I am guilty of owning only one JPN game which I have little hope of ever playing. It's not very rare, and it's a loose copy, but it's very meaningful to me:
I've been playing this since it launched 2 hours ago, and now that I stopped for lunch and work, I can say it definetely delivers a unique challenge. It's not quite as punishing for off-beat performance as Crypt/Cadence, but it still pays off to stick to the rhythm.
Traversal of jumpable gorges and transport rails will be impossible without pressing your dash at the key points in beat, but you are generally safe until you get it right.
In combat, keeping in rhythm is important. You can dash and shoot as much as you want (except during brief cooldowns, or when off-beat for too many shots), but you do full damage and get I-frames on your dash only for staying on point with your rhythm.
Also, there's a combo-multiplier that adds up when you beat an enemy, and the combo timer refreshes when you kill OR when you make an on-beat dash or shot. You lose the multiplier when you take a hit or go too long without a beat action, so it's more important to shoot or dash in rhythm in a timely manner, and avoid damage, than to actually hit anything, to maintain your combo and get access to better loot when you open the boomboxes (there's tiny ones that are simply stage decos, but there's larger ones that hold new weapons and armor, and healing pickups).
Different song styles will yield different enemies and loot as well, so it's worth replaying stages with different music, too. Harder, rock-driven or hip-hop tracks will yield more weapons and more offense-boosted enemies, where smoother, more symphonic music will have more armor and tankier foes.
Even if you lose, you may have to start the mission and song over again, but you get to keep the XP and treasure you found so you can gear up and try again.
It's truly amazing how many posts have been edited out of the thread. It's just skin. You know... that stretchy layer of membranes that every vertebrate has, and needs to live?
Now you might guess, as I am a furry fan, I have some pretty uncommon ideas about the subject matter at hand (especially where Dahlia or Kora are concerned), but even outside of my own biases and proclivities, I recognize the problems that come from both sides of this coin - Too much nudity feels like disingenuous exploitation, too little feels like prudish overreaction. That's the GROSSLY oversimplified debate I largely see here, skimming through.
Truth is, the game makers and publishers will do what is culturally acceptable to them, and we, the gaming public, will invest or ignore as out personal tastes dictate. I was already looking forward to this game to begin with, and frankly, for me, personally, this revelation changes nothing. XC has always had a lot of flesh on display, but let's be honest here... if I want to, I can see all I want elsewhere. Naughties in video games are tame compared to what's readily available elsewhere in life (again, I'm a furry here, so I know what I'm talking about ), so honestly, what's the damage with some people?
To tell the truth I'm still salty over the time he got scammed into buying first-edition Pokémon cards and he got G.I.Joe cards instead.
Not because I give two craps about him, mind you. I would have Appreciated those G.I.Joe cards. Shameful waste of vintage '80s merch to troll a loser! LOL
Hmm... neat addition! As a happy part of the "rainbow" crowd, I am happy with this. Also happy the dumpster fires have been dowsed and buried already for the most part. I like this crowd.
I can also think of a good reason why this wasn't included at first, even if it were part of the plan. It's not a backpedal, and it's not a "conspiracy". No, I think it's more a matter of "We can get this game out to the fans first and add it in later, or we can miss our planned window trying to make everything happen at once and have NO game (or a less-successful one)." That they're including fresh voiced and edited dialogue and character models for same-gender couples FOR FREE speaks to their character, IMO. If inclusivity had been a paid DLC and not a free upgrade, it could have been argued as disingenuous, but they didn't. They did this pro bono, and , hey, they drummed up a few new customers in the rainbow set (I bought it anyway, 'cause I'm in the "B" arc), which isn't a bad thing, no matter what others (who've been shown the door) might have said.
Personally I'm still wishing for days when who you love is as important to others as which hand you write with (and remember, in many areas, as little as 20 years ago, being a southpaw was evil, too).
Octopath Traveler: I loved this game, every bit of it, and I love how the game looks like how it FELT the 16-bit games looked. The game's art style is perfect for recapturing not how the generation looked, but how it looked in our eyes at the time. It's also just plain excellent in it's story and subject matter, especially Alfyn and Primrose's stories (even if Prim's main antagonist disappointed me in the end).
Cyber Shadow: Reminds me not only of Ninja Gaiden, but also of hidden NES Gem Shatterhand, and I love that about the game. The more you play, the more abilities you get, and eventually the earlier levels and advanced challenges alike become not only firm-yet-fair, but when you land the hits and get in the sweet spot with the game's mechanics and gameplay, feels so GOOD when you rule the screen with those abilities!
Steel Assault: I'd argue that Steel Assault feels more like Gunstar Heroes for one player than any Castlevania, but no matter what, it's well worth getting. The main mechanic of casting wires everywhere to hang from and climb also gives off a certain air of Bionic Commando, as well. The game has so much going for it in it's brief runtime!
