MegaWatts

Gaijinhunter — what a gent! Looking forward to giving this a watch through later. In one way it's a shame that X isn't confirmed to release in the West any time soon, but with that said, 4U is just such a huge game that I can wait for now!

Thanks for the in-depth write-up, @MitchVogel! A great read, and it definitely makes me want to dive into this new chapter!

I'd love to get this, but the one thing missing for me is multiplayer support! Online would probably be too much of an ask given that it wasn't in the original, but local play would have been really nice.

While I understand that for many SMG was more magical due to it coming out first, SMG2 is the superior game. It built upon the first with better level design and every level (up until around 60 stars) really did feel like it offered something different. It also had a much better difficulty curve.

@JaxonH I'm pretty sure you come across a standard Fatalis in the single-player missions, don't you? It's like a Caravan 10 Advanced/urgent quest or something.

That GX Tempest armour looks freaking sweet! And the skills it has are very much suited to my beloved Switch Axe...

I don't understand where the concept came from that Japanese players are better than everyone else. It's nonsense that's based on anecdotal evidence. A regional playlist would be nice to omit any lag issues, but truth be told, I've not noticed enough connection issues (I think the first Splatfest was the only time it was really bad) for me to get up on my soapbox and demand we segregate the player base.

Also — and based entirely on my own experience with the game — the reason many people are getting trounced at the game is because they quite simply do not understand how to play the game. They get the basic concept, but fail to understand that teamwork and coordination are key. For example, the amount of clueless morons who follow you down a path you're already inking/going down at the start or those who play Tower Control/Rainmaker and suddenly stop bothering to coat as much turf as possible (kinda key when you need it help you move quickly and also to hold up the other team).

Someone will probably say it's something that could be alleviated with the inclusion of team chat, but I imagine if someone's barking at you down a mic to do something, you're not going to be inclined to listen. Sadly, it's just how it is. You're better off just forming a squad with friends and creating strategies for each map/mode.

"The C buttons (like most shooting titles on the N64) controlled Saki's aiming, while the analogue stick controlled his back and forth movement across the screen."

This might be my memory failing me, but I recall using the stick to aim on the N64 version. The left and right C-buttons were used to strafe (I think) which is why this version is so awkward. I'll just have to play it later now because my mind is boggled!

@R_Champ It's just insane how with a medium-range gun I constantly find myself having to retreat from rollers who just spam the jump flick. Either it should fire a lot less ink or the player's movement/ability to use it should be reduced drastically.

And like you say, combine it with the Kraken and you're just unstoppable. One loadout even has the Carbon Roller with burst bombs and the Inkzooka — it may look like a well-rounded set but good luck countering that with anything other than a sniper or the same set!

Now if only they could fix the ridiculously broken flick attack on the rollers.

@TomKnows And yet a squad option would alleviate those woes. Even if it meant squads only played vs other squads in Splatfests.

Would love it if we could get squad battle in Splatfest!

@JaxonH you're still the greatest hunter around. Great advice! If you fancy teaming up for some G-Rank stuff soon then just let me know.

A good move on Capcom's part, although they need to look at improving the in-game tutorials when it comes to future iterations. MH4U's tutorials just throw an immense amount of text at you, all of which is very hard to absorb. Some more interactive tutorials would be better for new players.

Otherwise, it really is a game that you can only learn by really investing time into it. You have to fight monsters multiple times to learn what their telltale signs are and how they move. I find this makes it a superbly deep game to enjoy, but again, newcomers may struggle to get it.

Best bet is to learn by playing with others, especially if they know what they're doing. They can guide you on things like armour, charms, skills, weapons and monsters and you'll accomplish more as a team. It sounds perhaps a tad arduous for a mere video game, but once you get into it, it's just so fun and addictive. I've played 310 hours so far and I could honestly play for the same amount of time again.

@Mr_Zurkon I was thinking exactly the same thing. They need to make a damn good game and hire a damn good copywriter to convert people like that. The amount of people who play free-to-play mobile games and never pay a penny is high — what makes Nintendo/DeNA think that people will part with even more money elsewhere?

@Darknyht I agree that Rare benefited from having Nintendo in a mentoring position of sorts, but think that it was more of a two-way thing. If my memory serves me correctly, I'm pretty sure Shigsy instructed the dev team behind Ocarina of Time to drastically improve the visuals after seeing Banjo-Kazooie the first time. Not to mention that Conker's Bad Fur Day blows all of Nintendo's other efforts out of the water on a technical level.

Now if only Nintendo could yank Ganbare Goemon from their cold and heartless hands.

Runbow and Extreme Exorcism have been very popular in our house. Both are just absolute chaos in terms of gameplay! Looking forward to hopefully trying the nine-player mode out at least once in Runbow - even with just four it's hilarious.

Both 8GB and 32GB are insufficient if you want to download the larger games. I went with the 8GB and got a 2TB hard drive and it was a far better solution than getting the premium bundle. The only thing I missed out on was the digital promotion, although I probably saved more money in the first instance than I would have made through it anyway.

