MatthewTaranto

I've been quietly defending this game since it was shown, as I think the concept is really neat and arcadey. I can see the two-mouse control scheme being something completely unique and working nicely, and I feel a little validated by this article!

That said, everyone's right about the visuals. You always hear "graphics aren't everything" but I think people put way, way more stock in them than they'd like to admit. Even serviceable (performance-wise) visuals like this don't mean much if the style is enough to make the game a pass for many.

They've got a great proof-of-concept here. What they should do is delay it to really make it pop. Make the characters unique, give it a jolt of color--it's a bit cheap but if they threw in a couple "waifus" you know that'd be a shortcut to instant fans.

In a broader sense, build up the world and modes a little more. How about a racing mode? Exploration? Basketball on its own isn't the most exciting prospect. And from a gameplay perspective, tone down the collisions, as that Treehouse Live segment looked a little too stop-and-go to feel like the next Splatoon.

Overall I think this game really has potential, it just needs more time in the oven.

Some parts look better (the zippier animations), others worse (the contrast and atmosphere), and some are kind of a wash, like fuzzy Laylee.

I dunno. I kind of wish they just put this manpower into a sequel. This game feels too young for a remake honestly and I thought it was pretty good already, warts and all.

Neat article.

Happy birthday, FF3! Still the king of RPGs.

I first played it last year and didn't like it. I disagree with the "still a good action game" comments as I found its combat to be clunky and unsatisfying. Some story elements were okay and I did like the idea of bringing together various characters from the series (such as Leon, Sherry, and Chris) for one big story, but the gameplay and design just frustrated me.

I'd say RE5 fits the "decent action game despite its problems" descriptor much more accurately.

Dragon Quest is the king of RPGs. The altered stuff isn't my favorite but it's kind of a side-effect of the CERO (Japanese ESRB) ratings and as such has been going on for a few years in the series.

The same thing happened with Smash Bros and some of its character designs since they wanted to go for the lowest CERO rating possible to maximize sales. Kind of lame but not a dealbreaker for me. Because I cannot resist this legendary series.

@Porky
Oh, I didn't even put two and two together with Sellma! Okay fair enough, that's a Simpsons reference.

I'll be honest though, I generally really love DQ's localization. While I do agree that it sometimes goes too far with punny names to the point of being distracting (DQXI's Gloomnivore comes to mind for me), I find its writing on a micro level to be really engaging, fun, touching when necessary and full of personality. So I'm okay with the odd pop culture reference here or there if the name still works otherwise--and in this case, there's a double-meaning with Patty/Party and Sellma/Sell. I feel similarly about A Link Between Worlds' Hilda and Zelda Sabrina reference. A little out-of-nowhere but I think it's okay.

Plus, who's to say that Ruida and Roxanne weren't themselves Japanese pop culture references in their own right? This is a series with puff-puffs and farting ferrets, after all. Yuji Horii certainly has a sense of humor about his work so the puns and homages might just be part of the series.

@Porky
I don't think it's referencing Marge's sister, as nothing else seems to indicate that and Patty is a pretty standard (if not super common) name.

I figured she was called that due to how it sounds like "Party," since you always choose/make your party in games where you can talk to her.

Good review for a good game. It's a creative title with a lot of energy and fresh ideas, although I do find its speedrunning elements at odd with the treasure-hunting ones. When going for good ranks, am I supposed to comb the levels for all the bonus areas etc each time? If so, that means I basically have a single attempt at getting out fast enough with no way to restart. So I'm not quite sure what I should be going for when trying to get the best ranks.

@NeonMullet

Shake It is my favorite Wario game and one I happily 100%ed back on the Wii.

I've put a few hours into Pizza Tower and while it certainly has some Wario-style treasure-hunting and exploration, there's a much bigger focus on movement and technique than with Wario. I think the developer would do well to release a demo because the game makes quite an impression, even if I probably will end up preferring Shake It overall.

I love Tengo Project and will buy ALL THEIR SWITCH GAMES. This'll look great next to Ninja Saviors, Wild Guns, and Pocky & Rocky.

I'm digging this trend of demos essentially being the first couple hours of a game that transfer over to the final version.

