@Bluelink45 Seeing as you asked I looked through Nintendo Life's review archive and the first 1/10 review I could find for a Nintendo published game is the DSiWare title, Electroplankton Varvoice.
It's shame to see the Fire Emblem brand continually dragged through this mobile slop. What is Nintendo's aim here? To desensitize their target audience with continually worse and worse mobile apps?
Nintendo can put out some decent mobile stuff. Nintendo Music is fantastic and Nintendo Today is inoffensive at worst. Most of their game related stuff though is totally avoidable.
I have no skin in this race having not played any Professor Layton games. My initial reaction to the Japanese box at was “wow” but went with the EU/NA box art as it showed off the game.
So I bounced off Hades and more I’m trying a new game out in early access on Steam. Is called Deadly Days: Roadtip. It’s a fun roguelite with that backpack Tetris mechanic that seems to be doing the rounds. Definitely one to watch.
@Suketoudara fair enough. At best it's rage bait, at worst it's sexist. But it's always slimey and I don't feel any room should be allowed for this nonsense.
I’ve been playing Hades 1 on the switch 2. I have to say despite the quality of the game I’m probably in an unrecoverable state with roguelites. It’s been this way since my time with Dead Cells. I can’t get over the rinse and repeat gameplay with often little progression.
It was such a weird trailer. I kept thinking this a Samus tie-in in another game. I couldn't make sense of it until regular gameplay appeared and then the (Metroid) dread set in.
This week I pivoted away from my PvZ like game to make a top-down adventure game. I’m currently working on occlusion and chunking techniques for level rendering.
I have it a 8. I felt Nintendo played it safe Abe swing for the fences with this one. I felt like there was something for everyone here except for maybe fans of western sports games.
@Liam_Doolan great to see behind the scenes on this stuff. This sounds like it would make a fun "easter egg" or FAQ entry in an about page somewhere. Which colors mean what etc.
I loved the idea of Silksong when it was first revealed but I don't get this descent into madness that has happened since. It's almost like the Hollow Knight community went "full Arkham".
I decided to refine my Plants vs. Zombies game from tower defense to “support defense”. Instead of killing enemies coming in you help cure them instead. I really like the idea of not killing things.
I’m not actually at a point where I have any gameplay. Part of my rewriting is focusing on making the game responsive. I dabbled in world space position in the last iteration for gameplay elements now I’m applying a relative approach to UI scaling so the game’s UI scales when the screen size changes.
I’ve started working on animations now. That’s a really interesting area. I’m building up my sprite sheets but the concept of making an animation in data will involve 3 objects in code. Firstly the Asset/Image then the Spritesheet which uses the Asset as a property then finally an Animation which uses the Spritesheet to say I want to use these frames at this speed. This way I can reuse spritesheets for multiple animations. It also decouples spritesheet and animation data from an asset.
Once I have animations working I’ll reimplement the world space rendering system and dynamically scale up non-UI elements.
Still no games. Game dev of my JS Plants vs. Zombies like game is going great though.
I’ve some great strides. Levels and unit types can be configured in JSON files now then deserialized into granted objects. This makes testing so much easier as I don’t have to go through lengthy object setup. I’ve also included shorthand in the Covid edict translate to configuration so less magic numbers.
In other news I have level progression in the UI to thangs to configuration I can set a next level and on victory the user can go to the next level.
I introduced unit behavior this week. Units can have melee behavior or ranged where they fire projectiles which damage their foes. I even have a unit type that generates energy for the player so they can create units faster. So I have variations on the peashooter, sunflower and wall-nut then a zombie (and speedy zombie) on the other side.
We’re not done yet. I converted my absolute value positioning system to world coordinates so I can scale them easier based on screen size.
It’s been a lot of fun seeing this all come together I put together some simple level then real pushed what could be done by adding in lots of enemy waves. It makes me realize that you can build a system but play testing and balancing are critical too.
Technically we’re a functional game now we have victory, defeat and gameplay features but I have along way to go yet.
This next week I want to add in unit removal (shovel mechanism) and possibly introduce a level select based on configured levels. Finally possibly animation but that’s a big one.
Still not playing anything though I said I’d take a look at UFO 50.
Right now I’m still working on my game. Since last week I reworked the update logic to use a single immutable state and removed all the bonkers event driven code. That was becoming a massive headache.
