SillyG

@Solid_Python : People care about ownership, not "plastic".

"lol."

Pokémon Go: Hisuian Lilligant Raid Day

It débuted today. My first two were consecutive shinies followed by a third some time later.

Key card + performance issues?!

Take my money!

All on cartridge please, please, please!!!!

What the hell does this mean for the original release?! (which got a limited physical release)

In any case, I hope this gets a physical release as well... ugh...

Why couldn't they have just made a sequel instead?!

He was the personification of everything that we adored about Nintendo.

I am growing to strongly dislike what Nintendo has (and continues to) become without him.

RIP Iwata-sama.

Will consider Patapon after some reviews, but nothing else.

Stand by for Nintendo's first ever destabilising update...

Now there's a headline that will break the internet.

Seems a little scathing given the target audience. I intend to pick up one of the Asian Switch 2 physical releases in any case. Now I'm even more surprised that this got the all-on-cart treatment while Shadow Labyrinth got snubbed.

Also, Nintendogs 3 with pack-in camera when?

@chickje : I meant if they'd included a 128GB cartridge, which is surely a possibility, albeit an expensive one (still substantially cheaper and better than having to provide the storage yourself though!).

@chickje : That is AU$40 worth of storage right there!

But God forbid that they charge an extra $10 for the physical release to have it on an actual cartridge...

Pokémon Go: Eevee Community Day (Saturday and Sunday)

I hosted today while one of our community ambassadors will be hosting tomorrow.

I've also been hosting shiny Gimmighoul hunts all week to help out those who do not have access to a Nintendo Switch.

So far, I'm yet to catch (even encounter) a single shiny. One of our local players thanked me as she caught three shinies in a row yesterday afternoon.

I've been hyping the hell out of shiny Gimmighoul's début (which is also a time-limited shiny, with its availability being locked come Monday night), and this is the thanks I get from Niantic. My shiny luck in general has also been positively rotten this week.

My best catch was a perfect IV Gimmighoul with the 9th anniversary background and coin engravement, but they cannot evolve, and you can't flex it in gyms either as no-one can see it (and even from behind, you'd need a very high resolution phone and a powerful microscope to make it out 😅). I already have a perfect Gholdengo from ages ago though.

Still having a ball, but lady luck must be really grumpy with me for some reason. 😅

@N00BiSH : Just for that, I'm going to not laugh even harder.

@Fighting_Game_Loser : Apparently it was big enough for an all-on-cart Switch 2 release! And if the rumours about there only being 64GB cartridges is true, then it's all the more remarkable as the Switch 2 build of the game is only 2.1GB! And physical sales seemed to hold their own against a modest userbase to boot!

Pathetically, not even Sega believed in the global appeal of Yakuza, Sonic, or Tetris to do the same for their IP.

As much as I would prefer to support a local release of Tamagotchi Plaza (which was only released for Switch 1 in the West), I'm going to have to import the Japanese/Asian Switch 2 release as it's currently only of very few Switch 2 physical releases done right.

All on cartridge, for the love of God!!!

The pricing is absolutely obscene. AU$110 for a code in a case?! And the "premium" edition is AU$200!!!

The only thing worse than crappy third parties are the customers who love them.

But I guess the price should plummet quickly enough for those who really want this...

Why the hell isn't this included on the Switch 1 cartridge?

The Switch 2 version of the game is only 8GB and would have needed a 16GB cartridge regardless, and they could have theoretically fit both builds of the game onto that same cartridge, if necessary, instead of imposing a 3GB download of data that should have been included in the physical release in the first place.

I don't wish to encourage practices like these, where a Switch 2 upgrade is tied to a download, leaving only an inferior Switch 1 build on the actual cartridge, so I'll be skipping this. This may be less egregious than an outright "key card" release, but I am absolutely sick of third parties screwing over customers with their crappy, incomplete physical releases.

Incidentally, another Namco release, Tamagotchi Plaza (which is only 2.1GB on Switch 2!), is included in full on a Switch 2 cartridge for its Asian retail release (surely a Switch 1 cartridge would have sufficed!), and is a cross-compatible Switch 1/2 physical release done right, so I don't understand why this, which arguably has more appeal among hardcore gamers, is being short-changed in this way.

I don't have a Switch 2 yet, but when I do, I'll grab DK Bananza, Mario Party Jamboree, and Kirby Forgotten Land. It's a shame there's nothing else in the pipeline worth a damn.

