RadioHedgeFund

I give it 6 episodes before they announce his return.

I wonder if they’ll finally confirm Giovanni as Ash’s father and his need to capture Pikachu is actually linked to wanting to build a relationship with his son.

Maybe Giovanni started out wanting to build a Pokémon Ranch for his newborn son but once he witnessed the power it corrupted him.

TBH the idea of a WH40k to series gives me some hope, especially as it’s on Amazon who have a knack for chucking money at these things.

Here’s hoping they go with something ‘straightforward’ like Gaunt’s Ghosts or Eisenhorn.

Oh square, it’s so simple:

Final

Fantasy

VI

And still no infinite mode with one song.

This was literally in Lumines on day 1.

@chefgon At some point Microsoft are going to have to up that sub fee to actually make any money. Xbox is still a huge loss leader for the company.

And look at what the first party Xbox games we have: Forza 5, Sea of Thieves, Halo. These are cracking titles but have become riddled with F2P ‘season’ mechanics to keep the sub rolling in. I’d rather have the blockbuster single player titles on PlayStation and Nintendo than let that become the norm.

Whilst Microsoft count their Gamepass losses Nintendo execs are swimming around a huge Scrooge McDuck money bin with all the profits from Pokémon. Sounds like a good place to be to me!

Sony are closer to Nintendo than they think. For one thing unlike Xbox they actually have family titles that make the PS5 a great console if you have kids and want to play games with or alongside them. The Xbox is awful for anything kids might want to play.

It’s not really a fair contest because snow levels are always the best levels in any game, from Ice Cap Zone and Valak Mountain to the whole of Skyrim. The best area of any open world game of recent times is the Frozen Wilds in HZD which gets snow so right.

There are 2 directions Nintendo should push Pokémon in:

1. Do another Legends spin-off but give it to Monolith to do. XC3 is staggeringly huge and has zero technical issues.

2. Get someone to do a proper cel-shaded Pokémon where we play as Ash., anime voice acting included.

Absolutely! It makes the bond that bit more personal and in reality everyone would name their Pokémon like they do their pets. You wouldn’t call your pet Alsatian ‘Alsatian’ would you?

I normally name all my Pokémon that I’m going to use on my team after the bosses in Zelda and a few other video games. Eg my Gyrados is Gyorg and my Metagross is Quadraxis.

The exception is I did a run with all the prehistoric Pokémon and named them after the Dinobots.

I feel you’re unfair on Majora’s Mask. The time limit is more than enough time to explore the dungeons and the fairy side quests make coming back to them worth the effort. Snowhead Temple is a masterpiece of ‘dungeon as one big puzzle’ design with a fantastic boss. The water temple is a lot of fun as well, if only because Zora Link is so damned cool.

I’d actually have Skyward Sword at the top because in reality the whole game is one big dungeon with many deeper levels disguised as a Zelda game. It has one over world village and asks you to delve deeper each time you set out, like a puzzle-filled Diablo.

I wonder if they'll recast Zelda with an actual english actress? Why not just rehire Jenna Coleman?

Nintendo fans, you're in for a treat! I'm currently back on the Vita revisiting Persona 4 and the maturity of the themes visited by the whole Persona series is quite staggering compared to other games of this or any other genre.

People like to label gratuitous titles like GTA as 'mature' but a game where you have to delve into the mind of a confused teenager to help him come to terms with his sexuality is a lot more grown-up, plot wise.

I'd put forward Titmouse Studios for Metroid. They did the recent Vox Machina series which was BRILLIANT.

Outside of Nintendoland I'd give a big shut out to Forza Horizon 1 for bailing the feeling of the early autumn Colorado. The music sits really well too.

I'll also see your Akkala Region and raise you The Embrace from Horizon Zero Dawn.

Pay close attention to hit right hand: the fingernails are much longer than on Link's regular arm. This to me implies that rather than some sort of enhancement or bionic Link has become possessed by something evil which we got from the earlier trailers. 'Unkept Hair' Link also has the same arm so theories about playing as Ganon I think are DOA. It looks like whatever evil did grab him has been contained with Sheikah technology.

