@zool minus the ‘so it does its job’. That was my stance on the phrase.
It’s essentially misc. improvements that make a game a smoother experience. E.g. allowing you to select a different research level upon selecting replay instead of backing out of the stage to do that.
While it does sound like a bit of a wishy washy phrase, it’s certainly easy to categorise what is and isn’t a quality of life improvement so, as I said, it does its job as a snappy conveyance
@zool I mean, sum of its parts certainly does make sense and I think it’s quite easy to infer what somebody means when it’s used within its context. ‘This game is greater than the sum of its parts’ - okay, so maybe the music, graphics, gameplay aren’t great but when they coalesce, they form an experience that exceeds the individual flaws.
I also don’t remember it being egregiously prominent in games journalism, though I did and still do see it pop up from time to time. I have noticed quality of life start becoming more and more prevalent and I, personally, don’t have a huge issue with it. I just tend to read it as a way of concisely saying ‘improvements to how smooth an experience a game is for the player’ so it does its job.
I’m about 25 hours into Skyward Sword now, had a little break to play both Macbat 64 and Toree 3D (which are wonderful, very short 3D platformers in the vain of the N64 era) and now I’m back to it.
I’m collecting the four pieces of Hero’s Song. I really do feel that this game is super front loaded. The pacing for those first three dungeons and everything in between is Zelda bliss. Then after that, there just seems to be a bunch of busy work between each admittedly stellar dungeon.
Regardless, even when doing what essentially amounts to fetch quest after fetch quest, I have been having such a blast. I enjoyed it ten years ago and I’m loving it now too. I like that Fi is way less intrusive but I also worry that she feels kind of not present. Concerned that will affect the impact of the ending but we shall see
@nessisonett oh my, I was talking to a buddy about this movie the other day and after I had stated my caution due to the fact it’s being made by Illumination (who have made one pretty good movie and nothing else of worth), he posited there is no other studio that would’ve realistically worked with and made something great with Nintendo.
I had no response, if only Laika had come to my mind! Their movies are wonderful, Coraline is in my top ten of all time. I think they’d definitely have the passion to match Nintendo’s and we’d likely get a nifty, weird stop-motion Mario as opposed to what will most likely turn out to be a very economical animated film.
@garfreek @BenAV Yeah, I’m a huge fan of the Layton games (the first four, at least, the last two I can take or leave and the Wright crossover I really didn’t like, despite loving both franchises) and Mystery Journey was such a drag.
I was so deflated after waiting so long for a new entry and then discovering that the story was almost non-existent. They vaguely tie everything together with the last case but it’s not satisfying or interesting at all, really. I also found the puzzles in both PLvPW and LMJ to be pretty redundant, the solutions repeat themselves quite a lot, especially in the latter.
Hoping and praying for a return to form for the series - I actually welcome the idea of Katrielle as the protagonist - I just don’t see it happening if we even do ever get a new one
@Andy_Witmyer yeah, I also wanted desperately to love this game and everything was in place for me to fall head over heels - Japanese setting, beautiful graphics, interesting mix of gameplay styles.
Sadly it’s the first game in maybe five years that I’ve stopped playing and acknowledge I’ll never go back to it. Put seven hours in and each felt like a slog until I finally decided that I couldn’t do another however many hours with the game.
The farming wasn’t explained very well and I didn’t want to let the NPCs take over that aspect as I felt I’d be missing a big chunk of game. The platforming also felt really clunky and I had no fun exploring the areas.
A real shame but it really wasn’t clicking. The plus side is, I went back to BotW for the first time since its release and I’m enjoying that more now than I ever have!
@MS7000 I know you’ve already ordered it so there’s no real need for this comment but thought I’d chip in and say I was much in the same boat. I’ve never been a fan of SRPGs or the Rabbids so I held off on the first for ages despite buying most Mario games day one.
Turned out to be my third favourite Switch game (and still is to this day). Everything from the battles to the puzzle solving overworld captured me utterly.
Maybe it’s because of the stellar music being done by Grant Kirkhope but I’ve always said this game feels as close to a modern Rare game I’ve played. It’s just that high quality of a third party title. I really hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
I’m with @locky-mavo. I actually commented on the original reveal article for Balan that I was cautious about it because I loved Billy Hatcher but really didn’t enjoy Rodea one bit
@TryToBeHopeful oof that’s rough. His humour does come across as mean-spirited and bitter sometimes and I can’t imagine he’s a particularly pleasant bloke. His podcasts are always amusing though, the emergency questions spruce things up and his guest list is basically unparalleled (except for maybe Adam Buxton’s) if you want to hear some candid conversations with some of Britain’s biggest names in comedy.
While we’re on the topic of podcasts (and decidedly not on actual topic), everybody should check out Athletico Mince. Not many podcasts have me grinning ear to ear so consistently
Hey, a reference to Richard Herring's Leicester Square Theatre Podcast! I actually appear in an episode of that show asking a question to one of his guests! It's my very minor claim to fame. Lovely to see a reference to a love of mine in another love of mine
I was astonished that Japan was winning by 100% before realising I was the first (which I’m sure will be outdated by the time I hit reply and see a comment above mine)
I got super burnt out 100%ing Immortals, with that usual Ubisoft fatigue setting in fast. I finished it all in around 50 hours so then moved on to Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, thinking it’d be around a 30 hour experience to fully complete that game. 57 hours later, I finally got it beat last night and started Golf Story which I’ve been looking forward to getting around to since it launched (4 years ago!)
