NINTELDRITCH

I'm glad this game is being reappraised at least a bit. I'm very excited to play it on Switch 2, it seems like such a love letter to Star Wars! And Hondo, too! HONDO!

The NA/UK one looks like the advertisers didn't know how to make the game look exciting or advertise what it was at all so just said, "squares." The other European one is sort of terrifying to me somehow. Japan at least tries to emphasise the conceit of the game and remain at least in a vaguely similar shape to what the game is.

Sort of sad. I don't like live-service games in general, but this seemed like a fairly decent one with some effort. Games like this, at least, should be preserved.

"Folks, I've figured it out! Money will sell!"
But honestly a more interesting prediction than expected. What is the correlation between his idea of the increase in production and the actual sales, I wonder, beyond just being more available? But here's to the success of the system and Nintendo either way!

What a scummy thing to do. If you're a scam company who's going to rip something off, at least do it to one of the larger publishers and not a small indie dev who was probably going to make about as much money than you or less anyway.

Shovelware can be funny. A blatant, complete rip of someone's hard work with AI-generated assets and literally less work put in than THE LAST HOPE: DEAD ZONE SURVIVAL can and is not. Shame on them.

Jim, you claim to be a Prequel fan but call The Phantom Menace's trade agreements "dull?" Jim, is that... Legal?

@nhSnork It's not just a mockup - They've actually added a new tab on the site. It's sort of a nice NL addition with their touch, I think!

Contrary to the opinions some toxic commenters voiced a few weeks ago, we love Alex! His videos, points, and humor are always wonderful! He is much more a lovely person than all of us!

Nintendo Life has been my go-to site for video game stuff for a very long time because of their consistently higher level of writing and journalism than pretty much every other gaming outlet and the personality and enjoyment in the writing of every different writer (and videographer, of course!). You can tell that the writers her are people, not the scrawl of AI-sounding filler you find on many other gaming outlets that overwork their staff and encourage them to make quick clickbait.
You can tell, here, that everyone enjoys what they do and wants to make it to a level that does service to a thing that they enjoy. Your features are always some of the best, constantly enjoyable and interesting. Thank you for having that passion and attention-to-detail, thank you for all the fun and enjoyment over the last year and all the time previously, and I hope you all have a wonderful year of 2025!
My gaming resolution this year is to actually game, more. I sort of lost myself this year in my anxiety, and I need to experience things again. Cheers, everyone!

"It needs to meet or even exceed expectations"
Well, right now the expectations are essentially "another 7/10 'step in the right direction for the series if they continue like this.'" It seems difficult for SEGA to make a game that is truly "great" at this point. I hope dearly that they are able to exceed those expectations, because Sonic is a genuinely great concept that is repeatedly, repeatedly let down by poor or rocky execution.

Oh, I see you, Jim. With the Star Wars reference in the beginning, after talking about Star Wars in your author profile. Very sneaky.

Unrelated, but Star Wars Outlaws being right next to Black Myth Wukong is making me happy.

Alas! The subtitle disappoints! I expected better from you, Ollie. This is a calamity like no other, and one that will never be forgiven.

February. Direct, right?

I truly cannot wait to see Ollie's subtitle for Alex's video, these are hilarious.

Also, just to say - The insane hate that Felix is getting from this comment section is disgusting to me. He seems like such a nice guy, and the fact that people are just hating on him constantly or calling him "cringe" on the actual site forums like it's nothing seems very degrading and has to be hard to deal with. Felix is a person, you guys. He may read this.

Recently beat Metroid Fusion for the first time on NSO. The structure could have been better and I maintain fervently that Zero Mission is still better, but it was pretty good!
But now I have nothing to work on. I'm going slowly through Ultimate NES Remix for 3DS, but that always wears off quickly. I'm attempting to get through NES Metroid with a hand-drawn map, but I have to be in just the right mood for that.
I may, for now, just stick with my yearly playthrough of Super Mario Galaxy, my favorite game that always, embarrassingly, makes me at least tear up. I also recently started playing Metroid Prime 2: Echoes in a vague attempt to get prepared for MP4 as well as Zelda: Wind Waker for GCN, so I may dip into those slightly. But right now I'm trying more to write and edit videos about games than play them! I haven't had much time to write the last few weeks and so this is my chance.

Ollie's subtitle puns are always on point.

