SmaggTheSmug

@KingMike First off, don't command other people to be nice when you're being obtuse yourself. To get respect maybe give some first.
I'm not on the game's PR team; I just like this genre a lot and I don't want it to end up like the monster catching games: dominated by a single franchise that has been wallowing in mediocrity for almost a decade now while any newcomer is sneered at as a "clone". It's even worse for Nintendo Wars series, as the first new entry in 15 years is a dissapointing for many reboot. And yet you scoff at someone else picking up the mantle?
As for the specific points: faction unique units and multiple infantry types is already a huge departure from the Wars series formula. Tiny Metal had the latter but not the former. The Rhino tank in the trailer which seems to push enemy units rather than shoot them looks like one of those and it's already something not seen in any of the Wars games. Imagine how different Advance Wars would be if, say, Orange Star had a superheavy tank, Blue Moon a unit like Days of Ruin's Anti-tank Gun, Green Earth a Striker plane capable of attacking both air and ground units and Yellow Comet Motorbike infantry. That would make for some interesting CO/faction combinations!
What's more it seems like WarSide is taking notes from Famicom/Super Famicom Wars with armed IFVs and supply trucks in place of do-all unarmed APCs. If you tried playing any of those you'd see how this one detail changes gameplay despite being in the same series as AW. In some aspects Advance Wars has been actually a step down compared to Super Famicom Wars.
A design for speedier games may make or break the game. A lot of these turn people away as they become slow grindfests in the middle of the map, with very slow progress on either side. This may be the shot in the arm the genre needs.
As for you not having any friends to play co-op with... Yeah, I can absolutely see why.

@KingMike So what, if it was 3D like Tiny Metal it would be more "original"?
And it's not like ReBoot Camp kept the pixel art either. In fact I remember a lot of people complain about that. And now a different game looks more like the GBA games and you complain that it has pixel art?
Maybe try reading the description and watching that trailer and you'll see the developers are innovating in the gameplay department a lot. I am curious as to how they intend to make the game play faster. I hope this is good, because Tiny Metal was a bit of a disappointment.

@Haruki_NLI Let's see:
Famicom Wars, Super Famicom Wars, Gameboy Wars 1-3 and Turbo, Advance Wars 1 and 2, Advance Wars: Dual Strike, Advance Wars: Days of Ruin (I'm not counting the two Battalion Wars games).
A few more than 4.

@dkxcalibur Maybe if you read the description you'd notice things like
"25+ units" (Advance Wars has 19)
"Faction unique units with mechanics specific to each faction"
"a variety of specialist infantry, including snipers, medics, mortar teams, and saboteurs"
"Co-op campaign"
And most importantly
"Game mechanics bias towards action and away from turtling."
"Each faction has at least one anti-stalemate unit capable of disrupting frontlines."
From this article and the kickstarter page.

Just because it has pixel tanks doesn't mean it's exactly like Advance Wars. It seems to stray more from the formula than Tiny Metal did (and it's not like it didn't have innovations as well).

@DripDropCop146 I didn't know Nintendo invented the idea of combined arms warfare with Famicom Wars.
And what do you think of games like Battleworlds: Kronos? Is it a rip-off or do the hexes and sci fi setting change the game "enough" for you?

@Bonggon5 I bought Tiny Metal, Reboot camp, WarGroove and will likely buy WarSide and probably Empires Shall Fall when it goes on sale. Just like I bought XCom 2, both Mario + Rabbids games, Mechanicus and Fallout Tactics.
Imagine how sad our hobby would be if every genre had just one franchise in it. No Dragon Quests or Baldur's Gates because Ultima was a thing in the 1980s. No Gradius or Touhou, only Asteroids allowed. And no Sonic, Metroid or Castlevania, only endless Donkey Kong/Mario games for you!

@GrailUK Somewhere after 1993, when the success of Doom made everyone else try their hand at a first-person shooter game, then called "Doom clones".

It has been revealed a while ago. And I'm counting on it to be good. And I am tired of every time a game in this genre is made by someone other than Nintendo everyone comments that it's an Advance Wars ripoff. Do you still call FPS games "Doom clones"? Is WarGroove a ripoff or does the fantasy setting not make it so?
Copying previous games and iterating on them is how genres are made. There can be more than one "advance wars" like game. And most of them innovate in some way. In Warside's case I remember them announcing faction specific units and multiple types of infantry (something I liked from Tiny Metal).

Robin Hood: Shogun Samurai sounds like someone was confused about what game they were making halfway through.