Anyways feature wise my pause menu UI is much better and so is player unit spawning. The gameplay doesn’t spawn enemies yet or track win/lose conditions but I have a really solid foundation so I already have a way forward there.
@Picola-Wicola attachments affect your weapon. Like a magazine will increase ammo capacity or a stock will improve handling. They’re all graded is typical RPG style colors with gold being the typical best.
Some are called “hop ups” which change how the gun performs like select fire allows you to switch from single to auto shot when the gun couldn’t do that out of the box.
If you’ve got to this point I highly recommend going to the firing range and testing this stuff out. It’s got everything I mentioned above.
@Picola-Wicola it’s not as trial by fire as it used to be as they have Bot Royale now but eventually you’re going to play against people and games can vary from setting No one to “how are there this many people here?”
Overall it’s like any other battle royale but the biggest things are weapon attachments they can subtly change your guns. It can be annoying not finding the loot you need but the scavenger hunt can make a game too.
Training area is per good for trying things out and messing with bots too.
If you’re fine with dying in a battle royale you could give it some time and see what you think.
Oh no. I’m glad this is the case because playing the switch 1 version on the switch 2 was awful. That said if I were to download this and I’m still bad at it I can’t blame game performance anymore, eh?
While we’re here. Who does everyone main? I’m a Mirage man, myself. Boozles for the foozles!
I’m actually taking a break from playing games at the moment. Instead I’m making a game like Plants vs Zombies from scratch in JavaScript in browser.
It’s coming along nicely. I’ve got unit selection and placement, pause menu, energy regen and last night I was able to spawn zombie waves. It all works with a gamepad too. Next step is unit detection so they fight each other. That’s what of the “brain” logic I’m giving each unit.
@jojobar hopefully any laziness in a port won't affect performance. More levels would have been a great addition. I really didn't want anything more from PvZ1 other than to play it on a modern console.
Much needed. I played the switch version on Switch 2 at launch and it was rough! Dock was wired and playing with a switch 2 pro controller but it played like bilge.
It's no surprise this partner showcases is for both Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2. Nintendo Switch has too large an install base to ignore it just yet. Add on top of that a lot of developers supposedly don't have Nintendo Switch 2 dev kits.
@Porky yea, it's always been that format. It's just the non-mainline Pokémon games offerings are far more broad now not just Pokémon Go.
Really all I want is for them to announce a way I can buy the old games digitally. Buying the classic games on retro hardware is such a minefield and not a cheap endeavor either.
I’ve only got to level 200 but overall a great game mechanically. The story is really jarring to me. It’s just way too silly in a way I think I’ve not seen from other Nintendo games. I’m glad the team did what they felt was right for the game though. Really loving it overall.
Comments 206
Re: Review: Fire Emblem Shadows (Mobile) - Flat F2P Folly With Simplistic Strategy & Social Deduction
@Bluelink45 Seeing as you asked I looked through Nintendo Life's review archive and the first 1/10 review I could find for a Nintendo published game is the DSiWare title, Electroplankton Varvoice.
https://www.nintendolife.com/reviews/2009/11/electroplankton_varvoice_dsiware
edit: An important distinction here is Nintendo published not Nintendo developed.
Re: Review: Fire Emblem Shadows (Mobile) - Flat F2P Folly With Simplistic Strategy & Social Deduction
It's shame to see the Fire Emblem brand continually dragged through this mobile slop. What is Nintendo's aim here? To desensitize their target audience with continually worse and worse mobile apps?
Nintendo can put out some decent mobile stuff. Nintendo Music is fantastic and Nintendo Today is inoffensive at worst. Most of their game related stuff though is totally avoidable.
Re: Final Fantasy Tactics Launch Day Artwork Features A Special Triangle Strategy Crossover
I absolute adore this art for me it's up there with Ken Sugimori's work on Pokémon gen 1 and 2.
Re: Review: Super Mario Galaxy + Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Switch) - Still Out Of This World
@Lord it's highly unlikely as they're entirely separate game installs.
I also did a quick Google and found nothing to support that it does or would.
Re: Feature: Zelda, Layton, Mega Man - 10 Games We Played At TGS 2025 Coming To Switch 1 & 2
“Megaman” games with “legacy” in their title. Name a more iconic duo!
