Polvasti

@PessitheMystic @Tober The Tetris theme is an old Russian folk song which has been quite popular in many parts of Europe long before it was used in the game, so it doesn't really count as video game music first and foremost.

I'd be way more interested in a Zelda movie than a Mario one, since most Zelda games have a proper, interesting story and fleshed out characters. Mario games are great fun to play, but nothing in them says "this would work well as a movie" to me.

@OstianOwl Or you could watch the BBC documentary "Tetris: From Russia with Love" from 2004, which is an excellent telling of the whole story, and includes interviews of Pajitnov, Rogers, and most of the other key people involved.

Gotta love all the people in the comment section saying "but it's not April 1st yet", as if they'd never heard of time zones. 😀

It's really hard to understand a mindset where something as tangible, widespread, and deeply ingrained as racism can be called "imaginary".

@gcunit Just because you believe in such narrowly defined social Darwinist ideas of attractiveness doesn't mean the same applies to everyone. I can tell you for a fact that there are tons of people for whom physical attractiveness is something much wider than your "evolutionary" stereotypes; there are people who find big ears, wonky eyes, wibbly bellies, hairy backs etc. attractive. Also, it's quite condescending to say that having a wider range of physical types (especially for women) depicted in fiction "will not make us feel better about ourselves", when a lot of people have said it absolutely does.

@nhSnork The idea that fiction is somehow a separate realm from "society itself" doesn't make much sense... Even if some stereotypes and beauty standards don't originate from fiction, fiction has done a lot to perpetuate them. Especially in the age of mass media, where the most popular pieces of fiction can reach millions or even billions of people. So if you want to have a discussion about the harmful effects of gender stereotypes and beauty ideals, you can't just leave fiction out as if isn't complicit in keeping those stereotypes/ideals alive.

Also, the idea that some characters can't be a part of this if "they're not human to begin with" is just semantics and not really relevant. If you create a human-looking character that enforces stereotypical beauty ideals, you are taking part in the larger process of defining those ideals, even if the characters aren't technically human. Vampires and Marvel comics mutants aren't technically human, yet characters like Vampirella or Psylocke of X-Men have become sex symbols in the past. If your character looks mostly human you can make her adhere to human stereotypes of attractiveness, so comparing those characters to Area 52 "grey aliens" doesn't really work.

None of this means that gender stereotypes should be censored or policed, but there since they can do real harm, there should be a serious critical discussion of them in video games too. Sexism doesn't just magically disappear if you pretend it's not there.

@steely_pete It's an issue because objectification of bodies and impossible beauty standards negatively affect real women every day. Popular culture stereotypes such as this do real damage to people's self-esteem; they also affect how real women are still evaluated based on their attractiveness, and which qualities (such as big breasts) are commonly considered attractive, and which are not. And it's not just about the psychological damage, stereotypical ideas of attractiveness also affect things like job recruitment, with women whose appearance and bodies conform to the stereotype being more likely to get hired than those women who are not considered attractive. Video games are a big part of popular culture, so it's perfectly valid to criticize them for perpetuating harmful stereotypes.

Sounds right up my alley, this game. Thanks for reviewing it, otherwise I might have missed it.

If you want to track the quality of your sleep, there are activity wristlets and smartphone apps to do that. I fail to see what extra would the Pokémon brand bring into this, except for the extra cash you'll probably have to pay compared to similar non-Pokémon products.

@The-Chosen-one @JONOFTHEJONS

Yes, all of the Champions are playable in Age of Calamity. Playing as Urbosa was so awesome, I wish they'd had that option in the main game as well. Also, AoC did way more to flesh them out as characters, since in BotW they were mostly broad stereotypes. As was Zelda, who is also much more interesting in AoC.

And now, some internal stuff...

• The built-in browser was updated.

It would be nice if we could use the built-in browser for other things than logging in to guest wi-fi networks. Since it's already there, why not allow people to use it for, you know, browsing the internet?