My personal notes on the games on this list I've played:
Shovel Knight: I was on board with this from day one, and bought it on 3DS first, then sprung for a double-dip for Switch later. Amazing game, and now, a franchise, with the spinoff of Pocket Dungeon and the upcoming Dig.
198X: One fine July afternoon, around sunset, I played this game start to finish just before the sun went down for about 2 hours. I was riveted. The gameplay was mostly solid (except the Shadowplay auto-run ninja game, I wasn't a huge fan of that one), and it hit me like a Pink Floyd album you can play on a video game console. Full of not only wonderful 80s nostalgia, but the brooding melancholy of being a misunderstood youth in those days. It hit me on a personal as well as gameplay level and I loved it.
Bloodstained COTM: Hits all the right notes for a perfect recreation of Castlevania 3 plus more. Well worth collecting and playing!
Megaman 11: Excellent game in the franchise, even if I find the realistic Foley sound effects novel but also weak. The music is excellent and the rogue's gallery is spot-on for the classic franchise. I even appreciate the story ( which is never the point of a Megaman game, but still), in how it finally embellishes (retcons) the roots of the Light / Wily rift.
Sonic Mania: Excellent game, even though I usually never play past Studiopolis, because I'm just so bad at fighting the boss of Flying Battery afterwards. I know someday I'll beat it though!
Blaster Master Zero Series: I feel the whole series, front to back, is worth playing in order, to watch a charming and unlikely but surprisingly touching story unfold in this perfect love letter to a fantastic classic. The first game is one of the best remakes of any game, and the sequels expand into a surprisingly personal story I will not spoil here, but I genuinely cared about it's hero and heroine far more than I ever expected to!
Axiom Verge: Thrilling non-linear platforming adventure, well worth the comparison to the lauded Metroid franchise, but replacing the outer space setting with a bizarre Mesopotamia-inspired one. Story is wild, and the sequel is even wilder, and I need to do some more digging into that one.
Wargroove: Great game, lots of personality of it's own, even as it carries the spirit of the Advance Wars series with it everywhere it goes. Also, not content to have a simple level editor, it carries a very robust CAMPAIGN EDITOR, with which you can make your own side stories!
Undertale: I am a BIG fan, but not the kind of toxic "play this way or you'll ruin it" kind of fan. Well worth experiencing on any format you can!
Huntdown: Growing up as I did on Terminator, Big Trouble in Little China and Aliens, the movie references in this fun, darkly humorous action game are almost a minigame in how many you can spot as you blow away street scum Robocop-style!
Oh yeah, and now that that's off my chest, let me remind you we have all the darkness and death hidden in the pokémon lore to begin with!
There's critters wearing the skulls of their parents (Cubone), ghosts trying to drag kids to die (Drifloon), ghosts that carry around their old living face (Yammask), dragons with fires on their tails they must protect with their lives or die (Charmander), literal GARBAGE (Garbodor) and TOXIC WASTE (Muk), and to top it all off... there's a giant bird in the world, and when it dies SO DOES LITERALLY EVERYTHING AND EVERY ONE ELSE (Yveltal). Hell, there's one pokémon who is the freakin' Andromeda Strain (Deoxys)!!!!
Space is a pokémon. Time is a pokémon. Truth and wishes are pokémon... FREAKING GOD IS A POKÉMON!!!! LOL
This game has been a literal game-changer for me, as it gives pokémon the appeal they always felt like they could have had for me since the beginning, but never truly clicked. Part of it is how the game flips the script, as discussed here, making YOU hide from THEM in tall grass, instead of the other way around. Another part is, indeed, the presence of Alpha pokémon and spacetime distortions, dangers that hide the promise of rewards within the threat of doom for you and your partners... rewards if you survive and major setbacks if you fail.
The very fact that it's up to YOU to hide, and deploy your pokémon allies and other tools, to survive, in real time, until combat begins, makes me feel important to the experience in ways the originals never could. From the first game, the spaces between towns have been littered with paved paths, and that thrice-damned social contract of meeting another trainer's eyes being challenge to a duel. I much prefer this way, where you have choices about where and when you engage your wild opponents in the field. Or... maybe they find you and take your choice away, but even so, now it feels more genuine when you stumble into the aggro range of a pokémon as opposed to crossing the path of a fellow human who challenges you to a duel you cannot refuse. It feels like you genuinely had a chance to change the outcome, your input in the game is more than walking in straight lines hoping you can find one that doesn't cross an engagement field.
In short the game feels more threatening, and more fair, with the open fields and the flow of the game reversed for the first time in decades!
Hate, absolutely! Hate NFTs and the scumbags that create them, and lure once-celebrated stars like Troy Baker and many others, and once-celebrated game companies like Square and Konami even further in their downward descent into history.
People have "created" for literally hundreds of thousands of years without digital crap attached to it that puts a price tag on one iteration of a thing and burns an acre of rainforest with the energy it takes to keep track of the sales!
