Solomon_Rambling

@EarthboundBenjy

I don’t know how you have the stamina to play so many RPGs. I loved them as a kid because they would last forever, but as an adult, I don’t have the patience. I’d rather play five games that take me 50 hours to play in total than one game that provides 50 hours of content.

How many games do you end up finishing in a year?

Love these little additions. I’m rocking Slay the Spire, Slay the Princess, Enter the Gungeon, and the Binding of Isaac. I’d trade out Enter the Gungeon for Undertale or another series. Katamari Damacy? I’ll dream big.

Glad to hear Luck be a Landlord also received a new rating. Although not as good as Balatro, LbaL is another fun roguelike you can pack ten or twenty hours into. I think it’s cheaper on mobile, and it runs well enough on mobile that I won’t be double-dipping.

I wouldn’t have thought Urban Myth Dissolution Center would be that big in terms of physical sales. I thought it was a small indie game.

I’m still considering whether I’ll grab it. Reviewers either love it or feel cool towards it, and I don’t know in which camp I’d be if I got it. I’d love to see a review from Nintendo Life!

Fantastic news! I just recently checked this out on Steam!

I am outraged. Flabbergasted even. My Nintendo spending habits won’t change in the slightest, but I hope Nintendo knows I’ll be slightly more irked in the future.

For me, roguelites live and die based on how different each run feels from each other. I love the mindlessness of Musou games, and this game sounds like the meta-progression is satisfying enough. However, if runs become too samey eventually, I might as well keep grinding at the Warriors games I already own.

What’s a Palworld?

This looks really cool! I wish it still had the same perspective as used in other Musou games, but I’ll definitely be checking out reviews for this entry.

@RobTheIII

Blasphemy. Mario Tennis 64 is sublime, an awesome tennis game without gimmicks and one of the best N64 games. Everything since has muddied the basic yet perfect formula.

(I may be biased, but it’s more likely that everyone else is wrong.)

I have no idea what are typical Kickstarter goals, but that price point seems outrageous, especially for a developer that doesn’t seem to have previous games. Maybe y’all can give me some context.

I think it’s important to have all this eSlop. Given the mountains of fertilizer on the eShop, some great games are bound to grow from them.

I’ve had Monster Hunter Rise on my wishlist forever, but I fear I’m past the point of ever actually getting it. Now that I have had two more join my family, I can’t see myself having at least an hour of gaming time to devote to Monster Hunter, let alone the tens or hundreds of hours it offers!

Always enjoy the random Uzumaki reference. Gotta appreciate the art of the spiral.

Wonderful! One of my first GBA games, and I look forward to re-experiencing it. Wario was my go-to character for all party games on the N64, but it was the GBA and GC games that made him a star for me.

If anyone bothered to do their research, they would know the Nintendo Switch is a Pisces, and 2025 is generally just not a good year for Pisces, so the horoscopes say. Of course sales will be down.

Finally, a sequel to Bit.Trip Beat and Fate! I’ve never been a fan of Breakout-style games, but the “procedural audio and visual effects” has me intrigued!

“The current console isn't quite on life support but it may as well be…”

Nintendo’s forecast for the Switch 1 this year is 11 million. The Wii U sold 13.5 million in its entire lifespan. I get the appeal of colorful language, but come on. Let’s not shoot Ol’ Yeller before he gets rabies just to get Ol’ Yeller 2.

I’ve put in a couple hours into Animal Well this last week, and I’ve been floored by what I’ve seen thus far. I love the atmosphere, the intuitive ways you interact with the environment, and the wonderful sense of exploration. If it keeps at its current pace, it could be a 2025 GOTY contender for me.

It’s also cool to see how many quality games we received this month. The first couple of weeks were so dry in terms of reviews that I thought it would be slim pickings for the eShop selects!

