Shambo

No gyro is more than a missed opportunity. Gyro is a requirement.

@inenai (insert Link surprised face, audio cue "huh", text window "FULL VOICE ACTING?")

I got it at release and spent days, weeks, perhaps even months playing it (not in total hours)... Not learning for an exam this many years later. I'm ready anyway, and you can't tell me I'm not.

I want to channel my inner Thing by exploring desolate frozen locations hoping the few humans I save along the way don't let their inner Thing out and mutate into qrotesque monstrosities. That John Carpenter's Thing. Maybe I'll play some Carrion again. But this does seem fun as well.

@Goofonzo I feel ashamed for not even mentioning this one in my long list now. It's literally ELITE BEAT AGENTS. But there's plenty more I overlooked that I was singing along with or singing while not playing throughout many years...

Cave Story, Mario and Rabbids mid boss theme.

And Advance Wars music, Wario Ware's "Ashley's theme", Golden Sun, Phoenix Wright, Professor Layton,...

And Hitman 2, Freedom Fighters, and Splinter Cell Chaos Theory.

And the original recording of Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles opening music.

And Persona Q's fighting music.

And House of the Dead Overkill.

And Sayonara Wild Hearts.

And Moonlighter, Labyrinth of Refrain, Tetris,... Damn, so many soundtracks stuck in my head forever. But I'll never say they didn't need to go that hard. GO HARDER!

Oh, and option 3 for not whistling the Deku forest theme is that you are unaware of its existence.

@ArcticEcho yeah it's definitely no competition to Advance Wars or Wargroove on an equal field. But I got it cheap, I have Wargroove, and I have the gorgeous original Advance Wars games, so next to paying 60€ for a visual overhaul of what I still have, Tiny Metal is, in its own standards, a fun game. I like the lock on/focus fire mechanic a lot. Character designs and modern warfare theme are also appreciated (again, no match for AW's character design). A new AW with CO's on the field as in Wargroove, and lock on/focus fire as in TM would be great... But this remake is not that either...

Even as a huge fan of the originals that was really looking forward to this remake (but hates the price point), and replayed the originals to build up (and eventually lost) hype for this, I'm not really sure where I stand on this right now. Their reason for delaying was so stupid (there is always war as long as humanity remains the utterly destructive, power hungry, fear mongering, false authority obeying, stupid species it is, and always war games as long as there will be games). Maybe they manage to build up hype again. Or maybe I'll play Wargroove, Tiny Metal, Triangle Strategy, Fire Emlem Three Houses I still haven't played,... And get this one cheaper later. If Nintendo learns how to properly do a sale.

Japanese Joe is the most Viewtiful. I have the pink Europe one myself, and am not sure whether that is why I'd vote it as a second or not. I think pink background / red Joe suits the colours in the title best. Yellow is not a background colour imo, and the flashy busy NA background is cool but makes me wonder what Joe is doing there kicking air with his back towards all enemies and nothing pointing to his physical presence within that background. So yeah, Japanese, pink EU, NA, yellow EU. In that order.

@johnvboy In STarfox, the joystick is the control stick of a flying machine, which you pull towards you to tilt the ship's nose up. In an fps you have to imagine you're pulling a stick on the head of your character. But I never managed to get my head around that. In some third person games however I did, where you either think you control the CAMERA, so down moves the camera down but looking up, or you SEE the character you want to bend backwards to look up in front of you. Still, it's a weird thing how indeed, to different people different set ups make sense in a different way. Glad most games just give the option. But which one should be called "inverted" than? Which way does the roll of toilet paper go on "normally" and which one is absolute blasphemy? I'd say it's obvious, but some people think it's obviously the other way...

Looking forward to Metal Slug Tactics. And Hyrule or Skyrim Snowrunner. And Untitled Mighty Goose Game. And House of the Zombie Army Dead War Overkill. And Super Smash Wreckfest Rocket League Bros with visuals like the actual Mario Strikers artwork.

All right, all of those except for the first one aren't really happening.

It's almost as if both versions were just ports of an N64 game graphically... Who makes these games?

Just to make sure: yes, I DO know. You never know when someone gets aggressively defensive on the internet, assuming you're as stupid as your silly joke.

It just makes me want Alice Madness Returns even MORE on Switch. I am looking forward to more Bayonetta as well, but American McGee's Alice collection is on top of my list somewhere.