Yes, I will hate NFTs to the grave... mine or the planet's, Troy! Next question?
Captain U sounds like Captain N after a parallel move to a dead post in disgrace to the service, if I might borrow a clumsy military analogy. The video game equivalent to Thule AFB.
Yes, I know Captain N was more like a superhero than anyone with armed force rank, but roll with me on this.
Can't say I care for or against League Of Legends, particularly, but I checked out some game footage on Youtube. It looks like a fine turn based RPG in the style I like, and it's pirate-themed! I don't typically see pirate themed RPGs, and I'm intrigued on that aspect alone. The starting character is stylish and charming (bad pun name, though: a pirate woman named "Miss Fortune"? Really?) and I dig the flashy gun-fu she fights with.
I'm at least interested enough to wait for NL to do a proper review!
So the review says the game's as good as ever, but the controls are described as "hokey" and the graphics and design are dated since it's 2003 debut. I say... "Hokey controls and ancient graphics are no match for the best Star Wars RPG at your side, kid!" LOL
Rediscovered this article from the "how short is short" article, and I'd like to take the opportunity to discuss 198X. I spent an entire summer afternoon from 4PM to about 7PM on it, I was that hooked. It was a very short but very potent experience. The games had interesting enough play - they were mini-games, nothing much on their own - but the story they told of a latchkey misfit in the 80s of unclear gender (meaning they could literally be any of us), really stuck with me.
It's like a Pink Floyd album for the NES generation.
I was excited by the trailer last... August, I think? Then I read the controversy regarding it's development and release (it's easy to find and hard to summarize, so I won't), and was afraid I'd miss something good if I avoided it. I'm actually relieved this is not the case. Thanks, NL, I needed that. A little schadenfreude at the people responsible for the controversy making the game a flop anyway is just the kind of good news I wanted to wake up to
"Ma'am, I'd like to ass you a few questions... firstly, do you have any breath mints I could have? Perhaps some Binaca? How do you like my aria? 'assholo miiiiooooo!!!!'" Do you like my oddly suddenly relevant Jim Carrey movie quotes? Too soon? Aaaaaaallllrighty then. leaves
This'll be great! That is, if I have enough time after college class, and enough battery life after The World Ends With You.
Wait, I was trying to evolve my pins in sleep mode on that!
Damnit, if only this were 11 years in the future and there were far more advanced, more powerful, and more reliable portable devices for browsing the internet!
@darkswabber Indeed! Suda51 seems to be great at using the more outsider and punkish aspects of American pop-culture to great effect!
Lollipop Chainsaw was basically taking some of the best parts of Army Of Darkness and Planet Terror into a blender, and (while admitting I didn't actually play it yet) looked pretty sweet.
Shadows Of The Damned is basically From Dusk 'till Dawn, if a certain character had been the star instead of a casualty (the one with the revolver hidden in his belt buckle - his name cannot be typed here!).
So, yeah! I'd be really excited to see him do Marvel, where you have one of the Marvel outlier characters in a stylish action game.
@tseliot While technically true, hear me out... maybe he was saying this decade is best because of nearly ubiquitous, inexpensive, and convenient access to any and all music of the many decades of his lifetime, and those famous composers and geniuses in the centuries before? Given how many engineering loopholes he's found for his "desert island" hypotheticals, I'm quite sure that's what he means by that. Jake Kaufman's a solid musician and an engineer. Give him the benefit of the doubt on this.
Also, I'm fully aware this site runs out of the UK and caters to both sides of the "pond", but just throwing this out there, I'm one of very very few US residents who even knows who Asterix is anymore. Why, I've got an old hardbound collection of six stories from the 80s around here, by Toutatis!
Oddly enough, the Tetris Type-A song DOES have lyrics. It was originally a folk song in Russia in the 1860s about a travelling salesman trying to woo a farmer's daughter, comparing dating to bartering in a funny way. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korobeiniki
@Fighting_Game_Loser Erf... yeah.. just looked up the story from two separate websites. sigh Looks like I probably won't be getting it unless the story develops in a positive way...
@Scapetti I know this. I've had 3 different SD cards and had to go through the process every time I chose to upgrade to a larger one.
I'm talking about LATER. When the system is a retro system and the eShop is down. Chances are good you won't care about that by then... it DOES sound like that's a problem for "future you", and it's not my place to tell you that you HAVE to care about that now or ever. I should, however, tell you not to scoff at those who like to think ahead on this sort of thing... the people who care about their games past the year they come out.
Like I said, I'm not fooling myself here. I have no illusions of changing your mind in any meaningful way. I'm not even 100% sure why I felt obligated to try. Suit yourself in any case.
@Scapetti
All digital: 100 games on one piece of storage. Sounds good.
Physical: Each game on it's own storage medium. Sounds tiresome.
