Pastellioli

Seeing this making a comeback was definitely a shocker. I remember for years everyone wanted a Tomodachi Life sequel and I thought it wasn’t ever going to happen, but it did! The 3DS game is so weird and random but extremely fun and entertaining, and this reveal absolutely captured the quirkiness of it. Can’t wait to see what they’ll do for this one.

Absolutely love rhythm games, so this looks cool! I remember playing the demo for Megamix on the 3DS and enjoying it, so I definitely am curious about this one. Too bad it isn’t releasing until next year though.

@KingMike Oh. That makes sense now…that kind of doesn’t surprise me a bit now.

I really hope that they don’t remove other games off the service after this one. A lot of the games I play on NSO are licensed games, and they are absolutely a blast and introduced me to a lot of good game franchises that have become my favorites.

I have to wonder why it’s being removed, but I’d assume it’s maybe the licensing rights expiring. I think that’s the most plausible reasoning whenever a game gets removed off of a service or storefront.

That’s so crazy to think about… I remember trying to get this launch day at nighttime at a ton of stores and it was sold out everywhere and having to settle with the digital version. I remember just how popular this was years ago and that meme pairing with this game and Doom Eternal haha. Good times! It’s a good game, and it was pretty innovative, but I didn’t play it much compared to New Leaf.

That’s a shocker! Nice that it’s coming back! I still remember reading some of the magazines around the house, and it was fun. I remember the pages where they featured fanart of video game characters the most.

I rarely hear ANYTHING on Netflix’s gaming endeavors, but I feel like that’s a sign they aren’t doing well alongside the layoffs.

Remember when they started a triple-A gaming studio and even got people who worked on Overwatch, God of War and Halo on board so it would succeed and then Netflix quickly closed the studio down without making a single game and they all left? I honestly don’t know why they tried to invest in gaming, because it clearly isn’t working as well as they thought. Hope that the people who unfortunately got laid off are okay.

Honestly, I’d be fine if they keep NSO but added the option to purchase titles individually for a few bucks so you can still keep playing specific games you like even after your sub runs out. There are so many games on NSO I like a ton that I would like to own instead of having to keep subbing to retain access to them.

Pretty cool they’re going back to the crossover thing the Sega All-Stars racing games did rather than scrapping it altogether instead of being Sonic-only like Team Sonic Racing. Loved Transformed with the transformation gimmick and the game being a gigantic crossover with so many different faces, so it’s cool it’s making a comeback!

I feel like that is absolutely true, unfortunately. Most of the fans are Nintendo users, but it’s owned by Microsoft, and the Xbox is more focused on action games like shooters, and I feel like on there that there isn’t really an audience for classic platformer games on the Xbox compared to the Switch. I would maybe expect a new Banjo game to also have a Switch release since Microsoft has been adapting the multi-platform approach for a few of their titles, and I think that would be the way to go if they’d want it to sell well since the Xbox usually has the least sales in terms of games.

If they were to make a new one, expectations with the quality and gameplay would be high since Nuts and Bolts wasn’t a true platformer and was rather a sandbox game where you build vehicles with significantly toned down platformer elements. It shocks me no one has tried to remake the N64 games (besides that remake Rare was making that was cancelled in favor of Nuts and Bolts) because I think that would be the way to go rather than a new entry since I think remakes would satisfy fans more, but I don’t know.

I actually like both designs equally. The OG Rare design is cool-looking and iconic and the newer one is funny and goofy-looking (in a good way!) I actually see some elements from his retro design and a little bit of DK Jr. in the redesign, and I wouldn’t say it looks entirely like his movie design.

It’s not a bad redesign in my opinion, I think there are other video game character redesigns that look far more worse and make the character actually look off-putting. I do feel like the redesign might be a one-off (and as one of the comments stated above) it might be an additional racer/variant that uses a different design instead of the OG one.

I would absolutely LOVE a new game, but they’d need to find a fitting developer for it that both want to make it and has the skills to execute it well. Rare wouldn’t be the ones to make a new Banjo game, but that mainly comes from their disinterest in using their legacy IP.

