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@helbertpina I would think the same way but then immediately remember that it's Nintendo we're talking about here. This is the same company that still refuses to offer remappable controls in most of it's games let alone giving users the option to turn off features that they don't want.

I'll be trying to get through Oxenfree as a managed to snag it for $5 on sale a while back. I'm like Gavin in that the characters are a bit annoying, with Melissa kinda being a bit of a b-word. Still it's only around 3 hrs long and I heard the story is pretty good.

Afterwards I'll try to continue playing Splatoon 2 and finally finish the story mode or I'll just continue playing wario ware gold. Is it just me or is anyone else having mike issues with that game?

I get so tired of kemco littering the eshop with their run of the mill rpg maker crap. They did the same low effort games and cluttered up the 3ds eshop and now they're doing the same on switch.

@joey302 is burning fight any good or should I just stick to final fight 1-3 and streets of rage 1&2 on my new 3ds?

I'm just here to say DO NOT SLEEP ON GUARD CRUSH GAMES!

Streets of Fury Ex is on of the best playing beat-em ups I've played period. There's a free demo on steam if anyone wants to try it.

"The beat ’em up genre is one of my favourites and I’m a bit frustrated that there are so few nowadays. I know there are people like me that are starving for a good brawler and I hope that Streets of Rage 4 can be that stepping stone to make that genre popular again"

This quote resonated with me because I also feel the same way about beat-em ups. I'm hoping to one day make my own beat-em up that can become a classic in its own right.

@PhilKenSebben blade strangers is super fun. Add me on switch and we can play together

I'm hoping to finish Oxenfree this weekend and then hop into Blade Strangers while the online is still fresh and populated. I think that I unfortunately missed the most recent splatfest in Splatoon 2

@Giygas_95 I'll probably double dip finally as well. I had been holding off on doing so since I had the 3ds version but I'll get the switch version too whenever it goes on sale next. Most like will go on sale along with the launch of the new dlc

@brimat I like your comment in particular because it's sound advice for any dev. Overcrowded market places have been a thing for years, especially on mobile and pc. While I empathize with the dev somewhat on things like a messed up pre purchase page as well as a missing trailer I find that's where my empathy ends. Devs that expect the platform holder to do the lionshare of the promotion are living with market realities that haven't really been true for over 5+years now. Nintendo most likely will promote the games it thinks will be high sellers or already have a ton of hype for them. Expecting Nintendo, Sony, Valve, or Microsoft to promote your game for you in 2018 is very naive

@Fabraz Cool! Thanks for replying. I was curious about that because I wasn't sure if there would be problems with making a level editor since the game is running on a licensed engine and I know that unity has certain terms for its use.

I know @Fabraz comments here occasionally so I wanted to ask if this game was made on a custom engine or a license engine like unity or game maker. If it's the latter were there any problems with implementating a custom level editor? Is that allowed within the terms of the license use?

@JHDK pretty much how I feel as well. I'd be more interested in buying it day one if it was just a pure action platformer. I just got done watching both the easy allies and gamexplain reviews of the game and both mentioned how the backtracking could become excessive with gamexplain remarking that the metroidvania elements turn what could have been an incredible action platformer into a simply good metroidvania game.

@justin233 I love Okami so much (it's better than Breath of the Wild in my honest opinion). I had been putting off getting the artbook for years but finally decided to last year when the price dropped a bit.

@justin233 Okami is one of my favorite games of all time! I'm so grateful that I managed to pick up the Official Complete works back in September of last year. I had a gut feeling that the price of the artbook would spike along side the rerelease of the game so I got it around $32.

Turns out I was right to worry because now it current goes for around $78 on amazon us.

"even Breath of the Wild dipped below 20 frames at certain points in the game. It’s just that you don’t notice because of the way that they’ve handled it."

Oh I definitely noticed those framerate drops. When I first played the game, it literally dropped frames within the first minutes of playing the game (the part where link walks outside for the first time and the title screen shows up). In addition I had multiple times where the game would drop frames or just flatout freeze when fighting moblins

Dope! I've heard a lot of great things about this series so I can't wait to finally try these games out.

@JaxonH I love Kozaki's art too! I do think his designs in No More Heroes 1 & 2 are a little more interesting than the stuff he's done in Awakening and Fates but that's just my opinion.

