ReaperMelia

@BlueOcean Microsoft seems more concerned with building Xbox as a brand than as a console. I'd imagine they're just hoping that this gives them more exposure and pushes people towards their games/services on PC or Xbox. In fairness, I'd imagine Banjo & Kazooie in Smash got a lot of people to pick up the games on Xbox, and the same for Steve.

@RiasGremory EA has nothing to do with this re-release, and I'm not sure what you mean by this version having less content than the other versions. This is a remaster of the original, not the recently-announced remake. It's going to be the same version that was on Xbox, PC, and mobile, just now available on Switch.

I'm sad to see so many people just treating this as a joke or saying it looks bad just because it's not Mario Kart. This is a LONG overdue sequel; I've been waiting ever since they announced the 3DS entry before the system even released, and I was super bitter when it was canceled for not being mature enough. I'm incredibly excited we're finally getting a new entry! The spell mechanics look really fun, the character roster seems solid, and the 64-player tournaments are a really cool idea too. Please don't just write this off because it's not Mario, kart racer fans. I unfortunately never got to play the original, but I'm absolutely getting GP.

I was waiting for Miyamoto to say "Ha, kidding!" this whole segment. We all knew they'd go with celebrities instead of real voice actors, but this was just particularly bad in my personal opinion. Martinet voicing background characters doesn't help matters at all, either.

Anyone hoping for a third pass is setting themselves up for disappointment seeing as how Sakurai very clearly said this is the last character for Ultimate. Anyway, my crazy, wild, never going to happen pick would be Gordon Freeman.

I went into Target last week and the shelf was full of these. Are they really that hard to find? I find it ridiculous that scalpers are targeting them so much.

If you're going to write an article that gives PETA attention (which shouldn't be done at all, they aren't worth the time of day), you could at least point out all the horrid, downright evil business practices they partake in. They're hypocritical for far more than wanting to put an animal in a fighting game.

This is a game I'd love to try out one day given all the praise I've heard for it. I hope Sega will give it a remaster one of these days, but they don't really seem to care about the vast majority of their IPs these days unfortunately.

@Specter_of-the_OLED As stated above in the comments, the people buying these are most likely employees of WATA or Heritage Auctions (the companies doing the grading/auctioning) so that they can drive game values up. It's been well-documented that they've been behind a lot of these crazy bids. The video linked in the article goes into a lot of depth on this extremely shady business.

@Poodlestargenerica It's been discovered that a lot of people winning these crazy auctions are people working for WATA. They're just artificially driving prices up so they can make more money in the end. Their grading standards are inconsistent as well. WATA and Heritage are also crucial data regarding these sales that would prove (or disprove) the rarity/values of items. This is absolutely a scam.

@Aurumonado There's a lengthy video going into the backgrounds of WATA, Heritage Auctions, and the other people involved. They're all incredibly shady and this is absolutely a ploy on their part to make money off of a market they have no business getting involved in. I'm not sure if I can share a link to it here, but Nintendo Life posted an article about it before. There's a link to the video in the article they link at the bottom of this one if you or anyone else is interested. As a game collector, I'm frustrated to see that their business model is continuing to work despite being exposed.

EDIT: Somehow didn't notice the video was linked here, too... oops. Anyone curious about the situation should really watch that, it's incredibly informative and eye-opening.

I don't see how it's early, September's the right time to start getting ready for the Halloween season. Granted, I'm always ready for Halloween regardless of the time of year, but if people can get ready for Christmas during summer, I think an extra month to prepare for Halloween is fair.

@nhSnork The difference is Nvidia confirmed that their leak was legit. This and the GameBoy one were just people making up easy predictions. September is the anniversary for NSO; if they'll add any new systems, it'll be this month. pretty easy to just say "my sources say that Nintendo will add the next system in their lineup to NSO" and hope for some easy credibility boosts.

I plan to pick up my copy at Best Buy tomorrow! I've played Cruis'n USA at the arcade a few times, but otherwise, not much experience with the series. I'm really excited to try this one out, though!

@Leu10antFalcon Do you have a source for this? I'm not seeing anything suggesting the publisher confirmed an online mode.

On Switch, I'll be playing WarioWare: Get it Together. I've played a little bit already, and I'm really enjoying it so far! The character variety's a ton of fun, and I can tell that the missions will add a lot of replay value. I might also get back to Resident Evil Revelations 2 since I should probably do that...