I also don’t really know how it would sell in the modern day or if it could have similar numbers to the Mario games because I feel like Mario is a bigger IP than Banjo. Only way I see it selling a ton is if they release it on Switch since the Nintendo userbase knows Banjo way more than people who use the Xbox since Rare had more ties to Nintendo than Microsoft. I still have hope for a new game and I’d love to see the Xbox have an established platformer IP like Nintendo and Sony, but I feel like it will take a while for that to happen.

@tobsesta99 Thanks for telling me! I have actually heard a few people talking about Labo possibly being unplayable, but I wonder what other games will be unplayable on there. I think people have been mentioning Ring Fit Adventure also likely being unplayable on there, but I expect a lot of first-party Nintendo-developed games to be playable on NS2. The only games I really do expect to possibly be unplayable are those with licensing issues and maybe software that use extra accessories (like the Labo as you mentioned).

@nhSnork yeah, I think that licensing will prevent some games from being playable and purchasable on Switch 2 (which is something that also affected the backwards compatibility system on there Xbox and why it only supports around half of the 360 game library and a small amount of OG Xbox games) but it won’t affect the playability of the games of course. I just wonder what specific titles will be excluded from the backwards compatibility system besides guesses like the Nintendo Labo and possibly Ring Fit Adventure.

Backwards compatibility is such a blessing for game consoles, and I’d even say it’s a necessity! It helps save money too so you don’t have to keep buying game ports on each console just to keep playing them, plus it helps game preservation too. It’s a very welcome feature, and I’m glad Nintendo is adopting it once more.

It’s a shame it won’t support all OG Switch games, but I’m not surprised about that given things like game licensing issues could affect a few titles. Hoping it supports a really big library and the games have a ton of enhancements on it!

There really isn’t any good reason for someone to leak game info besides clout and getting a few minutes of internet fame. But, I honestly felt like a lot of those Switch 2 leaks kind of came from impatience alongside just trying to get internet clout. I used to think game leaks were fun and interesting to look at, but they just spoil the surprise when they spread all over the internet since leaks aren’t even supposed to be seen by anyone.

Well, I’m just very happy they revealed it after so many leaks, and I was wrong about a lot of those leaks and didn’t expect the next console to be a stronger and kinda bigger Switch. It looks cool and sleek and it’s very good it’ll be backwards compatible (though they confirmed that way before) but I’m curious about the software besides that new Mario Kart game they showed off, but it’ll probably be months till we know what they plan to release for it.

While I do think NSO is great and it got me into a ton of great game franchises and titles, I think not giving people the option to purchase specific games from the library individually and let them own it is a poor choice. Plus, if you want to keep playing those games and not lose access to them, you have to keep paying and it can get expensive over time for some people when all the money builds up. I find that buying a game one time is way more cheaper than subbing to a subscription service for one game and paying for it monthly.

Why can’t they just do what Microsoft does with Game Pass and allowing people to purchase games included in the sub instead of having them stay subbed to the service so they can keep playing those games and not lose access? I think it’s also bad that NSO might at one point shut down and all the games and data there will be gone permanently, plus a lot of those titles included don’t have their own Switch ports you can buy physically or on the eShop.

Splatoon and the first Mario Maker game were that long ago? Time really does fly by that fast…

@Banjo- Also, Happy New Year to you! I’m very glad that I got to have a ton of fun discussions with you a lot! Your one of the best users I’ve ever interacted with

Happy New Year! I want to say thank you to the NL staff and the community for the awesome 2024. It was actually my first time making an account and I had so much fun reading all those fun articles and interacting with everyone about all our favorite games throughout the previous year.

Congratulations to everyone for getting through all the challenges and hardships 2024 may have had and wishing you all an AMAZING 2025! This year should be full of lots of fun and new games, especially with the Switch successor coming very soon! May you all be protected and blessed!