@Agramonte I have that mentality as well. I love being able to try demos in order to make an informed decision. It's just that the more I thought about it from a dev perspective the more I kinda understood why demos have more or less faded away

@Warioware agreed. I wish more fighters would have some more casual modes and single player content. Speaking of fighters, what are your thoughts on Pocket Fighter, that is if you've played it.

@Warioware I'm actually with you on that. I miss the older shmups before bullet hell became the only way to make a shump anymore. My all-time favorite shmup is Raiden Fighters Jet and I think that it has the perfect amount of bullets without veering into bullet hell territory.

I just get so frustrated that shumps have become such an insular genre. I think it's the poster boy of the dangers of only designing and catering to the most hardcore players. You keep having to up the challenge and complexity which satisfies the hardcore but scares of almost all newcomers to the genre.

Luckily there are a few shmups on the switch that don't quite get into that bullet hell madness. I'd recommend Aero Fighters 2, 3 as well as blazing star and a few Pskiyo shooters like gunbird 2.

@Other-Brother oh ok. glad i could help

@DockEllisD I agree with you but I can also see why a lot of devs don't necessarily take the time to make demos. I imagine that they're spending so much time making the game and to spend additional time and resources on a demo that's supposed to represent the final game could be seen as time better spent on making the game itself.

On top of that there's also a chance that the demo could be a lot weaker than the final game or satiate people's desire to buy the full game. I know anecdotally there are a few people on this site who were turned off of buying sushi striker because of the demo. Heck even I skipped buying Slime-san because I played the demo and didn't like it that much.

From a consumer point of view it's great to have demos but I can understand a bit as to why not a lot of devs do demos anymore.

I'm happy to hear that he's willing to work on more games but I still can't help but feel that he should step down eventually. It's not because I feel like he's doing a poor job (quite the opposite. I'm one of the people who think he's done an ever better job at making these games since melee). My feelings are that I would hate for Sakurai's creative potential to only be spent on Smash Bros

The man co-created meteos and he also created Kid Icarus Uprising. I just want to see him have the chance to work on other things besides smash. Part of the reason why he left HAL Labs was because he got tired of working on endless sequels yet since leaving HAL 3/5 of the game he's worked on have been sequels to games he's made in the past.

I'd just like to add that my favorite part aside from the new character reveals was the ability to finally turn off stage hazards. I wish that was an option to select on the list

@MeloMan same here. Interesting concept but doesn't seem like there's enough there to justify a $10 price tage. Definitely gonna be a wait for sale for me

@mazz eh not really. While they're both run and gun games, kero blaster is a tad bit slower with more emphasis on self contained levels rather than a huge inter-connected map

@Other-Brother I think I may have came off as a bit rude with that last reply. I just wanted to let yoy know about the pc release in case you wanted to play with traditional controls. Like you I'm just excited to have this on switch

I definitely plan on buying this again. Pixel is such a huge inspiration to me.

@Other-Brother You know this game also has been on steam for well over a year right?

@boop22 they're both 3rd person open world adventure games with dungeons, an emphasis on puzzles and exploration. they're pretty comparable to me. In addition okami gets called a zelda-like game all the time so hence the comparison

Better than Breath of the Wild in My Opinion

Can't wait to play this game again. I realized a few days ago that I havent played this game in over 10 years despite the fact that it will now be the 3rd time I've bought this game (ps2 original, ps3 hd remaster, and now switch)

I love this game and cannot wait to re-experience this masterpiece once again.

@imgrowinglegs especially olli olli 2. The first one came out on wii u and 3ds

I've yet to even start octopath traveler despite having the wayfarer's edition since launch.

I'll play through oxenfree since it's not too long according to how long to beat. Then I'll try to finish up my Daroach guest star run in Kirby Star Allies and then keep working my way through the octo valley campaign in splatoon 2

@GKO900 Switch port beggers are everywhere. It's like a plague.

@dartmonkey Thanks for clarifying. I was worried that they completely removed the vo entirely

@dartmonkey
"A Japanese VO option would have made a fine addition to the package but losing elements from the original is disappointing, especially for a game purporting to be the definitive version."

I'm sorry but I'm a bit confused. Does this mean that there's no voice acting at all or does it mean that it's only JP Voice over?

Decided to finally give the tales of series a try so I'll be diving into the 2011 3ds port of Tales of the Abyss. I managed to find it at a bargain in my local gamestop for $18. What's always put me off of the series was the painfully cliched story telling. (It's the reason I didn't pick up tales of graces f or tales of xillia). I'm hoping that this one is good (it seems to go back and forth between being called the best or second best tales of story) because otherwise I high doubt I'll touch the series again.