Little blue deserves better than port collections.
Re: Poll: Box Art Brawl - Duel: Layton's Mystery Journey: Katrielle And The Millionaires' Conspiracy (Switch)
I have no skin in this race having not played any Professor Layton games. My initial reaction to the Japanese box at was “wow” but went with the EU/NA box art as it showed off the game.
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (27th September)
So I bounced off Hades and more I’m trying a new game out in early access on Steam. Is called Deadly Days: Roadtip. It’s a fun roguelite with that backpack Tetris mechanic that seems to be doing the rounds. Definitely one to watch.
Re: Feature: Who Is Devon Pritchard? - Meet The Next NOA President Stepping Into Bowser's Boots
@wollywoo a lot of setup but the payoff was worth it.
Re: Feature: Who Is Devon Pritchard? - Meet The Next NOA President Stepping Into Bowser's Boots
@Suketoudara fair enough. At best it's rage bait, at worst it's sexist. But it's always slimey and I don't feel any room should be allowed for this nonsense.
Re: Feature: Who Is Devon Pritchard? - Meet The Next NOA President Stepping Into Bowser's Boots
@AmplifyMJ why even waste time with something like that though? When you could say anything else or nothing at all.
Re: Dragon Quest I & II HD Remake's Brand New Underwater Region Is Beautiful
@canaryfarmer I'm definitely thinking too much. How does that make sense? Everyone is underwater won't everyone get hurt from those types of attack?
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (20th September)
I’ve been playing Hades 1 on the switch 2. I have to say despite the quality of the game I’m probably in an unrecoverable state with roguelites. It’s been this way since my time with Dead Cells. I can’t get over the rinse and repeat gameplay with often little progression.
Re: Nintendo Music "Special Release" Adds Tracks From Donkey Kong Bananza Today
@N00BiSH let’s hope so! That game has an incredible soundtrack.
Re: Where To Pre-Order Metroid Prime 4: Beyond For Nintendo Switch 1 + 2, Plus New Metroid amiibo
Now I'm wondering if they added bike gameplay so they could come up with a new amiibo. 😂
Re: Opinion: Metroid Prime 4 Reminds Me Of Gears 5, And It's Making Me Nervous
It was such a weird trailer. I kept thinking this a Samus tie-in in another game. I couldn't make sense of it until regular gameplay appeared and then the (Metroid) dread set in.
Re: Nintendo Showcases Every Switch And Switch 2 Direct Game In New Infographic
@Kazman2007 there was one. It wasn’t a separate poll article it was included in the post direct article/guide.
https://www.nintendolife.com/guides/nintendo-direct-september-2025-every-announcement-game-reveal-trailer#poll-how-would-you-rate-this-direct
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (13th September)
No games again just game dev.
This week I pivoted away from my PvZ like game to make a top-down adventure game. I’m currently working on occlusion and chunking techniques for level rendering.
Re: Nintendo Direct September 2025: Every Announcement, Game Reveal, Trailer
I have it a 8. I felt Nintendo played it safe Abe swing for the fences with this one. I felt like there was something for everyone here except for maybe fans of western sports games.
Re: Nintendo Direct Announced For Friday, 12th September 2025
So you're saying there's a chance of Pilotwings or Wave Race news?
Re: Poll: Box Art Brawl - Duel: Forsaken (N64)
I voted Europe as that’s the box I had growing up. Nostalgia!
Re: Feature: The Road To Silksong: Remembering Seven Years Of Hope, Hype, And Clown Makeup
@JumpingJackson it's all shouting into the void for me hoping to be heard.
That said maybe younger folks can handle that much information at once?
Re: Feature: The Road To Silksong: Remembering Seven Years Of Hope, Hype, And Clown Makeup
@John_Deacon looks like that's a Shi-yes-bi!
Re: Feature: The Road To Silksong: Remembering Seven Years Of Hope, Hype, And Clown Makeup
@Enigk now F-Zero and Silksong are off the table I'm moving on to Wave Race or Pilotwings.
Re: Nintendo Music Adds Fire Emblem: Awakening Soundtrack In New Update
@Liam_Doolan great to see behind the scenes on this stuff. This sounds like it would make a fun "easter egg" or FAQ entry in an about page somewhere. Which colors mean what etc.