I'll be going on a bit of a GameBoy spree as well probably. I got Super Mario Land 1+2 and Dr. Mario in the mail these last couple of days, so I definitely want to play those. There's also still Mole Mania on 3DS VC that I need to finish... it gets pretty tricky later on.

Other than those, I'd like to get in some more of the Final Fantasy III Pixel Remaster. I hoped to have it done before IV came out, but I don't think I'm even halfway yet...

@Poodlestargenerica Because Nick hired this team to make a game with their licenses. It's made by a talented indie team, but Nick is where a lot of the funding comes from. If Nick cheaps out and doesn't give them enough money to pay voice actors/musicians, then the developers can't do anything about that.

The classic GameBoy start-up sound is pure nostalgia for me. It's also very simple, straighforward, and effective, so I'd probably go with that one. GBA and GCN are both solid contenders, too.

Gameplay-wise, it looks fantastic, though watching just plain footage of battles does make it easier to understand the criticisms regarding the game's presentation. I absolutely don't blame the developers for it, I'm sure Nick simply didn't want to give them a big budget. That being said, the lack of even simple grunts when a character takes damage does make the game look and sound a little bit off. Ideally, they'd get full voice acting, though I don't know how feasible that is given how some of these shows are 20+ years old now. The seemingly generic music is also a bit of a let-down. I'm still looking forward to the game, but given how packed October already is (assuming it releases that month like the eShop originally said it would), I'll probably have to hold off on it for a little bit.

I'm glad to see such a glowing review for this game! I don't have a ton of WarioWare experience, but it's a series I've wanted to get more into, and I really love how this one looks. I'm definitely planning to pick it up on Friday.

@UsurperKing This is why I don't like review scores as a concept personally. They're helpful when paired with a scoring policy like NL, but they're generally incredibly subjective and people tend to have wildly different opinions on what different scores mean. For example, a lot of people believe that anything below an 8 is a bad score, but many reviewers (NL included) use it for games that are still good and worth playing, they just aren't amazing masterpieces. It's become impossible to get people to understand that scales are subjective, and the average person doesn't want to analyze a review with the reviewer's own scale in mind. They simply match it up to theirs so they can skip to the end, read the number, and make an immediate opinion regarding the quality of the game as well as the quality of the reviewer.

Historically, this sort of thing happened before past Crash announcements in the last few years. They've also been hinting at a new game ever since Crash 4 dropped. After this, my guess is we'll see it at PlayStation's event on Thursday.

I'll echo that I'm not a fan of this redesign, it looks way too cluttered. I like the simplicity of the current UI. I do think there could be improvements, namely in regards to sorting through a large library, but I don't think a massive overhaul to the system UI is necessary. The eShop, on the other hand, could definitely use some updates.

On Switch, I'm playing Resident Evil Revelations 2. Going off of what I've played (almost halfway through), it's probably my least favorite RE game I've played so far (the others being 1R, 2R, 3R, 4, 7, 8, Rev1), but it's not bad. Just feels off compared to the others in my personal opinion. Not a fan of having to switch between characters often, either.

On PS5, I'm thinking about trying to get back to Horizon Zero Dawn to prepare for Forbidden West, but I'm kind of struggling to get into it after having finished Ghost of Tsushima's expansion recently. I like HZD, but I just feel like Tsushima takes the same formula and handles it better personally. Maybe I should have spaced the two out more...

I've been in a bit of a classic GameBoy/GBC kick lately, and while the physical games I've ordered obviously won't be here for a while, I did pick up Mole Mania on 3DS Virtual Console and I've been pleasantly surprised by how fun it is! I definitely want to play more of it this weekend. I'd also really like to get back to Final Fantasy III Pixel Remaster on Steam and make some decent progress before the FFIV remaster drops.

I'm surprised to not see Cruis'n Blast on here since it's a Nintendo IP. Anyway, I'm planning to pick up that and WarioWare for sure. I'll pick up Eastward if it's physical release comes out this month, though I get the feeling it'll come later on. Bloodrayne Betrayal is one I'm planning to pre-order through LRG as long as reviews aren't bad, I never played the original but it looks fun to me. Astria Ascending is one I'll have to keep an eye on. I've heard Melty Blood is good, but I also have enough fighting games I've bought with the intention of actually getting into them that I haven't (Guilty Gear Strive being the most recent), so maybe I'll wait for a good sale or something.

