Comments 333

Re: Poll: What's The Best Mario Kart Game?

Matl

I can already tell the 8 Deluxe is gonna win, people think its that good. Sure it has the most content and largest roster, but mechanically its kinda bad. Its very bland gameplaywise, nothing super interesting happens. Most races online are nothing but endless mushrooms from the item boxes, regardless of position in the race.

Plus, battle mode suck in every MK since DS. If theres no option for elimination mode, its automatically bad.

For me:
DS
Wii
7
Double Dash
-MASSIVE GAP-
8 Deluxe
64
Super Circuit
Super

Re: Nintendo Reveals A New And Colourful Splatoon 3 Switch OLED

Matl

@Orokosaki Outside of the decals, its not really suggesting much of a splatoon theme to me. White just isn't a colour that I think is really associated with splatoon, rather i think its like that so people know "this is still an OLED model" and not a careful decision behind the design. Same goes for the joycon, a gradient colour isn't suggesting spltoon much since the ink is a single colour - which a gradient isn't quite suggesting to me. Add to that the backs of the joycon are also white, which clashes horrendously with the neon colours... it just doesn't look like a very nice design, gonna be honest.

Decals do add to the splatoon vibe I guess. But its kinda... dull? They don't stand out too much I feel.

Re: This Latest Xenoblade Chronicles 3 Track Will Get You Seriously Pumped

Matl

Cannot wait for the game, these music previews are getting me seriously amped up. Been listening it on loop for an hour now. Here's hoping there is a Cd release of the OST like for the previous games too!

The track being called "you will know our names - finale" makes me think there will be "you will recall our names - finale" too, for when you are in the Agnus areas of the game. Perhaps a third one for late game areas too, thats a mix of the two songs?

Re: Poll: What Did You Think Of The Summer Game Fest 2022 Opening Showcase?

Matl

@Mr_Nutz Yeah, I feel like these happen in waves. Industry at large sees X thing is popular in one game, so they ALL jump on board and develop their own similar game, which all release within a relatively short timespan. Just look at BOTW and the swathe of open world things with heavy inspiration from BOTW thats been coming out. And even then, some of these sorts of games could be entirely coincidental in their timings too.

Re: Poll: What Did You Think Of The Summer Game Fest 2022 Opening Showcase?

Matl

Whole lotta space stuff this year. Much like last year. Guess people like space right now.

TMNT was like the only thing appealing to me. Cuphead DLC is cool, though I forgot it was even a thing so whatever, but there was just a ton of dull, realistic artstyle crap that was mostly space themed or the core gampley was GUNS. The section they had adterwards was great though, lots of cool indies shown off.

Devolver thing happened. Plucky Squire looks incredible, can't wait for that!

Re: Poll: Has The Latest Trailer Convinced You To Buy Pokémon Scarlet & Violet?

Matl

I played pokemon X. It was a game that happened. And every game since has not looked any better and are apparently various levels of not very good.

I just like seeing the new mon designs and thats it. The games in general just look very underwhelming with obviously very little effort put in. Which is very stupid considering pokemon is the biggest media franchise ever. Could put a little more than the teams monthly lunch money into the budget, game freak.

Re: Talking Point: Video Game Music Is More Popular Than Ever, So Why Is Nintendo So Behind?

Matl

Sadly I doubt Nintendo is going to do anything about this, at least for the foreseeable future. While there is an obvious outcry from fans desperately wanting their music through all sorts of formats, what we do get... is practically nothing.

Japan gets the full OST releases on CD, and if you want those its a hassle to import, or a hassle to find it for resale via ebay or other sites. As mentioned there are some soundtracks on streaming services, but thats just only for a select few games, and ONLY some of the biggest games. What if I want to listen to the OST of a mostly forgotten gamecube game, for instance? To youtube! - oh, wait, they delisted the soundtrack off the face of the site. Guess I won't listen at all now.

Its just another case of Nintendo doing a Nintendo. Zero effort, zero logic as to why they are doing nothing aside from "we don't have to", despite people being willing to pay. Its ridiculous.

Re: Meet Your Nopon Party Members In Xenoblade Chronicles 3

Matl

I've always liked the Nopon as a concept a lot. Its unfortunate that most instances of them being prominent in the games haven't been too great.

Riki is alright, though lightly annoying
Tatsu was an absolute nothing character that nobody likes
Tora can go die in a fire for MULTIPLE reasons
Riki's kids in Future Connected have been the best in the series thus far, I think

We've not quite seen enough of these two new ones in XC3 yet to determine how good or bad they are, but I am hoping that Monolith have been learning that Nopon have to be more than the comic relief party slot character, or that they have to at least be an interesting character outside of that subset.