The problem? WHEN your digital storage fails (and it WILL, as will the physicals - I'm not fooling myself here) all 100 games are gone like they never existed in the first place (some might argue then never even did). Physical? One game breaks or fails, the other 99 are still playable.
Think about that.
I'm not a digital naysayer, or a physicals-only purist, or anything extreme like that... but it's a factor that needs to be considered by the game industry going forward. Video games have an ATROCIOUS track record when it comes to preserving itself. My roommate can't play a game from SIX YEARS AGO thanks to changing OS builds and configurations.
While we're discussing programming games, let's not forget PlayStation 1's long-lost strategy / programming game Carnage Heart. THAT's an obscure reference for you all. In Carnage Heart, you use parts to build battle robots called OverKill Engines (OKE), and program their behaviors with a grid of "If/then" statements in icon form. I was never that good at it, but I do hope with the tutorials for this Game Builder Garage, I can be much better at this!
Mostly playing "Monster Hunter Rise" with my friends, there, and actually getting back to investigation game "Ai: the Somnium Files". for those who don't know or have forgotten, Ai is from the makers of the Zero Escape games, and features a detective with a cybernetic implant eyeball with a computerized partner, but also, his department has a device that lets you enter another person's dreams for 6 minutes. there you must solve puzzles in the time limit to unlock their memories and uncover the clues you need to solve a grim series of murders.
Comments 221
Re: Soapbox: Help, I Can't Stop Buying Japanese Games I Don't Understand And Will Never Play
I am guilty of owning only one JPN game which I have little hope of ever playing. It's not very rare, and it's a loose copy, but it's very meaningful to me:
Dragon Quest 4 for Famicom.
Re: Review: Seven Pirates H - A Rich Bounty Of Fan Service, But Lacks Depth
@Rambler ...and, if you're lucky, a left one, too
Re: Soundfall Finds Its Rhythm On Switch Today
I've been playing this since it launched 2 hours ago, and now that I stopped for lunch and work, I can say it definetely delivers a unique challenge. It's not quite as punishing for off-beat performance as Crypt/Cadence, but it still pays off to stick to the rhythm.
Traversal of jumpable gorges and transport rails will be impossible without pressing your dash at the key points in beat, but you are generally safe until you get it right.
In combat, keeping in rhythm is important. You can dash and shoot as much as you want (except during brief cooldowns, or when off-beat for too many shots), but you do full damage and get I-frames on your dash only for staying on point with your rhythm.
Also, there's a combo-multiplier that adds up when you beat an enemy, and the combo timer refreshes when you kill OR when you make an on-beat dash or shot. You lose the multiplier when you take a hit or go too long without a beat action, so it's more important to shoot or dash in rhythm in a timely manner, and avoid damage, than to actually hit anything, to maintain your combo and get access to better loot when you open the boomboxes (there's tiny ones that are simply stage decos, but there's larger ones that hold new weapons and armor, and healing pickups).
Different song styles will yield different enemies and loot as well, so it's worth replaying stages with different music, too. Harder, rock-driven or hip-hop tracks will yield more weapons and more offense-boosted enemies, where smoother, more symphonic music will have more armor and tankier foes.
Even if you lose, you may have to start the mission and song over again, but you get to keep the XP and treasure you found so you can gear up and try again.
Re: Xenoblade Chronicles 3 Will Reveal Some Skin, Unsurprisingly
It's truly amazing how many posts have been edited out of the thread. It's just skin. You know... that stretchy layer of membranes that every vertebrate has, and needs to live?
Now you might guess, as I am a furry fan, I have some pretty uncommon ideas about the subject matter at hand (especially where Dahlia or Kora are concerned), but even outside of my own biases and proclivities, I recognize the problems that come from both sides of this coin - Too much nudity feels like disingenuous exploitation, too little feels like prudish overreaction. That's the GROSSLY oversimplified debate I largely see here, skimming through.
Truth is, the game makers and publishers will do what is culturally acceptable to them, and we, the gaming public, will invest or ignore as out personal tastes dictate. I was already looking forward to this game to begin with, and frankly, for me, personally, this revelation changes nothing. XC has always had a lot of flesh on display, but let's be honest here... if I want to, I can see all I want elsewhere. Naughties in video games are tame compared to what's readily available elsewhere in life (again, I'm a furry here, so I know what I'm talking about ), so honestly, what's the damage with some people?
Re: Random: Classic Kirby Goes Supersize With This Irresistible 30th Anniversary Plush
There's a 2up if I ever saw one!
Re: Random: Logan Paul Spends Absurd Money On Rare Pokémon Card
To tell the truth I'm still salty over the time he got scammed into buying first-edition Pokémon cards and he got G.I.Joe cards instead.
Not because I give two craps about him, mind you. I would have Appreciated those G.I.Joe cards. Shameful waste of vintage '80s merch to troll a loser! LOL
Re: Review: Touken Ranbu Warriors - A 'My First Musou' That Adds Little To The Formula
You might say Ranbu Warriors is a ..."Touken" offering in the genre...?
