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Personally, I’d really wanted to see more F-Zero circuits as I really enjoyed the ones that were included already.
Also would have been nice if Captain Falcon had been added as an extra character.

Yesterdays Battle Mode was won by Neo who beat Geo in the final.
NeoGeo.
Today it’s Match Race which is on now.

An update on yesterday’s time trial event at the championship.
Sami Cetin won gold by just one second against Karel Van Duijvenboden from the Netherlands.
Jonathan Toole-Charignon from USA won bronze.
Today is Battle Mode.

@ZapNCrap I do wish Mario Kart 8 Deluxe had a Smash Brothers approach to items, being able to turn off items such as the Blue Shell etc in a menu would be a great addition to an almost perfect game.

@Rykdrew I agree, no blue shell or the regular item boxes like later Mario Karts make it a pure racer in comparison to later entries.

@Spookles PAL is what us Europeans had back in the 90’s.
The American Championship uses NTSC.
Personal, I think it’s nice PAL is used for the European Championship as both versions play very differently and require a different approach when playing.

@cra1g0s it’s very addictive and a great feeling when you beat a previous best time.
The Ghost Valley circuits are among my favourites (especially GV3).

@Fizza it’s incredible to see the pro players, some people turned up just to watch it live and had a great time.

@Spookles it’s the PAL version, original hardware and CRTV’s.

Thank you Jim for the fantastic article. I was lucky to attend the event back in 2019, had a lot of fun playing time trial, match race, battle mode and 150cc GP (my favourite).
If it’s ok, I’d like to share the link to the SMK Time Trial rankings site run by Sami Cetin which every fan of Super Mario Kart is welcome to join, it’s worth visiting just to see the current world record times for each race track.
https://www.mariokartplayers.com/smk/

This year, it has to be, the return of F-Zero.

Got the backers edition of R-Type Final 2 five days ago and have been enjoying it.
Personally, I’ve found it to be a solid shoot’em,up with difficulty settings for all which make it far more accessible then previous R-Types. Visually colourful but a tad blurry (like how Bloodstained was) and with music that’s best turned off in my opinion.

Glad I backed it on Kickstarter, hopefully we will get more stages and ships via dlc in the future.

Anyone else experiencing input lag?

It would be nice if Nintendo celebrated the 20th anniversary by releasing the original Paper Mario and its sequel, The Thousand Year Door.
Instead we get a tweet. 😩

Backed this on Kickstarter and went for the physical edition.
It’s looking very tasty.
Glad it’s getting a physical release in Japan, I wonder if it will be different to the one I’ll get as a backer?

Such a fantastic collection, ordered mine from Amazon Japan (sadly I didn’t get the book with it).
My girlfriend is helping me translate the menu screen for each game, we will translate all the M2 Shottrigger games eventually.

Highly recommend Metal Slug X and Aero Fighters 2.
I’m tempted by Fatal Fury 3 and the two other shmups on offer, are they any good?

I can easily recommend Horace, Okami and Yoku, picked up Donut Country on PS4 but yet to try it out.
Tempted by Demon’s Tilt myself, what’s the verdict on that game?

I've gone full digital on Switch for convenience of having all games on the system and because most physical games are unfinished on cartridge and/or require a future patch for improvements (such as Bloodstained RotN).
If i really do love the game, I might buy a special edition like I have done for Ikaruga, Okami and Samurai Shodown.

I can see a Pro Dock being announced for Monster Hunter and the Breath of the Wild sequel.
Could be the reason why the port of Doom Eternal has been so quiet too, Panic Button getting it optimised for the Pro.

What a missed opportunity, I’d have ordered this if it was the original trilogy and 64 on cart.

Hope we get the Card Fighters games too.

Got one of these with Tetris and Super Mario Land 2, it works perfectly on my Super Nt and the games look great on a modern tv.

I’d like to see Xain’d Sleena (Solar Warrior/Soldier of Light) myself.
Hard game but fun.

From Konami I’d love to see The Simpsons and TMNT.

Would love to see a sequel.
If you haven’t played Okami yet please do, it’s often on sale but well worth the money at full price.

Super Tennis is in my top ten overall best SNES games list, highly recommended.
I’m amazed it’s so low down in the rankings.

Good to see Okami HD on the list.
Great game, purchased the special edition while I was in Japan.

