Spiders

Dark theme everything, for my poor eyes. Dark theme Nintendo Life please!

@day Can you explain what the cycle is or what you’re seeing? I’m not seeing it ... and I’m not saying that to disagree I mean I literally have not noticed or considered it.

I know Rank X placement matches are brutal and demoralizing, but thankfully there’s only 10 haha.

@TYRANACLES Not really. See post #20

@day I think these are really great and important points, and I go through “depressed” periods in competitive gaming as well.
I do think it’s worth examining your mental state at the time and how it affects your play. It’s very difficult to do in real-time, but I think we can find fault within ourselves before we blame the game... and the only thing we’re doing “wrong” is continuing to play in that mental state.

I just picked up a new weapon, .96 gal, after getting stomped by one after a long stretch of a 50-55% win rate with the Jet Squelcher. It took 1 match to adjust (and pick the right sub and kit) and I went on a TEAR. Must have won ten straight, and after two days my last 50 games I was 30-20. Considering how many DQs happen, that’s very solid (In X rank for everything save Rainmaker). My last session, I lost ten in a row. There are a million things to blame, but the fact is I got cocky and way more aggressive, and stopped doing the things that gave me success which were patience, building meter before engaging, and generally having a spider-like posture - setting the sprinkler in a hard to get to place, watching it, and either deleting enemies at range who contest the new space or advancing my position and repeating. Ink armor and 3-4 teammates up? Push.

I think it’s human psychology why we tend to be “streaky”, and why trainers and coaches favor consistency and fundamentals over exceptional play. The number one advice to slumping players in every sport is to simplify your game.

If you’re playing well and doing the right things, it’s a lot easier to take the losses that are out of your control, but if you don’t, you really might be forfeiting something you can control to the “blaming”.

Also, S+ is brutal. It’s a huge rank. Everyone who can carry can get there, but there are so many killers who cannot escape because they don’t play the team game or have any map awareness. I have an easier time staying 50/50 in Rank X than climbing out of S+. You should be proud of your play to be there.

Now I’m going to reinstall Splatoon 2 and try and take my own advice;)

@Valkian24 Something goofy about the button mapping prevented me from finishing the demo — but it looked really good. Glad for a console release!

@tsim21 They’ve made four Mario Karts since Splatoon 1: Mario Kart Arcade GP VR, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Mario Kart Tour, and Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit.

@sixrings For sure, but people played Splatoon 1 well into the life of S2, and I think it'll happen with the sequel as well.

@HarvestGoddess I think Splatoon 1 servers are still going! It certainly was for years into Splatoon 2's release so I don't think Nintendo is going to shut down S2 any time soon after the release of Splatoon 3.

@KiraMoonvalley That does sound annoying! Splatoon has broad ranks so you do stay grouped with players for many matches in a row and you see a lot of players in your rank often — and that's just in solo queue. Splatoon 2 also very smartly tries to assign teams by weapon type so who is on what side shuffles throughout as people change weapons, but players tend to stay on in the same session. Only if the "host" disconnects (not quit but actual DC) — does the group of 8 disband.

I have had players I "came up with" through ranks I recognized throughout, and players I see all the time in Ranked. I add a lot of the as friends too and you can jump into their matches without much fuss. It's very fun to have rivalries... it can even go into who has the better "squidbag" death cam dance.

There is a separate "League" lobby for people who squad up. I have no experience in it unfortunately, but there is some SBMM there to match pairs for teams, trying to match 2+2 vs 2+2 and 4 vs 4 teams, and also to match skill level when possible.

@Matthew010 I’ll soon have played more Splatoon 2 since picking it back up after the announcement than when it launched.

I like it a lot more now as well, after taking a long break. I think I’m able to appreciate it now more for what it is rather than how it’s different than S1.

I’m going to uninstall when they announce a solid release date so I can try and come to Splatoon 3 as fresh as possible.