I think that, instead of having a kazillion different Emblems, they should've had a smaller number of Emblems and given them more dialogue and cutscenes to establish their individual personalities. As it is, most of them are very generic and interchangeable fantasy heroes. I get it that you're supposed to be familiar with their personal quirks from their parent games, but not everyone has played all or even most of them. So if you don't already know these characters, most of them come across as mere ciphers.

I really liked Mystery Journey, so to me the disappointment is that they're not gonna follow up on that. Especially given how several plot points were left unresolved in the game's ending, clearly in anticipation of a sequel. But I guess it wasn't succesful enough to get one?

@theModestMouse You do know Madeline is transgender, right? Those kind of cheap jokes are not okay.

Even if Three Hopes was called "Seasons" in its own code, it's perfectly possible they later considered it to be the 18th game in the series, and that's why Engage is coded "Iron19". It's not like they're following some unchangeable law when it comes to this numbering, it's just for their internal housekeeping. But of course it leads to juicier speculation if you think "Iron18" was some cancelled project instead of, you know, the 18th FE game which came out last year.

@larryisaman Presumably the whole sky island setting was created precisely to address the concern that the game would feel too samey to its predecessor. Since this is a direct sequel, they can't change Hyrule as dramatically as they've done between non-sequel entries in the series, so their solution was to add a whole new unexplored dimension to the Hyrule of the previous game. (Or possibly more than one dimension – Zelda falling through the ground in the trailer could possibly mean we get to explore some underground levels as her.)

@MSaturn The previous game came out 6 years ago, but that doesn't mean they been working full-time on the sequel for six years, especially since the DLCs came out in between. Presumably TotK was still early in its production when the first trailer came out in 2019.

This was one of the top 5 games of last year. Hope everyone who hasn't already gotten it will seize the opportunity now.

The list of features doesn't mention vibration or gyro controls, so I'm guessing it doesn't have them?

@molkom To me it seems Digital Foundry often exaggerates how much framerate and framepacing affects gameplay, at least if you're not the sort of player who's constantly fixated on them. I watched their video about the new upgraded Witcher 3 on PC, and the dude was complaining about some distracting framerate/pacing in certain parts of the game, and even though I was watching the video on a big 4K television, I could not even see the thing he was complaining about.

@ketrac Agreed. I felt cheated to find out that even though I bought Breath of the Wild for 60 euros, some of the content was still locked and I would've needed to pay many times more for plastic toys I don't need or want to unlock it. And it's not like it was just some cosmetic additions like skins or something, Amiibo extras like Epona or Wolf Link add to the gameplay significantly. So I ended up buying the unofficial Amiibo card pack that allowed me to unlock all this stuff for a fraction of the price. And I still hated the fact that I needed to pay extra to unlock things that were already in the game I bought.

I have no problem with Amiibo existing as mere collectible toys for those who want them. But tying significant game content to them, and forcing people interested in said content pay more than they paid for the actual game is an awful, awful practice.

@Avaloner Man, that sucks. The game is 10 years old, and no one has still bothered to fix stuff like that? I think I'll skip it on the Switch then.

While the Switch could probably handle Mass Effect Legendary Edition with some graphical downgrades, I think the size of it would be a big issue. The PC version is 120 gigabytes, and even the US console versions (which lack various alternate languages) are around 80 gigs. So even if you release it as an English-only version, it won't fit on a single Switch cartridge. And while they could make it an Eshop exclusive, a 80–120 gig download is gonna hog a lot of the space available on a typical MicroSD card. So the only realistic option would be to release the three games separately.

I played the original PC version of the game back when it came out, and I really liked it, but it was pretty buggy. And since 38 Studios famously went bankrupt, it was never patched. But now they've re-released the game and are even creating new content for it, so does that mean that bugs have finally been ironed out? I might be interested in buying it again for the Switch if that's the case.