After 2 hours on that, I can already tell it is EXACTLY the sort of game I need after those previous two endeavours. Super simple, super fun and super addictive. Can’t wait to get back to it and enjoying the feeling of the hours slipping breezily past that I’ve been missing
Have never accused NintendoLife of click bait because generally the caveat is somewhat clear from the headline and sub header. But this is a new one, this is straight up, undeniable click bait
@Classic603 also wanna chip in with Gravity Falls. I’m a 25 year old man and that show completely hooked me with its genuinely witty script and a surprisingly great plot with unexpected twists and brilliant characters. And that show was on Disney Xd!
Over the Garden Wall also stuck out as a show with silly childish humour that really landed and some surprisingly dark and genuinely scary imagery.
I can see why people only want to buy physical and why people only want to buy digital. Personally, I ALWAYS choose physical unless it’s a game that is only available digitally, which accounts for most of the indies I own. The reason I like buying physical is because I’m somewhat stuck in the past and having a shelf filled with my game collection is a really satisfying and gratifying thing. Is it, ultimately, useless boxes of plastic that are taking up space in my home? Of course. But do I love to look at them and take pride in owning them? 100%.
What I don’t understand is why people seem to take one side of this approach and attack the other. Just get over it. Not everything has to be a war with two sides. Just game how you wanna game. It’s really quite tiresome ya know
@FredsBodyDouble I can’t speak for this one but I played the original when I was 4 or 5 and it was one of the most fun games I could possibly play with my family. I’ve never had an attachment to Pokemon before or since Snap 64 but damn does it hold a special place in my heart
@Zuljaras I had to pre order a PS5 for my brother-in-law’s birthday and that thing was hard to come by. Stores were putting up their pre-orders and they would sell out in minutes flat, no option to pre-order for the future, they just listed the stock they’d have. I had to sign up to about 10 mailing lists until I was able to get a pre-order in.
In the UK, at least, they’ve remained just as difficult to find at RRP, stores don’t have them and online it’s all scalpers. Sony didn’t acquire all the parts they needed to produce as many consoles as are being sold so scalpers really are your only option if you didn’t pre order.
Not condoning the practice in any way, just attempting to paint a clearer picture
@Ryu_Niiyama I think you’ve just come at this from a weirdly defensive angle. I wasn’t trying to “come at” you or anything of the sort. And I wasn’t implying that you’d insulted me or the devs, nor did I use some revolutionary meme language. I was just trying to bat for these guys because, despite not being the biggest fan of Celeste myself, I can see they’re highly talented individuals. Guess the message I was trying to convey was more of a ‘why deny yourself of an experience you may enjoy when there’s every chance it will be an entirely different game’. Each to their own though. Shame you’ve chosen to take such a stance
@Ryu_Niiyama I think the point is more though that we know next to nothing about this game and it seems to occupy a completely different genre to Celeste. The only information we have to go by is that it’s being made by a supremely talented group of developers. Surely the logical next step would be to wait and see what they’re offering and if it does look to be something you’d be interested in. I think saying it’s a hard pass just because it’s from a dev that made a game that you didn’t gel with despite its clear quality (and that’s not a sleight on you, that’s fine if you didn’t like Celeste, it’s all subjective, though it’s hard to deny its quality and craftsmanship) is a tad reactionary and unfair
@Tourtus just did a bit of research, the main change seems to be the changing of the voice actor who plays Bosco, a black character. Originally voiced by a white dude, they’ve changed the VA so the ethnicities now match. People are quite upset about that, it seems, though it’s worth noting that the original VA did land in some hot water not long ago for posting a YouTube vid in black face.
The other censoring is the removal of some jokes regarding sexualising minors and drug use. All seem like pretty above board changes to me personally, the biggest issue is that they lied about it prior to release and explicitly stated that no lines of dialogue had been changed.
So there’s a whole bunch of info for you that will hopefully help you make the choice!
@Tourtus the censorship stuff might be something you’d want to look into if it had the potential to bother you (I don’t know enough about the extent of the changes) but I had these on the Wii and played them to death. I absolutely adored the writing, the characters and the zany world. A decent amount of the puzzles are rather obtuse but it sure is a fun world to spend some time in.
Plus, the Wii versions ran atrociously, which never bothered me as such but did create a feeling of lack of polish. From what I’ve seen, the Switch versions are much cleaner in that regard.
I remember getting this game before it came out over here in the uk. Zelda has always been my very favourite series of all time and this came out when I was 12. My brother, who would’ve been about 26 at the time, came over to my parents house and had something behind his back. He handed it to me and it was a brown parcel. No idea what it was, I opened it up and it was a US copy of Phantom Hourglass. I had no real understanding of the concept of importing or even what their release date was over there, I just knew this game was coming out soon and I was so excited for it and to suddenly just have it in my hands felt like some sort of surreal dream. From my brother of all people, who never got me gifts outside of the token gift for my birthday and this wasn’t even an event.
I really loved it. Outside of the Temple of the Ocean King, which I even vehemently hated back then when I was a blind fanboy, I adored having a sequel to what was, at the time, my favourite Zelda game.
I went back and played it recently and I now see it as a decent fun little Zelda title that isn’t especially extraordinary but still does enough to justify its place in the series. Regardless of my current thoughts, those memories are so special and one of the main reasons I am so glad I grew up with games. I don’t have many joyous memories quite like the ones I created playing games during my childhood
@Chris77 yeah I’m going for 100%, it sure does get a bit tedious but I find playing for an hour or two at a time makes it way more enjoyable. Really love the vaults (I actually think it’s one of the things the game does better than BotW 😬) but I have come across a couple that I’ve loathed. There’s one where you have to shoot a bunch of moving targets in a set time while jumping on platforms that are rotating around the block they’re in. Had to stop and come back to that a couple of times out of frustration. I think I’ve had my fill with the base game but who knows, maybe one day I’ll come back for the dlc
Still playing Immortals. 42 hours in now and have finally headed over to the mysterious Kings Peak. Really love the idea of switching up the mechanics and essentially making you unable to climb whatever you want. Means that I have to follow their set route for once and it lends a great deal to the feeling of cinematically scaling the mountain.