@KiraMoonvalley Turf War is a fairly casual-friendly mode and is fun. Every game is going to have “try hards”.. which I don’t parse as a bad thing — I sure want my teammates to try hard to win! — but if you mean are their good sports? I think it’s generally a very fun an positive community. Some players will try and throw a match and do a squid party which I think is fun for new players but in high ranks I just block people that throw.

What’s wrong with skill-based matchmaking? I really don’t understand the negative connotation. What’s a better solution to make matches fair for all skill levels?

I JUST found my perfect weapon please don’t touch the balance!

@nessisonett What does one have to do with the other? Not being rhetorical... I don’t see the connection.

@TurtleTurtle Splatoon keeps steering into what it does best. It’s really been — pardon the pun - the freshest style out of House of N since WarioWare/Rhythm Tengoku and I love how they’re getting stranger, weirder, and more abstract. Even with it’s relatively fast pace for sequels, it’s own style is evolving closer to fashion than slower IP-driven medium like games, comics, and movies. Really excited for 3!

This looks REALLY good! I’m as worried as everyone that it’s going to be a baby game, but as long as it’s solid and straightforward and not an over-tutorialized slog with an annoying story I think I’m in.

Also, The Last of Us is not the only game, or even the first game, or even the first Sony published game to do an overgrown post-civilization setting. You Zoomers....

Hoping for a future focus to drum up some hype for people buying systems this holiday. I’d love a release window for Splatoon 3, a peek at Monolith project or three, Bayonetta 3 update, and if I’m really greedy, Dread Suit Samus as the final Smash character (I’m a Samus main).

Pie in the sky? The rumored Donkey Kong title from the Odyssey team.

@Everett_psycho I love stuff like that. That’s one of the reasons I defend the ‘git gud’ side of the argument — probably the most dear reason to me — there is this meta, community enabled “easy mode”. When Legend of Zelda came out, it was haaard. It was really the “playground community” that was able to raise up gamers to that level. While the internet today can replicate some version of that for any game, I think it’s those challenging, unforgiving games like a Dead Cells, Hollow Knight, Dark Souls, etc., that do the best job of simulating that shared experience.
While LTTP is my favorite, I don’t think Zelda is a better series for becoming less opaque, and I’m glad something like Dark Souls took up that adventure mantle... and that eventually Zelda returned to a less handholding tour through Hyrule. I definitely don’t think most games become better by becoming less opaque and easier ( not to be confused with accessible ).

I think that I emotionally believe that the push for ‘Easy Mode’ is like an admission that we can never go back to relying on our families and communities to persevere.

@ATaco I'll acknowledge it's possible there's a commentary I'm not aware of and that affects my generalizations, but I'm not ready to call them "gamers" in the context we're applying it to. They're an audience for a kind of content that has to do with gaming, but to attribute "gamers say.." or "gamers think..." to these folks I think is inappropriate for the larger discussion.

I understand what you're saying, but I think we should be distinguishing what people want to play and what people want to watch, and also whether we should even call stream viewers "gamers" in that context. Even if they bring that attitude into other contexts — which they probably do — we should look at the receipts there. I think the "easy mode" discussion has a lot more nuance than the narrative allows, especially if toxic streamer chats are being presented as the entirety of one side of it.

@ATaco Interesting... I don’t watch live streamers. To be fair though, who wants to watch a streamer play on easy mode? They’re almost closer to reviewers where there’s an incentive to get through it and move on to the next game.. I’m not sure I’m against that kind of pushback in that case even if it’s juvenile.

Eastward, Monster Train, and the perennial Splatoon 2. I re-clicked with the Jet Squelcher and am playing my best Splatoon possibly ever.

@Stocksy Why even make the strawman argument? Where are these “elite gaming gatekeepers” that aren’t, ya know, developers?

Love Tribute Games! still waiting for a sale on Panzer Paladin... hopefully that gets a price drop when this comes out.

Gamecube had a lot of the pieces, but they weren’t put together.

You also missed the secret answer in the poll...

