SlowPokemon

I really want to compliment the writing of this article. It’s the funniest and most clever thing I’ve read on this website in ages.

@BTB20 yup but we’re talking about handheld. There’s a free update that puts it at 1080p in handheld, not part of the upgrade

@Friendly yes I’m sure, it’s even listed on the page of free Switch 2 updates on Nintendo’s website: https://www.nintendo.com/us/gaming-systems/switch-2/transfer-guide/games-with-free-updates/?srsltid=AfmBOoq0YT2OcgW8g4KN9677ieQX_rApjTRkU6Mo627bLE58ZSySjXap

@NX-3318 I regret to inform you that the handheld resolution bump was already in the free 3.0 update. The paid upgrade includes only mouse controls, microphone features, an increased multiplayer capability.

Strange decision to release this before Colosseum, but I am benefiting from this decision because I played Colosseum a lot as a kid but never touched XD. Looking forward to that.

@Dom_31 if you read the fine print at the bottom of the visual, it says Pokémon obtained in XD cannot be transferred to other Pokémon games, and vice-versa. So they’re locked in on no Home support 🙂

For the first time ever, my favorite Pokémon in a gen is a mythical: I absolutely love Pecharunt.

Runners up include Smoliv, Grafaiai, Toedscruel, Scovillain, Iron Moth, and Orthworm. Really awesome generation overall.

Hisuian Sneasel is awesome, but it’s not an option here. I prefer it to Sneasler somehow, though both are cool.

Definitely Sandaconda. It’s so cute and derpy, it’s very fun to use in battle because it’s got so many cool move options and good bulk, and it’s just overall a very good friend. I used it in my first playthrough of Shield and ended up using it again with a totally different build in Scarlet. A very good snake.

Lots of awesome designs here, despite being (in my opinion) the worst generation of starters. I love all the creative designs like Toxapex, Shiinotic, Pyukumuku, Golisopod, Komala, and the cockroach queen Pheromosa.

But my favorite has to be Salandit, such a cute design, and I love that it gets the interesting Corrosion ability. Even though I accidentally trained a male through my first run of Pokémon Moon, not realizing only the females evolved, that gives it a special memory, even if it was frustrating at the time.

For me, it’s a toss up between Aromatisse, Inkay/Malamar, Binacle/Barbaracle, Helioptile, and Dragalge. Ultimately I voted for Malamar, I find myself wanting to use it in every game it appears in. The Contrary/Superpower combo is just too fun.

Close runner up is probably Aromatisse with that cool plague doctor mask design, followed by Binacle which is just a delightfully quirky visual.

This is the funniest title for a Nintendo game yet. Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition — Nintendo Switch 2 Edition. I love that it has “edition” twice. Absurd

My favorite is specifically Eelektrik (the middle stage) because it’s to my mind a more interesting and quirky design than its evolution Eelektross. I actually have an Eelektrik plush from the Pokémon center website, and I love it. It’s cool that the new Mega Eelektross features “false Eelektrik” in the design.

My vote is for Vespiquen, a really cool and timeless design that continues to be featured memorably in the newer games. Like many Bug-type Pokémon, it’s difficult to get it to work in any competitive context, but it is always fun to use on a playthrough.

Surprisingly high defensive stats and a workable movepool (including signature moves Attack Order and Defend Order, with little bee underlings flying out to assist) let it do serious damage in the right context.

And of course there’s the fact that it just looks awesome and intimidating, referenced in its two abilities, Pressure and Unnerve.

Runner ups include Toxicroak, another one that’s proven timeless, and Purugly, which is hardly ever featured by Game Freak in a game but has some really awesome uses in doubles, with the Defiant ability and Fake Out and U-Turn coupled with a really high Speed stat.

@JohnnyMind one of the interesting things about the first game is I think you can choose how scary you want it to be in the settings. So don’t let the horror turn you off.

The first was truly innovative in fun little ways, and I am absolutely delighted there’s a sequel. This will be a day one buy for me!

The Pokémon Magcargo can learn the move High Horsepower; therefore, it is a horse and should be included with the Pokémon section of this list.

I am so glad I was not the only person to vote for Swalot. I love that Pokémon.

The Hundred Line is excellent, but I saw about 60 of the 100 endings and just got too burned out on the game to keep going. (That was about 150 hours.) In the back of my mind I’m thinking I’ll polish up the rest if/when they release a Switch 2 version. It is genuinely almost too big a game for its own good.

This is actually available in four versions—there is a Pikachu as well.

The first one is one of the most entertaining and innovative VNs I’ve played in terms of presentation. I played it a little before Nintendo’s “Emio - The Smiling Man,” and while I loved both, Emio struck me as extremely old-fashioned after all of the neat horror stuff in Paranormasight. I mean, it’s apples and oranges, they’re different things, but either way I am surprised and delighted to see this game get a sequel. It definitely deserves it, and with the first one only $20 and about 12 hours all told, anyone on the fence or curious should really pick it up!

It’s so nice to see that the option to be queer and nonbinary is just casually added in the settings. No big deal, just making it easier for people to be themselves and acknowledging that non-heteronormativity exists without being flashy or judgmental about it. That’s exactly what most of the LGBTQ community wants—at least what I want as a bi person. Good on Nintendo!