The only issues I have are that the signposting isn’t always fantastic and the completionist in me just wants to make a beeline for all of the map icons but I can’t seem to get to most of them!
My girlfriend and I just moved into a new flat and she has brought her gaming pc with her. All my life I’ve had access exclusively to Nintendo consoles bar a PS2. Opening up Steam for the first time felt like I was a child in a candy store that sells a load of candy that all my mates have spoken about for the majority of my life and I’ve always wanted to eat but could never open the door to the store. You know that famous analogy.
Anyway, I polished off the first Half-Life in two days (I really loved the first half but then from Xen onwards it felt like something of a slog. I much preferred the dynamic exploration of the real world before it turned into a constant shoot out in the second half).
I plan to start Half-Life 2 this weekend, alongside still showing my Switch some love with Immortals, which I’m about 40 hours into and really enjoying in short bursts.
@I_commented yeah, I played through the trilogy a couple of years ago and Prime 3 almost feels like it’s from a different series. They for sure leant in heavy to a more linear and cinematic game as opposed to the previous two’s slow, atmospheric exploration. It’s also very short with not many collectibles to go back and find. Overall, I think it’s a pretty good game but it’s very different and doesn’t stand shoulder to shoulder with 2 and, especially, 1
It’s Mario day in 9 days (Mar10) and it should be abundantly clear to all that on that day they’ll announce this was all a big, funny prank and the warmth you’ll feel will be unrivalled as Nintendo once again live up to their slogan: ‘A bit committed to is funny eventually, a rushed bit is unfunny forever’
@kurtasbestos haha yeah that’s sort of where I’m at right now. I look forward to playing it while I’m at work but almost as soon as I get home and put it on I want to do something else.
To clarify, I was really loving it essentially up until the mansion opens up. Ever since then I’ve been really struggling to make progress because I’m finding it all so cumbersome and irritating. Not necessarily all that hard, just tiresome. I love the character though and the writing has raised a few chuckles from me and even nearly a tear. If it was a bit of a shorter experience that leant more into its initially very generous array of mechanics I think I would have fallen head over heels for it
I’m about 10 hours into Horace. Was really enjoying its heartfelt and genuinely funny story as well as the neat gravity mechanic. I thought it was a brilliant gem of a game until it decided to go full Metroidvania about 8/9 hours in. I love that genre a lot but found the transition to be pretty jarring here and the map it gives you to explore really isn’t all that fun to backtrack through. The mechanics work great for dynamic platforming but it feels really quite slow and clunky now it’s a lot more exploration/backtrack focused. A bit of a shame but I’d probably still recommend it and I have enjoyed my time with it so far
@Lalivero it’s definitely a game best played with friends, so I wouldn’t recommend getting it for a solo experience. I played through it solo and then played through 100% with a pal and, honestly, I’d struggle to recommend it in either capacity. Maybe it comes alive with four players but I found the game to be super repetitive and dull.
That’s coming from someone who adores every other 3D Mario title, mind. I was so excited for this back in the day and was majorly disappointed with it. Easily my least favourite 3D Mario title, including 3D Land which I thought was a blast and perfectly suited to the 3DS
@Yanina okay I made it up there’s just such a drought right now, I wanted to give gamers something to look forward to and a way in which to escape the gloom.
I won’t lie and say something like my dad works for Nintendo, though my uncle did once. Okay, it was an internship and he attended for one day before being kicked out of the office for calling Super Mario 64 ‘good for it’s time but ultimately underwhelming when measured against today’s standards’. He did catch a glimpse of the Switch Pro though and, to quote him, it will be ‘alright’.
@AndyC_MK84 hey man, just thought I’d jump in too. As a HUGE fan of BK, I was so excited for YL and played it to 100% completion.
It certainly had the feel of a Banjo game but perhaps a little too much - often it felt like a game trying desperately to recreate those memories and ended up not really having a personality of its own. It also wasn’t helped by the assumedly smaller budget as the polish was for sure missing: bugs, large empty worlds and repetitive design, all once again making it feel like a team trying their best to recreate a beautiful series under more limitations.
All that said, however, the hours did fly by while I played it. I’m a sucker for a good 3D platformer and I had a good time playing this. It has a whole suite of issues and sometimes comes off as safe and somewhat pandering but hey, it’s a bunch of talented guys making a game and that talent does shine through quite often.
In short, I’d probably recommend giving it a go, just don’t expect it to light your world on fire and, if you’re a fan of Rare’s old output, you should have a good time
@Kalmaro I’m with Jump on this one, I think both of those movies were solid 4/10s. Never had high hopes for Sonic but thought Detective Pikachu was shaping up nicely. Sadly both very mediocre, dull and safe movies that did little to give me hope for a good video game film.