I mean, I know for sure that the next Nintendo console will likely do very well like the Switch, but I feel like it’s too early to predict this given that we don’t really know anything about it besides the fact that it’ll have backwards compatibility with OG Switch software and NSO functionality. I feel like the prediction would be far more accurate if it was being made after the console is released, rather than before its reveal and release.

I feel that “struggle mightily” claim is slightly true, but I feel like that it would apply more to Microsoft than Sony, given that PlayStation and its games sell very well, and I’d say that the sales on those are more on par with Nintendo’s game and console sales, and at the moment Microsoft is doing an awful job at managing Xbox, so that prediction is far more believable in my opinion. Of course things could look different and change in the future, but it’s too early to tell since current trends are subject to change.

I knew it was going to happen unfortunately, because I do think the end credits scenes in the previous movies were also spoiled online before release. Still hyped to see it Christmas Day, but gosh I feel like it’s gonna be so hard to avoid them because they could pop up on my social media feed or YouTube at any moment…

That’s quite a lot!

I remember when they introduced the Expansion Pack and all the negative reception that it got upon the reveal with its limited game library, but it’s nice to hear that over a few years the service improved and now boasts a lot of amazing and iconic games and supports more retro game systems. I remember having a blast with the N64 Expansion Pack when I had it. I wonder what games they’ll be adding to the service next year...just thinking about that is exciting!

Hm, I know there is a chance the next console won’t look like this, but is it weird to say I don’t see much difference between the original Switch with the mock-up?

The only differences I really see is that the buttons on the back of the Joy-cons look longer and stick out and that the screen is noticeably more bigger, and I also saw that the console looks slightly rounder but still in a rectangular shape, as well as the other things that the article mentions. I don’t believe a lot of these Switch 2 “leaks,” and I feel like they would add way more differences and improvements to their next console than just having it kind of look the exact same.

Gosh, it’s that old? I remember that reveal trailer with the Inklings from the Direct and being so shocked when the end of the trailer revealed it was for a new Smash game, and then waiting for this game in anticipation throughout the year and having a blast with Ultimate a few days after it released. Insane to think that 2018 was just 6 years ago!

Freaking love this game, probably my most favorite fighting game of all time! It’s the best and most grandest fighting game ever, and the large fighter roster is so impressive and amazing. It was nice that even after DLC ended, that they still somewhat supported the game with more new spirits, and I still have some game sessions with it.

But, I wonder what direction the future games will go in, given that this one is big and I’d say set the bar for future entries. I am wondering if the next Smash will have to cut down the roster since that’s something I’ve heard a people discuss for a 6th entry, or if the next game will focus on being smaller instead of being bigger.

There is some time for them to release DK64 on NSO this year, but I’m kind of leaning toward next year for a possible release. I’m just waiting to see them release Conker and DKR on there, the latter especially.

I do play FEH and a rhythm game called Project Sekai (which has some gacha elements) but the mechanics are pretty annoying and, like what some have said, could be considered predatory and kind of ruin the games. The only time I spent money on a gacha game was FEH (only $10 for some subscription service on there, which was ok) but after that I pretty much decided to never waste money on gacha games or to actually pull from gacha banners in the games and just use what I have in them. FEH is ok and I do like some of the characters, setting and gameplay, but it isn’t awesome and I found that the story is sometimes poorly written and isn’t memorable or strong.

I feel like some gacha games encourage you to spend money and gamble for something that you are not guaranteed to get (which definitely isn’t good for a natural spender like me) but there are definitely some games that do the gacha elements way worse than others, though luckily FEH and Project Sekai let you get in-game currency and it’s optional to spend real money on them.

I can’t state enough how excited I am for this, I’m just counting the days away lol. I feel like this movie has the chance to outdo the previous two; one thing I like is how as the movies go on, they start to feel more like the Sonic games with their plots and setting by introducing more characters and implementing elements from the games into the original content the movies have.

In my opinion, I wouldn’t even include game seasons as GOTY nominees. Why are they including game seasons as GOTY candidates when it’s not really a finished game at all? Isn’t there a game category called “Best Ongoing Game” that they could have used for that instead?