@syftex It's one of those that looks cutesy and nonsensical but is actually surprisingly deep mechanically and really engaging, if a bit obtuse. I played the old DOS version some time ago (emulated on modern windows, I'm not THAT old!). There even is a light RPG part where you can have your adopted daughter become a hero like you.

Are you ready true believers?!

@AnonyQ Show me how mean words in a video game threaten anyone's safety.
And that's a smokescreen anyway. People are complaining about being denied sexy women in videogame and journalists calling them perverts who need to grow up (while the same journalists are praising stuff like the bear sex scene in BG3 or Hades 2 Aphroditie).
Imo if there is a new textures/old textures switch there can be a "modern puritian" mode that removes sexy content. Like they did with Bayonetta 3. Give the people who aren't afraid of women an option to have them in their video games.

@Switch_Pro It has more to do with LotR than Rings of Power for sure. This game is basically what happens in Shire when no wizard arrives to mess it all up.
Only thing I would worry about is that including pipeweed would likely raise the rating above what the publisher wants.

@Lofoten It looks like Dwarven armor. Crossing waterfowl with Dwarves seems like a bad idea.

@Not_Soos Maybe because he still has some brand recognition.

@Not_Soos Or they want to keep Rayman around but are shying away from making a new mainline Rayman game because of the way his creator left Ubsoft.

Another one in the "Ubisoft will do literally anything with Rayman other than give him a new [video] game".

I have played Alwa's Awakening on PC and it's a competent little Metroidvania, even if it doesn't break any new ground and isn't particularly long (though it has some harsh platforming sections).
What I noticed is that the game is so obscure that even various online guides often make the mistake of assuming Alwa is the main character while it's actually the realm the game takes place in. The main character is named Zoe.

@Purgatorium As is Sand Land.

@Arkay It is, but it doesn't mean it wouldn't be nice.
Imagine if they released color themes to mark various anniversaries, like the recent 35th for Mario, Zelda and Metroid or just to mark some major releases, like a Sheikah Slate or Purah Pad menu theme for the two big Zelda games. And I wouldn't scoff at a hanafuda theme, relating to Nintendo's past (also, why isn't a free Koi-Koi or Achi-Achi app on Switch made by Nintendo already?).

@Ryu_Niiyama Nintendo wants a family-friendly image and parental groups are known to overreact and make a media stink, so they want to be safe. Especially when nowadays you have a new group of puritans around, the American far left types, looking out for "hate speech". And considering how many innocous words in English can somehow be a racial slur (e.g. "boy", "monkey" or "fredo", like the British candy) and that word filters are easier to code in than complicated context senstive algorythms, the list grows longer and longer.
As someone mentioned, even the word "bimbo" is apparently censored now. I'm guessing a lot of common insults are under fire as well.

@HeadPirate Funny how Marxist activists tend to repeate corporate propaganda the most.
You completely missed my point. My point is that framing fan disappointment in a franchise as a fault of the fans ("entitlement") is being anti-consumer. It's the people handling the franchise who seem to be feeling entitled to the Fandom even if they change stuff around, often rooted in some American political issues. And then they're surprised when, for example, Polish people reject their series.

It's the same with Star Wars, Ghostbusters,
Lord of the Rongs, comic book movies etc. People making new shows using well established names seem to think that they deserve love from the established fan base even though they often act like they're better than those who made the originals or outright insult the "toxic" fans for not acting like they expect.

Personally I never even played the games, I read the books back when I was a teen (and at first I didn't even liked them that much).

But the problem isn't the changes or some parts of the Fandom wanting one thing while other parts wanting another. The problem is the framing of those wishes as "entitlement". Because that's just an excuse to push out mediocre product.

It's not the fans that are toxic. It's the creators.

@HeadPirate Yes, show creators have the right to make the show "their own". But framing rejection of that vision by the viewers as "entitlement" is what I have an issue with. In fact it's the opposite: it's entitled to believe that just because the show is carrying a popular name it deserves praise, love, time and money of the existing fan base. But the corporations try to twist it around like the bad reception of their shows is somehow not their fault but the viewers'. And you have clearly fell for it.

Hmmmmm.
I wonder what will Polish dub be like. In games Geralt is voiced by Jacek Rozenek, but the Netflix show had Michał Żebrowski voicing Geralt (the guy who played him in the old "Hexer" version).