Unless, of course, you’re counting Scott Pilgrim’s sort of pseudo-video game movie, which was a brilliant 8/10. I’m glad lots of fans seemed to enjoy them though
Galaxy 2: 9/10 Galaxy: 9/10 Odyssey: 9/10 64: 8/10 64 DS: 8/10 3D Land: 8/10 Sunshine: 7/10 3D World: 6/10
For me, 3D Land is EXACTLY what I want from a handheld Mario experience, the blending of 2D and 3D gameplay was perfect for bite-sized sessions. 3D World, for me, died on the fact it was a full-fat console experience. It just felt so underwhelming, so vanilla and so repetitive. There were loads of great ideas packed in there but it never felt like a cohesive whole. Going for 100% was an absolute chore, playing through it with a pal, we had to finish it 3 times in its entirety for those 5 stars on the file and it was draaaaiiiiining. The only other one that was no fun to 100% was Sunshine purely due to those obtuse blue coins that sullied an otherwise enjoyable experience with a great setting and atmosphere
@Kid_Sickarus it took me around 126 hours to finish while doing all the side quests. I reckon if you play through it pretty casually you’ll finish at around the 100 hour mark, give or take a few hours. It’s a wonderful game but I do warn you of a pretty hefty difficulty spike around the 80 hour mark that set me back some time! Might want to smash out some side quests to level yourself up for that particular boss
@Thwomp_Stomper if you’re a fan of the show, you’ll love Stick of Truth. It’s essentially a 20 hour episode, fully written and voiced by Parker and Stone. It’s also a super sweet (like Terrence and Phillip) lite RPG that is satisfying to play and perfectly captures the feeling of interacting with the town and its residents. Honestly, no reason not to if you’re an existing fan
@acNewUpdates it’s not really a ‘nowadays’ situation. If you look back to old gaming mags, for example the Nintendo Magazine, as far back as the 90’s they would have a little header in the game description along the lines of ‘most like’ or ‘you’ll like it if you like...’
@DoktorTotenKopf you know what, fair enough, ya got me. You deconstructed my argument while elaborating on your original standpoint and completely justifying it. Can’t say anything but job well done.
The only thing I WOULD say is that you have now invalidated any of your future opinions that might pop up on here because clearly you’re just in the market to make dumb sweeping statements with no way of backing them up. Other than that, bravo
@DoktorTotenKopf you’re entitled to whatever opinion you want, of course, but to call TOK lazy is just objectively wrong. The amount of completely unique ideas packed into every single area was astonishing and often I’d think a portion of the game was going one way and it’d then completely U-turn.
I don’t even feel it applies to the combat - it’s way more creative than the first two, attempting a genuinely new system in an RPG format. The first two are very close to my heart and TOK will never come close to them, especially TTYD, but this was genuinely a great game that clearly had so much love and creativity poured into it that I couldn’t help but feel it was a stride in the right direction after the unforgivable SS and underwhelming CS.
All opinion aside, I find it wildly unfair to deem this game that’s already being unjustly written off by so many as ‘lazy’ when that couldn’t be further from the truth.
@Bunkerneath not sure if this will help motivate you but I found a method that worked every time after trying and trying to get the ring scrambler ones.
If you just rotate the rings from the center out so it’s mostly in line, you then just need to do two slides to finish it off. It’s actually very easy when you work that out!
@Nedtendo tbh i just can’t tolerate these kinds of bugs. For example, I’ve been playing the new Paper Mario but I had to stop when I found a bug where the boss of the first area is UNBEATABLE. Think it might just be me being bad at the game? THINK AGAIN. I asked my dad to do it and even he couldn’t. And in case you’re wondering, yes that is the same dad who lost a finger by beating a dog half to death (and then subsequently half again), so no, I don’t think that it’s just ‘too hard’, whatever you mean by that. It’s definitely the best game I’ve ever played in my life but I had to stop after 2 hours because it’s just BROKEN.
Look, i get what you mean and I’m sure NASA tried their hardest with Crysis but this one clearly just needed a little more time (2 months) in the oven (read: development studio).
If you STILL don’t get it, let me spell it out for you in three simple words: gamebreakingbugsjust won’tflywith me, pal.
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Re: This Week's New Pokémon Snap Update Also Includes Quality Of Life Improvements
@zool minus the ‘so it does its job’. That was my stance on the phrase.
It’s essentially misc. improvements that make a game a smoother experience. E.g. allowing you to select a different research level upon selecting replay instead of backing out of the stage to do that.
While it does sound like a bit of a wishy washy phrase, it’s certainly easy to categorise what is and isn’t a quality of life improvement so, as I said, it does its job as a snappy conveyance
Re: This Week's New Pokémon Snap Update Also Includes Quality Of Life Improvements
@zool I mean, sum of its parts certainly does make sense and I think it’s quite easy to infer what somebody means when it’s used within its context. ‘This game is greater than the sum of its parts’ - okay, so maybe the music, graphics, gameplay aren’t great but when they coalesce, they form an experience that exceeds the individual flaws.
I also don’t remember it being egregiously prominent in games journalism, though I did and still do see it pop up from time to time. I have noticed quality of life start becoming more and more prevalent and I, personally, don’t have a huge issue with it. I just tend to read it as a way of concisely saying ‘improvements to how smooth an experience a game is for the player’ so it does its job.
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (July 31st)
I’m about 25 hours into Skyward Sword now, had a little break to play both Macbat 64 and Toree 3D (which are wonderful, very short 3D platformers in the vain of the N64 era) and now I’m back to it.
I’m collecting the four pieces of Hero’s Song. I really do feel that this game is super front loaded. The pacing for those first three dungeons and everything in between is Zelda bliss. Then after that, there just seems to be a bunch of busy work between each admittedly stellar dungeon.
Regardless, even when doing what essentially amounts to fetch quest after fetch quest, I have been having such a blast. I enjoyed it ten years ago and I’m loving it now too. I like that Fi is way less intrusive but I also worry that she feels kind of not present. Concerned that will affect the impact of the ending but we shall see
Re: Video: Unboxing The Legend Of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD Joy-Con Controllers, amiibo And Game
@RCGamer hey, I got mine yesterday and was curious about that too! Unfortunately they just show up as purple and blue on the system graphic
Re: Miyamoto Discusses Minions Producer's "Outside Director" Role At Nintendo
@nessisonett oh my, I was talking to a buddy about this movie the other day and after I had stated my caution due to the fact it’s being made by Illumination (who have made one pretty good movie and nothing else of worth), he posited there is no other studio that would’ve realistically worked with and made something great with Nintendo.