@AlanaHagues Just a quick thing that I think may be a typo: The article states that Eliss released in the year 200, which I feel is relatively unlikely since most historical accounts (that I've seen) point to televisions being released at least a little bit after the fall of the Romans.

Honestly? Princess Peach: Showtime!. Sure, it was easy, but that wasn't the point. It was delightful, it was dramatic, the dialogue was surprisingly well-written, the pacing of each level was beautiful, it was constantly exciting and new... The only slight disappointment was the final boss and a villain who could have had an interesting reveal (she had a mask! It was emphasised she had a mask! What if it was Bowser Jr. or something!) but those are basically givens for Nintendo games in this era.

Echoes of Wisdom was fantastic, it just had too much of that modern Nintendo writing (unemotional and objective speech that makes it feel like characters are just there to give you quests) to really work for a story-based RPG. Also one of my big problems with TOTK as opposed to BOTW: BOTW's dialogue felt like characters, TOTK's felt like quest-givers or information-spouters.

Listen, shovelware? That's fine - It can be silly (for the educated people, if not the poor, unsuspecting parents trying to buy a game for their kids). It's basically inevitable.
But AI? Blatant plagiarism? It's not acceptable in environment that, while still fairly new and not respected by some of the public, is a literal art form. If this keeps up we could have another Video Game Crash, because people just won't know what's good or, worse, what's even real as a game. I suppose the bright side of that is that with the rise of digital games most of the shovelware is generally relegated to the eShop, so it won't affect most peoples' opinions buying the system for the first time as physical games are the first and main thing they see.
Nonetheless, this kind of behavior is disgusting and unfortunate. And honestly, it's just such a Nintendo thing to do to not moderate their own shop at all and allow obvious plagiarism for their own products. Fantastically ironic!

That letter he sent to the company sounds so arrogant and narcissistic. Nintendo can be excessive with their emulation attitude, but this guy seems to for sure deserve it. What a loser.

Nintendo? Learning? From mistakes? I'm so proud!

"All of that said, the theory is still just that: a theory."
I'm having to keep myself from saying it.
Sorry, everyone...

They saw what Square Enix did with their YouTube channel, and thought "Hey, people liked that. We should do that but slightly more convoluted!" And just quickly developed an app.

Legitimately though, this is very exciting.

I like the font on the EU version. So wonderfully overdramatic for the conceit of the game.

@Solomon_Rambling Yeah, that's always quite annoying. They shouldn't count eShop collections as "new" games, it ruins the flow of everything they're doing!

Well, it seems Gavin probably hates me now. I'll take it as an achievement?

"Let's-a gOrlando"
Classic NL pun. Never change, Nintendo Life. Never change.

The crafting table is honestly the only good-looking part of the movie. They did a nice job! ...With that. And nothing else.

Filing a lawsuit randomly 9 months after the game came out is such a Nintendo thing to do

"Please wrap it up"
Is that a cheeky little Geofference I see?

@AlanaHagues I think a part of a sentence may have been accidentally left out: It says, "Both suggestions are very vague, so don't take either of these with any" and then just stops.

@Olliemar28 "Bondfide classic"

"It's Silksong you guys"

And they actually have a good price/piece ratio! I can't believe it!

@CaptainRPG And that Sonic set.

@KateGray Wow! How did I not know this? Thank you for responding, anyway!

I like them, but... The price...
Let's hope Nintendo doesn't sue them for copyright infringement, at least.

@KateGray Why does it say you're a "Former Staff Writer?" Did you leave/step down?

I really love the term "Analogue Stickler." Clever!

Wow! I can't believe SEGA finally hired developers who know how to design a video game that more than 50% of the public likes! This is legitimately unprecedented!

"Dive Chaps." WHY is no-one talking about this joke?

As soon as it's out Nintendo will issue a Cease-and-Desist and send their assassins to obliterate every sent copy

The one time everyone is in support of Nintendo's IP protectiveness

Hey, isn't this the guy who did Rebel Moon?

@JimNorman What a genius title for a review. The pun that's related to the IP but also tells you its amount of quality with a spirited comparison? Impressive.

@JimNorman Hey Jim! I don't know if this was intentional, but at the beginning of the article you just copy-pasted the title with no period and an enter after it.

For once they're actually both great! Went with NA/EU because I like Kirby's expression and it's a bit more pinball-related.

They did this but didn't let us save our ghost data in Mario Kart 64?

But what if I accidentally drop my Wii U in the Pacific Ocean while in Japan? What happens now, Nintendo?