I may have a very particular taste in games, but there's a lot of the Gamecube / PS2 / PS3 games I'd really just want a straight port to Switch of (with the obvious addition of gyro aiming), and that includes Kane & Lynch 2 which for some reason everyone seemed to hate (WITH online modes), all things Splinter Cell, Max Payne 3, Vanquish, and definitely Alice Madness Returns. Plenty more though (The Punisher on ps2, The Thing,... All things Gamecube and everything why I bought a ps2 and 3 on the side. Or a budget friendly reliable portable emulator with perfect support for the systems I mentioned, with analog triggers).

But Yeah, that's my train of thought when I read Cheshire.

@DigimonMonster I had rose tinted glasses back in the day, and I could stare straight into the sun all day long with them. With binoculars. Didn't even blink once. That is if I remember correctly. Don't try it.

If only they added ray tracing, so we could actually...
see reflections, on the water,
more than darkness, in the depth,
see him surface, in every shadow...

@DKGXX85 indeed. I wanted to explore it further in Chronos, but dying over and over with long load times just isn't fun. Sifu on the other hand made ageing go too fast to actually explore (the easy mode was actually my favourite in Sifu, even after beating it on harder settings as well, but it seemed to block out the true ending...). I just wanted to play both as an older person as well, or balance and prioritise growth more... doesn't change that I loved both games.

No I didn't. But my life hasn't been changed. So no, I won't vote. I've played a lot of red, blue, and yellow, later gold and crystal and some others, and heartgold and soulsilver but I never knew. I did know how to get 2 Mews though. Did, as in don't ask me how it went now.

After how much I enjoyed Chronos: Before the Ashes (at least when I started playing on easy the first time of many playthroughs, I hated it the very first time on normal, but eventually went on to do a zero death run on normal and I believe a one-death run on hard, just because it kept on being fun), I've been wanting to try this game. On Switch, wasn't gonna get it on a non-portable device, or get a new device to have access to it. So this is potentially great news, if they add gyro aim and it runs well and gets a physical release.

Anyway, I'm interested, and will take this opportunity to remind you that Chronos: Before the Ashes is a great game on Switch, that can be found very cheap physically nowadays.

DEAD SPACE ON NINTENDOLIFE?

Ah, no, Fortnite...

@bozz recently got it on a deep sale, but I still need to start playing it.

As for the art style in general, it is a very dangerous balance. On one hand, I love everything that reminds me of how I look back on the GBA and older Game Boys, but it is rarely done... "right". Eastward, Inmost, Wargroove, those are indeed fantastic examples of the visual style done right in my eyes. I love Minit as well for its art style, and many more, either on the list or not. But often it just feels like what it would be like if I painted in the style of Picasso without understanding why someone likes his work, only understanding that it sells in todays market and doesn't require much personality to just... plagiarise badly, instead of honour, I suppose.

Whenever I hear those words like "pixel art", "metroidvania", "rogue lite", "souls like",... I almost instantly feel a dislike for the game.

You could say... the original game has evolved, but the question remains,... has it ultimately survived?

I'll show myself out.

With all the red and blue haired anime character images on this website's main page recently, I almost overlooked this one as just another Fire Emblem article.

I just want Nintendo to Ninten-do what Ninten-does. If it's good, I'll get it sooner or later. If they always listened to the games market, or even their own fans, they wouldn't be Nintendo, and we wouldn't have gotten some of their weirdest and best things yet.

I remember that one boss battle in Devil's Third that was insanely broken, but there have been plenty of times I got frustrated playing games that were supposed to give me relief of the frustration of daily life, dealing with human "authorities",... One of the biggest ones we probably all know: the Blue Shell spoiling an entire 150 cc that finally went well, just at the very end.

But I can also get behind some levels in Mario Sunshine, and precise platforming in general. Or Timesplitters challenges like the one with the cow carcasses and the tranquilizer gun in the kitchen. Not even anything to do with being vegan. There's definitely more, because I've called many games the worst game ever with the most terrible gameplay design ever because I realised I had been playing them for hours and had no fun only frustration. Nowadays I have no more patience for those games.

@Dezzy70 I bought the Zombi U deluxe bundle at launch, and it still is on top of my launch day console / game bundle purchases satisfaction scale. Too bad that it never got the recognition it deserves.

I'm at the point where I start believing that the countless hours I think I spent playing the excellent World War Z on Switch were just a fever dream or something. Because it seems like no one else knows this incredible port of a great co-op zombie shooter on Switch exists.

But then who was I playing with? And what is this box and cartridge? And why does Nintendo's "year in review" say it was my most played game that year? I think it does not simply belong on this list, it belongs with the best ports, it belongs with Zombie Army 4, PvZ, and Dying Light (and I may be less enthousiastic about some of the other games because I played them on other platforms). But if you want to kill MANY, MANY, MANY zombies, (or get completely overrun by them and annihilated with no chance to recover) there is probably literally no better game for that than World War Z. It even had a graphical upgrade, gyro aim, extra chapter and modes, all added post release, and the extra chapter has a very unique part as well, in complete darkness, where only 1 player has a light, the other 3 don't.