I dunno if it's a "hidden gem", but I feel Nobody Saves the World was the most underrated game of the year on Switch. Great story with lots of genuinely funny humour, funky cartoon graphics, classic Zelda style action adventure gameplay + experimenting with countless different builds for your character is as fun as in Hades. And it's a good port too, running flawlessly on Switch with 60 FPS. I got as much enjoyment out of it in 2022 as from AAA games like Nier Automata or Three Hopes.

@nathatruc Not every Switch game that came out last year is on the list, the article clearly states the criteria for inclusion: "below you'll find every Switch game we've reviewed this year awarded a 6/10 or higher". Sonic Frontiers got a 4/10 review, so it's not included.

@Vyacheslav333 The Finnish "ä" is pronounced like "a" in “hand", and the Finnish "ö" is pronounced just like it is in German, so it's like "i" in "girl" but with a shorter vowel sound.

Presumably they borrowed the last name of the character from the Formula 1 driver Kimi Räikkönen, him being one of the most famous Finns alive.

Top 5:

13 Sentinels
Fire Emblem: Three Hopes
Nier Automata
Nobody Saves the World
Triangle Strategy

The concept sounds interesting, but based on the trailer and the screenshots, the graphics seem to be quite bland and boring "dark fantasy" style. Still, if everything else is good, I might give this a try.

I know this article is supposed to be humourous, but the Hyrule Historia text clearly says "cat-eye Link", not "Cat-eye" with a capital C. So the "cat-eye" bit is merely an attribute added before his name, like "child Link", not the name of the character.

I couldn't care less. One of the reasons I own a Switch and no other consoles is because FPS games don't interest me at all. And even if they did, I wouldn't want to give my money to crappy companies like Activision/Microsoft. Game publishers becoming part of larger and larger conglomerates is not good for video games as a form of culture and art IMO, because the bigger the company is, the more likely they're gonna be motivated by money, not by making better and more innovative games.

@Bobb Same Face Syndrome is very common in manga/anime as well as in video games with a manga/anime style character design. Typically it only applies to the protagonists though; supporting characters and antagonists are allowed to have more diverse facial designs, since they don't need to look "good". (The idea behind the Syndrome seems to be that you can't identify with a character unless they look good/cute, and that is less of a issue with non-protagonists.) You can have an anime/manga style character design that still avoids repeating the same face, as Three Houses showed for example. But it seems the designer of this came is more prone to it.

The Thief class grants Yunaka lock-picking abilities and swift movements for sneaking up on enemies.

I hope they've made the lock-picking skill more balanced than how it was in Three Houses. In that game it was practically useless, since you could buy as many keys you needed from the merchant, the keys would fit any lock, and they were so cheap you never ran out of them. For example, changing the game mechanics so that specific locks in a specific level need specific keys, so you have to either spend time searching the chests on that level or use a character who can pick locks, would make the skill way more useful.

I think it does show a lack of respect when they assume that people who play the game are folks who want to see female characters depicted like that... Instead of players being women (and others) who are tired of stereotypical, sexist depictions of women in media. And sure, tits & ass imagery can be art too, but I'd save it for games where it actually is the main point. In games like this, where it doesn't seem to serve any purpose, it feels like totally gratuitous fanservice, not some artful design choice.

@Arawn93 You can keep on making strawman arguments about "prudishness" for all you want, that doesn't magically make them true. "Showing skin" is not the issue, it's how those characters showing skin are depicted. They are depicted as regular women with regular bodies, they're visually designed to have exaggerated physiques, comically large boobs, etc., in the ages-old tradition of sexist visual stereotypes. AFAIK them having bodies like than and dressing up like that doesn't serve any narrative point, so the main point is to titillate straight male players. And yes, the first XC had issues with this too, mostly with Sharla, but it wasn't as over-the-top.

Also, no one has claimed that fanservice is a big part of the game or that these characters aren't strong. People are merely saying that this gratuitous fanservice is distracting and doesn't serve any purpose in a game like this. It actually makes more sense in those volleyball etc. games you mention, because there it really is the main point. You might be fine with it in a serious RPG too, but that doesn't mean everybody is. For me personally, this kind of casual sexism is usually a deal-breaker, just like casual racism and casual homophobia are. That is not because of prudishness, it's because I'd like video games to respect all kinds of players, not just straight men who want to see some tits & ass.