Re: Feature: The Road To Silksong: Remembering Seven Years Of Hope, Hype, And Clown Makeup
I loved the idea of Silksong when it was first revealed but I don't get this descent into madness that has happened since. It's almost like the Hollow Knight community went "full Arkham".
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (30th August)
No games again. Hardly any game dev either tbh - life!
I’ve added refined my animation system, and added in a simple background to the game. Now I’m just working out how I’m gonna add the UI on top.
Re: Video: Nintendo Highlights 'Super NES - Nintendo Classics' Features Update
The first part of that video really dragged (pun intended!)
Re: Nintendo To Officially Launch eShop In Taiwan
Well to the fold, Taiwan!
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (23rd August)
Just game dev again. Engine rewrite #4!
I decided to refine my Plants vs. Zombies game from tower defense to “support defense”. Instead of killing enemies coming in you help cure them instead. I really like the idea of not killing things.
I’m not actually at a point where I have any gameplay. Part of my rewriting is focusing on making the game responsive. I dabbled in world space position in the last iteration for gameplay elements now I’m applying a relative approach to UI scaling so the game’s UI scales when the screen size changes.
I’ve started working on animations now. That’s a really interesting area. I’m building up my sprite sheets but the concept of making an animation in data will involve 3 objects in code. Firstly the Asset/Image then the Spritesheet which uses the Asset as a property then finally an Animation which uses the Spritesheet to say I want to use these frames at this speed. This way I can reuse spritesheets for multiple animations. It also decouples spritesheet and animation data from an asset.
Once I have animations working I’ll reimplement the world space rendering system and dynamically scale up non-UI elements.
Lots to do. Still loving working on this thing.
Re: Beautiful Disney-esque Horror 'Bye Sweet Carole' Gets Suitably Spooky Release Date
Okay this is amazing. The team should be very proud of what they've created here.
Re: Hollow Knight: Silksong Finally Has A Release Date
Good good. Now we can all move on with our lives.
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (16th August)
Still no games. Game dev of my JS Plants vs. Zombies like game is going great though.
I’ve some great strides. Levels and unit types can be configured in JSON files now then deserialized into granted objects. This makes testing so much easier as I don’t have to go through lengthy object setup. I’ve also included shorthand in the Covid edict translate to configuration so less magic numbers.
In other news I have level progression in the UI to thangs to configuration I can set a next level and on victory the user can go to the next level.
I introduced unit behavior this week. Units can have melee behavior or ranged where they fire projectiles which damage their foes. I even have a unit type that generates energy for the player so they can create units faster. So I have variations on the peashooter, sunflower and wall-nut then a zombie (and speedy zombie) on the other side.
We’re not done yet. I converted my absolute value positioning system to world coordinates so I can scale them easier based on screen size.
It’s been a lot of fun seeing this all come together I put together some simple level then real pushed what could be done by adding in lots of enemy waves. It makes me realize that you can build a system but play testing and balancing are critical too.
Technically we’re a functional game now we have victory, defeat and gameplay features but I have along way to go yet.
This next week I want to add in unit removal (shovel mechanism) and possibly introduce a level select based on configured levels. Finally possibly animation but that’s a big one.
Re: Could This Mysterious Super Mario 40th Anniversary X Account Be Legit?
@Ellie-Moo the limited time Mario 3D Allstars game was the quest thing Nintendo had done in recent memory. That just felt super greedy.
Edit: I think that was a watershed moment for me with Nintendo.
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (9th August)
Still not playing anything though I said I’d take a look at UFO 50.
Right now I’m still working on my game. Since last week I reworked the update logic to use a single immutable state and removed all the bonkers event driven code. That was becoming a massive headache.
Anyways feature wise my pause menu UI is much better and so is player unit spawning. The gameplay doesn’t spawn enemies yet or track win/lose conditions but I have a really solid foundation so I already have a way forward there.
I’m looking forward to where I go next with this.
Re: Mini Review: Apex Legends (Switch 2) - A Giant Leap Over The Tragic Switch 1 Version
@Picola-Wicola attachments affect your weapon. Like a magazine will increase ammo capacity or a stock will improve handling. They’re all graded is typical RPG style colors with gold being the typical best.