I finished Ghost of Tsushima's Iki Island expansion, so I've spent a lot of time playing Valkyria Chronicles Remastered on my PS5 lately. I want to finally get that one finished since it's technically been on my actively playing list for a while... I'm really enjoying it, although I really don't like how much your EXP/money are tied to just blasting through each mission at max speed. I'm not good at strategy games so I have to take them slower, and I feel like I'm really getting shafted as a result. I understand if there's some sort of bonus attached to completing missions quickly, but it feels like the game actively punishes you for not taking 3 turns to win. Otherwise, I'm really enjoying the game!

I'll likely play some Cadence of Hyrule: Symphony of the Mask on Switch as well as Final Fantasy III Pixel Remaster and Guilty Gear Strive on Steam. I'm close to halfway through Quake I think, but I kind of want to wait to see if the music issue gets patched because it's really weird playing without any audible music.

Norbert and Daggett are my top two picks, my brother and I loved the Angry Beavers growing up. I'd love for us to be able to fight each other as those two. Ultralord, The Crimson Chin, Dib, and one of the Action League Now members would all be up pretty high for me as well.

I'm watching it for Lego Star Wars mainly, but I'm also hoping to see some updates on Evil Dead and maybe a new Crash game. More surprises are welcome, too, of course!

Ghost of Tsushima: Director's Cut on PS5 is going to be my main game this weekend. I loved playing the game back during the initial PS4 launch and I'm really enjoying the Iki Island expansion as well! I might try out Legends as well, although since I'd just be playing it solo, I don't know if I'll be able to stick with it.

On Switch, I definitely want to play more Quake! I want to at least get through the main campaign, but I might save the expansions and Quake 64 for when the physical release is available. I bought it on the eShop and saw a couple minutes later that LRG announced their release, so that was a bit annoying, but I'm taking it as an opportunity to play early before I get that physical copy.

I'd also like to get the Final Fantasy III Pixel Remaster going. I finished the FFIPR last weekend and started up FFII, but since there's talk of a weird status ailment quirk that might be a bug, I figured I might as well give it a bit of time to see if that gets sorted out. FFIII was the one I was more excited to play anyway since it's the only one of that original trilogy I have yet to beat, so I'm excited to play some more of that! I'd also like to get in some more practice with Guilty Gear Strive since I picked that up on Steam recently, too.

@RudeAnimat0r This has kind of been the case for a while honestly. The same thing happened with the Doom and Star Wars releases. I think No More Heroes I+II and maybe WayForward's games (at least the Shantaes) could've gotten standard retail releases as well given how notable those are. It is a bit annoying seeing big publishers go with LRG instead of handling physical releases themselves, but at least it generally guarantees a quality release for those games.

I'll definitely pick up both this and Zero when LRG releases them! I've never played any of the other River City games (or other beat 'em ups for that matter), but I really enjoyed River City Girls.

Not on this list since it came out later and was a surprise shadow-drop, but I picked up Quake.

@Silly_G Their Doom release was an exception to their standard practic, honestly. LRG's almost always done single standalone releases of games in a series as opposed to compilations. Blaster Master Zero 1-3 is a perfect example; each individual game got a separate release even though they could have been bundled together on one cartridge (Which they did in Asia). I kind of figured LRG wouldn't bother doing just standalone Quake at all, honestly. We don't know if the others are coming yet, either, although I hope they do. I might end up caving and grabbing 2 and 4 on Steam while they're all on sale, though...

@Silly_G They announced an update coming this fall with new Master Levels and I believe the new Horde Mode will be included as well, so a physical release would preferably come after that update if it can all fit on one cart. As much as I'd love to have all the content on the cartridge, I could live with Battlemode being a separate download, personally. All the single-player content is what I really care about as that's what will have a much longer lifespan anyway.

Picked up the game, saw a couple minutes later that LRG announced a physical release... well, guess I'll be getting both versions. I love Doom, haven't really gotten into Quake yet so I'm excited! I've really enjoyed the game so far.

I thought I was almost done with Neo: The World Ends With You last week... The postgame's a lot more extensive than I expected! I've really enjoyed the game overall, but after 80 hours, I'm starting to feel a bit burnt out, so I might just try to tackle the last couple of major challenges and save the last bit of grinding for later.