@Uncle_Franklin
That oughtta hold the little SOBs.

The video is charming, the music sounds nice and I'm definitely getting the game because AA is great. But I'm also not a fan of this kind of preorder bonus. I'd prefer they just keep everything on the cart and have it be an in-game unlockable or something.

@GarlicGuzzler

A villain drops the S-bomb at the climax of The Missing Heir, which is pretty unusual for a Nintendo-developed game, but not as unusual as the grisly discoveries you come across in the two titles. I'll keep it low-spoiler but you'll find multiple dead bodies across both games, and while they don't quite cross into full-on horror, they're a level grislier than what you see in, say, Ace Attorney.

@NinChocolate NCL

I play RE4 every couple of years and it's exemplary every time! I still prefer it to its remake (which is also great).

I've only played through Tales of Symphonia once (in 2004) and loved it, but I couldn't get into Tales of Vesperia. Now I'm concerned about going back to Symphonia.

I miss the real E3.

I like the feudal Japan theming/setting, but the characters look a little over-designed to me. I prefer simple and iconic looks to characters. These two look like they'd take two hours to get dressed in the morning.

I'm less worried about DQXII and more worried about DQXIII. DQXII will be the last game in the series that Sugiyama and Toriyama both worked on, and Horii seems determined to make it great. It feels like the end of an era.

I'm not too concerned about the "darker" comments yet; I feel like that could mean anything and I'd want to see some footage before I make any judgments.

@Lizuka I don't really agree. Mario's plot is way thinner than Zelda's and the story of the movie was fine (even if it may have had other issues).

There've been plenty of great fantasy films with basic plots. Castle in the Sky (which apparently is a big inspiration for Zelda) would be a big one; it's a terrific movie with a straightforward, Spielbergian adventure story that's no deeper than your average Zelda. A Zelda movie could get by the same way the best Ghiblis do--with a well-realized and engaging fantasy world that supplements the comfortable good-vs-evil plot.

A Zelda movie doesn't have to be--and SHOULDN'T be--Lord of the Rings. Complexity is not necessary for every fantasy tale.

A little sad knowing he got rid of all those cases, but understandable considering just how many games he owns and the limited space he has. Still, it's quite a collection and I like how clean his cable organization is with his consoles.

This team does great work, based off great games. I'll have to add this one to my collection sometime.

Some really fantastic games here. Zelda and Tetris are no-brainers, Donkey Kong is in the running for best game in the series, and Mole Mania is a super-polished sleeper hit that should've become a series. I'm also partial to the Mario/Wario platformers.

Hail to the king, baby! Or the three kings, in this case.

I think the opera scene is worth the hype partly for the reasons covered in this article. For me it really plays to all of the game's strengths: amazing music, excellent characters, memorable screwball comedy that you could only pull off in an older sprite-based game, and deeper themes that get rich payoffs later.

The comedy and depth are two I want to divulge on further. The former is often forgotten but it's a really goofy and funny part of the game. Besides Celes's song, the rest of it is bonkers and memorable (getting dumped on stage and hopping on the orchestra's collective heads to get back, Ultros's Looney Tunes plan, the barking switch, Locke's overacting, etc). It's the kind of slapstick that really wouldn't work in a more realistic FF7 Remake style.

But the sequence also sets up a later, much bleaker scene involving Celes (which invokes the same music and a similar viewpoint and a sort of dark parallel to the bouquet toss), a second act payoff that lands like an emotional punch to the gut.

I haven't gotten to the opera in FF6 PR but I replayed FF3 on the SNES Classic recently and loved it as much as I always have. Very very amazing game.

Does Donkey Kong ('94) count? You could really make the argument either way. It does indeed have a full remake of the game, but the original is so short that it's just the tutorial world of the "remake"/sequel and constitutes maybe 1/25th of the whole game's content.

Whatever you call it, I think DK on the GB is better than any other Nintendo remake. A terrific game!

@gcunit I agree about not needing to remake every great game, but to be fair, in my eyes Squenix already made two modern-day classics this gen in Dragon Quest XI and Octopath 2.