Thank you! I'm taking my stand-up on the road next week!
Re: Out Run-Inspired Retro Racer 'Slipstream' Drifts Onto Switch In April
I see The Baz! He should date Asagi and maybe then they'd get their own game!
Re: Bandai Namco Is Bringing JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: All Star Battle R To Switch This Fall
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwPWGUhEtP0
YOU'RE WELCOME.
Re: Free Couples Update For 'Haven' Adds Same Gender Options
Hmm... neat addition! As a happy part of the "rainbow" crowd, I am happy with this. Also happy the dumpster fires have been dowsed and buried already for the most part. I like this crowd.
I can also think of a good reason why this wasn't included at first, even if it were part of the plan. It's not a backpedal, and it's not a "conspiracy". No, I think it's more a matter of "We can get this game out to the fans first and add it in later, or we can miss our planned window trying to make everything happen at once and have NO game (or a less-successful one)." That they're including fresh voiced and edited dialogue and character models for same-gender couples FOR FREE speaks to their character, IMO. If inclusivity had been a paid DLC and not a free upgrade, it could have been argued as disingenuous, but they didn't. They did this pro bono, and , hey, they drummed up a few new customers in the rainbow set (I bought it anyway, 'cause I'm in the "B" arc), which isn't a bad thing, no matter what others (who've been shown the door) might have said.
Personally I'm still wishing for days when who you love is as important to others as which hand you write with (and remember, in many areas, as little as 20 years ago, being a southpaw was evil, too).
Re: Best Retro Nintendo Switch Games - Modern Games With Old-School Style
Octopath Traveler: I loved this game, every bit of it, and I love how the game looks like how it FELT the 16-bit games looked. The game's art style is perfect for recapturing not how the generation looked, but how it looked in our eyes at the time. It's also just plain excellent in it's story and subject matter, especially Alfyn and Primrose's stories (even if Prim's main antagonist disappointed me in the end).
Cyber Shadow: Reminds me not only of Ninja Gaiden, but also of hidden NES Gem Shatterhand, and I love that about the game. The more you play, the more abilities you get, and eventually the earlier levels and advanced challenges alike become not only firm-yet-fair, but when you land the hits and get in the sweet spot with the game's mechanics and gameplay, feels so GOOD when you rule the screen with those abilities!
Steel Assault: I'd argue that Steel Assault feels more like Gunstar Heroes for one player than any Castlevania, but no matter what, it's well worth getting. The main mechanic of casting wires everywhere to hang from and climb also gives off a certain air of Bionic Commando, as well. The game has so much going for it in it's brief runtime!
part two of two
Re: Best Retro Nintendo Switch Games - Modern Games With Old-School Style
My personal notes on the games on this list I've played:
Shovel Knight: I was on board with this from day one, and bought it on 3DS first, then sprung for a double-dip for Switch later. Amazing game, and now, a franchise, with the spinoff of Pocket Dungeon and the upcoming Dig.
198X: One fine July afternoon, around sunset, I played this game start to finish just before the sun went down for about 2 hours. I was riveted. The gameplay was mostly solid (except the Shadowplay auto-run ninja game, I wasn't a huge fan of that one), and it hit me like a Pink Floyd album you can play on a video game console. Full of not only wonderful 80s nostalgia, but the brooding melancholy of being a misunderstood youth in those days. It hit me on a personal as well as gameplay level and I loved it.
Bloodstained COTM: Hits all the right notes for a perfect recreation of Castlevania 3 plus more. Well worth collecting and playing!
Megaman 11: Excellent game in the franchise, even if I find the realistic Foley sound effects novel but also weak. The music is excellent and the rogue's gallery is spot-on for the classic franchise. I even appreciate the story ( which is never the point of a Megaman game, but still), in how it finally embellishes (retcons) the roots of the Light / Wily rift.
Sonic Mania: Excellent game, even though I usually never play past Studiopolis, because I'm just so bad at fighting the boss of Flying Battery afterwards. I know someday I'll beat it though!
Blaster Master Zero Series: I feel the whole series, front to back, is worth playing in order, to watch a charming and unlikely but surprisingly touching story unfold in this perfect love letter to a fantastic classic. The first game is one of the best remakes of any game, and the sequels expand into a surprisingly personal story I will not spoil here, but I genuinely cared about it's hero and heroine far more than I ever expected to!
Axiom Verge: Thrilling non-linear platforming adventure, well worth the comparison to the lauded Metroid franchise, but replacing the outer space setting with a bizarre Mesopotamia-inspired one. Story is wild, and the sequel is even wilder, and I need to do some more digging into that one.
Wargroove: Great game, lots of personality of it's own, even as it carries the spirit of the Advance Wars series with it everywhere it goes. Also, not content to have a simple level editor, it carries a very robust CAMPAIGN EDITOR, with which you can make your own side stories!
