NotTelevision

@Cashews Yeah it’s not that a needle drop couldn’t work for this film, but every one felt super out of place and cringy. But it’s Illumination so I suppose that’s one of their trademarks.

At least there wasn’t a scene of goombas twerking to Cardi B or Luigi doing the Mambo No. 5 😝

@Cashews Yeah I liked him in the Lego movie, but he didn’t really work for in this one.

He was fine but I’m not sure why they chose him, above all other actors/voice actors , to be the character. I thought Mario and Donkey Kong were both too distant from their in-game counterparts and it was distracting. The rest of the casts was alright though, with Jack Black really rising to the occasion and giving a great performance as Bowser.

The actual worst part of the movie was that putting in that cliche licensed music instead of that wonderfully arranged music on the film soundtrack. There needs to be a cut of the film with those 80s songs edited out.

@Dr_Corndog The general public hasn’t watched as many movies, from as many diverse genres as most critics. These are also people who have studied film history, theory, and have read books on film criticism. I would agree this sets them apart from the average moviegoer.

At the same time critics gave crowd pleasing entertainment favorable reviews like the Marvel products and those Paddington movies. So they aren’t contrarians for the sake of it.

Overall they are valuable contributors to the discussion surrounding films, but ultimately the audience decides the fate of movies mostly within the cultural consciousness. Cult classics like Willy Wonka and Rocky Horror are good examples of films that reviewed lukewarm at the time but have built an audience through word of mouth.

History has proved that audiences don’t show up to films worthy of attention as well, so critics probably are most valuable when they raise awareness of these films.

Ohh bummer. I thought this looked promising. If this one goes on sale I might give it a shot.

@Cashews Hey I like Mario Kart: Home Circuit. Didn’t buy it myself, but tried it out at a friends. And yes his cat naturally knocked me off course 😝

We are in a period of relative stagnation in game development and this list is a good indicator as to why this is the case. It’s all remakes and established franchises with relatively little novelty or innovation. Hogwarts is fun for a while but until it ultimately becomes another open world grindfest. It seems like smaller studios are the only ones willing to take a chance on unique projects that aren’t a million hours long.

Even if the gameplay is similar to Breath of the Wild, I’m down for more abilities and flying around exploring the map. It will be interesting no matter how it measures up to the predecessor.

@rjejr It’s happening. Soon the roster is going to look like the 2021 Space Jam. Jar Jar Binks and Mary Poppins racing on Asgard all in the name of recurrent user engagement.

@Member_the_game lol good point. I guess Smash justified it by having the characters join together to fight a common cause but I already forgot what cause that is. I’ve played too many Squeenix games and just assume the power of friendship is always the answer.

Sure keeping your keyblade up may solve marital woes for a hot minute, but it ain’t going to pay the rent my landlord says.

It’s weird seeing Jasmine and the cast of Monsters Inc. racing together. There isn’t any continuity to this universe.

I really wanted to like Skyward Sword, but I just didn’t gel with that one. I might give it another shot, but the intro is so sluggish. You need to caffeinate yourself or your fall asleep wandering around that boring first dungeon.

Top five: 1. Breath of the Wild 2. Link’s Awakening 3. Link to the Past 4. Wind Waker 5. Ocarina

That’s interesting. This franchise was supposed to be really innovative for the time. Huge in Europe especially.

@GoldenSunRM Yep. It’s a shame updates on this one were so minimal. Super Rush got a whole new course.

@GoldenSunRM I agree. I almost didn’t finish this one because bombing every wall to figure out the critical path was such a needless pain. I actually think this is a rather poorly executed Metroid because the frequent b.s. adds up to a rather unfun experience half the time.

@John_Deacon Mechanically speaking the game is actually quite intricate though. I would’ve liked more of a single-player mode, but the thing runs and looks beautifully on the Switch and it was fine-tuned and play tested to death. Like the best Mario sports games, each match is a rollercoaster of emotions and teams can come back from 4 to 5 point deficits if they use what is available.

I played this one for over 30 hours beating the cups and competing online. Lack of features and modes is an issue, but the actual feel of the game and how it plays (once getting past the initial learning curve) is fantastic. For me this is one of the best arcade sports titles ever made. If it had a richer campaign it would without a question be the best.

It might be fun, but the joycons not registering hits would annoy quick. It would also be cool to see some exploding heads, given it’s Fist of the North Star.

I just finished this for the first time last week ironically. It’s alright but it’s not nearly as good as Super Metroid which is still the gold standard in the 2D series. The bosses were a bit bullet spongy and frustrating waiting for them to finish their song and dance before the narrow 1 second window for a perfectly placed missile strike (always in the same place) the head. The water serpent especially might be the worst boss in the series because there is no clear pattern and I was forced to stand in one place firing shots wildly. I also hated having to bomb every damn wall just to get on the critical path through the various areas. I’d recommend just using the rewind and save state feature on the service and powering through the game/ bosses this way.

The SA-X stalking Samus is definitely the coolest distinguishing characteristic of Fusion

@The-Chosen-one Good call. 👏

Metacritic is useful for making decisions about the purchase product based upon what others have stated the pros and cons of said product to be. The problem is people have somehow interpreted this aggregated number to mean something about the intrinsic value of the property itself.

There are many 70s on Metacritic that are better than 80s for me personally because the game is doing something more interesting that caters to my particular tastes.

Based on what I’ve read so far about Octopath Traveller II, it seems like a good fit for fans of traditional JRPG tropes so dive in if you are into that type of thing. Don’t not buy it just because some outlets gave it slightly below an 8 which has become a far too common metric for greatness.