I had no response, if only Laika had come to my mind! Their movies are wonderful, Coraline is in my top ten of all time. I think they’d definitely have the passion to match Nintendo’s and we’d likely get a nifty, weird stop-motion Mario as opposed to what will most likely turn out to be a very economical animated film.
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (July 3rd)
@garfreek @BenAV Yeah, I’m a huge fan of the Layton games (the first four, at least, the last two I can take or leave and the Wright crossover I really didn’t like, despite loving both franchises) and Mystery Journey was such a drag.
I was so deflated after waiting so long for a new entry and then discovering that the story was almost non-existent. They vaguely tie everything together with the last case but it’s not satisfying or interesting at all, really. I also found the puzzles in both PLvPW and LMJ to be pretty redundant, the solutions repeat themselves quite a lot, especially in the latter.
Hoping and praying for a return to form for the series - I actually welcome the idea of Katrielle as the protagonist - I just don’t see it happening if we even do ever get a new one
Re: New Sakuna: Of Rice And Ruin Update Allows You To Dual Wield Cats And Dogs
@Andy_Witmyer yeah, I also wanted desperately to love this game and everything was in place for me to fall head over heels - Japanese setting, beautiful graphics, interesting mix of gameplay styles.
Sadly it’s the first game in maybe five years that I’ve stopped playing and acknowledge I’ll never go back to it. Put seven hours in and each felt like a slog until I finally decided that I couldn’t do another however many hours with the game.
The farming wasn’t explained very well and I didn’t want to let the NPCs take over that aspect as I felt I’d be missing a big chunk of game. The platforming also felt really clunky and I had no fun exploring the areas.
A real shame but it really wasn’t clicking. The plus side is, I went back to BotW for the first time since its release and I’m enjoying that more now than I ever have!
Re: Soapbox: Sonic Adventure 2 Turns 20 — It’s Time For A Chao Garden Comeback
Naked except for shoes? Excuse you but I think you’ll find he wears a rather fetching pair of gloves
Re: Nintendo's Official Website Reveals Mario + Rabbids Sparks Of Hope, Coming To Switch In 2022
@MS7000 I know you’ve already ordered it so there’s no real need for this comment but thought I’d chip in and say I was much in the same boat. I’ve never been a fan of SRPGs or the Rabbids so I held off on the first for ages despite buying most Mario games day one.
Turned out to be my third favourite Switch game (and still is to this day). Everything from the battles to the puzzle solving overworld captured me utterly.
Maybe it’s because of the stellar music being done by Grant Kirkhope but I’ve always said this game feels as close to a modern Rare game I’ve played. It’s just that high quality of a third party title. I really hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
Also, I am so beyond pumped for this!
Re: Video: Yuji Naka Actually Made This Hidden Gem During The Wii Generation
I’m with @locky-mavo. I actually commented on the original reveal article for Balan that I was cautious about it because I loved Billy Hatcher but really didn’t enjoy Rodea one bit
Re: Feature: Best Game Boy Color (GBC) Games
@TryToBeHopeful oof that’s rough. His humour does come across as mean-spirited and bitter sometimes and I can’t imagine he’s a particularly pleasant bloke. His podcasts are always amusing though, the emergency questions spruce things up and his guest list is basically unparalleled (except for maybe Adam Buxton’s) if you want to hear some candid conversations with some of Britain’s biggest names in comedy.
While we’re on the topic of podcasts (and decidedly not on actual topic), everybody should check out Athletico Mince. Not many podcasts have me grinning ear to ear so consistently
Re: Feature: Best Game Boy Color (GBC) Games
Hey, a reference to Richard Herring's Leicester Square Theatre Podcast! I actually appear in an episode of that show asking a question to one of his guests! It's my very minor claim to fame. Lovely to see a reference to a love of mine in another love of mine
Re: Poll: Box Art Brawl: Duel #85 - Dragon Quest
Like Icarus, I flew too close to the sun
Re: Poll: Box Art Brawl: Duel #85 - Dragon Quest
I was astonished that Japan was winning by 100% before realising I was the first (which I’m sure will be outdated by the time I hit reply and see a comment above mine)
Re: Guide: Mario Golf: Super Rush Full Character Roster And Special Shot List
I do like how waluigi looks here but not sure how I feel about their choice to make it canon that he now only has one foot
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (May 15th)
I got super burnt out 100%ing Immortals, with that usual Ubisoft fatigue setting in fast. I finished it all in around 50 hours so then moved on to Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, thinking it’d be around a 30 hour experience to fully complete that game. 57 hours later, I finally got it beat last night and started Golf Story which I’ve been looking forward to getting around to since it launched (4 years ago!)
After 2 hours on that, I can already tell it is EXACTLY the sort of game I need after those previous two endeavours. Super simple, super fun and super addictive. Can’t wait to get back to it and enjoying the feeling of the hours slipping breezily past that I’ve been missing
Re: We're Getting A New Fatal Frame, But It's A Pachinko Machine
@Damo respect and appreciate that a lot. You guys generally do a great job and I appreciate ya!!
Re: We're Getting A New Fatal Frame, But There's A Pretty Massive Catch
Have never accused NintendoLife of click bait because generally the caveat is somewhat clear from the headline and sub header. But this is a new one, this is straight up, undeniable click bait
Re: Editor On Netflix's Castlevania Discusses The Potential For A Legend Of Zelda Anime
@Classic603 also wanna chip in with Gravity Falls. I’m a 25 year old man and that show completely hooked me with its genuinely witty script and a surprisingly great plot with unexpected twists and brilliant characters. And that show was on Disney Xd!
Over the Garden Wall also stuck out as a show with silly childish humour that really landed and some surprisingly dark and genuinely scary imagery.