Undertale: I am a BIG fan, but not the kind of toxic "play this way or you'll ruin it" kind of fan. Well worth experiencing on any format you can!
Huntdown: Growing up as I did on Terminator, Big Trouble in Little China and Aliens, the movie references in this fun, darkly humorous action game are almost a minigame in how many you can spot as you blow away street scum Robocop-style!
part one of two
Re: Feature: Pokémon Legends: Arceus Has Made Pokémon Downright Disturbing Again
Oh yeah, and now that that's off my chest, let me remind you we have all the darkness and death hidden in the pokémon lore to begin with!
There's critters wearing the skulls of their parents (Cubone), ghosts trying to drag kids to die (Drifloon), ghosts that carry around their old living face (Yammask), dragons with fires on their tails they must protect with their lives or die (Charmander), literal GARBAGE (Garbodor) and TOXIC WASTE (Muk), and to top it all off... there's a giant bird in the world, and when it dies SO DOES LITERALLY EVERYTHING AND EVERY ONE ELSE (Yveltal). Hell, there's one pokémon who is the freakin' Andromeda Strain (Deoxys)!!!!
Space is a pokémon. Time is a pokémon. Truth and wishes are pokémon... FREAKING GOD IS A POKÉMON!!!! LOL
Re: Feature: Pokémon Legends: Arceus Has Made Pokémon Downright Disturbing Again
This game has been a literal game-changer for me, as it gives pokémon the appeal they always felt like they could have had for me since the beginning, but never truly clicked. Part of it is how the game flips the script, as discussed here, making YOU hide from THEM in tall grass, instead of the other way around. Another part is, indeed, the presence of Alpha pokémon and spacetime distortions, dangers that hide the promise of rewards within the threat of doom for you and your partners... rewards if you survive and major setbacks if you fail.
The very fact that it's up to YOU to hide, and deploy your pokémon allies and other tools, to survive, in real time, until combat begins, makes me feel important to the experience in ways the originals never could. From the first game, the spaces between towns have been littered with paved paths, and that thrice-damned social contract of meeting another trainer's eyes being challenge to a duel. I much prefer this way, where you have choices about where and when you engage your wild opponents in the field. Or... maybe they find you and take your choice away, but even so, now it feels more genuine when you stumble into the aggro range of a pokémon as opposed to crossing the path of a fellow human who challenges you to a duel you cannot refuse. It feels like you genuinely had a chance to change the outcome, your input in the game is more than walking in straight lines hoping you can find one that doesn't cross an engagement field.
In short the game feels more threatening, and more fair, with the open fields and the flow of the game reversed for the first time in decades!
Re: Random: Logan Paul Paid $3.5 Million For Fake Pokémon Trading Cards
What a sad sorry waste...
... giving classic G.I.Joe trading cards to a scumbag like Logan Paul. I could've had those! LOL
Paid $3.5M for Pokémon cards, got ripped off anyway.
Play stupid games, win stupid prizes!
(not that Pokémon cards is a stupid game, but buying them for the price of a mansion IS, undoubtedly!)
Re: Troy Baker Partners With NFT Firm, Asks If Fans Want To "Hate" Or "Create"
Hate, absolutely! Hate NFTs and the scumbags that create them, and lure once-celebrated stars like Troy Baker and many others, and once-celebrated game companies like Square and Konami even further in their downward descent into history.
People have "created" for literally hundreds of thousands of years without digital crap attached to it that puts a price tag on one iteration of a thing and burns an acre of rainforest with the energy it takes to keep track of the sales!
Yes, I will hate NFTs to the grave... mine or the planet's, Troy! Next question?
Re: Wii U's Getting A New Game, And This Will Probably Be The Last
Captain U sounds like Captain N after a parallel move to a dead post in disgrace to the service, if I might borrow a clumsy military analogy. The video game equivalent to Thule AFB.
Yes, I know Captain N was more like a superhero than anyone with armed force rank, but roll with me on this.
Re: Surprise! Ruined King: A League Of Legends Story Is On Switch Right Now
Can't say I care for or against League Of Legends, particularly, but I checked out some game footage on Youtube. It looks like a fine turn based RPG in the style I like, and it's pirate-themed! I don't typically see pirate themed RPGs, and I'm intrigued on that aspect alone. The starting character is stylish and charming (bad pun name, though: a pirate woman named "Miss Fortune"? Really?) and I dig the flashy gun-fu she fights with.
I'm at least interested enough to wait for NL to do a proper review!
Re: Review: A Boy and His Blob - An Experience That Has Aged Gracefully
The review left out one significant detail in the "Joys" section:
There's a button to hug the Blob!
Re: Review: STAR WARS: Knights Of The Old Republic - Still Strong With The Force Despite Dated Design
So the review says the game's as good as ever, but the controls are described as "hokey" and the graphics and design are dated since it's 2003 debut. I say...
