Splash_Woman

I actually JUST last night accidentally stepped on a roach, turned to my spouse, and asked, "Sorry, was that your auntie?" So this is wonderfully, eerily timed. I love it!

Do I care much about it? Not really. Does my kid ask me to open it every morning to see what's new? Absolutely. So there you go: I think the fundamental misconception with it is that it's not even meant to be an informational app for those of us that get our news from elsewhere. It's for kids to get a daily jolt of Nintendo endorphins, and some of the stuff on it really is cute!

I couldn't pick just three, there's SO many! I'm old enough to have been gaming since the NES era, and for me the Gamecube/PS2/Xbox era was hands down the pinnacle of gaming. Awesome current gen games, brilliant and innovative handheld games, the first wave of "gamer nostaglia" that brought ports of previous gen titles to modern systems...everything since then has just been chasing the same high. What a magical time!

And that's not even mentioning Donkey Konga! Not to bang my own bongos, but I'm an absolutely top tier Donkey Konga player! Or I was, anyway, it's been a looooong time!

@EarthboundBenjy I forgot about the whole FE1 debacle. I'm not the biggest Fire Emblem fan, but I did buy FE1 during that brief window of availability out of sheer panic that I would get the urge to play the series some day and not have access to the only official English language version of the first game. SO glad that the FE1/3D All Stars business model hasn't really been repeated by Nintendo since then!

"We didn't think we could love Rudd anymore."

Why!? What did he DO to you!?

Japan's is cute, even though NA/Europe is still the winner. I almost went the other way though just on the principle of misinformation on the western cover: I would LOVE if my Pikmin ran away from danger, but those little sprouts always seem to jump right into bulborbs' mouths!

Can we maybe just get a rerelease of Um Jammer Lammy? Maybe? Please?

Of course they start the day before I get my bonus. Of COURSE they do!

I'm assuming the rewards for collecting coins and completing missions will be more cosmetic options like racers, costumes, and karts, which I absolutely love! I've sunk dozens of hours into Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, don't get me wrong, but it always bothered me that there wasn't much to unlock. I'm super excited!!

It's nice to hear his life wasn't totally destroyed (hopefully, though I don't know what having a very public criminal record does for your job/housing opportunities in Japan). Yeah, he did a bad thing, but...I dunno, it breaks my heart a little that it was a 58 year old dude that, in his words, did it so people would think he was cool.

@Romoredux I feel that one. Like all of my SNES games, the Earthbound box is long gone. The guide is still on my bookshelf, but it's been abused by water damage, something sticky, time, and the love of child me. There was a moment, a moment I still remember, when my mom and I stood over a bargain bin at Best Buy, staring down at a sea of $20 CIB copies of Earthbound, only one of which became mine. I often wonder where I might be now if my mom had had the foresight in 1995 to buy multiple copies. What if...

Now, as a life long Earthbound fan, I find the term "Earthbound-inspired" to be overused, or perhaps used incorrectly. While certainly you can be inspired by Earthbound to make something new (I know I was when I wrote my first novel) that doesn't necessarily mean your end product has any correlation to its inspiration. Earthbound-Inspired has always seemed like a catch all for "weird, old school RPG with a modern setting" that misses the point that Earthbound had an undefinable secret sauce that held the thing together in a way most imitators can't match, at least not in the same way.

This is my first time hearing anything about this game. Based on the trailer...yeah, this looks like it has the potential to bring some Mother series vibes. "Earthbound-Inspired" indeed! I'm interested!

The real question:

22. What does it taste like?

Sounds like somebunny didn't carrot enough to not make this Switch port into hasenpfeffer. Still might get it, though!

I had the time and gave each title on the lists above a number based on how much I liked them now and how much I was excited for them then. I thought, "Wow, this'll be a neat and objective way to answer the question!"

...the Wii U came out on top thanks to sheer volume...so don't ever hire me to track statistics for you or anything like that...

I mean, the Wii U version of Arkham City IS the best version, and I like NSMBU better than most but...yeah...