Re: Feature: Just How Accessible Are Switch Games Like Xenoblade, Pokémon, And Mario Odyssey?

Matl

@AndyC_MK111 Its been a long time since I have played any of them here too. X i left about 70% of the way cus I just got bored, and 2 I haven't played since the Torna DLC in 2018. A little bit on and off, but not really a huge amount.

I have been considering starting a new playthrough of 2 and X for a while now, but its just such a large time investment. Hopefully you can fit an X playthrough in at some point soon!

Re: Feature: Just How Accessible Are Switch Games Like Xenoblade, Pokémon, And Mario Odyssey?

Matl

@AndyC_MK111 Xenoblade 1 had the option to review tutorials for pretty much everything at any time in a simple menu. XC2 just gives you one big chain of text boxes half heartedly explaining a new mechanic or 3, then leaves you with that. It was very rarely ever at good times in the game, since they happen in battle a lot as well, and they just do the absolute bare minimum in explaining what said new mechanic does, sadly.

Hopefully XC3 takes a leaf out of 1's book.

Re: Feature: Just How Accessible Are Switch Games Like Xenoblade, Pokémon, And Mario Odyssey?

Matl

I see the Xenoblade bickering has already begun xD

XC2 does have a lot of opitons like what was mentioned, difficulty sliders for most aspects of the game is excellent (cuts out mashing in QTEs if you want, makes progression smoother if you get stuck, etc.). Though for all the good that one menu provides, theres a ton that just sucks. Field skills are awful to get done, since its a TON of menuing, as is the case for other elements of the game too. Tutorials being unable to be reviewed after they first show up is so stupid, and means that many just turn to the internet to figure out what to do. The way the game gives out systems in general kinda sucks too, since they usually come along mid-battle and suddenyl you have an extra submenu in the battle UI that does a super specific thing that you can't quite figure out how it works with anything else due to the bad tutorials... yeah, the game as a whole is a very weird mess.

Characters in the game are almost universally great, imo. XC2 is just a very divisive game, which is fine. Just people do not know how to have calm discussions surrounding so much of the game most of the time lol.

Re: Metroid Dread's Second Free Update Is Now Available, Here Are The Full Patch Notes

Matl

Always thought it was a bit odd that they decided to release a boss rush mode six months after the game came out. Feels like the sort of mode that the game should just... have at launch? I guess they want people to go back to the game or something, or maybe use this as an extra boost to sales (not sure who would wait for a boss rush mode before even thinking of getting the game, but regardless). Same goes for the easy and hard modes too, they just feel like they should have been there from the start. Maybe then those who found the game too difficult and put it down wouldn't have done so.

Re: Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Producer On The Game's Popularity And Accessibility

Matl

Just wish the item balancing was better. As it currently is, you have one person way ahead of the pack using a meta build of heavy character + tiny wheels + wiggler car, then the rest of the pack gets nothing but endless mushrooms/stars/bullet bills. But the pack just ends up hitting each other constantly with this stuff, and the top 2 or 3 players just never drop in placement. And this is because the game gives out items based on a player's physical distance from 1st place, not your actual numerical placement. It's just super bland getting 99% mushrooms and stars, with any shells or actual interesting items just hitting others in the cluster, meaning nobody from that cluster ever gets the chance to move ahead of the pack while 1st has it super easy. Its such a dumb system, and helps nobody to actually benefit very much in a race.

Also bring back the good drifting... this style of "hold it for X time to get blue/orange/purple spark" isn't interesting at all and needs very little effort to achieve. DS and older style of wiggling the stick/dpad back and forth is so much better. Maybe have a hybrid of the two in future.

Re: Talking Point: Should We Still Be Pre-Ordering Games?

Matl

Pre orders are basically only for limited editions of games or for hardware/collectible items. Otherwise theres not really any point in preordering a game that will have a million copies available day 1 that can and will be delivered or collected on the same day.

If there is a limited quantity of said item available, that's when I pre order.

Re: This Good Smile Xenoblade Chronicles 2 Nia Figure Can Now Be Pre-Ordered For $259.99

Matl

@Wexter I'm pretty sure one of the story trailers just flat out used the mythra's awakening scene, so its likely that mythra being pyra's true form was out in the open for a long while. I would argue its not really close to the nia being a blade reveal is, just due to it being much later on in the game. Mythra's awakening is like chapter 3 of 10 if i recall, whilst nia's reveal was chapter... 8? I think?