@Seananigans Because it’s a demake, not a demaster. 😉

Really enjoyed the article, any chance you could recommend some ACA Arcade games too?
Big fan of Kizuna Encounter.
Highly recommend Neo Turf Masters, Samurai Shodown 2, King of Fighters 98 and 2000, The Last Blade, Pulstar, Blazing Star, Aero Fighters 2, Metal Slug (1, X, 3) Garou and Shock Troopers.
Fingers crossed for Capcom vs SNK, unlikely so I won’t hold my breath.

Is it possible to play this 4 player online?
I’ve been wondering if Multitap games would be possible.

Highly recommend Rolling Gunner, in my top three Best Games of 2019. One of the best shmups I’ve had the pleasure of playing.

Nearly every Neo Geo game had a local two player mode, I’d love to be able to play online with another gamer to coop Metal Slug or fight one on one in KOF’98.
The AES is a sexy beast of a console and I’d love a mini version of that.
Maybe SNK can give us a system capable of doing justice to their legacy games and play modern games, like the new Samurai Shodown, all in one box. Let’s all hope that whatever it is, we don’t get charged £100 for one game.

Purchased this on my Japanese account few weeks ago, really is a great game that hopefully will be more active online.
By the way, Space Harrier arrived on the Japanese eStore, the joystick mode takes me back to the amazing arcade cabinet, another Sega arcade classic.

Yes!
Brilliant review of a brilliant game.
Deserves all the praise it’s getting, a modern STG classic.

Available in the UK?

Downloaded Rolling Gunner a few weeks ago on my Japanese account, it’s superb.
One of my favourite STG’s on the Switch.

Okami HD is one of the greatest games I’ve played, highly recommend to anyone who loves Zelda style games and Japanese art/culture.

Japan has the biggest retro gaming market in the world, most gamers I know in Japan already have the original consoles, collection of games and an old crt tv so that might be why they don’t sell so well on Switch.
Personally I’d like to see more from Sega’s arcade, Saturn and Dreamcast collection. I’ve seen Saturn games emulated on a Mac so I’m sure the Switch could handle it, Panzer Dragoon Trilogy would be a big seller for Sega.

Had a blast playing Captain Commando 4 player Online last night, did have lag during the game sadly but still enjoyed it.
Played Final Fight with zero lag (maybe it’s down to region of the host).
An absolute bargain if you ask me, seven arcade classics.

Downloaded Thunder Force IV last night, brilliant but so tough. Had to choose Kids mode to get past the first stages.

Really enjoying this game, can get very intense.
Playing this makes me think of how great Cave shumps would be on the Switch, I’d love to see DodonPachi, Death Smiles and Bug Princess. I did message the developer but got no reply.

Might look into getting this game.
Got Last Blade recently which is a very technical game.
Let it be known that the Neo Geo has some incredible games, Blazing Star, KOF’98 and Neo Turf Masters are well worth getting.

Merry Christmas everybody.
What Switch games did you get?
Me, I got socks which I’m really happy about as I already have too many games to play.
Currently enjoying Rocket League, Pinball FX3 and Slime-San.

Christmas Day review, that’s passion for the job.
Get some sleep and have some turkey.
Merry Christmas everybody.

@Daftbomb Thanks for the recommendations, I’ll take a look.

Really impressed with this game, me and my friends have been creating tournaments to compete against each other.
The extra two tables were for one week only, they are really good especially the theme park styled one which is currently my favourite.

I’ve not purchased any other tables yet, can anyone recommend which tables to purchase?

How involved is Sega, or more importantly, how much do they care?
If handled with a bit of love a classic mini Sega Mega Drive, Dreamcast and/or Saturn would go down a treat.
Having read reports on the Super NT, i'd feel better if Analogue had been approached.

Really impressed so far.
It's a challenge for sure and has that one more go quality about it.
It's on sale right now too.

Can't see a large scale Breath of the Wild sequel for sometime.
Personally i'd like another 2D Zelda with an online aspect to it, i'm thinking Link to the Past style with a much much larger 2D world where everyone is on their own adventure and you can help out, imagine Phantasy Star Online within the Link to the Past world.

In fact, you could have the island from Link's Awakening as a location too or even locations from the Oracle games.

@OorWullie Good to know it's getting good feedback, it's not cheap but I'm considering it.
Might leave it a bit longer in the hope the original AES stick will make an appearance.

I'm tempted by the Myriann Arcade Cabinet, it's a wooden build it yourself cabinet that the Switch can dock into and, like you said, use the usb-c cable to power the Switch.
If I get the red one, I could easily print some of the Neo Geo arcade cabinet decor and turn it into a mini MVS style cabinet, for £15.