However I do wonder if Link has been possessed by Ganon, perhaps inheriting the Triforce of Power? Maybe he speaks to you throughout the game like Fi?

E3 is brilliant! Its like Gamer christmas and Microsoft and Nintendo have done a sterling job propping up at least the calendar slot for the last few years.

What Reedpop need to do is turn it into a gamer 'comic-con'. Get some industry panels going. Invite and pay for some of the bigger twitch/youtube streamers to attend and livestream as much as they can from the show floor. Get Epic to bring back the Fortnite Pro Am. Host a Smash tournament.

Pile in as many exhibitors as possible but make sure you've got it in writing that at the very least Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony will all have a Direct/State of Play during the event.

I have no doubt Nintendo have been holding on to a stack of GameCube remasters to plug holes in the release schedule going forwards and to extend the life of the Switch that bit longer.

Honestly I would happily buy a new Switch if they announced ports of Wave Race: Blue Storm and 1080 Avalanche.

You’ll forever be trying to straighten the picture on the wall.

Emulators and ROMs. Download a ROM and Nintendo don’t get any money. Buy a retro cartridge at some over inflated collectors price from eBay and Nintendo don’t get any money.

“an adaptation of the cult console game, follows a jaded comic book creator and a young, queer writer of color”

Box ticking =/= Representation. Race, gender or sexual identity reduced to a marketing exercise is insulting to everyone involved, gets the word ‘woke’ dragged through the mud by the right wing loonies (who seem to think being aware of inequality and wanting to do something about it is somehow a bad thing) and sets back the whole thing back to the tokenism of the past.

American audience: 🙀🙀🙀🙀

Rest of the world: 🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️

Shame they didn’t put Xeno 2 through the same quality control.

Me and some friends went to watch the Royal Philharmonic play select music from PlayStation titles at the Royal Albert Hall in 2018 and it was brilliant.

It wasn’t just the GameCube: they also put out classics like JSRF and Panzer Dragoon Orta on the Xbox.

Games like those, Monkey Ball and Billy Hatcher were all likely planned Dreamcast titles that got changed once Sega changed direction. It’s nice to know that even though the original DC titles weren’t commercially successful Sega had sequels and further more artistic titles on the books.

The only old game I keep is a copy of Last Battle on the Mega Drive. It’s an absolutely terrible game!

But me and my friends used to laugh about how bad it was when we were kids. A friend brought it for me for my 30th birthday and it’s now kept in my shoebox of keepsakes.

@Glrd I guess it kind of reinforces opinions on 2. Even with all their growth over the game, for me X was deliberately portrayed as a subservient ‘I’ll do /anything/ to make you happy (wink wink)’ not helped by her hyper sexualisation on behalf of the developers whereas Y is a highly petulant, almost dominatrix sort of character, again not helped by the hyper sexualisation or the penchant for jailbait anime characters.

I know that the growth over the game undoes these stereotypes but they cut kind of uncomfortably deep with me and made a poor first impression. I didn’t get on with XC2.

It didn’t help that Sharla and Amelia from XC1 were some of the strongest female characters I have ever seen in a video game. Neither of them was ever portrayed as subservient or a damsel in distress. One can choose to dress them up in revealing outfits but then again one can also choose not to. The same can be said of Elmyra in XCX.

@Glrd I think they’re annoyed at how it sells short the relationship between character W and characters’ X, Y and Z. X and Y are often criticised as eye candy and apologists illustrate the relationship and growth. The XC3 ending is basically character W being a polygamist

My favourite thing about this game is part of the ending has right royally pissed off loads of XC2 apologists and it’s hilarious 😂

They didn’t make any good starter final evolutions between Gold/Silver and Black/White.

Yar’s Revenge on the Atari ST

OG SNES Mario Kart is categorically the best Mario Kart title. Getting the balance right on a 2-player can game is a dying art, mainly because titles are built to accommodate more players and therefore Mano-a-Mano suffers because levels are too big or tracks are too long.

Because it only supports 2 players, battle mode on SMK is flawless. Every game since the original has been built around 4-players and so less players suffers.

