Ralizah

Fine. This better happen AFTER Front Mission 3 Remake, though.

Ubisoft made their bed with how they discount their games. Don't screw over launch purchasers by devaluing your games so quickly.

That said, the first one was so good I went ahead and bought it at launch anyway. It's fully worth $60, and I want more games in this series. But I also totally get why others would wait.

@Ryu_Niiyama ✊

Nice to see someone else who properly appreciates this classic!

Yeah, I'm not including other 2D games that have platforming elements, personally. That'd be a much harder claim for me to make.

Rocket Knight Adventures is the best 16-bit platformer.

Fite me.

@TenEighty Hmm. There was a bit of deliberate emptiness in BotW, but TotK didn't have that problem. It honestly felt like Nintendo overcompensated in terms of the amount of stuff that you'll encounter in that game at any one time.

tbh it's the least empty-feeling Zelda I've ever played. The overworlds in games like Ocarina of Time and The Wind Waker often felt like wastelands designed to put space between the dungeons and story areas. Never felt that way with TotK. There's so much content stuffed into every crevice. And like BotW, even the environment itself is super interactive, so just getting from A to B is an adventure.

Now, you can argue the content isn't meaningful, and that's an opinion some people have, but I definitely feel like 'empty' isn't a good word to describe it, personally.

@TenEighty I'm not sure what forgotten content means lol

Well, luckily for you, I imagine the aesthetic will change somewhat with the next game, since it won't be in this same universe.

@TenEighty Talking about TotK?

I don't know what game you played, but there was almost too much stuff to do in that game. Couldn't go three minutes without new activities cropping up.

256GB SSD with the option for expandable storage would probably be a good balance of file size and associated costs. Even on Switch 2, I doubt file sizes will get as big as they do on the home consoles.

Super Mario Galaxy, Xenoblade Chronicles 3, and Breath of the Wild are probably the big three for me. Some older games were really affecting at the time, but I think they're sufficiently aged now that they wouldn't have the same first time impact now (FF7 comes to mind, especially).

NieR: Automata, too. Incredibly affecting game. And Virtue's Last Reward as well for its insane last few hours.

@Mr_Zurkon TW3 isn't too bad on Switch if you turn off the anti-aliasing, which removes the awful blurring. tbh the difference isn't too stark in comparison to the last-gen home console versions. Going from 60+fps to 30 when you also own the game on PC can be a bit jarring, though.

@CANOEberry @larryisaman Agreed that Impossible Lair is top-tier. Up there with the best DKC games. Kinda makes me wish they'd focus on making 2D games now, as they clearly have an aptitude for it.

@JaxonH In my defense, Seven Sirens didn't even exist when I wrote that post.

Seven Sirens was a bit disappointing when it first came out because of the balancing issues it had, but WF addressed the food drop rate and improved the bosses a bit, and I'd say it's also a real looker on the SWOLED, so I could get behind someone choosing it over Pirate's Curse now.

Even the initial release of Seven Sirens blew away HGH, though. What a disappointment that game was.

Late-stage capitalism: the game.

Reminds me of Ready Player One, which stapled a million geek pop culture things together into one big boorish mishmash of elements.

Well, no hate to anyone who enjoys this, but I will never be able to get into it.

@Cia As a fan of both TTYD and TOK, I approve this.

@Mario500 Switch OLED

I think the subpar marketing from SE, the fact that the HD2D style has lost its wow factor, and the general busyness of the year in terms of big releases probably contributed to people not really looking hard at this one.

I do think initial Switch exclusivity, with Nintendo publishing, would have caused it to sell somewhat better. Especially since the majority of copies sold on Switch anyway.

I was pretty happy with Fire Emblem Engage. Gorgeous cutscenes, pretty high-quality visuals in battles, a vibrant color palette... even if you don't like the character designs, it is still a very pretty game.

I also feel like XC3: Future Redeemed deserves recognition, even if it's not a retail release. It looks as good or better than the base release, which was arguably the most technically accomplished title on the system.

Nothing to do. Boring small town. Expected to marry. Wife won't stop nattering about laundry. Days come and go far too quickly.

It really is a life sim.

BotW/TotK returned the series to a level of greatness it hadn't known since Ocarina of Time on the N64, and skyrocketed the level of popularity to the point where new Zeldas sell Pokemon numbers.

Imagine having that to your credit.

It'll be interesting to see where the series goes next.

I logged about 30 more hours into Fire Emblem Engage than TotK. It's also my GOTY overall. Really had a blast with it.

Unironically my favorite announcement of the night. I LOVE World of Goo. So happy to see it coming back.

"It was up against Baldur's Gate 3, Marvel's Spider-Man 2, Resident Evil 4, Super Mario Bros. Wonder and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom."

BG3 was up against itself?

@DwaynesGames Laputa's influence on Japanese media is almost unimaginable at this point tbh. Try imagining the JRPG genre without the sky pirates, airships, floating islands, ancient robots, etc. that dominated early/mid-gen classics, for example. Or pretty much any Japanese game with a steampunk influence, like Professor Layton.

Definitely makes me feel like the film will be taking significant inspiration from BotW, in that case. At least the ecological vibe of it.