Granted, I wouldn't say they're better RPGs than FFVI, but what is?

It looks really nice and I love the team's prior releases. Plus this got me to finally check the original game out on NSO and it's great. So I may have to get this remake.

You gotta have the detective trope where they crouch and look through the magnifying glass and creep around looking through the magnifying glass. That's what detectives do, there's just muddy footprints, muddy footprints all over the place so you put on the goofy hat and put your eyeball up to the magnifying glass and just crouch all over, gotta do it. Eyeballs and footprints and brown trench coats and magnifying glasses.

You really just gotta sneak around and look really closely through the magnifying glass at all the muddy footprints, you gotta do it. Big eyeball close-up through the glass. It's gotta be done, just do it, look through the glass at all the clues, gather them up. Big eyeball looking at footprints, looking at you.

IMO Spirit of Justice > Dual Destinies > Apollo Justice. Although Nahyuta is awful, the rest of AA6 is pretty awesome.

My favorite standalone case in this whole trilogy might be the DLC one from Dual Destinies, with the orca. Don't pass it by!

The only AAA Squenix game I really liked this gen was DQXI. But I loved several of their slightly-smaller games like DQ Builders 2 and both Octopaths. I'm hoping this announcement doesn't mean we're only getting the hyper-realistic Final Fantasy games (which pretty much are no longer RPGs) and not the more creative smaller titles.

I agree with some of the criticisms of this review--GS has too much fluff in its dialogue, weird Yes/No responses to rhetorical questions and I just...don't really like Motoi Sakuraba's compositions across the board, to be frank.

The game's art is nice and the interactive puzzles are pretty cool.

I'm really out of step with the community on Ganondorf. Here's how I'd rank them:

5) Tears of the Kingdom: he looks pretty cool but I found him extremely forgettable, except when he was all dried up at the beginning.
4) Twilight Princess: kind of cool and fitting design but a pretty dull character.
3) Ocarina: I actually don't like his design much. He looks like a sniveling side villain that plays second fiddle to the Big Bad. But I do like his role in the story.
2) Hyrule Warriors: this guy is just plain fun. He's over the top and looks and feels great. I like this larger than life take on the character.
1) Wind Waker: takes the top place in both design and characterization if you ask me. I like the deeper side to Ganondorf and his warlock look really stands out.

All that said, I prefer pig/beast Ganon honestly.

Octopath II is my Game of the Year. It's a great, classic-style JRPG that does everything well if you're okay with the more episodic structure of its storytelling. I voted for the well-rounded Partitio as my favorite character, but the stand-out story moment for me was Castti's Chapter 3, which contains an emotional gut-punch that's delivered perfectly.

The only thing I disagree with in this nifty article is the idea that Octopath II is a big step up from the original. I thought the original was also fantastic, and while the second game makes some nice little improvements, I'm also not seeing these night-and-day comparisons. Both games have solid writing, storytelling, visuals, and gameplay.

And yeah, the music is phenomenal. As a lifelong video game OST fan (and game composer myself), Octopath II's soundtrack has gotta be in my top five of all time. It's a complete joke that it wasn't nominated in The Game Awards. I imported the 6-CD (!!) soundtrack earlier this year and it's practically on constant repeat in my car. It's an exemplary set of music.

@Lizuka Gonna have to agree with pretty much all of this. HM64 is one of my favorite N64 games and still my favorite farm sim. It was a big step up from the SNES game (which was already groundbreaking) and the additions to the series/genre at that point were pretty mind-blowing. Having a rucksack that let you carry 8 (technically 9) items and 8 tools was a huge step forward from the original game's 2 tools and 1 item. Between the gameplay improvements, new festivals, mini games, easter eggs and other features, it was a supersized sequel made with a lot of love.

It was also buggy and had translation issues, but I find those easy to overlook when considering the high points of HM64: a balanced economy with upgrades always around the corner, a variety of townspeople with their own ongoing stories and relationships, tools that get stronger as you use them, and the game skillfully doing a lot with a very small environment.

I also just can't seem to get into Stardew Valley. It feels like a game made for a mouse and keyboard and the interface didn't carry over to the Switch at all.