Microsoft XBox. It’s not obvious being the biggest of the consoles, but it revolutionized the “LAN Party” and tournaments. From the PC gaming perspective, XBoX was the low-key portable gaming solution.

@gojiguy That is weird. It's like calling Call Of Duty a shmup/shoot-em-up. Maybe that's from the PR?

Does Creed really have a bigger name recognition than Rocky!? Nothing has made me felt older hahaha (unless it’s a licensing thing).

Looks like a fun game night with friends game, for one or two times anyways.

@Znake That’s really interesting. I didn’t spend enough time with it to make my mind up — but it was as much my circumstances at the time (just got a new job) and it’s one of those control schemes I couldn’t remember only days away from the game (I had a similar issue with Battalion Wars) which I think has to be a knock on a game, even it ultimately can be rewarding.

I might have to give it another shot someday on Wii U

@sanderev You should be the new “President of Making Decisions for Projects at Nintendo”. This is my vote! Do a Sin & Punishment collection for Switch and we’ll go for a lifetime position;)

I collected for a period of time and it was really about all the games I missed, either literally or sentimentally. I was lucky enough to get a Genesis (Mega Drive for you PAL people) and a Super Nintendo, and I messed a lot of Genesis games just playing the favorite for no go reason. I also had my Saturn and Playstation library stolen (never use a binder!) so after I found out Castlevania Symphony of The Night was hard to get even as a Greatest Hits with Playstation 1 still having the biggest section of a Gamestop (circa 2000), I started hoarding.

It wasn’t until digital and I started moving around more that I stopped and sold most of my collection.
For all other media it works out pretty good — I believe the content is precious and not the medium — but for games it is really impossible to have a library without a physical component. I still have some choice crackers from the PS2/XBOX/GC gen like Cubivore/Animal Leader, Sub Rebellion, PN03, and on, just because I know those games will never be remastered or digitized.

@Deady That’s awesome! I can’t stop playing either. I wish it had a game clock so I can see how much time it’s eaten so far.

@Franklin But then there are titles like Astral Chain which look better than this and perform beautifully.
Some issues can’t be brute forced with better specs. You’ve got to write better code at some point.

This review was hard to read. Is this a “meta” write up I just don’t get? The copy reads like an overlong text message.

Sounds like the game is decent from what I could glean.

This is bizarre. Did ANYONE think McCree was named after an employee and not, ya know, a generic cowboy name i.e. Mad Dog McCree?

The problem is the harassment and assault endemic in the culture in their workplace, not in how they portray their characters. It’s such a strange way to call attention to it. It’s not even virtue signaling. I’d prefer they made McCree a harasser only the game and virtually lynched him... at least it would show some conviction.

@KillerBOB I’m dead hahahahaha

Looks surprisingly interesting for a Disney approved Marvel project.

Some aspects look really nice and have a very cool tone in some scenes, but it looks really cheap in others and inconsistent overall.

Whatever tech issues Game Freak may struggle with, they polish the Pokémon brand to supernova level brilliance.

100 doll hairs

@Einherjar I can say from professional experience as well from only a couple of months ago. If there is any substance to it, it ought to be provable. Maybe it’s a US/UK thing.

Either way, if we ever end up doing business, you bring the pens.

@Gus_Campos https://contract-law.laws.com/contract-law/verbal-contracts

All the time. If it’s a legit claim, you can likely prove it. If it’s not, it won’t hold up.

@Einherjar We don’t know what he has... could be texts or emails that will substitute. Or it could in fact be an off-the-comment at a lunch which would not hold up as a verbal contract.

Again, verbal contracts are a thing because they can hold weight if they’re solid. If you’re trying to up-jump a passing conversation into a verbal agreement, good luck!

Really I just take umbrage with the “real world” comment. The real world is messy and dynamic and requires multiple solutions to myriad problems. Having your word be your bond and be recognized in a court of law is a powerful tool for a free and functional society.

@Einherjar Not everyone has the time nor the inclination to “lawyer up” for every conversation, meeting, or project proposal. Verbal contracts are a thing for a reason in THE REAL WORLD.