Hey, it's not all doom and gloom, Jamboree slotted into 10th! And look at Wonder jumping from 20th to 11th! Sure, lots of fish might not be biting at Nintendo's old chum thanks to Switch 2's shadow, but don't tell me Jamboree and Wonder climbing the ranks doesn't have anything to do with excitement from the Direct!

I'm not surprised the third party option is worse than the name brand, that's been true since the dawn of gaming; I've been driven mad by Mad Catz products enough times over the years to know better. It's just a shame Nintendo couldn't offer up more whimsical options on its own.

I finished the story mode over the weekend. I'm by no means a rhythm game expert, but I do play most of them on hard and can get by just fine. There were SEVERAL stages on normal where I managed to squeeze through by the skin of my teeth. Definitely fun, and I'd recommend it, but yeah: it's one of the less approachable rhythm games I've met

As someone who regularly has to chat with customer support reps as part of their job, there's a good chance this person had no idea what they were talking about.

...but there's at least an 80% chance they did, soooo...yikes!

So what I'm gettung from all this is that DK and Pauline are old friends, and her cries for help in the arcade game are actually, "Help! There's a plumber chasing me! Save me, DK!"

Why do Pauline and Mario fall in love after DK is crushed by a steel girder? ...I dunno. Love's weird like that.

We've somehow reached the point where absolutely everyone on every single possible side has dug in their heels so far that a group of literal criminals is dismantling absolutely everything, from policies to the economy to people's livelihoods, and there's nothing we can do about it. Nothing. Not a thing. Are the criminals actually American heroes? Are they the villains? Or is half the country stupid? Or are they smart? Or is Nintendo greedy? Or does it all not matter in the end?

I. Am. So. Tired.

At this point Thanos could probably run for office and get elected. And you'd have talking heads shouting, "The Snap just makes good economic sense if you ask me, you uneducated turds!"

We're all about to go for a wild ride, and I very much doubt it has a happy ending. I'll consider myself lucky if I get to play Mario Kart World any time remotely soon.

As the day has gone on I've calmed down about the prices. Yeah, it's going to be a huge investment up front, especially if I shell out for two systems (one for me and one for my kid). But there's more than a few Switch 1 games I have multiple copies of so we can play together; looking at it that way the $60 Switch 1 to $80 Switch 2 conversion works out to $80 rather than $120 for me. That's not to say I'm jazzed about the price increases, but...I'll live. I'd rather be excited for Mario Kart, DK, Metroid, Kirby Air Riders, Kirby DLC, Gamecube games, FF7R, Layton, and on and on, rather than in the dumps over the financial aspect. I'm officially hyped!

First up, Mouse Mode! To demonstrate, here's Miyamoto drawing a picture in the brand new Mario Paint DX for Switch 2!

(Spends 59 minutes drawing an elaborate picture of himself pointing and laughing at the audience)

And that's all we have time for, folks!

There's going to be a trailer that's a big build up to some kind of Zelda remake or remaster, dramatic music swells, a treasure chart unrolls itself, aaaand...

"Freshly Picked Tingle's Rosy Rupeeland HD! Coming April 25th to the Nintendo Switch family of systems!"

This is clearly distinct from its inspiration, yet close enough that I'll be surprised if it makes it all the way to launch day without a visit from TPC's legal team. I sincerely hope I'm wrong, as it truly looks really, really, really good!

I say we give him some slack, he just needed a break from writing. As they say, after all: All work and no play makes Jack a Baltoy

@Truegamer79 Mega Man 3 is unique in that it has 2 "loops". I always start with either Top Man or Snake Man:

Loop 1:
Top->Shadow->Spark->Magnet->Hard->Top(?)(I still always use the Mega Buster on the refight)

Loop 2:
Snake->Gemini->Needle->Snake

I read the article first, thought "A Terrifier game...that looks like the Scott Pilgrim game? How does that make any sense?" After watching the video I can confirm: it doesn't make any sense whatsoever, but Holy Canada does it look like a MS Paint version of Scott Pilgrim!