@Arawn93 Being against sexism and objectification of women has nothing to with being a "prude".

@PinderSchloss Agreed. The blatantly sexist fanservice with the design of the female characters is why I've refused to buy this game, even though I enjoyed the first XC. (And that game already had its share of questionable fanservice too, but it wasn't as bad as here.) Promo images with like this certainly aren't gonna change my mind.

@Tober Agreed. Reading throught the review, this sounded like something I might want to buy, until I saw the price. Maybe with a 50% or more discount I might be tempted to get it, but 35 dollars is more than what I paid for Nier Automata.

@Clyde_Radcliffe Read my comments above (especially #166 and #167) where I addressed the issues you mention.

@MatoFilipovic If Nintendo was about to release a new Mario game to coincide with the movie, surely they would've announced it already? The movie's premiere is only five months away.

Also, some people here seem to think that depicting female heroes in fiction as more feminine is somehow better and truer than making them more masculine, but that is a very problematic idea. Not all women are feminine and not all men are masculine; gendered concepts of femininity and masculinity are very much stereotypes in themselves. In real life people are way more complex than that. A lot of men are not tough guy fighters and a lot of women are not caring nurturers.

But it really is worth noting that this is a fantasy movie whose main audience is kids. No one is expecting it to include complex, realistic characters who escape all tropes and stereotypes. It's a piece of heroic fiction, so it's more preferable that the main female hero among a cast of dudes is presented as a strong, positive role model than as someone adhering to ages-old stereotypical ideas of feminity and how women should be. If the movie had more female main characters, there would a better opportunity to display a wider variety of archetypes of women, but that doesn't seem to be the case with this one. (Though I'm happy if I'm be proven wrong.)

@FangleMan32 Why would a strong, independent woman be an "equally bad stereotype" as a weak woman who always needs to be saved by the male hero? Unless you think women's role in life and fiction is to support men, the former is much, much better than the latter. Especially in kids' movies, where kids learn what it means to be a hero.

@RareFan Most heroes in fantasy stories like this are strong, it comes with the genre. I've never seen anyone complain that Aragorn or Thor are boring characters because they're strong, so I don't understand why strong women in fantasy stories would automatically be boring either. It all depends on what else is done with the character besides showing her strength.

@RareFan Perhaps, but with centuries of gendered oppression and discrimination, which is still very much a part of most societies on our planet, a stereotype of strong women who need no men is still very much preferable to the stereotype of damsels in distress. This is a kids' movie, and I'm very happy that young girls these days can grow up with these kind of pop culture heroes instead of female characters whose main role is to support and/or be rescued by the male hero.

I thought it was funny that they took the effort of having Seth Rogen introduce the trailer, and then his character had no lines in it.

Also, I guess I'm not surprised, by it, but it still saddens me how some people here are complaining about Peach having an active hero role in this. Did you really expect this movie to conform to stupid gender stereotypes which were already old and tired 37 years ago, when the first Super Mario game came out, let alone in 2022?

Yeah, Byleth and a couple of other returning characters have been confirmed in the new trailers, as well as some new characters who are not on this list. Yet Byleth is still listed under "teased emblems" here.

"with apologies to fans of football team Club Brugge, or a drowned Tintin"

I admit, that last bit made me laugh out loud.

I'm 43, so the NES and the original black-and-white Game Boy were a big thing in my childhood. After that any video games I played were strictly on the PC, but last year I got the Switch and I've been happy to join the Nintendo train again after 30 years. I've got a gaming PC too, but most of my playing is now on the Switch. There's so many cool exclusive games on it, and its portable nature makes the Switch great for smaller indie games as well.

What a weird concept for a full game. Did someone pay notice to the popularity of Unpacking and decide, "we gotta make a more MANLY version of this for REAL MEN"?