I also have the Gold Master Series releases coming in from LRG. I'm particularly looking forward to the Llamasoft collection (Llamatron was on the first floppy disk we'd ever bought circa 1993) and Tetris Forever (how many more physical Tetris games can I possibly own on a single console?!!!).

I might also grab Tomb Raider IV-VI, Ninja Gaiden, and maybe Shinobi and/or Worms Armageddon (for the GBC games).

Who in their right mind would pay $130 for a digital exclusive and not the same amount for a physical copy shipping on a 128GB cartridge?! (saving a bunch of storage in the process, which would cost a lot more overall if one were to store the game on their expensive microSD Express card instead)

At the absolute least they could issue a limited physical run of the expensive deluxe edition before issuing the standard edition as a cheaper key card release.

@Colonel1000 : It certainly beats all of the AI slop! At least we know that love, care, and a hell of a lot of patience was poured into these projects.

Some seriously impressive creativity on show here, and the Direct homage is the icing on the cake.

I don't understand why or how that would (or could even) have any bearing whatsoever on the controllers. 🤨

Unless weak HDMI cables somehow put a strain on the console, but if that were the case, couldn't that affect in-game performance as well? 🤷🏻‍♂️

These are absolutely bonkers.

Which only makes me want a new WarioWare DIY all the more.

I couldn't possibly invest in making a game of greater scope using limited tools that could render my game broken with a few oversights, but a 5 second microgame? Gimme, gimme, gimme.

Pokémon Go: Go Fest
Caught 43 Zamazenta, but no shinies or hundies. Also hosted a Golden PokéStop meetup for an hour while the Community Ambassador went on a lunch break.

All in all, a good day out. Got plenty of other shinies though (and my Plus+ whittled down my Ultra Balls from over 1,800 to around 900 in those eight hours of gameplay, and I'm torn as to whether I want to activate White Kyurem's adventure effect while using Great Balls for the most part tomorrow).

Hard pass on anything that uses AI, at least to this scale.

Just re-release the original game at this point, warts and all, if you're going to take the easy way out.

And feel free to recycle all of the pre-existing assets as you like (it's not as if there's a shortage of material out there!), but resorting to this level of scummery? Hell no.

As if the eShop didn't have enough problems without the influx of AI-generated slop that we've been seeing over the last couple of years.

What's crazier is that I've noticed a bunch of official music videos from Turkey that are completely AI-generated (and every bit as freakish as you'd imagine). It's absolutely pathetic. Everybody involved (including the "artists") ought to be ashamed of themselves.

@Dom_31 : Perhaps I'd give a pass for inconsequential things like distant objects that cannot be interacted with and will never be observed by the player up-close, but this is just shameless.

I'll just be here waiting for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe + Booster Course Pass - Nintendo Switch 2 Edition, coming this Christmas.

I'd forgive this if Nintendo hadn't paywalled online multiplayer last generation, but as it stands, hard, hard skip on this one, dawg.

@Spider-Kev : My first thought as well.

@Samalik : Plus Mii costumes. Gimme, gimme, gimme.

Too late. I've already bought 11 copies, plus I even managed to snag the Nintendo Switch 3 Edition, which boasts 1,000,000fps and 1,000,000p resolution, and comes on a 1,000,000TB cartridge.

The textures are still mid tho, NGL.

Exactly as I suspected, AU$30, which is pretty much the standard price for Nintendo's digital exclusives.

@Not_Soos : I still need to finish that game.

@RupeeClock : I understand that, but a single audio file?

Even more bizarre is that even those downloading the game via the eShop are looking at a mammoth 18GB+ download! The PC version of the "Definitive Edition" release, 4K visuals and all, is under 9GB.

It just smacks of incompetence from those involved.

@RupeeClock : One of the audio commentary tracks in Plumbers Don't Wear Ties was also not functioning in the cartridge, and required an update (I e-mailed LRG to alert them of the issue).

A 4.5GB-ish update followed... which is frankly insulting and implies that the commentary wasn't even in the release build to begin with! (and an audio track shouldn't have been so absurdly large in size either)

Really disappointed in the lack of physical Nintendo-published games this early into the system's life. They're absolutely taking the piss if they charge anything more than AU$30 for it given that Snipperclips Plus was only AU$45 with a cartridge.