Other than NTWEWY, since I'm wanting to move on to some other games now, I'll probably get back to Final Fantasy I on Steam soon. On the Switch side of things, I've been thinking about returning to Resident Evil Revelations 2 and the Cadence of Hyrule DLC to have something shorter to focus on after this massive JRPG. I also picked up Islanders and Dreamscaper recently, so I might try those out too. On PS5... maybe I'll get back to Valkyria Chronicles Remastered? Depends on how I feel after NTWEWY I guess.

I got Islanders, and while it didn't release this week, I decided to get Dreamscaper as well while it was still on sale. Haven't started either one since I'm still working on Neo: The World Ends With You's postgame, but I'm excited to try them out! Slime Rancher, Axiom Verge 2, and Garden Story are all ones I want to play too, but I'm holding off for physical releases of at least those first two.

My first Nintendo game was probably Pilotwings on my dad's SNES since we had that and the SNES was my first game system. I did get a GBC with Super Mario Land 2 when I was pretty young though, that's the first I remember playing. Pokemon Silver the first game I remember that I really fell in love with.

At this point, now that I've pre-ordered the Doom trilogy special edition from Limited Run and already have 64, 2016, and Eternal, I think I'm set on any Bethesda games I'd want. Not really into Elder Scrolls outside of Morrowind, and the Wolfensteins are games I'd rather play on PC since they don't really have a "true" physical release on Switch. I got Doom Eternal digitally only because of how much I loved the game and wanted a portable version, but for Wolfenstein, I'd rather save money and grab them on Steam.

@Specter_of-the_OLED That's what I was referring to. The Kingdom Hearts remasters on PS4 were affected in a similar way thanks to being bumped up to 60FPS, with KHII being the worst from what I've heard. It was a mess in a lot of ways and it took a while to just get some of the major issues fixed. If a game's physics are tied to framerate, increasing that framerate can be problematic if devs don't also fix those physics issues.

I haven't gotten around to picking this up yet (Neo TWEWY took priority), but one of my friends who loves Skyward Sword (and really enjoyed the remaster as well) told me that the jump to 60FPS messed with the physics in certain situations in battles (enemies getting knocked back in weird ways that makes them difficult to reach/hit with finishers, things like that). I hope they fixed that, I'm thinking about holding off until that's cleared up.

@HeadPirate No. Are there any translations for those interviews? I kinda assumed that was the case. If not, I'll take your word on it, though I am curious about what Pyra's voice actress said.

I said I want them to stick with turn-based combat, bring back a job system with a similar level of depth to DQVII's (three tiers of vocations plus the monster ones, it was an insane level of customization that I loved seeing), and to focus on simultaneous worldwide releases for all major consoles and PC. I think that latter in particular will be extremely important in helping the series grow in the West.

Come to think of it, I should have added that I want to see DQX Offline get localized as well...

@HeadPirate Out of curiosity, do you mean Xenosaga rather than Xenogears? Xenogears was just one game and was made before Monolith had formed as a company (the employees worked at Squaresoft at the time), while Xenosaga was a trilogy of games published by Namco shortly after Monolith first formed. I could see Xenosaga making a return if Monolith does own the IP, the inclusion of KOS-MOS and T-elos on Xenoblade 2 and the continued use of Zohar-like symbolism makes it seem like Monolith wants to return to that world. The main thing making me doubt that is that, from my understanding, they had to rush their plans for the overall Xenosaga story to fit it into 3 games rather than the originally planned 6. Personally, I think the ideal situation would be to start from scratch on Xenosaga so they can remake it with the experience/resources they have now. Might be a bit of a pipe dream as that'd be a huge undertaking, but I'd love to see their full vision for that world!

Also, do you happen to have sources on that interview with Shino Shimoji and to Monolith owning the IP? Not trying to be confrontational or doubt you, just curious because I haven't heard about that first interview and I've also heard mixed things on Monolith owning the IP. I'd like to hear more about any potential future for Xeno!

@HeadPirate According to the interview I linked, Takahashi said it was specifically a Xenoblade game. It's possible they'll end up deciding to change it to something else Xeno, but I personally don't see it being Xenogears since Square still holds the rights as far as we know. I would certainly like to see that happen, I still need to play Xenogears myself but it would be great to see Monolith continue the project that kicked off the Xeno series.