Terrifier fascinates me. It feels like something that should be right up my alley, but I just absolutely CANNOT get on board with the level of torture/gore it has going for it. Yet I always click on every Terrifier article, read every synopsis, and get a weird serotonin rush when I see Art the Clown. It's like an exclusive club that I only have a trial membership to so I can't go back to the VIP area.

A LEGO Secret Base fron Ruby and Sapphire, with a variety of buildable accessories to customize it however you want, and blind bags featuring even more items to deck it out.

Or a giant diorama of the final fight between Red and Champion Blue, whatever works!

EarthBound is my favorite game, and thus I have played it ALOT! I always plan in getting the Sword of Kings as an essential part of my run. I'll enter the Stonehenge Base in the upper 40s to low 50s, and by the time I get the sword I'm usually somewhere in the 70s.

Now, does it always work that way? No, of course not. I specifically remember one time getting into the 90s and becoming increasingly worried that I would hit 99 before getting the big exp drop in Magicant that levels up Ness to learn Teleport B. And on the flip side, I once got it at level 52, and was SUPER annoyed because I was suddenly underleveled and found myself having to grind without purpose.

Other than that no, I don't really grind for RNG drops (sans Kingdom Hearts, of course).

I have played an obscene amount of Powerwash Simulator across both the Switch and the PS5, just finished cleaning Wallace and Gromit's moon rocket a couple days ago. Yes, the Switch 2 is coming soon, and that's cool and all I suppose, but for me, truly: there will not be any gaming news more exciting than this for the rest of the year, almost guaranteed.
I
AM
BEYOND
THRILLED
right now.

(Saturday before the very first Easter)
Merchant: "Check this out, mate. I got my hands on the holy grail!"
(Slams a worn, still pretty sticky cup down on the table)
Merchant: "It can be yours for only $28K!"
Passerby: "The what? Who's cup is that?
Merchant: "It's Jesus's, mate!"
Passerby: "That guy they killed yesterday?"
Merchant: "That's him!"
Passerby: "Tell you what...I'll give you $0.50."
Merchant: "Deal!"

So no...I wouldn't pay that much for this.

Thanks for the content warning on Content Warning! Good thing you didn't buy the ripoff and show it to us, I imagine it would have been scary filming Scary Filming!

Tough to say, especially when most of the games I continually go back to can be found elsewhere or on older platforms. In terms of Switch exclusives, I went with Cadence of Hyrule. It's sad that game seems to not get the love it should!

I'm really pretty easygoing when it comes to stuff like graphics and frame rate, but it has to be said: leave it to Pokémon to care more about the toenails of ice sculptures than the performance of their games!

Okay, yeah...yeah, I want it.

I also find it hilarious that LEGO feels the need to put 18+ on their "adult" sets, just so some middle aged guy doesn't have to think he's less manly for building Winnie the Pooh's tree house.

"Bro, isn't that a kid's toy...that you're assembling into something from a show for babies?"

"Shut up! See? It says 18+!"

(PS: Yes, I did build the 18+ Winnie the Pooh tree house.)

NA is the winner for sure! That said, I absolutely cannot read the word Gaiden with it in green like that. If my only experience with the series growing up had been this game (sadly, I didn't have ANY experience with the series growing up) I can guarantee you there would have been a moment where I said the sentence, "You know...Ninja 3, the death boat one, what do you mean you've never played it!?"

"Additionally, choose from three different color schemes: Black, Gray, and Easter Nightmare!"

I could see this happening. Yes, the tariffs primarily affect us in the USA, whereas the rest of the world could continue on blissfully free of of the ramifications of our self-inflicted doom.
But as physical media in general continues to be pivoted away from by companies who see an endless gold mine in making us pay for digital content multiple times via various streaming/subscription services, the US trade war seems like the perfect excuse for them to cut off production of physical games altogether with the cherry on top of being able to pass the blame onto someone else, ie the government.

I'm very tired already.