I’ll be home after a brief visit to Hong Kong. Going to finish Metroid Fusion before moving on to the Metroid Prime Remaster on Switch.

@dartmonkey That’s one of my favorite indie games. It requires a little more investment from the player than your average adventure game, but the threatening and unpredictable world they created is an amazing thing to experience.

Other than Zelda and Metroid Prime, there isn’t much left for Nintendo to do this gen. They’ve already cycled through the usual IP, so they maybe have something brewing with Capcom, Square, or some other 3rd party IP to fill out the 2023 schedule.

I have memories of playing it to death even though I knew it was mediocre at the time. When you are 10 you’ll try to get the most out of whatever crappy game you get for Christmas.

Not bad. Look forward to the sequel Parallelogram Panic: After the Age of Sine and Cosine Definitive Edition S.

Another one m.i.a. is that Kingdom Come:Deliverance port. It probably would’ve looked like garbage given the Switch’s GPU and RAM limitations but it would be nice to have handheld nonetheless.

I played the demo of this and didn’t find it very appealing. The graphics were way too fuzzy. Then there is the cliche amnesia and interdimensional demon plot that every Square game must include because… Japan? I wasn’t able to connect with this one unfortunately.

I wanted to buy this but I still haven’t bought the first one despite it being constantly on sale lol. Shame about the difficulty on this one. Strategy RPGs tend to be a bit boring if you’re not constantly on the razor’s edge of victory or defeat.

@SteamEngenius Well at least it seems to take place in the world of the games (Mushroom Kingdom). If the poster showed Mario in the suburbs then I’d be more pessimistic.

@BeautyandtheBeer Yeah good call not to support the hateful mob, but rather the slightly disgruntled group of… oh dang it bangs toe… umm.. let’s rephrase that. Slight perturbed collection of… uhhh… falls down flight of stairs. Annoyed justice seeking warriors…? Ohh no not that uhh… gets hit by oncoming truck.

No option to clean the restrooms gives this simulation that extra dose of realism.

@Zuljaras Enjoy it man. I beat it again a couple of years ago but want to go back soon.

I don’t think some of the commenters on this article know that there are different types of “sandbox” games. BOTW is an open-world sandbox, Stardew Valley is a simulation sandbox, Terraria is a crafting sandbox, Don’t Starve is a survival sandbox…

I tried Ogre Battle a while back via emulation on the laptop. I couldn’t really understand how it all worked but it seemed like a fairly ambitious title for the time. I’m sure this version will include a tutorial of some kind.

Too bad Crash didn’t make more of a dent considering the N. Sane trilogy did... insane in the UK. Was it because it was a PS exclusive or do more people just want to play old games?

A Spiro sequel of some ambition would be cool, but not sure Activision would think it’s profitable enough.

So it’s basically baby’s first Gears of War. Fair enough given the brand.

There are certain franchises that someone over 30 should never feel nostalgic enough to revisit. GI Joe, Captain Planet, and Power Rangers to name three.

.... Well that’s a hot take. I’m even tempted to say this man is wrong. But hey...

@Friendly If I can stop and get some Waffle House hashbrowns then I’m sold.

So what’s the game about again?

It seems like the crafty, survival indie boom was peaking 5-6 years ago. I’m already burnt out on these sorts of experiences.

As lame as the box art and title were, I think Fighter’s Destiny deserves a spot in the top 50. It was a pretty involved fighting game for the time.

Goldeneye is still a good laugh and the best James Bond licensed game ever made, but The World is Not Enough should make it to the top 50 as well.

But overall Star Fox 64, Wave Race, and Ocarina are crown jewels of the 64 are still some of the best in their genre.

I just can’t bring myself to support either party in this feud. Unless you are really invested in lining Tim Sweeney’s pockets further. Any year this would be a dumb cause to support, but in 2020? Both companies can go to that place below with the fire and horned creatures.

Really enjoyed my recent play throughout of the original DKC. Look forward to playing the 2nd. All things considered... it’s not a bad month for the service.

People claiming that the window has closed (Sept.) for Nintendo to add another system, I don’t necessarily agree with. Late 2020 or early 2021 are possible windows of opportunity, given how unpredictable the company has been. Also they might want to add another incentive for newcomers to the system (people who got the Switch as a holiday gift) to jump in the service.

Honestly I’m just hoping for a fun game. If it is a significant expansion of the story then that’s fine, but I just want to see characters that are cool do cool stuff.

If it ends up being more than that then it’s obviously a plus, but expectations are a bit too high for this to be the emotional whallop that Breath of the Wild wasn’t for many fans.

I’m a sucker for anything Zelda so I’m there Day 1, but not expecting this to be a huge expansion of the story. It’s a Koei Tecmo hack and slash spin-off.

@Snesionetty ? Just another commenter dropping buzzwords because a guy on the Internet said things they didn’t like.

I’m glad he’s gone... wait sorry. Hang in their champ. Just because you are stuck in a logical sandtrap, doesn’t mean you should stop blessing us with your commentary.

@Ralizah What do you think about A Hat in Time so far? I thought it was a super charming little homage.

Just got the Lordvessel from Anor Londo in Dark Souls. This is a great rock solid port on Switch. Much better than the first time I played though. Also much easier the second time around, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

Also some Taiko No Tetjusin is in store. Got the drum and everything a while back.

@electrolite77 @JimmySpades Yeah totally agree. It was a good presentation, full of interesting games.

I think I was drunk when I posted that message.

It was actually one of the best gaming presentations I saw this year. A lot to put on the wishlist and keep an eye on.

Previous rumors have to pan out before new ones are given much credit. It doesn’t seem like Skyward Sword would work without the Wiimotion Plus.