Malakhim24

Rainbow Road 3DS gives me some serious nostalgic and emotional vibes. I love the music and visuals so much.

I scored it a 7, not because of the performance issues, because as much as a "60+ FPS at 32:9 with RTX on max" PC gamer that I am, they weren't nearly as egregious as the Internet makes them out to be.

I think the visual and musical direction of the game is pretty bland compared to other entries, and sure, you can do most content in whatever order you want, you're still going to do it because you still need your legendary upgrades along with gym badges to get pokemon to listen to you. The gym challenges are pretty unimaginative save a few, and due to the disconnected story and bland character designs, I didn't really connect with any of the characters.

That said, the gameplay loop is still fantastic and I was having a blast over the weekend playing with friends trading and doing raids together.

So I think a 7 is accurate.

I preloaded it yesterday and got a chance to play through the first two missions earlier today. The game is AMAZING and is the rare "3quel" that I might call better than the 2nd entry. And if there were any reason to say FPS/low input latency matters, it's here.

Case in point, the game is SUPER ambitious visually and does crazy stuff right out of the gate, but it looks like the resolution has been lowered to make up for keeping the 60 FPS gameplay, and the game is still fantastically playable.

Looking forward to playing more later, and might be a few copies as gifts for friends.

@turntSNACO I'm not going to presume to speak for anyone else here, but one of the reasons someone might look at the new characters as more egregiously "woke" than any previous ones is because of recent events with Blizzard, which I'm sure you're probably familiar with if you've paid any attention to the news. We're talking about a company that has a big image problem, specifically with its treatment of vulnerable populations, making a new set of characters that seem less about being earnest and more about saying "we're sorry about the Cosby Rooms".

Hell, remember the China thing? You might not, because they announced Overwatch 2 and Diablo 4 well before they should've to smooth things out.

Right now, Blizzard is in a very precarious spot, and even I feel dirty even playing OW2, so you can't really blame folks for being cynical.

@WallyWest Relax. Nobody would ACTUALLY unironically say something that myopic and tone deaf, right?

...Right?

@graviton I hear ya. I'm still not cool with Blizzard's actions over the years, especially the sexual harassment allegations, but I caved and wanted to give OW2 a shot. Then all this.

Remember when we used to love Starcraft, Diablo 2 and Warcraft, gang?

"Game is live" is a bit of a misnomer. It's more like the game is on life support at this point.

I can already picture the dev meeting where some inexperienced lead on the team thought they were incredibly brilliant when they thought of the "Defense Matrix" phone number requirement and through sheer charisma managed to convince the top of the same misguided idea. Meanwhile, several senior devs who've been around the block and have no voice are just shaking their heads knowingly.

I mean, I guess I shouldn't be surprised that "Don't you guys have phones!?" Blizzard would be so tone deaf, but I'm at least not dumb enough not to realize asking for your phone number is less about security and more about data collection.

By the time I was old enough to wrap my hands around a controller (I was 3), my older brother already had a few games for our NES and Gameboy, so I had played Super Mario Bros., Duck Hunt, Track and Field (we had the pad), Super Mario Land, Tetris, and F1 Grand Prix. We eventually grabbed The Legend of Zelda, and thanks to video game rental stores being a thing, we had access to all kinds of games. The first game that was ever "mine" though, was Ninja Gaiden II.

As good as this might be for the fans into live events, I'm more interested in hearing on how they're fixing their company culture. I don't know what form that takes, but until then, I'll still be holding back on grabbing anything Blizzard.

I mean, just don't buy 'em from scalpers, gang. It's just a controller, and there are plenty of good options out there for less.

@Spoony_Tech I too remember when games had to cut content because they wouldn't make release date otherwise, and with no way of adding content in post-launch, were left unfinished. Unless of course you were Capcom and released balance patches as new games.

Please take the nostalgia glasses off. I'll level with you and say they probably should have prioritized stadiums and characters over the gear system, but thanks to post-launch DLC, we can have both, and for free.

@somebread If enough people do it enough times, then yeah. Why do you think studios go out of business? Sure, they were able to pay folks while they were working on the game through investments, but what happens when the money dries up and the game doesn't make the sales it was projected to make, thus justifying the investment?

I got a GameCube really late in the generation, the Christmas right before Metroid Prime 2 came out; the platinum GameCube bundle with Double Dash included, a platinum Wavebird controller that I wish I still had, and Wind Waker.

I was in college at the time and would bring my system with me, and had plenty of good rounds there with friends, and "3 hours of Baby Park" became a late-night staple with my friends back home during summer vacation. I look back at the GameCube as having one of the most creative lineups of Nintendo franchises when they still tried to compete in the same race as Sony and Microsoft.

That said, I wouldn't say Double Dash is the best Mario Kart. The two-per-kart mechanic really was fun, but not a one of my friends ever wanted to use it, so it wasn't really relevant to my experience, so it was just "the next Mario Kart" to me. No hate to anyone who feels that way though. The game really is great, but some folks hold on to it like some Smash fans treat Melee like the Holy Grail and raise their noses at other entries that have done things better. It's like time ceased for folks like that.

I think the game is great with some obvious and not-so-obvious caveats. Having a free edition with mostly gutted content alongside a full-priced version with everything available along with a season pass model(the first of which is essentially free) is fine, and I'm not entirely sure why folks are up in arms about that. The other alternative is... having a free version riddled with microtransactions to get all the content and a season pass model, so... Same thing?

I think I wanted more tracks available at launch. Maybe 2 more, and the audio needs a bit of work. As it is, similar to Xenoblade Chronicles 2, the audio levels blend in too much at max values, so without properly setting things yourself, which is tricky to figure out JUST the right levels, music overpowers the voices and sound effects, which really do have an impact on immersion. You really want to hear the engines reving, item activations, and character voices.

I'm glad to see them adding more tracks and fixing issues though. I hope they add more staple characters like Lightning, but also deep cuts like Moobmas from FFVIII. A track themed around Balamb Garden or Eden might be cool.

Yeah basically. I was glad to hear their now-free-from-Nintendo perspective, and to remind folks, these two were part of NOA's marketing ground troops for around 14 years each.

As someone commented earlier, a better question then asking "why Nintendo left?" is "why didn't more companies also leave?"

Here's to hoping EVO's gotten better in the time since.

While I'm enjoying the game, the framerate and input delay are pretty hard to deal with when trying to traverse the netherworld or navigate menus. I'm really hoping the PC release happens.

I'm really interested to see what that means for other things in that GeForce leak.

I might be mis-remembering, but was there a 2-player co-op mode in the game? I feel like there wasn't, and THAT would have been a much better way to go about the dual-screen gimmick; with one character bobbin' and weavin' through the level while the second player mans the gunners seat. Make the enemies and levels more challenging to ensure players are kept busy, especially during raptor mode and all-range mode sections, playing with a friend either couch or online would've been great.

Of course, they'd have to have a single- player mode as well that would be more traditional Star Fox, but honestly, I kind of wish I still had my Wii U to play the game.

I feel like a sequel would be better, and take inspiration from games like StarLink and No Mans Sky. Maybe have a Labo VR mode.