The Willy Wars? Now that just about sums up the 1990’s games industry.

They gave up that promising looking Transformers game for an NBA title which has no appeal outside America?

They could have added all sorts of cool features to TFHM. Imagine having to scan ITL cars and then watching them transform in AR before your eyes!

@Gitface Agreed. GoldenEye’s best legacy is Perfect Dark, a game still playable on modern hardware.

I genuinely wouldn't buy it because of the change in music. Sonic 3&K is my favourite game in the series and the music is part of that. Just listen to the original Ice Cap Zone music!

@Pod The SNES sold less than the NES because Sega got its act together and whilst the DS might have been laden with gimmicks its best selling games were still Mario Kart and Pokémon, software that didn’t even need them. Had Nintendo brought out a PSP-like successor to the GBA (which they probably had saved as a backup) and brought out Pokémon and Mario Kart, it would still have sold a gazillion units.

The Switch might also be laden with Gimmicks but its best selling games are Animal Crossing, Mario Kart and Pokémon.

Nintendo’s best upgrade cycle was the NES to the SNES and the GBC to the GBA: they took what was popular and already worked and refined it for the next generation without any gimmicks.

I know Nintendo like to make out they are this wonderfully innovative company but bar the Wii, every one of their successes has been in making a more traditional console. The Switch has become so popular because, bar the ability to ‘switch’ between portable and home play, it has all the familiar trappings in terms of controls and software.

I don’t think Nintendo will be going leftfield with their successor. They need to build on the success of the Switch, not eradicate it. We need a ‘Super Switch’ (which is a terrible name) with better analog sticks, OLED by default, 90hz screen, 1080p display, upgraded stats and 100% backwards compatibility with all Switch hardware and software.

This way Nintendo could sell the screen part as a separate part so people can upgrade on the cheap as well as selling a whole new setup.

I kinda feel like Sonic Team keep missing the wood for the trees. They can't just take Breath of the Wild or Mario Odyssey and slot Sonic into it.

An open world Sonic game needs to be about navigation: getting from point A to point B via rails, jumps and loops whilst looking good doing it.

They should have taken Sunset Overdrive as their starting point.

@Aurumonado Easily the best theme tune.

The ESA say E3 was cancelled but we've had Sony's State of Play, Microsoft are up in a week or so and Geoff Keighley and co are doing things too. Even Netflix and Games Workshop have some gaming content on the go.

During that time we also have the new Fortnite season, WWDC for Apple (which might have some gaming content) so there is planet going off.

It needs to be a NES > SNES style transition.

OLED. 1080p90 screen. Better stats. 100% backwards compatibility. 4k upscaling via the dock.

Then build better controllers that don't fall apart after a year. Maybe analog sliders like the 3DS is the way to go?

On one hand I have upheld weekly Fortnite sessions with my friends I could not see during lockdown. 2 years on we still have a laugh and a joke and it really helped with being locked indoors. 4 of us are spread across the UK and one lives in Cambodia so it has been a lifeline.

On the other hand I would trade it all in a heartbeat if it meant we could meet up in person every week and play some Super Monkey Ball and Perfect Dark like we did before we all went to Uni.

Diversity in games is to be encouraged. I loved what Guerilla did with the world of Horizon Zero Dawn for this very reason.

But can the same logic be applied to an alternate reality populated by large reptiles, tie-wearing Gorillas, anthropomorphic sentient fungi and italian-american stereotypes?

@mariomaster96 Possibly because the original didn't have any camera controls bar pressing Z-L to lock the camera behind Link.

@Megaz23 Quite a lot of japanese titles that change the age of the main characters just for the western releases to dodge censorship?

@Rambler I think you underestimate the age of Fortnite players. Me and my mates play weekly and we are all nearly 40. All these 1980's characters are right up our alley.

After my original Switch died in 2020 during lockdown I went back to my Xbox One and threw myself into Forza Horizon 1 for a few months. When you can't go far from your house everyday being able to just tear down the open roads of Colorado was incredibly cathartic.