I enjoyed the demo of this. It's a novel idea, and would certainly work best as a eShop title.

I still feel ashamed for letting @ThomasBW84 down when it came to those quests

@Captain_Gonru Not a problem at all — I was absolutely kicking myself when I read the comment as it was a silly mistake to make!

@Captain_Gonru Thanks for pointing out the error — I have now fixed it! I assure you I do know the difference, but my brain was struggling due to a severe lack of caffeine the other morning!

Nice to see MH4U doing decent numbers. It's a cracking title, and just based on the first 25 hours or so I'm willing to say it easily sits in my Top 10 games ever. More people should experience it! Of course, Capcom could certainly do a better job of making it more user-friendly to newer players!

@Hy8ogen Bah, no time for those less important activities! I have monsters to hunt, man!

(In all seriousness though, I will stop to poop so as to not put my friend off playing with me).

Superb review, Tom - you've got me even more hyped for it now! Roll on Friday (so that the Gore Magala's head may roll off its neck!).

@Jumpman Does that tear happen to be a moon's tear, per chance?

@DarkKirby I can't give specifics as don't want to spoil it for people. I wouldn't say they're easier though - just different (and perhaps more difficult in some instances). They are now better than they were!

@ricklongo I think the company culture certainly needs to shift, but like you I worry that that could jeopardise the quality and creativity of Nintendo's output. The issue isn't so much the games with Nintendo though, and not even so much the hardware (though it needs to decide once and for all whether it's getting third-parties on board or just going it alone). It's more the company's lack of awareness when it comes to current trends and speedily implementing strategies relevant to them. For example, it wasn't until 2012 that Nintendo UK had an official Twitter feed (I recall the first being set up specifically for Kid Icarus, with much hesitation), and as a result its brand was virtually invisible in the social media realm. Not to mention that Nintendo's marketing has been catastrophically poor for Wii U (let's show off our "revolutionary" new system with a generic gameplay trailer). The products aren't the problem, it's just how Nintendo goes about advertising them and providing services for them in my opinion.

The Bomber's Notebook was useful, but it certainly had a tendency to be a bit too cryptic at times. I think so long as it now doesn't outright tell you what to do, but perhaps gives a slightly clearer hint then it'll work well. This is Nintendo after all, they'll get it right.

This looks absolutely fantastic!

@Damo You're not alone Harumph!

Only two players sounds a tad limited, but if it had been designed with that specifically in mind then it could have been a good alternative to GoldenEye/PD when you had only one other person to play with. Not that the latter games weren't great with two people of course...

@ClawClawBite now that would have been an amazing set of gifts to wake up to! Merry Xmas!

@Shiryu ah, good stuff! Have you played thr first one btw? If so, how do you rate it?

Reminds me that I really need to get back into this game.

@Sherman haha, you know me too well! Am glad you share a similar view of it!

A flawed masterpiece of a system. Did so much for console gaming — and gaming in general — even if it did miss the mark in quite a few key ways. The quality of the library is, in my opinion, remains one of, if not the very best to ever grace a system. And as much as it lacked on the third-party front, there were some real gems in there such as Rocket: Robot on Wheels and Body Harvest.

I'm personally quite surprised by this review! I thought Rage Wars was actually a pretty decent spin-off! While it certainly doesn't match GoldenEye 007 or Perfect Dark's sheer quality, it was certainly a decent alternative.

Enjoyed many a game in my youth where one friend would incessantly run around with nothing but the war hammer, looking to exact a weighty justice!

@AlexOlney Let us hope it stays that way!

@YoshiTails I really like your review! Superbly written!

@eltomo I think you may be surprised to learn that you actually have the right game — http://youtu.be/F-6arYwxCZg

To avoid any potential confusion: Mystical Ninja 2 Starring Goemon was called Goemon's Great Adventure in North America.

@cookiex Bahahaha! Amazing!

Got myself the Mario theme — really looks sweet with the red XL! Love the design of the folders too!

@dizzy_boy But there's only one stick on the N64 controller...

I get what you mean though! Space Harrier is a great example of a shmup gameplay setup done right.

@dizzy_boy Did you play the N64 version or the Wii VC one using the GC pad? Because it really is designed for the latter (I hated the controls on Wii myself!)

@GrunkFace The graphics are dated but the game is very playable with the N64 controller; most people say it's bad because they're so used to twin sticks nowadays. However, your point about incredibly linear missions is the one I disagree with the most; many of the stages were fairly open environments you had to explore to find the objectives (and work out how to do them). Incredibly linear belongs to something like Call of Duty, which is an A to B experience at best. GoldenEye 007 was more like A to B via C, D and E — especially at higher difficulty levels.

@triforcepower73 The soundtrack is awesome! Lots of variety, the remixes are well done and being able to use the system as a portable music player has certainly come in very handy when writing!

The quality sounds a lot better than what you may have heard in YouTube videos, too. If you want the ultimate experience though, use headphones!

@BLPs but what if you forget before tomorrow!?