I'll just check the web for announcements after it's over. Told myself I wouldn't sit through this boring, self-indulgent production anymore.

This one completely flew by me. I'd love to play, but I already have so many other games to get to!

Maybe next year.

@JagGentlemann Some people are more sensitive to framerate dips than others.

@Princess_Lilly "No hatred, no racism, no emotional damage every day. Everything was new, fun and fresh."

I'm glad you lived a charmed childhood, but that's just... not the case, lol. At least not for America and the middle-east. This decade is becoming a bigger mess than the 00s, but so many terrible things cropped up post-9/11. It was a decade of war, imperialism, torture, mass surveillance, worsening racial tensions with muslims, etc. that capped off with the second biggest global economic downturn in history.

Cautiously optimistic for this.

Not surprised at all by the release date. It was obvious Level-5 wasn't releasing any of these big games in 2023.

@Princess_Lilly The 2020s have sucked, for sure, but claiming that 'everything was alright with the world' post-9/11, post-Patriot Act, post-invasion of Iraq, post-the start of the Afghanistan War... just no, lol.

I feel like this would've sold better at a lower price point and not directly in competition with a new 2D Mario.

I'm interested once the price drops enough.

@StarPoint "DD is probably the darkest entry in the series"

T&T would like a word with you.

@Sisilly_G lol no doubt.

I'm not sure I'd trust myself with a life-size bara Ganon statue in my home tbh

@TotalHenshin The problem is that the SNES games were a little basic. Front Mission 1 wasn't fun on the NDS when it was ported to that in English, either.

The good thing is that Front Mission 3 is the next one, and I know from personal experience that the game is a banger.

Pretty sure your Baldur's Gate info is wrong lol.

Impossible Lair is my second favorite DKC game after Tropical Freeze lol. Really awesome 2D platformer. I hope they figure out how to make the next 3D entry similarly excellent.

@B_Lindz My Royal playthrough was 150 hours overall. Not even dicking around. Just doing story stuff.

It was fun from beginning to end, though.

Not great outside of the Shantae section, and we already knew that was coming.

No real use for the multiplayer mode, but this looks awesome overall. Really miss the classic sprite-based look.

Very much a day one purchase for me.

Mario + Rabbids x Persona sounds like an incredible combo. Really looking forward to this.

Nice.

I think, no matter what title wins the big prize, Nintendo almost undoubtedly was the best publisher in the industry this year.

It's only really between TotK and BG3. Those were on a different level in terms of acclaim.

Expecting BG3 to win, but I'll deeply enjoy it if TotK edges it out, if only because of the sheer salty anger that will erupt as a result.

It was also a pretty good game, I suppose, although I'm one of those weirdos who most enjoyed Fire Emblem Engage this year.

Yeah, it sounds pretty great. Definitely playing at some point... when I'm not already drowning in software!

@EmpathTheOracle Good for you, sugar! Have a cookie. 🍪

It'll probably just be a cobbling together of elements from a variety of Zelda games.

I think a medieval-y setting working better with Western live action, so the setting being closer to something like Twilight Princess wouldn't surprise me.

@nimnio You just know Nintendo is clamoring to go back to the days of Zelda games selling 5 - 10 million units lifetime (maybe 10+ across multiple systems and generations if they're particularly lucky). Back to when every new release wasn't an industry-shaking event that became the standard other games had to compare themselves against that year, and for years after.

Game over, man. Game over.

Tetris 99. At least until I unlock the Mario RPG theme.

Sell it.

Granted, I'm not upgrading until an OLED model comes out. I'm done with LCD handhelds now.

@johnedwin For major games, at least. Wouldn't be surprised if any smaller games they potentially have in the works go to PS4 as well.

The PS5 hardware sales are pathetic lately in Japan. And there's not even the excuse of manufacturing/distribution issues to hide behind anymore.

@Znake I don't understand how a 2D Mario game made in 2023 still has terrible boss diversity. Especially when recent 3D games got SO creative with it.

This was supposed to be a creative break from the staleness of the NSMB sub-series, and it is to some extent, but not nearly as much as you'd expect from the godfather of the platforming game genre.

DKC: TF is certainly better, but so are games like Rayman Legends and Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair. By quite a margin.

It's not a bad game at all, but there's no excuse for it not to be better than it is.

@Ryu_Niiyama PS4 will still get games for years. The device is powerful enough to run indie and mid-budget games just fine, and there's still a large built-in audience, so why not?

The Funky Kong disrespect is real.

It's a pretty good Mario game. Although it cements for me that there is a gigantic gulf in quality between 2D and 3D Mario. Recent 3D Marios like 3D World and Odyssey are some of the best games I've ever played, whereas this feels second-rate compared to the recent DKC games, or even the recent Rayman games.

@KnightsTemplar Again, it's not just that Zelda games are selling better on Switch, it's how much better they're selling. You'll notice Mario Wonder isn't selling as fast as something like Pokemon, which TotK actually accomplished. The vast majority of Nintendo releases don't. Why is that? Zelda games tended to do between 5 - 10 million lifetime previously, sometimes across multiple releases in different console generations. TotK did 10 million in two days. It's nearly at 19 million copies sold now.

I think it was pretty obvious their major releases for 2023 were being delayed. It's November now lol