@beartown I found DK Bananza kind of boring for most of the play time, though I did finish it to 100% before the credits to make sure I was giving it a fair chance. (Never really messed with the post-game)

But the Luigi’s Mansion series, all of them, are some of my favorite games, I’ve played them all to 100% multiple times. So…no, I don’t think there’s any direct correlation.

I wish these games would get an update to run at native 1080p in handheld mode.

This is not Sakamoto’s best work. Yoko Shimomura gave these games so much quirky atmosphere. Sakamoto’s score is not bad, but it lacks flavor and personality. It sounds like it could be the soundtrack for a typical JRPG. Tbh, it’s just another way that Acquire and Nintendo completely missed the mark on this reboot. I wanted to like it so bad, but Brothership, in basically every way, fundamentally misunderstood what the appeal of the original series was.

Thank you for this article. It brightened my day and was a wonderful start to Monday morning.

@SillyG I agree $70 is steep, but the answer to “what the hell are we even being charged for” is obviously “the game,” lol. And I guess if you buy the game key card, you’re also being charged for a box and a key card.

Personally, I’ll be getting it digitally, not because I’m necessarily against the concept of key cards, but because games like this and Animal Crossing tend to be games I like to play for short periods of time without swapping out a cartridge.

I’m actually glad of this news. It means they’re taking their time and doing it properly, like they did with Fantasy Life.

There’s no option for “this game is great as-is,” and that’s what I would have picked. It’s kind of bad journalism to force your readers to vote in a poll that only has options implying the game is bad.

I can tell he genuinely doesn’t care about the sales. He wants as many people as possible to play it of course—this is how artists feel—but I really think he doesn’t care about the money involved. That’s beautiful and refreshing. Not too many game developers, composers, writers, etc. are brave enough to think that way.

Animal Well has entered the chat.

Played through this with my girlfriend last night and we both cried a lot. It’s a great game, very meditative. And nostalgic for me to see the art style of Kanasaki, Hotel Dusk is a longtime favorite of mine.

Keep in mind the game’s runtime is exactly 45 minutes, not an hour as the reviews all seem to say.

If you’re reading this and you liked “Dear Me, I Was…” I recommend watching Studio Ghibli’s movie “Only Yesterday.” It’s my favorite movie and this game is very similar in tone, it kept reminding me of that. (Just watch in Japanese, that dub is not good lol)

The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy. @KateGray — before getting into this one, please know I’ve played 140 hours and have seen just over HALF of the endings this game contains. It is an incredible thing, almost defiantly unwieldy but nearly impossible to criticize because of the ambition and scope at work. The time commitment is absolutely insane. And yet two months later, here I am.

Also been dabbling in Mario Kart World, obviously. The surprise there is that Free Roam is my favorite mode. Tracking down the ? Panels and P switches is so fun, and the secondary effect is that you actually kind of get a handle on the wall riding mechanic with how tricky the challenges are.

I figured it would be full price based on the way they revealed and demoed the game. I was thinking I’d only give it a shot if it was $30 or less. Pleasantly surprised that it’s only $20. To me, that’s worth an hour or two experiencing a quirky Nintendo control gimmick.

It seems like they are taking the variable pricing in both directions this generation, at least so far, which I appreciate. Even on Switch 1, something like the NES World Championships from last year was $30, and that was a NOTHINGBURGER of a game, lol.

My main in Mario Kart 8 was the villager boy from Animal Crossing, so I’ve had to find a new one.

I think my new main is Nabbit in the Ribbit Revster.

I also love King Boo, Piranha Plant, and Gondolier Luigi. Sidestepper is also great, it’s a shame that the lobster car is a terrible choice for that character though.

I really appreciate this measured take on the game. I’m finding it to be very fun, and the hate surrounding it to be kind of absurd. It’s $10. If the console cost $10 more and Welcome Tour was included, no one would blink and we would be talking about how charming and weird this game is. With the separate charge, only the real nerds who want to play it have to pay. I do think it should have been free, or included in the console cost, but the amount of whining over this game is kind of ridiculous.

Anyway, this is actually the game I’ve spent the most time with on Switch 2 so far. As I said above, I find it very charming in spite of a few strange design decisions. It’s certainly much more engaging for me than 1-2-Switch, which was $50 at launch and basically a collection of glorified tech demos.

If anyone reading is on the fence about this, I recommend picking it up. If you’re raging and refusing to pay “on principle,” at least figure out whatever principle it is you’re so worked up about. This game isn’t an instruction manual, it’s a really interesting deep dive into the engineering of the system. Nintendo is greedy and gouges their customers sometimes, but I just don’t think this game is an instance of that.

The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy! I’ve seen 8 endings and unfortunately I need to hold off on starting another route because I’ll be out of town all next week performing in a music festival. But it’s driving me crazy to not be able to jump right back into it.

1. That isn’t Shy Guy, it’s a Snifit.
2. That isn’t Bowser Jr., who debuted in Super Mario Sunshine, it’s Koopa Kid, who I believe appears exclusively in the Mario Party series.