@HeadPirate Fandom should be "entitled". It's their right to expect a good quality product. Honestly the idea that fans are "too entitled" is the most anti-consumer corporate propaganda I've seen in this decade.
The Netflix series was really mediocre for reasons other than Geralt carrying one sword or Jaskier's name. I've never seen anyone complain about the first one. It was the odd changes to the storylines and casting clearly motivated by agenda (outright admitted by the creators) that had fans raging.
Personally I think the biggest crime was making Geralt antagonistic towards Jaskier. In the books they really were best friends, even if Jaskier often got them in trouble. But Geralt was always delighted to see him.

@ChakraStomps Nah, it was mobile games and things like League of Legends. Console game developers saw how much money those free games were making via in-game shops and predatory mechanics and decided they wanted that too, but with a $60 pricetag upfront as well.
Although one could argue that the rise of freemium games was caused by piracy, since some dev decided "players will not steal my game if I literally give it away for free and make my money back in different ways after they've been hooked".

The image for this announcement is perfect.
MK fatality'd itself.

@Rika_Yoshitake They can claim to be a more "premium" device and they don't produce their own games exclusive to it. I think their main target is people who already have Steam accounts.
I already have a Switch and bought my GF Switch Lite, but Steam Deck is what I will likely prioritize over "Switch 2" when I have the funds. Simply because I have 400+ games on Steam already.

Oh boy, more Tour courses! They're all nasty in one way or another. Who would have thought that the most confusing tracks would be ones based on Europeans cities?
Answer: anyone who tried to drive through their real life city centres during rush hour, obviously

New NES games are getting increasingly rare, but developers have not entirely abandoned that medium. I hope the game is well done!

So that's what the big teeth are for.
Funnily enough I don't remember a single kid ever questioning contact damage. Though we sometimes called that "radioactive enemies" among my family and friends.

Yeah, I think the sequence where Star Fox stands in queue for tea and beans on toast only to start a war to sell drugs to natives later was a bit much. Especially with the top hat and monocle.

Reminder that people still play things like original Enemy Territory online.

Huh, I just got through that battle after a long break from Pokemon. I guess I count myself lucky.

I just want Battle City in the NSO.
HoMM3 with mod support would be nice too, if we're talking outlandish.
Or the Gameboy Color HoMM2, because that's a curio.

Oh man, if they enabled local multi-player for it so you could play four player on a single Switch...

Quest for Camelot you say?

Contrast with Naughty Dog which had a 70% turnover rate during the development of The Last Of Us 2.

The game that was retconned by Rogue One. I'm one of those a bit sad that Kyle Katarn didn't make the jump to the big screen.

For me there were a few. Clash at Demonhead I found because of a YouTube video. But the one that really haunted me and I had no hope of finding was an animation I barely remembered from preschool. I tried looking through VHS release lists from early 90s to find it. And then randomly I think I saw it on a Facebook ad: Rāmayāna: Rāma-Ōji Densetsu.

Disgusting. That's all.

My big complain is that the game doesn't warn you about the tournaments. I played through it full a few times and only remembered the tournaments were a thing after the last medal. By which time it was gone forever.
Save often and check for tournaments or Ronald all the time.

Also, Watergun based deck can basically defeat everything. IIRC nothing has resistance to Water and the damage you rack up with extra energy (especially when you have Blastoise on the bench) washes away those glass cannon Electric types as well.

Not rated M? I hoped for some blood and boobies!

You know what they say:
Where there's smoke, they pinch back.

I remember the game being a little odd and a little repetitive (it encouraged the player to grind every item in the training room, as items had limited uses but you leveled up your characters by using them and in training room they wouldn't deprecate). And that it was also part dating sim.

@EVIL-C It was announced a while ago, press got their hand on early presentations and were unimpressed.
Then the game was basically shadow dropped... And it's apparently mediocre. Not the glorious franchise return everyone hoped for.

@canaryfarmer Track designer was trying to think of a new track while in the tub, found their child's toy car in the bathroom and inspiration struck.
At least that's my theory.

First Sonic Mania team showed how to make a 2D Sonic game and now they're showing how to make a 3D Sonic game work. Or what Balan Wonderworld should have been.
It looks good, even though I don't like the genre that much.

I'm liking that Overcooked formula is turning into a genre. Manic Mechanic looks like the kind of frantic madness you'd expect from a game like this, although maybe a bit too much like Overcooked (Moving Out was noticeably different). But still, this is a co-op game that is really designed around having other people, not just "and there's a second player there" like most of them.

@canaryfarmer I was in QA for Arkham Knight, although mainly the console versions. But the PC team quickly gained special status in the office. Everyone gathered around them to see what broke that day XD