It honestly would have been better if they made a separate category for game seasons and game DLC, but I am unsurprised that they didn’t do that at all. I feel like that the voting and the candidate list is now going to become even more of a mess…

@link3710 Geez, that is REALLY BAD. I really hope the people who leaked this get caught and face the consequences. I don’t get what these people get out of leaking others personal information online and causing them distress.

@timschel I did not say that I had a right to any of the leaks or say that some info is okay and more acceptable than other info. I don’t know much of what leaked besides the fact that some concept artwork was shown since I didn’t read the leak at all. When leaks like this happen, I do not bother reading the contents or learning more about it, especially if the leak is said to contain private information on developers and is a threat and breach to their life and privacy.

I should have added this in my other comment, but I wished that the art concepts weren’t released in this malicious way by some random people that caused stress and worry to the developers. The people who leaked all this info are super scummy, especially how they apparently are “going into hiding” to avoid the consequences.

@Samalik Agreed, I also do like looking at concept art and scrapped ideas for games, but I am absolutely against the types of leaks that include private info on developers and making them available to the public eye.

In fact, I am against a lot of game leaks in general, since most leakers (not all, I should clarify) don’t have a lot of reasons for leaking besides gaining internet fame and clout, and after hearing about that terrible Insomniac Games leak last year, I realized how malicious some leaks can be, especially being a person who favors protecting privacy and is anxious about it happening a whole lot.

Even though I like my Series S a lot and mainly play my Xbox way more than the Switch at the moment, I will say I don’t really mind them bringing a few of their exclusives over to other platforms, especially Switch. I don’t mind games going multiplatform.

I actually only wanted an Xbox to play Rare’s exclusives (and Rare Replay) since Rare’s SNES and N64 games are locked behind NSO on the Switch and a majority of their games don’t have Switch ports. I think that their experimental 360 games like Viva Piñata would have done way better with Nintendo gamers because of their appeal and also how Rare has more of a history with Nintendo than Microsoft.

A bit surprised that the runtime is slightly shorter than 2, I would have assumed 3 would have a longer runtime because of 3’s story being a bit more serious and having more inspiration and elements from the Adventure games and the Shadow the Hedgehog spin-off (at least from what they showed in 3’s trailer) but that’s fine! Super excited for this one a lot. It’s actually the only 2024 movie I wanna see in theaters lol.

@Serpenterror I love how the shoes look photoshopped in lol.

Mainly going to be focusing on mobile games this time for the weekend! I have two:

Hatsune Miku: Colorful Stage! - I’m mainly going to be replaying some of my favorite song charts I completed and full combo’d already and trying to get new high scores on them. They added a lot of new song charts while I took a kind of long break from the game, and just earlier today in the morning, I competed all the songs they added for October. I’m also probably going to be trying out some harder Master charts for the songs I full combo’d on Expert just for fun.

Fire Emblem Heroes - I haven’t played this for quite a few months. I’m replaying it to make more progress on the current story, Book 8, since I am pretty far behind on it, and they are likely going to wrap up the story on that Book very soon. If I can remember, I am maybe on chapter 8.

Wow, what did I miss today? This seems very cool! Nintendo making their own music streaming app was definitely not on my bingo card. I don’t know if I will be using it, but it’s nice that they are actually now trying to make their music more accessible now, cuz for a while they kind of did a poor job of giving people official ways to listen to their songs.

I played the Xbox port of this so I didn’t have any issues with the frame rate, but I do agree that the game sometimes feels bloated and kind of too big. I think the interconnected levels is really cool and something I don’t see a ton for a lot of platformer games and I actually didn’t mind it, but the levels are super big and it can take a lot of hours to explore the worlds and getting all the jiggies.