I also really like Zombie Night Terror, but I can understand that one not being listed among the best.

@Sisilly_G Yeah that's why I like these puzzle games. You can quit after staring at them for ten minutes, come back, and instantly see your nex move.

I have no more patience for frustrating game design, but I like an occasional challenge still.

I remember in the Gamecube days, Playing REmake on every difficulty even when it wasn't even remotely fun anymore, or MGS Twin Snakes on a difficulty I remember as where being so much as spotted during stealth gameplay meant instant game over.Or later, games like Zombi U with instant perma death (if you so chose, and I only did it after several playthroughs on easy and normal or whatever they were called). Or other just games I played so many times before, like doing a no-death run on hard in Chronos: Before the Ashes, just because I love the game and the challenge, but nothing is at stake (but it does not feel that way when you're close to death, it is just easy to accept if or when you do fail, you challenged yourself after all, and the game is not holding anything from you). Now I want to recover from a misstep in-game, or quickly retry after failing in an honest way without redoing what I already did.

Or I want to do stupid things, like a custom event in Wreckfest where I drive the small police car against aggresive ai heavy vehicles on a track that gives me no chance to survive, and see how far I get in a fifteen lap race. I managed to win just because the ai tends to also destroy each other and even losing is fun then, and no required progress is locked behind this challenge. Or run around guns blazing in Sniper Elite 4's survival mode using only an smg and explosives.

I actually never played Commander Keen, I'll look for it on youtube to get an idea.

Also remember that this spin off had a cross over spin off exclusively on 3ds, with some of the best dungeon crawlers on any system ever. The titles: Persona Q and Persona Q2. The series it crossed over with: Etrian Odyssey. And I kind of fear both series (the original EO and PQ) will die with the 3ds. But it's not legally pirating to loot a sunken ship in open water. Legality has never been a measure of morality to begin with.

@Sisilly_G I'll never understand that either. I used to take challenges to the extreme as well. But I never understood it. Now, when I'm solving a sudoku or a picross or a game of freecell and it's no longer enjoyable, I quit. I still do those kind of games on the hardest, but they can't cause stress. Just a mental challenge or mental tiredness when you've been staring at them for too long without advancing.

As for gaming safely on friday the 13th, I took the risk of playing some games of freecell, and so far haven't got a papercut from playing with cards.

Whoever is not at any given time somehow replaying Link's Awakening or Minish Cap in some form on some platform, whether it's a focused playthrough or just spread across months, is doing this "gaming" thing wrong. Their mothers don't love them. I'm obviously death serious and you should get offended right now.

No, seriously serious, you SHOULD do what you feel like as long as it's not causing someone harm, but those two are probably my personal favourites and I love the series. But in another mood I might give two entirely different games as my favourites.

Tomorrow it might be Skyward Sword and Four Swords on Gamecube, or Majora's Mask and BOTW. Or yes, that one you are getting annoyed about because I've named so many already and not all of the great ones out there yet.

@Zisssou to some, you might be the voice of reason they have lost.

@Maxz And they must of course drink it within their gamer chair, a camera in front of them, and a gamer wall behind them. Playing games is optional.

For that price they better raise the dead, not just temporarily boost energy with exhaustion and a clouded mind as a result.

European. It also helps that I have that one and know it's one of those "shiny" inlays. I love those. Only one better was the lenticular box art variant of Big Bang Mini. No DS game ever looked remotely as awesome as that one, even before actually seeing the game in action which was awesome as well.

No alien wars that you're aware of... But isn't part of the alien war plot that it is all kept secret, most of the time?

@Deltarogue Someone most definitely did. See, NintendoLife, saying "Doshin" is "nuff said" by definition.

Doshin. Yes, NintendoLife, that's all I want to say.

i don't think any dedicated gaming system ever had this much fun features out of the box without inserting or installing an actual game. Face Raiders, AR minigames, Streetpass games, the 3d camera,... Still use my 3ds regularly, and I've had one from day one. I did transfer my data a couple of times (for the XL, and later the N3DS and N3DS XL models). When I still lived in the city, the local gamestore chain had Streetpass relay, so just walking in maxed out my Streetpass. I also went to conventions back then, and I could open my 3ds every 5 minutes and find it maxed out again. My partner back then also had one, and we always made sure to collect different puzzle pieces and then share them when "Streetpassing" at home. Now it's just a great gaming device with still unique features that are still underrated (3d) and still exclusive masterpieces of games I'm sure most of, if not all of us, still have to play several of.