I have to be honest, I’m at the end of fifth world, and I think playing with two players would be awful and possibly frustrating enough to put me off the game. These levels are clearly designed first and foremost as single player gauntlets that are quite challenging. The idea of another thing running around the screen to distract my eye makes me sweat.

You’re misquoting Oliver Twist in the caption. It’s “Please, sir, I want some more.” Not a question.

If you like Return of the Obra Dinn, absolutely play Lorelei and the Laser Eyes. It’s spectacular and in the same vein.

I bounced off this game the first time I played it, because I was so confused by the part with the disc he mentions. Again, it was just crazy to me that I might have to leave a new item behind, because it’s so against the tradition of this kind of game.

Then over the summer I tried again and when I got to that part I just ignored it, and yes, it really does live up to the hype. When I found the fake disc and realized what I was supposed to do to get the disc, my jaw hit the floor. There aren’t many games that can give you the feeling I got from that.

Some of the puzzles are a bit too hard (the part with the ostrich in the wheel was a little maddening) but you can get to the credits if you pay attention. The post game stuff, that’s just for the insane and ultra-nerdy. I thought it was amazingly cool, but as he said, I personally did get bored and stop playing. It didn’t hinder my enjoyment of the game, it was just an extra layer for a specific group of the audience to enjoy.

It’s a wonderful puzzle box of a game and I hope a lot of people play it and I hope he made a lot of money from it because we need more of these talented hobbyists who are financially stable enough to spend all their time making games.

If the creator is reading these comments, just know the work you did brought me so much delight and joy. I hope to see more from you.

I’m about 8 hours in. These are some things I was disappointed in:

• The soundtrack sounds like stock music. Apparently Yoko Shimomura wasn’t hired for this despite being the series composer for every game so far. Hideki Sakamoto is a fine game composer, but this is not his best work. It makes the game feel like a generic video game, where Shimomura always elevated the drama and humor and setting with her sound design.
• Agree with the weird clunky feeling of the bros in the overworld, especially the weird Luigi AI and the hammers having a delay and being difficult to aim properly.
• The combat timing windows are now far too easy to get an Excellent rating. If you go back to Dream Team, it’s night and day.

The writing is cute. The gameplay is more or less enjoyable. But this is not the same atmosphere of the Mario & Luigi games I’ve grown to love over the years.

My bigger annoyance is how you can’t enjoy the platforming by syncing up the bros’ jumps anymore, because Luigi is an AI partner rather than a character you actually play as in the overworld. I miss the synchronized and alternating manual jumping. I wonder, based on how they insisted on tutorials for that jumping mechanic in every single game since the beginning, if players actually had trouble understanding it or something.

I noticed this right away. After nearly 20 years of playing and replaying these games, my muscle memory means that I’m *****. Haha I’ve played about 2.5 hours so far. Hopefully I get used to it soon or they patch in a setting (right now the only option under “settings” is to turn the rumble off, so even the plural “settings” menu label is not accurate)

That’s my letter! (The “banger year.”) Glad I could be the rep for Endless Ocean and Another Code—there are dozens of us! All joking aside, it’s cool to see my letter published. 🙂

@fenlix My impression of the ending was that it could be polarizing, but only in the sense that some will love it, some will find it disappointing and really dislike it. That’s probably what Sakamoto meant. I don’t think there’s anything that I would call controversial in the sense you mean.

People who expect big dramatic reveal scenes like you’d find in similar detective-style games like Ace Attorney or Professor Layton will not fall in love with Emio. This game is primarily about a few themes and ideas that are expressed through its characters. The “mystery” aspect of the story is not the heart of the experience and is not directly relevant to its highest highs. The tagline in the marketing was the hashtag #WhoIsEmio? And you find out the literal answer to that question during the game, but I think what it actually means doesn’t become clear until you’ve cleared the entire game and thought about it a little. It’s that kind of ending.

I finished it last night, definitely a 10 from me. I tend to love these “riskier” projects Nintendo commits to that don’t necessarily have a big audience, and march strictly to the beat of their own drum. (Another Code and Endless Ocean are two other recent examples.) And those who have seen all the way through the ending of Emio will know that this one obviously had a huge amount of money poured into it. It’s got one of the most amazing final hours I’ve ever seen in a visual novel, both in terms of writing and presentation. It’s a quiet little masterpiece that feels totally uncompromised artistically and unconcerned with player expectation in the best way.

@Lizuka I actually preferred The Missing Heir because of its throwback Agatha Christie stylings. But I think The Girl Who Stands Behind, though enjoyable, was ultimately held back by trying to play with horror ideas but keeping the Nintendo family-friendly image. (Also, since it was SO influential on later VN games that I played first, it felt a bit familiar. Suppose that’s unavoidable given the long journey it had to the west.) The fact that this one seems to be more intense (and M-rated?!) means it has a lot of potential to be interesting.

I also found an Easter egg relating it to The Missing Heir. I’m sure you know the first phone number I typed into the cell phone, and I was not disappointed! Haha

Pretty crazy how one of the directors and series producers of Metroid is the guy who also handles this series. That just makes me appreciate both games more.