Generally I can mess with a flawed gem, but there’s too much good stuff to play now. SwitchUp on YouTube does re-reviews for patch updates (cough...ahem... cough) so I’ll keep an eye on this one there.

I’m actually a big fan of repeating music — particularly albums. One song for ten hours, however, is too much. They’re not written that way, and I think at some point you’re doing a psychological experiment on yourself to subject yourself to that.

“There's no game I want to make... is what I'd like to say...”

Just one of many gangster quotes from Sakurai. I’ve felt this way about difficult, creative work I’ve been passionate about as well. I love and respect the attitude, and appreciate the high, high caliber of the work he’s doing, especially in the fighting genre that can’t seem to keep up with the level of content and polish as Sakurai and crew without a bunch of compromises.

@Deady Definitely as good, but different enough where you may prefer on over the other for different reasons. Hope you enjoy!

@commentlife They’re definitely both at that level, which is just great to have two amazing titles in the genre. I think it’s going to come down to personal preference.

Right now I’m leaning towards Slay the Spire. I think it’s a combination of carrying consequences through your climb as opposed to MT which wipes the slate clean between battles, and I think planning is more important to a good StS run — I find it easy to get a game-breaking strategy handed to me during a run. There’s also much less poison pills and difficult choices than StS which I think is a fun but many people will disagree. I also have 10x more experience with it, so there’s that bias.

Monster Train has better pacing, is probably more fun more immediately, and has a lot more possibility for expression with what you can do with a deck.

I’m looking forward to the higher difficulties in MT and see if I change my mind, but either way how great to be having a “GOAT” head-discussion about two great games!

@abdias That’s a bummer, but as long as it plays fine (and can speed up battle anims) and you don’t have a Steam Deck preorder in this is probably still the best version to get.

I think the shutout continues until Tales of Arise comes out in September.

@Heavyarms55 There’s some tilt for sure, but it’s not like it’s not going to cut both ways (Switch sells digital too) significantly enough to change the chart.

Scarlet Nexus is really the game you would expect to be lingering at the bottom there, but the fact that it’s split on PS4/PS5 (and selling better on PS5), plus the increase in PC popularity in Japan so Steam peels some sales off too.

Also, two weeks in a row making headlines, you have to imagine Sony would comment if they had some digital numbers to change the narrative.

This is really a Sony defeat more than a Nintendo victory, but the most interesting thing to me is the lifetime sales of the games that chart. It’s crazy how long the tail is on some of these games, and crazier still that Sony currently has nothing like that in Japan. Ratchet can sell a couple thousand copies this far from it’s release?

@Inrts99 Exactly. We can also infer what ought to be there from other storefront charts, which is Scarlet Nexus and you get a better picture of why Sony isn’t charting: split base and PC competition cutting in.

@Anti-Matter Just go to PushSquare you’ll hear all the naysaying and rationalizations.

@romanista I might be underrating GOLD too... it’s the game in the 3DS slot since I lost my charger and never looked back.
I should grab one and get back on the horse... 3DS has all the prequels games to the titles I want this holiday (SMTIV: Apocalypse, Samus Returns, Warioware Gold) that I dropped for whatever reason.

@BenAV Nah for sure! I figured it’s worth mentioning it is a notable exception to the “Switch tax”.
I’m looking forward to Spelunky as well

Been hooked on this for the last week or so on Gamepass for PC and will definitely be getting on Switch for handheld sessions and DLC.

It’s up there with Slay the Spire. Some people will like one or the other better — that is to say it’s definitely in that top-tier echelon and I can’t recommend enough for fans of the genre. Monster Train might be the more accessible of the two — even if it throws more mechanics at you it’s a lot easier to stumble on a “broken” strategy where StS requires a bit more planning and has more ways to laugh at those plans.

@BenAV It’s actually cheaper on Switch than getting the game and DLC separate on other platforms (save Gamepass).