Oh, and another thing I had an issue with was also the difficulty level; I thought this game was way TOO harder than Kazooie and it led to a lot of frustrating moments, especially with the infamous Canary Mary race and the overabundance of timed mini games and instantly failing if you can’t get them done in time; it was the worst with this level in Grunty Industries where you have to destroy every single enemy obstructing air vents (if I recall) during this pretty cool GoldenEye 007-esque shooting segment, and the time limit on that one was terrible and pretty stressful, and kind of sapped the fun out of some of the interesting mini games. I was actually supposed to replay this last month, but I think that remembering the difficulty level is what made me kind of uninterested in playing it again. I think it isn’t a bad sequel like some fans say it is, it still has all that Banjo charm and humor despite the tone and story being a tad bit darker and macabre, but I would probably play Kazooie over Tooie if I had to choose. But, despite having said that, this was a really fun review to read! Loved all the jokes and humor in it.

I did think the Expansion Pack had value when my dad got the sub for everyone, but I I only felt that way only because I never played a lot of the retro games on there, and I was pretty easy to please with the stuff on there, though I will admit I only wanted it for Banjo-Kazooie.

I think the main issue for the service at the time for me was how slow they were with adding games and the releases sometimes being inconsistent, and some of the legacy game services on there are still missing obvious choices. To this day I’m still waiting for Diddy Kong Racing since they haven’t released that in any modern form and it being so hard to play on the emulator I have. They do appear to have a more consistent schedule for the Game Boy Advance games and that’s good, and they did have a somewhat consistent schedule going for the N64 games for a bit, but they went back to inconsistent releases for that one, and I don’t even remember the last time they updated the Sega Genesis library.

Although I don’t have the service anymore, I am hoping that this new update they are teasing for next year does have some significance or is a SUPER big update that improves the service a lot. Inconsistent release schedules for the games was my biggest issue with the Expansion Pack service when I used to play it.

I am praying that they don’t use AI generated images in the final product, and that the AI art is just used for the concept trailer footage they showed. I really dislike companies using AI art instead of getting actual talented and skilled artists on board for any type of project, especially when the companies have shown in the past that they have human artists that can make amazing and beautiful artworks without the use of AI. Using some AI is fine in game development, but I have huge issues when it’s used for art, cuz AI art generators have had a detrimental effect on artists. In art, I think AI is good when coming up with ideas or some kind of inspiration for a final piece of artistic work by a human, or to kind of assist game developers. I have an issue when it’s used for products like games and the AI art looks off, artificial and is full of a lot of mistakes.

Yokai Watch is probably one of the most interesting and fun game series I have played, and they were full of so many unique concepts, and to me, the ideas the game had were very creative. Again, I’m hopeful that they won’t use AI art in the final product, given this was more of a concept trailer rather than an actual game trailer. It would be so disappointing to see it be used in the next installment in a game series that is clearly full of so much heart and creativity with its yokai and concepts, and Holy Horror Mansion seems very intriguing with the new ideas shown in the trailer.

Gosh, I love Splatoon so much and I definitely think it’s one of the best online shooters ever. I remember when I played the first game almost a decade ago and it being my introduction to online shooter games, and then I would play 2 so much on the Switch and put in so much hours and time into it. It’s actually my most played Switch game ever. It’s probably one of my favorite game franchises ever despite me not playing it anymore.

You don’t really see a lot of effort being put into in-game events in most online shooter games, usually it’s just a small event with a new game mode that’s there for a limited time and maybe some new character skins; but what Splatoon 3 did with the Grand Festival is so impressive and had a lot of effort put into it from what I saw and heard, and I would dare say blows a lot of in-game events in shooter games out of the water. Sadly I missed the Grand Festival, plus I wasn’t able to play 3 as much as I wished to since the copy we have went somewhere, but I am glad everyone else was able to have fun and celebrate one of the best shooter games ever made. Seemed like the greatest and grandest Splatfest for sure.

Played a bit of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge on the Xbox with a friend of mine for the first time. I have played Shredder’s Revenge already, but it was about a year since I last played it. Had a blast playing with my friend and a couple of other players online, but I did kinda suck at playing because it’s been so long since I’ve played and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t make myself look stupid while playing lol. I’ll join him again later! Probably going to play this tomorrow too.