Just two off the top of my head
Re: It Seems Game Builder Garage Will Only Be Available On The eShop In Europe
I can see why people only want to buy physical and why people only want to buy digital. Personally, I ALWAYS choose physical unless it’s a game that is only available digitally, which accounts for most of the indies I own. The reason I like buying physical is because I’m somewhat stuck in the past and having a shelf filled with my game collection is a really satisfying and gratifying thing. Is it, ultimately, useless boxes of plastic that are taking up space in my home? Of course. But do I love to look at them and take pride in owning them? 100%.
What I don’t understand is why people seem to take one side of this approach and attack the other. Just get over it. Not everything has to be a war with two sides. Just game how you wanna game. It’s really quite tiresome ya know
Re: Random: Everyone Loves Scripulous Fingore, The Fictional Super Mario Character
@PBandSmelly hope you’ve been enjoying the latest Ding Dong & Julian eps as much as I have
Re: Review: New Pokémon Snap - The Best-Looking Pokémon Game Yet, And A Joyous Revival
@FredsBodyDouble I can’t speak for this one but I played the original when I was 4 or 5 and it was one of the most fun games I could possibly play with my family. I’ve never had an attachment to Pokemon before or since Snap 64 but damn does it hold a special place in my heart
Re: McDonald's UK Plans To Restrict Pokémon Happy Meal Toy Purchases
@Zuljaras I had to pre order a PS5 for my brother-in-law’s birthday and that thing was hard to come by. Stores were putting up their pre-orders and they would sell out in minutes flat, no option to pre-order for the future, they just listed the stock they’d have. I had to sign up to about 10 mailing lists until I was able to get a pre-order in.
In the UK, at least, they’ve remained just as difficult to find at RRP, stores don’t have them and online it’s all scalpers. Sony didn’t acquire all the parts they needed to produce as many consoles as are being sold so scalpers really are your only option if you didn’t pre order.
Not condoning the practice in any way, just attempting to paint a clearer picture
Re: Celeste's Creators Are Working On A New "2D Explor-Action Game" With Secret Of Mana Vibes
@Ryu_Niiyama I think you’ve just come at this from a weirdly defensive angle. I wasn’t trying to “come at” you or anything of the sort. And I wasn’t implying that you’d insulted me or the devs, nor did I use some revolutionary meme language. I was just trying to bat for these guys because, despite not being the biggest fan of Celeste myself, I can see they’re highly talented individuals. Guess the message I was trying to convey was more of a ‘why deny yourself of an experience you may enjoy when there’s every chance it will be an entirely different game’. Each to their own though. Shame you’ve chosen to take such a stance
Re: Celeste's Creators Are Working On A New "2D Explor-Action Game" With Secret Of Mana Vibes
@Ryu_Niiyama I think the point is more though that we know next to nothing about this game and it seems to occupy a completely different genre to Celeste. The only information we have to go by is that it’s being made by a supremely talented group of developers. Surely the logical next step would be to wait and see what they’re offering and if it does look to be something you’d be interested in. I think saying it’s a hard pass just because it’s from a dev that made a game that you didn’t gel with despite its clear quality (and that’s not a sleight on you, that’s fine if you didn’t like Celeste, it’s all subjective, though it’s hard to deny its quality and craftsmanship) is a tad reactionary and unfair
Re: Sam & Max Save The World Remaster Getting A Limited Run Games Release
@SonOfVon see my above comment for elaboration on the ‘woke’ changes
Re: Sam & Max Save The World Remaster Getting A Limited Run Games Release
@Tourtus just did a bit of research, the main change seems to be the changing of the voice actor who plays Bosco, a black character. Originally voiced by a white dude, they’ve changed the VA so the ethnicities now match. People are quite upset about that, it seems, though it’s worth noting that the original VA did land in some hot water not long ago for posting a YouTube vid in black face.
The other censoring is the removal of some jokes regarding sexualising minors and drug use. All seem like pretty above board changes to me personally, the biggest issue is that they lied about it prior to release and explicitly stated that no lines of dialogue had been changed.
So there’s a whole bunch of info for you that will hopefully help you make the choice!
Re: Sam & Max Save The World Remaster Getting A Limited Run Games Release
@Tourtus the censorship stuff might be something you’d want to look into if it had the potential to bother you (I don’t know enough about the extent of the changes) but I had these on the Wii and played them to death. I absolutely adored the writing, the characters and the zany world. A decent amount of the puzzles are rather obtuse but it sure is a fun world to spend some time in.
Plus, the Wii versions ran atrociously, which never bothered me as such but did create a feeling of lack of polish. From what I’ve seen, the Switch versions are much cleaner in that regard.
Re: Feature: Zelda: Phantom Hourglass Is Secretly One Of The Best Zeldas
I remember getting this game before it came out over here in the uk. Zelda has always been my very favourite series of all time and this came out when I was 12. My brother, who would’ve been about 26 at the time, came over to my parents house and had something behind his back. He handed it to me and it was a brown parcel. No idea what it was, I opened it up and it was a US copy of Phantom Hourglass. I had no real understanding of the concept of importing or even what their release date was over there, I just knew this game was coming out soon and I was so excited for it and to suddenly just have it in my hands felt like some sort of surreal dream. From my brother of all people, who never got me gifts outside of the token gift for my birthday and this wasn’t even an event.
I really loved it. Outside of the Temple of the Ocean King, which I even vehemently hated back then when I was a blind fanboy, I adored having a sequel to what was, at the time, my favourite Zelda game.
