Picola-Wicola

This should be an absolute given! I only use third party controllers with Hall effect sticks for the Switch for this very reason (Gullikit Pro for TV and Nitro Deck for handheld) and they are both superb.

Tears of the Kingdom. I actually only defeated Ganondorf last week because I didn’t want to “complete” the game, I always wanted an excuse to jump back into the world or just ride around on Zelda’s golden horse, taking in the sights and sounds.

I have just this second beaten the final boss on Hyper Light Drifter, which looked beautiful on the OLED. So many great games and memories, happy birthday little Switch.

@shiftbarackyeaugh Ah, ok, that doesn’t sound as bad. Maybe I should give it a shot after all. Thanks.

You stopped me from even attempting to start this game with your description of the rat boss. That just sounds painfully frustrating. I haven’t got the patience for that kind of nonsense in games these days. Hard, hard pass.

@KY502ShinyHunter Here here! I have gotten rid of all my joycons, not because of drift, but because they CONSTANTLY disconnect in handheld mode due to those awful rails. I have to use a deck controller that connects via the bottom USB in handheld and a pro controller for tv play. Both of which are 3rd party Hall effect so also no risk of drift, but it does feel insane that I do not have a single joycon in the house and own a switch.

Relieved to see that a third of those polled so far also had Balatro at number one. Though my 291 hours feels somewhat shameful…

Most played = Balatro at 291 hours!! Oh dear, oh dear.

I am also with the people who just don’t get the strange reverence for this game. Playing through Zelda echoes and Red Dead Redemption at the minute, and playing such outstanding games makes the idea of playing this feel even more like a real waste of time.

I have been waiting for this update to start my very first playthrough (didn’t see the point in starting before it, even though I purchased the game ages ago), so any tips for newcomers to Stardew is highly welcome!

Playing through Red Dead Redemption on switch, I had forgotten how darn good this game is, still holds up remarkably well. Downloaded Slay the Spire+ from Apple Arcade this morning as I’ve heard lots of good things but never took the plunge on Switch, so I will try it for ‘free’ (already have a subscription). Oh, and I will definitely fit in a few Mario Kart online races (does anyone else despise the cursed Tour courses!? I cuss whenever one is selected, haha).

For anyone wondering what the point of products like this are, and saying the joy-cons are fine, I would just like to point out that the nitro deck has solved an infuriating issue with Nintendo’s own joy-cons for me: in handheld mode on my switch, all official joy-cons quickly became loose on my OLED, constantly disconnecting during gameplay, ruining my switch experience. Then there’s drift, which ruins it further. The nitro deck solved both these issues for me instantly: no drift ever due to Hall effect sticks, and no loose connection due to not relying on those shoddy side rails.

I saw the advert last night, thought it was great and knew it was someone famous from music… but couldn’t name her at all.

I was sooo looking for this type of game to play for Halloween, will download it before the big day. Really appreciate this review or I’d have missed this.

@JohnnyMind You’re always first in to say thanks for a review, even when you’re not interested in the game yourself. Just wanted to say that’s pretty cool.

I’ll be continuing my playthrough of Echoes. I plan on just walking from east to west of the map, and since it only moves one frame per hour, it will take me all weekend just to traverse this distance and do nothing else.

@Teksetter - here we go again 🥱

Admittedly I have only completed two dungeons so far, I like to savour new Zelda games and not rush, but honestly, what frame rate issues? Haven’t been hindered in the slightest, and I am quite frankly sick and tired of this most modern of obsessions with frame rates being the be-all-and-end-all. Great game, plays wonderfully.

Perfect timing, I’ve just finished the Jabu-Jabu dungeon (the second one for me) and absolutely loved the return to proper dungeons and Boss Keys, and what a fun water boss battle that was!

@WheresWaveRace darn it, now I want that too!

@Olliemar28 Very well said. Love reading articles like this and we should all know the context by now.

@Teksetter that support group sounds like a great idea, think they need us..

My Casio calculator dips between 1 and 2 frames per second when I add 1 plus 2, but hits a stable 3 frames when I minus, it’s not working properly, the maths must be wrong

@Teksetter I am 100% with you and @TrueGamer79 on the complete and utter obsession with frame rates these days! I was playing video games for 20 years before even hearing them mentioned as any kind of main factor in how good a game is to play.