Originally me and my friend were supposed to play Perfect Dark Zero, but for some reason the game required me to buy an Xbox Live sub even though it was discontinued and despite me already having an online sub. Shame we couldn’t play Zero but oh well.

Amazing! I have never played an Astro Bot game ever, but the game looks super fun, and it looks like it’s full of charm and love for PlayStation as a whole. The game seems like it’d be up my alley since I love platformer games so much, but I don’t have a PS5 sadly

It’s fine to take inspiration from other games and media and putting your own spin on it. Inspiration is not straight up “copying.” Inspiration sparks creativity and innovation, and with some game developers who are inspired by the biggest and most famous game series, also put in homages honoring those games. Astro Bot does not look like it’s copycatting like what the Twitter user is suggesting. I also don’t get console wars at all.

@Bobb Huh, I see. Sorry for the misunderstanding. I think I have seen Omni before, and he does also seem to be the one who likes to joke a lot! The Twitter users responding to him sort of led me to think he wasn’t joking at all with what he said. Though, if Omni was being serious and did want to actually buy Reggie’s games, I personally still wouldn’t sell a nostalgic item I just dug up.

No, I honestly think it’s best he keeps the collection to himself and doesn’t sell it, if I also found a nostalgic game or item, the last thing I’d do is sell it.

I do wonder if the rarity and value of some of the games included in there is a factor in why that Omni dude wants it aside from Reggie’s signature on them, cuz one of the games in there, Conker, is actually a rare N64 game for collectors nowadays, super rare that original copies go for $500-$700 or more online in the US, and that whenever a collector says they got the game for a price cheaper than that, they get side-eyed and questioned whether or not it’s a reproduced or fake copy.

But, that’s the only game I can think of that is of a lot of value in there. At least for me, I don’t see a point in trying to ask him to buy his game collection. I don’t think he’ll sell them to some random dude he probably doesn’t know.

I’d love it a lot! I would absolutely love if they were able to get the rights to have some Rare characters as Switch avatars, but I am pretty content with the one I have on there, being a Donkey Kong Country render I got on NSO.

I don’t know, but there’s something about avatar and profile pictures that are so fun. It’s probably because it tells a lot about your personality and interests in just a single picture, and with changing profile pictures on sites like these, the possibilities are endless, but sometimes I get so lazy with changing mine lol.

@Mrkittyhead Me too! I have memories of playing it and I didn’t think it was awful, but the way I played it was Netflix, since they had a version of it playable on there for free for a few years before taking it off. I remember watching videos of YouTubers playing it too. Seeing Reuben die actually made me super upset while playing.

Not sure really. I have gone onto another thread and stated that I am more confident in an early 2025 reveal, probably around the end of Japan’s fiscal year, but some people have brought up that they would maybe want to reveal it this month or October, probably to beat leakers to the punch since they said they wanted to have more stronger security and preventing leaks.

For some reason, I can see a fall reveal possibly overshadowing some of their upcoming Switch games and also maybe slightly ruining holiday Switch sales in a few more months if the “Switch 2” has new features that are enough to dissuade new users from buying Switches and to just wait until the next console releases. I don’t think Nintendo is super concerned about Switch sales right now since it sold a lot already, but they still would probably want the Switch to sell a few more units since the holiday season is coming up, and it could very well be one of the Switch’s final years on the market. I don’t easily believe the “leaks” and rumors for the “Switch 2,” so I’ll just wait till Nintendo officially reveals it. It’s very hard to predict when Nintendo will reveal it though.

Well, I think their social media accounts have been sort of meme-y and comedic for a while now (which I love, it just shows a lot of personality) so they have been pretty cool with a majority of the memes people have made for years. I have seen them use this pretty cool and funny Sonic puppet in some of their Instagram reels.

I just love the approach Sega has toward its fans and fanmade projects. They seem very understanding of how much passion and love their fans have toward their properties and characters.

I literally cannot tell you how EXCITED I am for this. Hoping they do Shadow well in the movie!