I wish Nintendo would at least issue compilation cartridges for their digital-only releases. This could have been a double feature with Welcome Tour, and possibly one other game if the cost of raw materials would have been too high to justify a budget-priced release.

Stealing from a library of all places?! 🤦🏻‍♂️

I'm with the Saudis on this one, dawg.

Never had a problem with reusing assets. It was that which gave us an additional three standalone Sims games on PC via the "Stories" series in the mid 2000s, and no less than four additional GTA games on the PS2.

I don't get why we're seeing fewer such derivative games as it was a way to produce more content while developers work on the A project in the background. Surely that would have been preferable to waiting 13 years for a single new instalment in the GTA series.

But to hell with AI. Just last night I caught a new music video from a veteran singer who released an all-AI video with absolutely no artistic justification for it. It's sick and insulting.

Taking the easy way out will never compare to that which has had care put into it.

Plus, without knowing precisely where AI algorithms are sourcing their assets, major companies can quickly find themselves inundated with legal issues if others can make copyright claims over AI-generated material.

Japan, easily, with NA second.

The European cover sucks though.

I don't understand why Switch 1 cards aren't being used or otherwise repurposed as Switch 2 cards for smaller games. Not every game needs the faster read speeds.

And Nintendo's baffling "Nintendo Switch 2 Edition" approach to multigenerationally compatible releases is the most idiotically obtuse way of articulating that fact without explicitly articulating that fact. 🤦🏻‍♂️

The Virtual Boy would outsell the Xbox series in Japan at this point.

@jco83 : Would be nice if we could have the option to turn it off for that purpose, along with the ability to capture videos, which would also put a strain on the system (and battery!) whether you intend to ever use it or not.

@Truegamer79 : While I have fond memories of the old days, I don't miss the bulk or impracticality of cassettes and Walkmans. Even in those days, I had the foresight to prioritise CDs (for quality and preservation) and simply produce my own cassettes, from the few CDs that I did have, but I simply didn't have the money to buy everything on CD (as they used to cost double that of cassettes).

Does "GameChat" (or something like it anyway) work in local couch multiplayer and/or with games that support wireless local multiplayer (and/or GameShare)?

As in, can one simply turn the camera on and the Switch 2 will track up to four faces in the room or is this strictly limited to online games and/or also supported locally but on a game-by-game basis?

I'm curious as to the extent to which the camera is supported by the OS and/or any currently available software, because if it can be used with virtually anything (even locally), then it's a real game-changer.

@Truegamer79 : I had a Sony Walkman gifted to me circa 1999 that didn't have such functionality. Funny how a later version lacked the more advanced functionality of an early 90s model.

And because I couldn't afford all of the albums that I wanted, I used to record music videos to VHS and then use the stereo system to transfer the audio from the VHS to cassettes. Didn't have (nor needed) any YouTube tutorials in those days to figure that out, but I was a clever little cookie, putting together my own mixtapes.

I did the same by buying CDs and transferring them to cassette as well (though most of my CDs were merely singles as I couldn't afford the albums, as they typically cost 4x as much).

@a1904 : I actually sought an authentic Chinese transcription of what Homer said in that scene and was crushed that I couldn't find it (as I would have posted it in my previous comment otherwise), so thank you very much kind sir.

@Truegamer79 : I had no idea such a Walkman ever existed, and now I still think that's the coolest thing ever.

@HammerGalladeBro : Quack, quack, quack. 🐧

Nice to know that these issues were resolved via the Switch 2's firmware rather than necessitating individual software updates.

Good.

What's even more insulting than the prevalence of "key cards" is how damned expensive they are too! I'll extend just a smidgen of grace to Bravely Default as it is priced like a 3DS game from 10+ years ago (albeit without the game on the cartridge this time around), but everything else costs about as much as games with the actual data on the cartridge.

I hope they continue to tank until greedy third parties learn their lesson.

@mlt : George Foreman named not one, not two, no, not even three, surely not four, but all five of his sons 'George'.

He also has seven daughters, regrettably, only one named 'Georgetta'.

So if we're going to search for rhyme or reason from those who name their children after themselves, then let's start by cracking this mystery first.

@rjejr : Funny that Amiibo Festival was readily available for AU$5 as well.

And to think that Nintendo were bold (and delusional) enough to think that they'd move enough units to reissue the game without the Digby amiibo too. 😂