SillyG

I love what they're doing with the Kirby amiibo. It's bizarre that Nintendo hadn't been this creative with amiibo years ago.

I hope we can use other Kirby amiibo and train those up too. Most of them merely unlock extra items (and nothing exclusive), so it would be nice for there to be a game that will finally be able to write data to them (outside of Smash anyway).

Paid DLC so soon?

I haven't got a Switch 2 yet, but this has put me off from grabbing the game until a complete on cart release materialises (hopefully, but not terribly optimistic).

AU$110 plus account-locked DLC? Come on now...

Brawns, beauty, and brains. 😍 Now there's a triple threat!

Take my pants! Er, I mean, my money. Take my money!

The Cleveland Show: The Game

Inexcusable that this costs as much as Cyberpunk 2077.

Ubisoft must have released some 20+ Rayman games from its 90s début to the early 2000s, including numerous console adaptations and edutainment releases.

Fast-forward to today, and all we get are some old doodles that not even the most passionate of gaming historians would give a crap about. Embarrassing.

Pokémon Go
Mega Sharpedo makes its début today, so I'll be attending a community meetup. I already have a shiny Carvanha (maybe two), so I've got one good to go if the "increased" shiny odds fail to bear fruit. 😅

It's anticlimactic though, having two Megas with the same typing (Mega Gyarados is also Water/Dark). What were TPCi thinking?

Mega Camerupt and Mega Metagross will also make their looooong belated débuts during this season (as well as the return of Mega Rayquaza, the sole Pokémon missing from my Hoenn dex), so there's quite a bit to be excited about.

@Daimando : If I recall correctly, the previous release wasn't complete on cartridge (with a forced download), so it would be nice to get a proper physical release of that too.

I'd have considered it a strong launch if third parties had all issued proper physical releases (and Nintendo included the DLC with the Switch 2 physical release of BOTW). So, it's quite poor as it stands, and I'm not keen on picking one up just yet.

What frustrates me even more is that they could, in theory, include the "Switch 2 edition" improvements on a Switch 1 cartridge and call it a day, especially for smaller and/or less demanding games, but instead, we're seeing separate releases, with both being compromised (specifically where physical releases are concerned).

The Switch was such an intriguing concept and BOTW such a "killer app" that it was hard to resist picking one up at launch, despite how barren its library was.

Criticisms about the Switch 2's poor battery life have also put me off from picking one up until a revision comes along. I'd have taken less onboard memory for better battery life any day.

Just give us a collection of the classics already.

I'd also appreciate it if they would include other oddities, such as handheld adaptations and the "educational" series of games.

US$80 (AU$120) for an anti-physical release. The sheer audacity of it.

I have nothing to say that wouldn't be laden with expletives, so I'll just leave it at that.

Edit: And a $300 edition that still doesn't come with a physical copy?! 🤦🏻‍♂️🤦🏻‍♂️🤦🏻‍♂️🤦🏻‍♂️🤦🏻‍♂️🤦🏻‍♂️

The performance issues have putt me right off. What a shame. Maybe at a significant discount on the physical, I could be tempted to pick this up, but it's a pass for now.

Even when I sought an English copy some years ago now, they were unreasonably overpriced.

I don't even want to fathom the obscene asking prices now.

It's really scummy to paywall an almost negligible performance boost to the Switch 2 version of the game, especially considering that the main portion of the game doesn't even come with any new content.

Fair cop if there are new higher quality assets to match (a la BOTW/TOTK), but I doubt that this is what's happening here.

@SplatRay001 : It's likely running natively at 1080p on Switch 2 now while it must have previously ran at a slightly lower (and/or adaptive) resolution.

@Axecon : I didn't mind, at least back when we got a full game on the cartridge.

Now, not only is it even more expensive than it's ever been, but there's virtually no data on the cartridge at all!

Surely Nintendo could have released their own mini working replica preloaded with games for just a little more.

Unfortunately, Australia got the North American art (albeit with a PAL cartridge), but the European cover is absolutely gorgeous.

We got Nintendo games without that "Nintendo magic" before GTA VI.

Something this dull looks like it would have been right at home on the Xbox.

Pokémon Go
Rookidee Community Day today (as hosted by Community Ambassador), and I'll be hosting Mega Gyarados Raid Day tomorrow.

Jazz Jackrabbit was a great "Sonic love letter" from back in the day. Pity that Epic cut the series short quickly.

Hardly a surprise. The earlier Just Dance games have been gradually delisted over the years without attracting headlines.

Even for those who normally buy digital, buying these larger games physically is an absolute no-brainer. You're basically getting a bonus memory card with your purchase. And with how large so many games are nowadays (and how often you'd soon be required to swap out microSD cards anyway), at least this way, you can effortlessly swap cartridges between consoles without online checks, and you properly own what you've bought.

This is gonna be such a fan favourite. Easily the sexiest Mega Evolution reveal so far, and perhaps even arguably, of all.

Ugh... just as I had just reached Level 50 too. 😅 (it took me a year of regular playing; my account dates back to 2016, but I wasn't really playing until a year ago)

@switchscores : The XP wasn't unreasonable at all, it's the tasks that were a tedious grind.

I saw an ad in the middle of the article which showed two washing machines side-by-side. For a second, I thought that had something to do with the article proper. 😅

@Anachronism : That was never going to catch on without 3D broadcasts (of which there was so, so little) and movies (a significant proportion of which were faked in post-production).

I absolutely love stereoscopic 3D though, so I'm definitely intrigued.