This just goes back to how stuff is presented to people through the marketing and how story centric a game is. Someone will be made that they saw even one second of gameplay for a game before it came out, hell i know someone who doesn't want to see a single thing of botw2 til the game comes out to retain the true experience. Its down to personal preference mostly, but there are things that can be seen much more clearly as "oh yeah thats a spoiler" than stuff shown off in a trailer or from the first third of a game.

Also, sorry that you've just come to accept spoilers as a natural happening of media. Must suck a lot.

Re: This Good Smile Xenoblade Chronicles 2 Nia Figure Can Now Be Pre-Ordered For $259.99

Matl

@Wexter I get seeing an image of X character and not knowing any context, thats plenty fair. And it really is on the person if they go looking for more info, but it really comes down to how the genral thing is percieved.

Like with your example with Mythra, you consider her more spoilery than awakened Nia. But mythra was featured in some of the marketing material before the game even came out, and blade form nia wasn't. So in that regard mythra was never really much of a spoiler unless you decided to or happened to not see the trailers prerelease. Similar thing happened with metroid dread too, I remember people were upset that one trailer featured kraid and considered it a massive spoiler.

Really it depends on so many factors, but in the case of nia it likely is gonna be the fault of the curious person if they look further into it, though sometimes you have instances of smash ultimate spoiling Seven in xenoblade 1. I think its more prominent to be upset with spoilers for RPGs cus they are so story heavy and rely on the user knowing nothing going in, at least with my dread example it isn't really plot relevant. Kraid is just there to fight at some point. Spoiler talk just differs heavily on a case by case basis.

Re: This Good Smile Xenoblade Chronicles 2 Nia Figure Can Now Be Pre-Ordered For $259.99

Matl

Just becuase the game is old does not mean stuff that is important to the plot is not a spoiler. Goes for pretty much any game regardless of age, it is inherently a spoiler to know of plot relevant details before starting/getting very far into a game. Same goes for movies too.

Only "exceptions" are when said game is part of general cultural importance, like how Sheik is actually Zelda in ocarina of time. Everyone knows about that just because of how popular the title was at the time and still is to this day, hence its pretty much impossible to be mad at that, even more so given the game is over 20 years old. Same goes for final fantasy 7, to some extent, except people still try to keep that unspoiled because of not only the remake but also because fans of long RPG game series tend to want people to go in as blind as possible.

With xenoblade 2, its a 4 year old game that has not punctured the genral gaming sphere anywhere near as much as final fantasy 7 or ocarina of time. Like, NOWHERE near as culturally relevant. So it is absolutely fair to say this nia thumbnail is a spoiler, just because the game has been out does not mean people should already know everything about the game. Like others have said, xenoblade 3 is coming this year, some will want to catch up on 1 and/or 2 before then, and seeing an image of this form of nia or another similar spoilery character from xc1 WILL inherently spoil the game for them.

Re: Poll: Do You Have An Issue With Xenoblade Chronicles' Accents?

Matl

I love the fact they use british voice talents for the xenoblade games. American voices can feel kinda samey after the fiteen billionth time they are used for games and films etc. that come out, especially high profile ones. Xenoblade without the bri'ish just doesn't hit the same.

Re: Soapbox: Pokémon Legends: Arceus Raises The Question - How Much Do Janky Graphics Matter?

Matl

I feel the issue comes down more to the art style and direction a lot of the time graphics is brought up. Like others have said, a game can be flawless graphically speaking but lack a disticnt style that makes them stand out. I have always been one who would prioritise a great art style over brilliant graphical fidelity, but if I could get both that would be great.

Pokemon just doesn't really have that much of a distinct art style. It does to the point where you can go "oh its pokemon", but its hardly anything super distictive in comparison to literally every other series nintendo puts out. And obviously, the open world nature of arceus means that the grahical side is gonna flounder, even more so considering its a pokemon company game. Add that to the rather lacking art style and here we are: a game that just looks bland and as such cannot uphold the game's poor graphical fidelity.

I have always been one who has said that nintendo games with great lighting systems will look better than any super fancy graphically intensive game, just because the art style is there. THATS what pulls people more than "oh wow 8K 120fps i can see everyones pores". Or at least, it should be the more prominent pulling factor.

Re: Poll: Kirby And The Forgotten Land Looks Mighty Impressive - How Hyped Are You?

Matl

It looks so good, finally getting that step into 3D. Likely gonna be a very quick purchase for me, might not be day one but I intend to get it ASAP. Just looks like pure fun and thats all I need. Hopefully this is the start to a great lineup of 2022 releases after the drought of the last couple of years (mainly my taste in what was released more than anything), its great to be excited for game releases again.