My only real foray into this genre was Escapists 2, which I struggled to enjoy. I hate losing progress, so the game just ended up being stressful for me. I’d be willing to consider giving this game a try given its story and setting, but with the multitude of bugs/issues, I’ll be skipping it for now!

I grabbed one of L’alphalpha’s albums back when this game was first revealed. It’s pleasant enough, and I like their sound. If this game receives solid reviews, I’ll pick it up!

I’m glad the team was able to complete this game, and I wish them success in their future!

I enjoyed the trailer! Thanks for highlighting this game, and I hope for a review!

I loved Tales of Symphony on the GameCube but was very disappointed by Vesperia on the Switch. Because of the issues in the Switch version of Symphonia, I haven’t had the chance to test how much nostalgia is impacting my opinion of that game. I’m willing to try at least one more Tales game in my lifetime, but I think I’ll wait for one of the more modern entries to come to the Switch 2 (presumably).

I’d be interested in learning if any Nintendo Life readers have fallen for a scam such as this one. I’d figure that if you spend enough time reading Nintendo news, you’d spend enough time evaluating a game before you buy it. I bet some readers have bought scam games ironically (and the streaming community loves to showcase these games).

I’m glad Gavin addressed some of the cynicism about Nintendo. I won’t knock on a person for being unhappy with Nintendo; however, it seems some are so focused on the negatives that they filter out the positives. Nintendo can certainly make some changes to improve itself as a company, and it’s hard for me to see how Nintendo is resting on its laurels or acting like some evil entity.

This article is giving me flashbacks to my years playing Magic. I can totally get the author’s frustrations. When I began feeling this way about Magic, I had to take a step back and reflect on how much FOMO was driving my interest in playing the game. I ultimately decided to stop playing (and haven’t returned yet), and I think it’s good to take breaks from these types of hobbies!

It certainly seems like an ambitious project, and if your dream is make a Zelda movie, this may be your only way of making it. Like others here, I’m skeptical of the way the director is going about making this dream happen. I’ve watched the content creator, Joel Haver, jump from short videos to feature film releases, but his movies are more appropriate in scope considering his budget (which he gets from having developed strong Patreon support). I wish Carpenter had produced a short video to showcase his skills rather than a trailer (which didn’t do much for me).

I’ll be interested in how items will be balanced with 24 players. MK8 figured out how to do it whereas MK Wii was an unbalanced mess.

@Zaruboggan

I love your idea. I totally understand why Nintendo Life posts articles on leaks, and I had fun commenting on them last year when the leaks were preposterous or super vague. But with the onslaught of leak articles this last month, it was hard to be a Nintendo Life reader and avoid them. The trailer for the Switch 2 felt underwhelming not because of the content but because everything had been spoiled on this site.

This is the most convincing rumor/leak I’ve seen yet!

“It’s let down by basic dialogue and perhaps one of the most predictable and cliché plot twists we’ve seen from a game in recent memory.”

The sword is Shin’s dad, isn’t it?

I checked out the trailer a few days ago, and the combat looks absolutely fantastic. That said, like @Steel76, I’m exhausted by the backtracking/exploration aspects of Metroidvanias, especially when enemies respawn and are difficult to avoid. Because the combat looks so stellar, I’ll still put this on my wishlist, but I probably won’t grab it without a steep discount.

Congratulations, Alex! What a wonderful milestone, and thank you for all you have contributed over the last decade!

Based on the settings of the last three movies, I wouldn’t be surprised if the writers meant Australia and Japan as “more fantastic places.”

God, I hope the Switch stays small. Any larger than the current model, and it’ll be too hard for me to carry it and my 65” inch TV if I want to play video games outside the house.

This list is quite a trip, but I think any “Best Video Games of All Time” list is going to be a wild smorgasbord of “timeless,” “historically significant,” and “genre-defining” entries. I love lists as much as the next person, but “all-time” lists are getting a little too random for me.

Plus, “Hey You, Pikachu!” didn’t make the cut, so we know the whole list is objectively garbage.