"Hokey controls and ancient graphics are no match for the best Star Wars RPG at your side, kid!" LOL
Re: Best Nintendo Switch Short Games
Rediscovered this article from the "how short is short" article, and I'd like to take the opportunity to discuss 198X. I spent an entire summer afternoon from 4PM to about 7PM on it, I was that hooked. It was a very short but very potent experience. The games had interesting enough play - they were mini-games, nothing much on their own - but the story they told of a latchkey misfit in the 80s of unclear gender (meaning they could literally be any of us), really stuck with me.
It's like a Pink Floyd album for the NES generation.
Re: Review: Aeon Must Die! - An Aggressively Repetitive Beat 'Em Up That Tries Way Too Hard
I was excited by the trailer last... August, I think? Then I read the controversy regarding it's development and release (it's easy to find and hard to summarize, so I won't), and was afraid I'd miss something good if I avoided it. I'm actually relieved this is not the case. Thanks, NL, I needed that. A little schadenfreude at the people responsible for the controversy making the game a flop anyway is just the kind of good news I wanted to wake up to
Re: Cult GameCube Shmup 'Castle of Shikigami 2' Is Headed To Switch This December
@Ralizah
Still a bit green, only 17.
Kicking your butts!
Re: Cult GameCube Shmup 'Castle of Shikigami 2' Is Headed To Switch This December
@MARl0
Oh. You're into THAT.
Re: Cult GameCube Shmup 'Castle of Shikigami 2' Is Headed To Switch This December
@Drac_Mazoku
I like bad translations.
But now, it's about justice!
Re: Cult GameCube Shmup 'Castle of Shikigami 2' Is Headed To Switch This December
You have two choices:
1: Caught then beaten.
2: Beaten then caught.
<3
Re: Forget Professor Layton And Phoenix Wright, Switch Is Getting Its Very Own "Butt Detective"
"Ma'am, I'd like to ass you a few questions...
firstly, do you have any breath mints I could have? Perhaps some Binaca?
How do you like my aria? 'assholo miiiiooooo!!!!'"
Do you like my oddly suddenly relevant Jim Carrey movie quotes?
Too soon?
Aaaaaaallllrighty then. leaves
Re: Random: The Nintendo DS Browser Is On Sale, So Now You Can Use The Internet Wherever You Are
This'll be great! That is, if I have enough time after college class, and enough battery life after The World Ends With You.
Wait, I was trying to evolve my pins in sleep mode on that!
Damnit, if only this were 11 years in the future and there were far more advanced, more powerful, and more reliable portable devices for browsing the internet!
...wait...
Re: The 'Unhackable' Wii Mini Has Been Hacked
Nintendo would like to apologize for the previous hacking. Those responsible have been hacked.
Re: With No More Heroes Wrapped Up, Suda51 Says He'd Love To Work On A Marvel Deadpool Game
@darkswabber Indeed! Suda51 seems to be great at using the more outsider and punkish aspects of American pop-culture to great effect!
Lollipop Chainsaw was basically taking some of the best parts of Army Of Darkness and Planet Terror into a blender, and (while admitting I didn't actually play it yet) looked pretty sweet.
Shadows Of The Damned is basically From Dusk 'till Dawn, if a certain character had been the star instead of a casualty (the one with the revolver hidden in his belt buckle - his name cannot be typed here!).
So, yeah! I'd be really excited to see him do Marvel, where you have one of the Marvel outlier characters in a stylish action game.
Re: With No More Heroes Wrapped Up, Suda51 Says He'd Love To Work On A Marvel Deadpool Game
Oh wow, I could totally see that working!
Also, his mention of Shatterstar got me to look up the character, and I'd love to see that, too!
Re: Review: Rustler - GTA Goes To The Ren Faire And Makes A Medieval Mess
@Vexx234 Yep. Looks as shamelessly identical as 60s-70s era Disney movies are to one another, and probably for similar reason.
Re: Quick Beats: Shovel Knight Composer On Q*Bert, The Prodigy, And Magical Bongos
@tseliot While technically true, hear me out... maybe he was saying this decade is best because of nearly ubiquitous, inexpensive, and convenient access to any and all music of the many decades of his lifetime, and those famous composers and geniuses in the centuries before? Given how many engineering loopholes he's found for his "desert island" hypotheticals, I'm quite sure that's what he means by that. Jake Kaufman's a solid musician and an engineer. Give him the benefit of the doubt on this.
Re: Soup Raiders Is An Eye-Catching Tactical RPG With Animals Fighting Over Food
Field commander: "Recon force, what's your current position, over?"
Recon Bn Leader: "I'm at soup!"
Re: Asterix & Obelix : Slap Them All! Fights Its Way Onto Switch In November
@Stocksy Glad I could make your day!