I started the demo this week as I didn’t want to start a new game with Zelda undoubtedly going to be occupying the majority of my gaming time come Thursday, and I have never really played this genre before, but darn, this game hooked me in! Only thing that stopped me from buying was that price on the eshop…. £54.99!? I will look for a cheaper way of getting it

This has been on my backlog for over a year, decided to not even start it until 1.6 drops on Switch so it’s good to know the date.

What on earth is “CTGP-DX" and "BCP"?

Oh, just realised Booster Course Pass. Still don’t know the first acronym though.

@FoxyDude oh, really, it’s only cosmetic updates? I was hoping for some change to the gameplay or something new to unlock, because I’ve basically done everything the base game has to offer (I can’t really justify adding to my 250 hours in the game without the incentive of something new to do/aim for).

Just finished in Glitzville on Paper Mario TTYD, what a stunning remake this is. Also playing through Control on Xbox, which is actually pretty darn good.

Well, it was only a matter of time…

As a lifelong, diehard Nintendo fan, Pokemon is the one series I’ve never been interested in or even tried to play. Am I missing out?

These two games are absolute bangers, and 2 was even better than 1. Very excited to see what this is about.

@Joeynator3000 You are in for one heck of a good game.

@Ooyah After your comment I checked my Balatro playtime and it is now 260 hours, overtaking Zelda TOTK at 250 hours as my most played switch game. So simple, yet so complexly addictive. My GOTY so far.

@jrt87 Thank you, that makes sense now.

@EVIL-C wow, thank you so much for that explanation! Very helpful and I will give it another go a bit later (if I can put Zero Mission down first).

I never played Perfect Dark when I had an N64, but heard lots of good things so booted it up… and what on earth do you do? I admittedly only had a cursory 10 minutes, but wanted to just start the action and ended up walking around a “training centre”, but couldn’t seem to actually do any training, was pressing every button but nothing seemed to happen. How do you bloody start the game? Very underwhelming.

If I didn’t have my OLED permanently installed in the purple GameCube Nitro Deck with those immune-from-drift Hall effect sticks, I’d be getting this. Looks beautiful.

@Tempestryke Nice one, thank you, added it to the wishlist

@wiiware Cool, wishlisted. And you mentioning SMB3, my favourite 2D platform game of all time, makes me even more interested!

@ZombAid82 That makes absolute sense about the platforming, thank you

For some strange reason, I’ve never played any Shovel Knight game, despite it appearing to be right up my street….probably a stupid question, but Do I start with the first one?

The hacking as a mini game reminds me so much of the excellent playthrough as 9S in Nier Automata…

@Teksetter I was thinking along the exact same lines as your two main points here. I want to get back into it after a year but don’t fancy the steep relearning of all the fundamentals, and certainly don’t want to have a more desolate universe to explore.

Drift was never the main issue for me: constant connection issues with the left joy-con not being recognised in handheld mode. Tried 3 different brand new sets of joy cons but it was obviously the rail connection at the side of my OLED. Changed to the Nitro Deck a few months ago, and voila! No further controller issues, no loosey-goosey control for extended handheld sessions and the perfect handheld experience to boot. Will never go back to joy-cons.

Last week I picked up Pepper Grinder and NieR Automata (it was 40%off), largely to help cut down my Balatro overconsumption (125 hours). And you know what, NieR has done the trick! I am absolutely loving this game.

When someone repeatedly calls Super Mario 64 “3D Mario”, are they being clever, ironic, or just showing they have no idea what they are talking about? Genuinely curious.

@LikelySatan I am so glad there is another satisfied Nitro Deck user on here! I bought it two months ago and have not taken my switch out since. I got it because I do 99% of my gaming in handheld, and the left Joy-Con kept disconnecting in handheld mode (was not an issue with a specific joycon as I tried 3 different ones). I was put off for quite a while by NLife’s own review, which heavily criticised the placement of the right analogue stick, but I have had 0 problems with that, or indeed anything about the Nitro Deck. It’s turned my OLED into a marvellous little self-contained handheld console.

@Diowine I was scrolling through the comments and got to 50 with no mention of Hades 2, so I was going to say the exact same thing!

@Blofse I’ve just won my 5th game after 40 hours, so only just unlocked the challenges, and similarly my tactic in pretty much every win was to level up two pairs and jokers that compliment that hand. Still a great game though.