Isn't the girl twin's name Vela, not Luna?

I replayed this last year on the N64 and it was good fun, warts and all. The soundtrack is fantastic and what I was hoping StarFox 64 would sound like, to be frank! I do appreciate the challenge level; while the Tribal collection can be brutal, it's mitigated somewhat by the ability to change "zones" and reset the numbers. Some zones are pretty huge though, admittedly.

@AstroTheGamosian That's me! Thanks for the nice comment. I have been making (bimonthly) comics for NF Magazine in the meantime, so there've been a few Smash-themed ones there featuring Rosalina, Bayonetta and a few others.

My favorite character is Hero and the Dragon Quest themed trailer was long overdue, but in terms of the reveal itself I may have to give it to Banjo-Kazooie. The B-K trailer built upon the already-excellent K. Rool trailer and made it even crazier and more fun.

I'm sure I'd enjoy WarioWare, but for me this series is kind of a one-a-generation thing. Since I already have Get it Together, that's plenty microgame craziness for me for a while.

I would've rushed out to buy a new Rhythm Heaven day 1 though.

This is one of the more fascinating videos Sakurai put up. I definitely think Athena's main melody is on the "melody B" line, but when I heard the NES version, it sounded like the "melody A" part was much more pronounced and louder in that one, so I can see where the confusion stems from. But from a compositional standpoint, "melody B" has more characteristics of the main melody of a song, while "melody A" sounds more like a counter-melody.

Fi-yah
Fi-yah
Psy-cho sol-dierrrrrr!

(It sort of bothers me how hard the singer hits the R in that line but it is accurate to the original which supports Sakurai's whole point, so...)

Rayman Legends is spectacular and my all-time favorite Ubisoft game. I'd put the new DKCs above it, but otherwise, no modern platformer comes close.

Heck, while I'm excited about SMB Wonder, I can't help but ~wonder~ what it'd be like with a more hand-drawn, less tile-based look like Rayman and Tropical Freeze...

It's kind of strange this is on the eShop instead of NSO.

It looks good and I like the premise a lot (although "Game Boy Color platformer" is a rather niche category; I'm not sure which games it's meant to bring to mind). I'm hoping that the action isn't too zoomed-in for how fast it looks (that always bugged me with Sonic) but I'll keep my eye on it.

This article made me realize I did this part entirely "wrong," by flying via device straight to the "mouth" of the isles, skipping out on a lot of content. Whoops! So it goes in TotK.

@FishyS Gawrsh.

I was skeptical about Oatchi as well but I think (from the demo at least) he functions surprisingly well with the Pikmin gameplay in kind of consolidating your group.

Nice review, although as someone who found the Pik4 demo fun but way too easy, I'm a little put off by the apparent lack of challenge. Hopefully there's a hard mode built-in. I'm very excited about Dandori Battles though--I loved Bingo Battles and Mission Modes of the prior games (maybe even as much as the story mode). And thank GOODNESS you can go at them solo; AI Bots are totally underrated in this day and age. Can you adjust the difficulty of solo Dandori?

@Uncle_Franklin
Whenever Poochie's not on screen, all the other characters should be asking, "Where's Poochie?"

This looks pretty cool and I think some of the roguelike elements--while not exactly true to the retro era it hails from--will help set it apart from some of the other (excellent) bmups on the Switch. The visual style isn't my favorite but I can live with it, and I like the approach of making Marian a weapons expert.

Also playable Abobo.

It's a creative and interesting game. Compared to the best Ace Attorney games though, the story of Ghost Trick gets a little too crazy, particularly in the last third. It'd be more of an 8/10 for me.

The animations and colors are nice and good to see. And I appreciate the concept of the game is all about surprising the player, which is great.

On the flip side, it feels like it's only halfway there visually. I think the general lighting and style are still too plastic-generic. And the tile-based environments still look pretty flat and non-dynamic compared to things like DKC:Tropical Freeze and Rayman Legends, which had much more organic-looking areas.

@aditiya_ss Nintendo and their P hole flowers.

I assumed this was a prequel of sorts to DQ4 since Psaro looks younger and more simplified than his NES self.