I went back and played it recently and I now see it as a decent fun little Zelda title that isn’t especially extraordinary but still does enough to justify its place in the series. Regardless of my current thoughts, those memories are so special and one of the main reasons I am so glad I grew up with games. I don’t have many joyous memories quite like the ones I created playing games during my childhood
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (April 3rd)
@Chris77 yeah I’m going for 100%, it sure does get a bit tedious but I find playing for an hour or two at a time makes it way more enjoyable. Really love the vaults (I actually think it’s one of the things the game does better than BotW 😬) but I have come across a couple that I’ve loathed. There’s one where you have to shoot a bunch of moving targets in a set time while jumping on platforms that are rotating around the block they’re in. Had to stop and come back to that a couple of times out of frustration. I think I’ve had my fill with the base game but who knows, maybe one day I’ll come back for the dlc
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (April 3rd)
Still playing Immortals. 42 hours in now and have finally headed over to the mysterious Kings Peak. Really love the idea of switching up the mechanics and essentially making you unable to climb whatever you want. Means that I have to follow their set route for once and it lends a great deal to the feeling of cinematically scaling the mountain.
The only issues I have are that the signposting isn’t always fantastic and the completionist in me just wants to make a beeline for all of the map icons but I can’t seem to get to most of them!
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (March 27th)
My girlfriend and I just moved into a new flat and she has brought her gaming pc with her. All my life I’ve had access exclusively to Nintendo consoles bar a PS2. Opening up Steam for the first time felt like I was a child in a candy store that sells a load of candy that all my mates have spoken about for the majority of my life and I’ve always wanted to eat but could never open the door to the store. You know that famous analogy.
Anyway, I polished off the first Half-Life in two days (I really loved the first half but then from Xen onwards it felt like something of a slog. I much preferred the dynamic exploration of the real world before it turned into a constant shoot out in the second half).
I plan to start Half-Life 2 this weekend, alongside still showing my Switch some love with Immortals, which I’m about 40 hours into and really enjoying in short bursts.
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (March 13th)
@I_commented yeah, I played through the trilogy a couple of years ago and Prime 3 almost feels like it’s from a different series. They for sure leant in heavy to a more linear and cinematic game as opposed to the previous two’s slow, atmospheric exploration. It’s also very short with not many collectibles to go back and find. Overall, I think it’s a pretty good game but it’s very different and doesn’t stand shoulder to shoulder with 2 and, especially, 1
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (March 13th)
@Lynox Super Mario 3D World, Persona 5 Strikers, The Binding of Isaac and Life is Strange 2. I’ll take a Wispa egg please 😉
Meanwhile, I’m about 32 hours into IFR
Re: Nintendo Isn't Backing Down On Its Decision To Pull Mario Products From Stores This Month
It’s Mario day in 9 days (Mar10) and it should be abundantly clear to all that on that day they’ll announce this was all a big, funny prank and the warmth you’ll feel will be unrivalled as Nintendo once again live up to their slogan: ‘A bit committed to is funny eventually, a rushed bit is unfunny forever’
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (February 13th)
@kurtasbestos haha yeah that’s sort of where I’m at right now. I look forward to playing it while I’m at work but almost as soon as I get home and put it on I want to do something else.
To clarify, I was really loving it essentially up until the mansion opens up. Ever since then I’ve been really struggling to make progress because I’m finding it all so cumbersome and irritating. Not necessarily all that hard, just tiresome. I love the character though and the writing has raised a few chuckles from me and even nearly a tear. If it was a bit of a shorter experience that leant more into its initially very generous array of mechanics I think I would have fallen head over heels for it
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (February 13th)
I’m about 10 hours into Horace. Was really enjoying its heartfelt and genuinely funny story as well as the neat gravity mechanic. I thought it was a brilliant gem of a game until it decided to go full Metroidvania about 8/9 hours in. I love that genre a lot but found the transition to be pretty jarring here and the map it gives you to explore really isn’t all that fun to backtrack through. The mechanics work great for dynamic platforming but it feels really quite slow and clunky now it’s a lot more exploration/backtrack focused. A bit of a shame but I’d probably still recommend it and I have enjoyed my time with it so far
Re: Poll: Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury Is Out Today On Switch, Are You Getting It?
@Lalivero it’s definitely a game best played with friends, so I wouldn’t recommend getting it for a solo experience. I played through it solo and then played through 100% with a pal and, honestly, I’d struggle to recommend it in either capacity. Maybe it comes alive with four players but I found the game to be super repetitive and dull.
That’s coming from someone who adores every other 3D Mario title, mind. I was so excited for this back in the day and was majorly disappointed with it. Easily my least favourite 3D Mario title, including 3D Land which I thought was a blast and perfectly suited to the 3DS
Re: Random: Pokémon Red Is Still Being Played Inside Someone's Twitter Avatar
@Yanina okay I made it up there’s just such a drought right now, I wanted to give gamers something to look forward to and a way in which to escape the gloom.
I won’t lie and say something like my dad works for Nintendo, though my uncle did once. Okay, it was an internship and he attended for one day before being kicked out of the office for calling Super Mario 64 ‘good for it’s time but ultimately underwhelming when measured against today’s standards’. He did catch a glimpse of the Switch Pro though and, to quote him, it will be ‘alright’.
Re: Random: Pokémon Red Is Still Being Played Inside Someone's Twitter Avatar
‘NEWS: Super Mario 3D World is still coming out 12/02/21’
Re: Feature: Banjo-Tooie Turns 20 - The Rare Team Tells The Story Of Bombs, Bugs And Bottles
@AndyC_MK84 hey man, just thought I’d jump in too. As a HUGE fan of BK, I was so excited for YL and played it to 100% completion.
It certainly had the feel of a Banjo game but perhaps a little too much - often it felt like a game trying desperately to recreate those memories and ended up not really having a personality of its own. It also wasn’t helped by the assumedly smaller budget as the polish was for sure missing: bugs, large empty worlds and repetitive design, all once again making it feel like a team trying their best to recreate a beautiful series under more limitations.