I just rediscovered my DJ Hero turntable in my crawl space yesterday. What a wonderful time in my youth.

I would love to see this kind of functionality. I’ve been mourning the loss of the Wiimote for too long.

So far, the other comments haven’t pointed out that this motherboard is green, which I think is a great choice by Nintendo. They could have gone for red and/or black, but green has a nice vintage look to it.

I’m also impressed by the number of silver rectangles. Unless I’m missing something, I can’t see a single triangle, which bodes well for all those gamers who prefer shapes with more sides.

@cmbaum

I just completed the first scenario of Chapter 4. I preferred the darker themes of the first game, so perhaps that’s where our enjoyment differs. I also don’t like having to solve the “summary” of the chapter at the end of each chapter. I’m glad that you enjoy it, and I’ll probably still keep a lookout for the DLC!

I picked up Rise of the Golden Idol a few days ago, and it doesn’t quite capture the magic of the first one. I still enjoy the core gameplay, and I appreciate the developer’s attempt to go bigger with the sequel. The unintended consequence of going bigger is that the game feels bloated with too many characters and less impactful storylines. The UI is also atrocious, and one menu doesn’t seem to work as intended. I still think it’s a good game, but it’s completely overshadowed by the quality of the first entry.

Man, can you imagine? I can’t wait for the scene in the movie when Link is sucked into a whirlpool and transported to modern-day Miami where he meets a character played by Jason Lee and they fight a real estate mogul named Gannen Dorf.

@tapdancingtommy

I appreciate you pointing those elements out! Maybe I’ll consider it when it’s on sale.

@somnambulance

That’s awesome that you’ve been playing it with your kid! It’s a great introduction into horror, and at the end of the day, it’s an I Spy game (kind of). There’s been so many knock-offs on the eShop, but I hope one of them will be good enough to rival Exit/Platform 8 one day!

@somnambulance

Glad to hear you enjoyed Platform 8! I haven’t grabbed it yet, but I’ve loved Exit 8. I have a blast showing it to others and watching their reactions.

@tapdancingtommy

I’d love to learn more about your thoughts on River Tails, especially its rough parts. My wife and I are willing to try most co-op games, but we have a few dealbreakers (poor performance, repetitive gameplay, overly long levels).

Many of these are on my wishlist, and I grabbed Cavern of Dreams two days ago. I’m most excited to buy Can of Wormholes after I finish the dozen or so games I snagged on sale this week.

Merry Christmas to all those who celebrate it today! Happy Chanukah to those who start celebrating it tonight! Happy Kwanzaa to all those who will start celebrating it tomorrow!

The Tetris Effect was life-altering for me. I was enamored with it the moment I watched its trailer, and it was the only thing that could convince a die-hard Nintendo fan like me to purchase a PS4 and VR headset for my wife. When the game came to the Switch, I was over the moon.

“Connected” is still one of my favorite songs ever, and the overall soundtrack is one of the best video game soundtracks, in my opinion. Kathleen, the singer for “Connected,” also has made some pretty solid music if you’re curious.

I think this list shows that reviewers aren’t reviewing enough bad games. A score of 48 starts the list? A score of 41 is the lowest (ignoring the decades-old game)? Where are the games ranking in the teens or single digits? Have games come so far we can just ignore the trash? How disappointing.

This all makes sense to me. Nintendo knows exactly why the Switch is as successful as it is, and now they just need to follow that foolproof plan: release new entries in existing IPs, encourage households to purchase more than one console, and cause a global pandemic to ensure Animal Crossing sells a bajillion copies.

Do we call it an homage at this point? Or is this a clear sign that Splatoon will lose all of its players and Nintendo is Nintendoomed?

The problem with these narrative-focused games is that they’re competing with movies and books that have already touched upon these themes/storylines and often present them better. Grief, in particular, is a theme that is a bit of a low-hanging fruit nowadays.