@RiasGremory That quote is directly from an interview with Tetsuya Takahashi, the creator of the Xeno series. It's not a leak or rumor, it's fact. Unless he's lying (and he has no reason to lie), that "New IP" is a Xenoblade game and the job listing was poorly translated. Also, the new project wasn't leaked. It was an intentional job listing featuring art that may or may not be tied to the actual project itself. A leak would be accidental, but the fantasy RPG details and art were both directly from Monolith themselves.

Patches are cool, but as someone not into competitive play, I just wanted more characters. I hope they're working on FighterZ 2 since it seems like we won't get a season 4, season 3 ended on a massively sour note in my opinion (Two GT characters in a row) and I haven't played in ages.

@westman98 It is a new Xenoblade game. As I pointed out, Monolith's Tetsuya Takahashi himself said that they were working on a new project alongside Torna and Xenoblade Definitive Edition back in 2018 and then later said the only recent project they had approval for was a Xenoblade game. My point was that the listing, while not saying it's Xenoblade outright, listed different features/elements of the game that tell more about it than the art itself. The art being tied to the game isn't much of a stretch, especially as it would just be early concept art anyway.

It seems like it is likely just an internal mascot, but my point was more that Nintendo and its affiliates have teased internal things in the past. That was more of an accident than Monolith's listing featuring vague concept art from a new game.

@VoidofLight I'd imagine they've listened to feedback on tutorials since that was a common criticism with 2, so they'll probably work on that. I don't really have any particular hopes for Xenoblade 3 honestly, though the online functionality mentioned in those initial job listings does have me really curious about how that's going to be incorporated. I'd assume it'll be completely optional like how X implemented it, but I had assumed mainline Xenoblade wouldn't have any sort of online.

That would be my guess as well. Loose connection with some little references, but no major tie-ins. Non-canon appearances of past characters in the DLC would be fun, though! I didn't spend as much time with 2's Challenge Mode as I would have liked, but it was cool to see Shulk, Fiora, and Elma return and fight alongside Rex.

@westman98 The job listing itself outright mentions they're working on a new project that's a fantasy action RPG with some sort of online functionality. They're already teasing it in the description of the listing, having some very vague art to go alongside it isn't much of a stretch or giving away too much.

Also, while not recruitment art, there was that artwork Retro gave Reggie when he retired where Reggie covered part of it since he couldn't show whatever was there, but we still got a glimpse of a robot's hand. While a recent interview suggests that may not have been related to a Retro project after all, I still find it suspicious to put in the effort to hide something that's just an inside joke. Not a direct tease, but still something somewhat similar and it led to a LOT of speculation, especially since Retro was in the middle of a very long dry spell.

@westman98 Including it in recruitment art wouldn't be "leaking" it, it'd be an intentional tease of what they're working on to draw in new recruits. The art's vague enough that it doesn't really give anything away about what the project is, the listing itself had more information than the art. (fantasy action game with some sort of online implementation). Including art like that isn't a slip-up, it's intentional.

@VoidofLight I could definitely see the art being for a more fantasy-focused Xenoblade! I could also see it just being promotional art that was just made to catch attention for the listing rather than actually tying into a project, though I'd certainly love to explore the world that art depicted. I'm sure they'll have it tie into the Conduit (assuming it really is Xenoblade 3 and not another spin-off like X) since that's been a common theme throughout the series since Xenosaga, I'm curious to see where they go next. I don't really see them doing a direct sequel to 1 or 2, though. A standalone story/world with references to the rest of the Xeno series would make more sense as that seems to be what Monolith's going for with the series.

I remember that interview as well! I found a link for it here: https://gamerant.com/xenoblade-developer-m-rated-game-switch/
I wouldn't be surprised if one of the projects they pitched that was shot down was going to be the M-rated game Takahashi had in mind. It's hard to imagine Nintendo putting out anything M-rated, but they've published a number of them in the past, so maybe Takahashi will get his wish one day.

@Lyricana The thing people are leaving out of this is that Coleman never said she recorded for a new project. She was talking about recording for Future Connected, the epilogue in Xenoblade Definitive Edition. It's purely a guess on her part, and one that makes sense, which is why it's ridiculous to see all these rumors suddenly make Xenoblade 3 seem legitimate in the eyes of so many people when most dedicated Xenoblade fans knew that, logically, we'd be getting it soon here anyway. Monolith has confirmed they've been working on a new game since 2018 and that the only project they've had approved in recent years is a Xenoblade game, it's not a surprise we'll be seeing it soon.