All that said, however, the hours did fly by while I played it. I’m a sucker for a good 3D platformer and I had a good time playing this. It has a whole suite of issues and sometimes comes off as safe and somewhat pandering but hey, it’s a bunch of talented guys making a game and that talent does shine through quite often.
In short, I’d probably recommend giving it a go, just don’t expect it to light your world on fire and, if you’re a fan of Rare’s old output, you should have a good time
Re: Phew! The Latest Monster Hunter Movie Trailer Has Massively Restored Our Hopes
@Kalmaro I’m with Jump on this one, I think both of those movies were solid 4/10s. Never had high hopes for Sonic but thought Detective Pikachu was shaping up nicely. Sadly both very mediocre, dull and safe movies that did little to give me hope for a good video game film.
Unless, of course, you’re counting Scott Pilgrim’s sort of pseudo-video game movie, which was a brilliant 8/10. I’m glad lots of fans seemed to enjoy them though
Re: Poll: What's The Best 3D Mario Game?
My rankings are:
Galaxy 2: 9/10
Galaxy: 9/10
Odyssey: 9/10
64: 8/10
64 DS: 8/10
3D Land: 8/10
Sunshine: 7/10
3D World: 6/10
For me, 3D Land is EXACTLY what I want from a handheld Mario experience, the blending of 2D and 3D gameplay was perfect for bite-sized sessions. 3D World, for me, died on the fact it was a full-fat console experience. It just felt so underwhelming, so vanilla and so repetitive. There were loads of great ideas packed in there but it never felt like a cohesive whole. Going for 100% was an absolute chore, playing through it with a pal, we had to finish it 3 times in its entirety for those 5 stars on the file and it was draaaaiiiiining. The only other one that was no fun to 100% was Sunshine purely due to those obtuse blue coins that sullied an otherwise enjoyable experience with a great setting and atmosphere
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (September 12th)
@Kid_Sickarus it took me around 126 hours to finish while doing all the side quests. I reckon if you play through it pretty casually you’ll finish at around the 100 hour mark, give or take a few hours. It’s a wonderful game but I do warn you of a pretty hefty difficulty spike around the 80 hour mark that set me back some time! Might want to smash out some side quests to level yourself up for that particular boss
Re: Ubisoft's Summer Blow Out Sale Is In Full Swing On Switch eShop (North America)
@Thwomp_Stomper if you’re a fan of the show, you’ll love Stick of Truth. It’s essentially a 20 hour episode, fully written and voiced by Parker and Stone. It’s also a super sweet (like Terrence and Phillip) lite RPG that is satisfying to play and perfectly captures the feeling of interacting with the town and its residents. Honestly, no reason not to if you’re an existing fan
Re: Review: Windbound - A Surprisingly Chill Survival Epic That Owes A Debt To Zelda
@acNewUpdates it’s not really a ‘nowadays’ situation. If you look back to old gaming mags, for example the Nintendo Magazine, as far back as the 90’s they would have a little header in the game description along the lines of ‘most like’ or ‘you’ll like it if you like...’
Re: Paper Mario Producer Says "It's A Necessity" To Change The Combat System In Every Entry
@DoktorTotenKopf you know what, fair enough, ya got me. You deconstructed my argument while elaborating on your original standpoint and completely justifying it. Can’t say anything but job well done.
The only thing I WOULD say is that you have now invalidated any of your future opinions that might pop up on here because clearly you’re just in the market to make dumb sweeping statements with no way of backing them up. Other than that, bravo
Re: Paper Mario Producer Says "It's A Necessity" To Change The Combat System In Every Entry
@DoktorTotenKopf you’re entitled to whatever opinion you want, of course, but to call TOK lazy is just objectively wrong. The amount of completely unique ideas packed into every single area was astonishing and often I’d think a portion of the game was going one way and it’d then completely U-turn.
I don’t even feel it applies to the combat - it’s way more creative than the first two, attempting a genuinely new system in an RPG format. The first two are very close to my heart and TOK will never come close to them, especially TTYD, but this was genuinely a great game that clearly had so much love and creativity poured into it that I couldn’t help but feel it was a stride in the right direction after the unforgivable SS and underwhelming CS.
All opinion aside, I find it wildly unfair to deem this game that’s already being unjustly written off by so many as ‘lazy’ when that couldn’t be further from the truth.
Re: Watch Out For This Glitch If You're Trying To 100% Paper Mario: The Origami King
@Bunkerneath not sure if this will help motivate you but I found a method that worked every time after trying and trying to get the ring scrambler ones.
If you just rotate the rings from the center out so it’s mostly in line, you then just need to do two slides to finish it off. It’s actually very easy when you work that out!
Re: Review: Crysis Remastered - A Technical Miracle And One Of The Best Shooters On Switch
@Nedtendo tbh i just can’t tolerate these kinds of bugs. For example, I’ve been playing the new Paper Mario but I had to stop when I found a bug where the boss of the first area is UNBEATABLE. Think it might just be me being bad at the game? THINK AGAIN. I asked my dad to do it and even he couldn’t. And in case you’re wondering, yes that is the same dad who lost a finger by beating a dog half to death (and then subsequently half again), so no, I don’t think that it’s just ‘too hard’, whatever you mean by that. It’s definitely the best game I’ve ever played in my life but I had to stop after 2 hours because it’s just BROKEN.
Look, i get what you mean and I’m sure NASA tried their hardest with Crysis but this one clearly just needed a little more time (2 months) in the oven (read: development studio).
If you STILL don’t get it, let me spell it out for you in three simple words: gamebreakingbugsjust won’tflywith me, pal.