@Whalehome I was thinking that if it were f2p it would have grindy bosses that would almost surely kill you the first time unless you paid for more tries or power boosts. (similar to puzzle and dragons on mobile)

I'll wishlist it and buy it on sales. Too many games coming out at the moment for me to justify spending $10 on such a short albeit interesting experience

That's a bit frustrating for me as I just bought noitu love on 3ds

I wish I could have used gold coins instead

@Whalehome I actually dont agree with your assessment of sushi striker. Should it have been cheaper? Absolutely Even on 3ds where I bought it, $40 is a bit much and $50 is ridiculous on Switch. Free 2 Play would have made it into a grind fest that would constantly be asking for more money. At least with a paid product I know I can just pay once and be done with it.

I purposely chose team squid because I knew they would win.

Just participated in my first splatfest with splatoon 2 (by the time I got Splatoon 1, splatfests were long since finished). It was very fun. Gonna continue on with the Splatoon 2 single player and complete world 2. Then I'll start up octopath traveler finally

@loopingstar I'd love to finally play that game. I dont have a ps4 so I can't play

I absolutely cannot wait for this! I have it preordered and will pick up day 1

Asking Nintendo to actually look at and learn from their competitors in terms of online and eshops is a pipe dream. If that were the case Nintendo would have had all this sorted out a while ago as well as providing a clear picture of what their online service will actually be.

@Toshiro_Baloney Im actually with the reviewer on this one. I bought and enjoyed hey ice king the first time through though once I played it on hard mode I immediately realized how shallow and barebones the game's design was. I had the misfortune of buying explore the dungeon because I dont know and that was one of my worst 3ds purchases I've ever made. (to this date it's the only 3ds game I've played that's crashed multiple times within seconds of starting up the game)

Very interesting. I hope it does well but unfortunately I'll have to wait to pick this game up later. Just got octopath plus I've been playing Splatoon 2 in preparation for the 1 year anniversary splatfest

@aaronsullivan Thank you for the thoughtful response. I actually agree with you on the aspect of upgrades. I guess my problems are that
1) Far too many metroidvania games make upgrades essentially act as keys for progress
2) Far too few metroidvania games put an emphasis on gratifying combat.

I've never personally been to big of a fan of backtracking in games. More often than not I hate it. It feels like an artificial way to pad out play time. As a result I find a lot of metroidvanias, especially modern ones to be fairly mediocre because they stick too closely to what's considered "necessary" to make a good metroidvania game. I like the exploratory nature of metroidvania games but I tend to hate how they're structured with constant gates and roadblocks.

Like you said, the best upgrades are the ones that completely change how you fight and traverse but more often than not it's the same double jump, speed boost, etc power ups we've seen for more than 3 decades at this point.

Tying into my second point, the combat in most metroidvania games is terrible. I understand that exploration might be the point but when your primary means of interacting through the world is through combat and platforming and the combat sucks, it puts a significant drain on the enjoyment of the experience.

And on Cave Story I actually agree. I would say it's far more of an action platformer than a metroidvania game but I guess that's why I like it so much (Because it's barely a metroidvania game and as a result has very few of the things that I complained about)

Thanks for the reply. Hopefully I fleshed out my viewpoint just a bit.

"For a game to be a good Metroidvania (games that emulate the style and structure of early Metroid and Castlevania games), it needs to do a few very specific things well. For starters, it needs to have a large, labyrinthine map full of twists, turns, interconnected passageways, and secrets. Then, you need an ongoing upgrade system in which you slowly discover new weapons, gear, and items to grow in strength over time. And finally, most Metroidvanias involve a lot of backtracking to previous areas to unlock new passages using your updated gear."

I actually don't entirely agree with this statement. I feel like it describes how to make a good metroidvania clone but I don't think all of these elements are necessary to make a good metroidvania game. Cave story is considered a metroidvania and has very little backtracking, very few upgrades that allow you to unlock more areas (most are unlocked by progressing through the story), and it has fairly linear maps. Yet Cave story is one of my favorite metroidvania games of all time. I feel like these "must have" elements limit the genre's growth and are the reason why we have so many so-so metroid clones.

Even Hollow Knight which has a lot of these elements breaks from metroid by having more elements from Dark Souls like a greater emphasis on combat and recovering souls.

Any news if Gunbird 2 is back on the NA Switch eshop?