@Dr_Corndog or the best part of Miiverse: drawing pictures of Willem Dafoe in the Rabbids community.

The Wii U was genius. The marketing team behind it not so much... Nintendo obviously tried, and they get really quite generous when they have to try, but they were ALSO pushing the 3ds at that time. Great time for Nintendo fans in a way. Free games, new first party games launching for 45€ instead of 60, and the revival of Bayonetta of course, with the first game in there as well, just because. A new Projet Zero, Xenoblade X, Pikmin 3, Donkey Kong,... Sure, back in the day they were spread very thin, but in hindsight, that system had so many fantastic games...

Get a day one ambassador 3DS (for Minish Cap, and with some luck the DSi Four Swords), and get al the Zelda you can get on it, and unplug from the internet again so no one can tell you where to start. Don't return to thank me later. You'll want to thank me twice now. Still, don't.

Every year, nothing I guess, except maybe Picross games, and Picross 3d round 2. Often, that is a different story:

Sniper Elite 4.. more like keep returning to.

Eternal Darkness

Valkyria Chronicles

Resident Evil 4 up until a few years ago (my Wii is no longer connected and that has the best version of it; if Switch version had gyro, maybe I'd still replay 4), now it's Revelations and Mercenaries on 3ds.. Another case of keep returning to.

Some 2d Zelda (mostly Minish Cap, Link's Awakening in one way or another)

Plants vs Zombies

one of the Luigi's Mansions

There's bound to be others I'm overlooking right now, but when I'm in the mood, I'll remember them.

I prefer original releases, but I also don't dislike the silver GC boxes. My problem with them is that the manuals that were in colour originally, were to my knowledge in black and white in budget releases. I do NOT like the budget approach of selling an empty box though. If I want physical, I want physical (at a decent price, never the price when it's just released), if I want cheap, I'll wait for a massive digital sale or play something else. I'm no longer the "collector" I used to be, but a beautiful physical release, regular retail with a manual, inside art, the good stuff that gets you into the game even when not actually playing it and makes you want to play it, still hits me in my weak spot often, making me interested in games I wasn't interested in before. Budget releases never will.

@Anti-Matter I had my eyes on that game as well, but even though I really want to play it, I don't feel like it has much..."value" as a game, so I'll get it when it's dirt cheap. I love the idea of just saying no in all sorts of funny ways to everything in a power trip through a world of yes-sayers.

One is too red, so I'm going with the entirely grey one. Just kidding. The red one is way better.

@Ooyah please look forward to games. If we don't, maybe someone else will still make games. If not now, later, or look back as games have already been made in the past as well.

To all the other comments: I only play on Switch have no gaming pc, and don't like playing on a tv anymore, I want handheld. I have no smart devices. So Switch is my go-to. That said, I will wait and will only get them when their prices drop desperately low while their quality (especially fun factor and art direction) is high. When these games release, I don't care. I care when they drop in price at least 80%, preferably more (or simply under 5 euro's for really good games, around 1 or 2 euro's for games I have a decent interest in, then it's "oh well, might as well buy them now").

@Serpenterror you might like Project X zone.

Also, imagine my surprise when I saw I wasn't the only one who thought of Tetris Tactics. It could make great use of formations and lines.

Shin Megami kind of has a tactics game on DS if I recall correctly might even have gotten a 3ds port.

I'd like to add Pikmin Tactics, and Untitled Goose Tactics. And Splinter Cell Spies vs Mercs Tactics. And anything Etrian Odyssey.

@Ryu_Niiyama good point, agreed.

As for these "incredible ports", I've always wondered why the Rebellion games (Sniper Elite 4, Zombie Army 4, Strange Brigade,...), World War Z, Wreckfest, are mostly overlooked. And why Alan Wake, which was a great handheld experience for me, gets blasted (sure I can see why it isn't the best, and that the footage I saw from docked play was obviously worse, but it was PERFECTLY playable in handheld and great fun, so a good version of the great game it always was, that even looked great at moments, just like so many "incredible ports" look terrible at moments).

But yeah for this list, from this year, Wreckfest and Sifu were also winners.

@gcunit well, you were the first to mention them... in the second comment. For what it's worth, I won't call you an idiot

I'd say maybe, MAYBE Goldeneye.

Nice news and all, but I don't remember being asked for permission to use that photo from last year when I got out of hibernation to greet the first warm sunlight.

but that figurine should have corn for teeth... Where did they think he got that lovely grin?