Some are called “hop ups” which change how the gun performs like select fire allows you to switch from single to auto shot when the gun couldn’t do that out of the box.
If you’ve got to this point I highly recommend going to the firing range and testing this stuff out. It’s got everything I mentioned above.
Keep safe out there, legend!
Re: Mini Review: Apex Legends (Switch 2) - A Giant Leap Over The Tragic Switch 1 Version
@Picola-Wicola it’s not as trial by fire as it used to be as they have Bot Royale now but eventually you’re going to play against people and games can vary from setting No one to “how are there this many people here?”
Overall it’s like any other battle royale but the biggest things are weapon attachments they can subtly change your guns. It can be annoying not finding the loot you need but the scavenger hunt can make a game too.
Training area is per good for trying things out and messing with bots too.
If you’re fine with dying in a battle royale you could give it some time and see what you think.
Re: Nintendo Announces New 'Hello, Mario!' App For Switch And Mobile Devices
@Oldstalk people thought Welcome Tour was expensive! This required add-on is literally life changing.
Re: Mini Review: Apex Legends (Switch 2) - A Giant Leap Over The Tragic Switch 1 Version
Oh no. I’m glad this is the case because playing the switch 1 version on the switch 2 was awful. That said if I were to download this and I’m still bad at it I can’t blame game performance anymore, eh?
While we’re here. Who does everyone main? I’m a Mirage man, myself. Boozles for the foozles!
Re: UFO 50 Gets A Surprise Shadow Drop On Switch Today
Heck yea! I’ve been off games at the moment while I build my own but this might tempt me back in.
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (2nd August)
I’m actually taking a break from playing games at the moment. Instead I’m making a game like Plants vs Zombies from scratch in JavaScript in browser.
It’s coming along nicely. I’ve got unit selection and placement, pause menu, energy regen and last night I was able to spawn zombie waves. It all works with a gamepad too. Next step is unit detection so they fight each other. That’s what of the “brain” logic I’m giving each unit.
Re: Plants Vs Zombies: Replanted Coming To Switch 1 & 2 This October
@jojobar hopefully any laziness in a port won't affect performance. More levels would have been a great addition. I really didn't want anything more from PvZ1 other than to play it on a modern console.
Re: Apex Legends Gets A Switch 2 Upgrade & Release Next Week
Much needed. I played the switch version on Switch 2 at launch and it was rough! Dock was wired and playing with a switch 2 pro controller but it played like bilge.
I doubt this will bring me back though.
Re: Feature: Nintendo Partner Direct Predictions - What Do You Expect To See?
I'd love UFO 50. Sea of Thieves might be nice if we get private servers any time soon.
Re: Nintendo Direct Partner Showcase Announced For Tomorrow, 31st July 2025
It's no surprise this partner showcases is for both Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2. Nintendo Switch has too large an install base to ignore it just yet. Add on top of that a lot of developers supposedly don't have Nintendo Switch 2 dev kits.
Re: Nintendo Expands Switch Online's SNES Library With A Mouse Game
Honestly one of the best Nintendo YouTube channel videos in a good while. Great humor!
Re: Rumoured Plants vs. Zombies Remaster Potentially Releasing On Switch This Year
I loved the first game after that it was just F2P slop or an entirely different genre. I’d welcome a remaster of the first game.
Re: Review: Patapon 1+2 Replay (Switch) - A Pleasing Return For Some PSP Charmers
These games look beautiful but I'm honestly terrible at rhythm games.
Re: Random: DK Enthusiast Breaks Switch 2 In Bananas Spray Painting Job Gone Wrong
Yes but how does the cartridge taste?
Re: Pokémon Legends: Z-A Is Getting Its Very Own Switch 2 Bundle
@Porky yea, it's always been that format. It's just the non-mainline Pokémon games offerings are far more broad now not just Pokémon Go.
Really all I want is for them to announce a way I can buy the old games digitally. Buying the classic games on retro hardware is such a minefield and not a cheap endeavor either.
Re: Poll: What Review Score Would You Give Donkey Kong Bananza?
I’ve only got to level 200 but overall a great game mechanically. The story is really jarring to me. It’s just way too silly in a way I think I’ve not seen from other Nintendo games. I’m glad the team did what they felt was right for the game though. Really loving it overall.