not really super interested in the game. I had a little bit of niche curiosity but the AI rubbish kinda killed it. If it does get removed from the final release I’ll try checking it out.

I’ve been playing the first hour or so and thought it was really jarring. Its tolerable, I don’t really mind but I would have preferred this game have it’s framerate locked at 30fps. It’s playable, but needed some more optimization.

Hooray for the return of the Wii U Fit Meter!

Finally, a mod that speaks to me!

I’m currently trying to finish up Paper Mario: TTYD. I’m on Chapter 6 and I’m probably not getting to the credits by the end of the weekend, but I’m gonna try to make sure to finish it up this week. I’ll also probably spend a few hours doing some side quests and shrines in TOTK to get me in the mood for Echoes of Wisdom.

Heck yeah! I’ll probably still be maining either Rosalina or Toad but I’ll definitely add Pauline into my potential choices for “who should I play as even though it doesn’t really matter”. Love how her reintroduction in Odyssey made myself and many others care way more for her after she was doomed to only appear in Mario Vs. Donkey Kong games for a few years, and it shows considering how hard they’ve been pushing her as of late.

I find it very funny how I wasn't interested in this game at all until I found out you could play as a giraffe. Any game with a giraffe in it is instantly added to the watch list for me.

I'm still somewhat cautiously optimistic about this game. Seeing as Purple Lamp ain't involved I didn't wanna get my hopes up but it looks like it'll be fun! I'll have to wait until reviews come out to make up my mind.

Also seeing as I saw some discourse over The Patrick Star Show so I wanted to throw it out there that I thought that it's a lot of fun! It kinda starts out a bit wobbly but it gets better overtime. I haven't checked out S2 or S3 yet but I've seen a few clips on Twitter and some made me chuckle. Definletly recommend checking it out if you wanna. Also there's absolutely no relation to that show in the game from what I've gathered so yeah.

@Zeebor15 I don't really dis-dislike Outright. They've got a very spotty track record though. I played their first MLP game and it was... well, I'll spare you the details but it's not great. Plus I heard that the Bluey game they published wasn't worth the hype it got. Most of the other games they published flew under the radar, as IDK how many would care for a game from some kids show unless they were a fan of said kids show. I do wish some of their games were more fleshed out as we haven't really evolved from cheap Wii shovelware. These games are over and done with in an hour or two. The Patrick game does seem like it might have more going on but again, I really don't wanna get my hopes up cause it might be rubbish for all we know.

Well that's kinda surprising. I'm glad they're making a microtransaction-free paid version instead of throwing everything into the bin like they did with Dr. Mario and Dragalia Lost. I did sink some time (and shamefully money) into Pocket Camp, not as much as some people but I played it like, once a year for a good 2 hours. I think I got up to like level 40 or 50 though? I don't remember. The game was kinda fun for what it was. It was kinda like the main Animal Crossing games with me, you don't play them for a year then come back to them for a short time, and the cycle repeats. I will probably buy the paid version just to have another game to play on my iPad when I'm bored and I'm not in the mood to play a console game. If it's available offline then I'll definletly play it more often.