Also, I'm fully aware this site runs out of the UK and caters to both sides of the "pond", but just throwing this out there, I'm one of very very few US residents who even knows who Asterix is anymore. Why, I've got an old hardbound collection of six stories from the 80s around here, by Toutatis!
Re: Asterix & Obelix : Slap Them All! Fights Its Way Onto Switch In November
@Stocksy "One!"
Re: Talking Point: Which Video Game Song Could You Listen To For Ten Hours?
Oddly enough, the Tetris Type-A song DOES have lyrics.
It was originally a folk song in Russia in the 1860s about a travelling salesman trying to woo a farmer's daughter, comparing dating to bartering in a funny way.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korobeiniki
Re: Random: Rapper Soulja Boy Claims He Owns Atari, Atari Doesn't Agree
I think Soulja Boy has long ago proven he needs a Section 8 discharge (that's "discharged for being mentally unfit for service", by the way).
Re: 'Disney Classic Games Collection' Gets Rated For Switch, Now With Added Jungle Book
Disney Afternoon Collection for Switch... when?
Wake me when that happens.
Re: Aeon Must Die! Is Bringing Stylish Futuristic Beat 'em Up Action To Switch
@Fighting_Game_Loser Erf... yeah.. just looked up the story from two separate websites. sigh Looks like I probably won't be getting it unless the story develops in a positive way...
Re: Aeon Must Die! Is Bringing Stylish Futuristic Beat 'em Up Action To Switch
80s synthwave cybergods? In a dramatic over-the-top brawler?
Take my money! My funds will be lost to them... like tears in the rain!
Re: Random: Krillin Can Now Apparently Revive Himself In Dragon Ball FighterZ
"Hey, Krillin! Senzu Bean?"
"SENZU BEAN!" toss
Re: Level-5's Mech-Battle RPG Is Coming This November, Only In Japan
Well this is a fine "Screw you", given I've been waiting to see this game for about 2 years, and now it looks like I never will.
Re: Random: This Vintage Metroid Cosplay Is Terrible, And We Absolutely Love It
Better job than I ever could have done at that age! Good for him! That's fun!
Re: It Seems Game Builder Garage Will Only Be Available On The eShop In Europe
@Scapetti
I know this. I've had 3 different SD cards and had to go through the process every time I chose to upgrade to a larger one.
I'm talking about LATER. When the system is a retro system and the eShop is down. Chances are good you won't care about that by then... it DOES sound like that's a problem for "future you", and it's not my place to tell you that you HAVE to care about that now or ever. I should, however, tell you not to scoff at those who like to think ahead on this sort of thing... the people who care about their games past the year they come out.
Like I said, I'm not fooling myself here. I have no illusions of changing your mind in any meaningful way. I'm not even 100% sure why I felt obligated to try. Suit yourself in any case.
Re: It Seems Game Builder Garage Will Only Be Available On The eShop In Europe
@Scapetti
All digital: 100 games on one piece of storage. Sounds good.
Physical: Each game on it's own storage medium. Sounds tiresome.
The problem? WHEN your digital storage fails (and it WILL, as will the physicals - I'm not fooling myself here) all 100 games are gone like they never existed in the first place (some might argue then never even did). Physical? One game breaks or fails, the other 99 are still playable.
Think about that.
I'm not a digital naysayer, or a physicals-only purist, or anything extreme like that... but it's a factor that needs to be considered by the game industry going forward. Video games have an ATROCIOUS track record when it comes to preserving itself. My roommate can't play a game from SIX YEARS AGO thanks to changing OS builds and configurations.
Think about that, too.
Re: Feature: Game Builder Garage Could Help Make The Next Generation Of Game Devs
While we're discussing programming games, let's not forget PlayStation 1's long-lost strategy / programming game Carnage Heart. THAT's an obscure reference for you all. In Carnage Heart, you use parts to build battle robots called OverKill Engines (OKE), and program their behaviors with a grid of "If/then" statements in icon form. I was never that good at it, but I do hope with the tutorials for this Game Builder Garage, I can be much better at this!
Re: Feature: Game Builder Garage Could Help Make The Next Generation Of Game Devs
@GrailUK
"I'm so buying this!"
"I'm so buying this!"
"I'm so buying this!"
"I'm so buying this!"
ad infinitum...
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (May 8th)
Mostly playing "Monster Hunter Rise" with my friends, there, and actually getting back to investigation game "Ai: the Somnium Files". for those who don't know or have forgotten, Ai is from the makers of the Zero Escape games, and features a detective with a cybernetic implant eyeball with a computerized partner, but also, his department has a device that lets you enter another person's dreams for 6 minutes. there you must solve puzzles in the time limit to unlock their memories and uncover the clues you need to solve a grim series of murders.
Re: Sword-Fighting Action-Platformer Fallen Knight Slashes Its Way To Switch This June
This reminds me so much of Megaman Zero, this is going to be an auto-buy for me