I remember this being readily available in Australia, and for some time as bargain bin fodder, but I turned up my nose at it not knowing that it was a Nintendo property, and the cover looked a little generic to me.

I adore the Japanese art though. I definitely would have been more intrigued had the Aussie cover looked more like that instead.

@carlos82 : A darker (but not too dark) horror-oriented game set in a region ravaged by ghosts and mutant Pokémon (perhaps inspired by the Chernobyl disaster) would be brilliant.

@Serpenterror : My point was that I would have appreciated the option to be able to use the Switch 2 cartridge on both Switch 1/2, rather than settling for an inferior version or buying the collection twice.

How I wish the Switch 2 cartridge will be compatible on both consoles, but there's nothing to indicate that this will be a "Nintendo Switch 2 Edition", so unfortunately it appears that there are two entirely separate builds for both consoles...

I hope this will support the camera as well, a la Mario Kart World. I love how it was implemented (though I was hoping for face tracking too).

Such a simple feature, but it makes the game feel just a touch more personal and refined. I'd love to see more games support the camera in this way.

That's one of the ugliest freaking logos I've ever seen. They might as well have gone with Times New Roman. Jeez. I thought it was just a placeholder.

I was hoping for a paid physical version with any predatory "free-to-play" features removed, but a paid digital version has put me right off, especially if we need to pay again for the mobile version.

But hopefully actually owning/playing the main series games (plus Go) will essentially render this properly free to play.

I wish the main games would just give us the option to have Stadium-style couch multiplayer battles.

Surely it couldn't be that difficult to implement as they'd be dealing with assets, mons, movesets etc. that already exist in the code. Choose your mon, set the levels and/or moveset (or just go with the default), and any other house rules one may wish to implement. It could add so much more value to the games with relatively little work.

$22 for what looks like a cheap and nasty Happy Meal toy is insane.

Anyway, where is my solo Pauline amiibo at?

@Opaline-D : It's quite scummy of them to use AI-generated voiceovers if the rest of them were human-recorded.

@topsekret : Every publisher that has the nerve to charge $70 for key card crap deserves to go under. Utterly disgraceful.

The only thing I care about here is the shiny Anaheim jersey Pikachu in Pokémon Go (hoping I can get at least one male and one female).

The early casting news has filled me with a lot of optimism, even though I would have loved a beautifully hand-drawn/painted animated film.

I wasn't crazy about the Mario movie mainly due to its typical Hollywood stunt casting and crap character designs (I mostly loathe American 3D animation). The movie was merely okay in the end, which isn't what I would want to settle for with respect to anything that bears Mario's name.

If they play their cards right, I might even spring to see Zelda at the theatre instead of waiting for the disc like I normally do.

@Hapless : Looks like we may have to up our gluttony game so we can fit into those XXXXLs.

What a load of crap. It looks like it was just a code in a case release all along. Way to jump the gun. 🤦🏻‍♂️ This is Take Two we're talking about here. Poor destitute multi-billion dollar companies Take Two/Rockstar still refusing to issue an honest release.

It's a travesty that they have been treating these three influential classics the way that they have. How ironic that the original PC/PS2 versions would be the definitive way to experience these games.

@Dman10 : No excuses from a company that leaks money like Rockstar. Plus have you seen how ridiculously comprehensive GTA V's soundtrack is? Just like their refusal to issue proper physical releases of their games, their similar refusal to relicense all of the songs that were featured in the original games is nothing short of greed on Rockstar's part.

The problem with such a release, even if complete, is that if any future updates surface, however small, then the bulk of them will have to be downloaded (roughly 15GB) in order to take advantage of any further improvements.

And for that reason, I hope they never update the games again once this is released, and that any Switch 2 performance improvements are baked into the cartridge.

In any case, if this is accurate, I'll definitely double-dip.

@Serpenterror : Oof. That would be quite a collection. Wasn't the "DS" game just a DSiWare port of the first game?

AU$30 seems a smidge too high for a game without a lot of content and is vastly outclassed by the Switch 1's library of couch multiplayer games.

And if online multiplayer wasn't paywalled, I also would have been tempted, but I'm growing increasingly weary of games that are largely (and despicably) paywalled on top of the cost of entry.

The Switch 2 upgrade will be a welcome excuse to replay this for a fourth time... (when I actually pick one up)

And I would totally quadruple dip if they release a physical copy with the Switch 2 enhancements + DLC on the cart.

I find it odd that they're even bothering to update games that are long out of print though.

I don't know how comprehensive this collection is, but I love when they include various adaptations of games (especially Game Boy versions).

It kills me that Nintendo could be extending this sort of treatment to their own classic games, but won't.

It's a shame if they hadn't bothered to include any enhancements for the Switch 2.

Likewise, I hope both this and DOOM + DOOM II will be updated to support GameShare with a single copy.

When I used to still eat Macca's, I was able to buy Happy Meal toys (sans meal) for AU$2. Surely the concession still exists today (even if at a slightly higher price of $3 or $4)? It would be crazy if it didn't. Perhaps Aussie Macca's was a little unique in that regard.

Absolutely ridiculous that they would throw out all of that food for mere toys/cards though, but our mistake was assuming that scalpers ever possessed any scruples in the first place. Pathetic losers, the lot of them.

• Western cover: Fun game.
• Japanese cover: Guidebook on curmudgeonly etiquette, probably.

Pokémon Go Origin Raid Day to take place today. Hope it doesn't rain again like it did yesterday.