I sold Odyssey a while back and regret it, maybe now's the time to finally get it back. I've been waiting for Nintendo Selects to make a comeback, but...that ain't happening.

And thank you for the subheader. Almost every time I see the phrase "slashing prices" I turn to my spouse and shout "You have to stop me, I'm a slasher!" You'd think since I've explained it enough and we've watched the movie together plenty of times that she would get it eventually, but...nope! She still looks at me like I'm insane every single time.

@EarthboundBenjy I just checked and you're right, they did seem to use a poster rather than the actual Japanese box art. Looking at the real box, though, it's basically the same thing without all the promo text at the Bottom. My vote is still NA/Europe.

When I first played the MGS games, circa 2006, I knew the basic timeline and decided to start with MGS3. I loved it and wanted more, and had seen marketing saying The Twin Snakes was "MGS 1 meets MGS2". Now, my brain, not knowing any better and seeing the words "twin snakes", implying there were two snakes, assumed this meant it was a double pack containing both 1 and 2. I played it and absolutely loved it (a hot take for some, as I would find out later), but was incredibly disappointed to find out I didn't get to move onto MGS2 after the credits rolled. I ended up having to run to the store and get a used copy of Sons of Liberty, and it wasn't until YEARS later that I played the actual, original version of MGS1. Due to my specific, misguided journey, I've always found the original PS1 version hard to love, as to me the story of Shadow Moses IS The Twin Snakes. I've still played the original beginning to end a couple times, but the hate thrown at Twin Snakes has a tendency to rattle me, and I would kill to have it ported to modern consoles!

I'll be taking Cyndaquil obviousl- oh...wait...Totodile it is, then!

I'm actually quite bummed to see that ranked matches are coming. As someone who prefers just collecting the cards without constantly retooling my decks and chasing the latest meta, I quite enjoyed the fact that the battles were low key and forgiving. Whenever a vs. battle event has popped up it's always basically been, "Did you participate? Then here, have a cookie!" I fear once ranked matches show up it's going to turn into, "Are you on the top 20% of the leaderboards? Then here, have this exclusive, once in a lifetime promo card." The second this thing goes pay-to-win, or even pay-to-get-all-the-cards (which technically it already is, since there's a monthly promo locked behind the subscription, but you know what I mean) then I'm out.

Still, for now, super excited for the new set tomorrow!

"Friends of Jimbo 68, featuring, uh...let's see who we've got left in here...Qbert, and, um...I think that might be Moses from one of the Wisdom Tree games. Good stuff!"

After many years of hard service, my launch Switch finally kicked the bucket in a big way last September. I could have had it repaired but, what's that? An excuse to buy the Echoes of Wisdom gold Switch Lite even though Switch 2 is on the horizon? Well...okay then, sure!

So no, I'm very much looking forward to Switch 2 and my restored ability to play Switch games on the TV, but no way in heck am I trading my current one in!

I haven't played Yu-Gi-Oh in forever (and I mean FOREVER!) I do remember liking Dungeon Dice Monsters better than the card game, but I never played the video game version and don't remember thing one about how to play it. I think it would be nifty to pick this up for some nostalgia, but I get the feeling that without tutorials I'd have more of a headache than a good time.

@Jack_Goetz Are you kidding? I have to spend all my time singing and getting pelted with hornets when I'm over there. I go home after work every day with a sore throat and covered in welts. The farther I can get away from Mega Man 9 the better!

(I do like it, though.)

So, to me, the shoreline behind our intrepid fishermen on the European cover appears to be a ways in the distance, with a forest behind a dark green meadow which leads down to shore (you could argue it's a row of short bushes or cabbages or something, but...nah...) Therefore, with that perspective, the Harvest Fishing sign is COSMICALLY HUGE! I like to imagine the small agricultural village nearby, living in constant fear of the day a strong wind kicks up and blows over the hastily constructed monument to the harvesting of sea dwelling creatures, sending it crashing to the ground and annihilating them all before they can even scream.

Anyway, Japan wins.

"Pokémon: Let's Go, Pinball!"