@TheBigBlue Brawl does play a bit slower than Melee and lacks a lot of that game's crazy tech, but mostly it's just the random tripping that bothers people. A remake that just fixes that would probably already satisfy a lot of people.
Can't say it's not a bit sad to hear such a well-liked Nintendo game has such a shaky reputation at the company itself, but I also can't blame them. Melee brought on this massive unwieldly competitive scene by complete accident, it probably terrifies them. I'd say it's for the best that Nintendo and the Melee fans just stick to doing their own separate things, for both their sakes.
That's my biggest worry here. The game looks like a blast, but most of the LEGO games have been severely compromised on Switch. Maybe it'll be different this time since Visual Concepts is working on it over TT, and the NBA 2K games have fared alright, but there's no way to tell until we see footage of it.
I'm a Get It Together defender, it's my favorite WarioWare since probably Smooth Moves? I like how physics-driven many of the microgames are, and how some of them have multiple solutions. The multiple characters makes getting flowers genuinely fun, the whole package has a ridiculous amount of polish, and I'd argue the soundtrack is one of the best in the series.
Riverside Park got a pretty big downgrade layout-wise, all of its shortcuts from the original were removed, though I think the Ptooie mechanic still gives the track some life.
Metroid Fusion is hard proof that linearity is not and should not be a bad thing. It's because of that narrow focus that Fusion is able to be such a fun and briskly-paced action-horror with some of the most memorable setpieces and bosses in the series. I still prefer some of the more non-linear Metroids but I have immeasurable respect for Fusion for going against what was assumed to be the spirit of the series and managing to pull it off.
I'd also argue it's one of the hardest games in the series so maybe not the best for newcomers? Zero Mission always felt like the best entry point so hopefully that comes out soon.
Most of this stacks up, but I'd say Touch & Go deserves to be much higher. While it's definitely lacking in content, the core gameplay loop is fun and addictive, and the overall package is unnecessarily polished with some of the best visuals and music in the series. It's definitely better than New Island and Topsy Turvy at the very least.
I noticed this in the preview too, IGN's general coverage of Kirby RtDLDX has felt really reductive. Practically every sentence or bit of praise was followed up by "even if it's easy" or "even if it's simple". It's been almost a decade since their infamous Triple Deluxe 6/10 review and it still feels like the people on that site haven't shaken the mentality that Kirby is some mediocre game series for babies and no one else.
So far, it's probably been N64 for Paper Mario, Zelda, and Banjo-Kazooie alone, but as time goes on, it'll probably end up being the GBA since it's one of my favorite consoles and I could play those games for hours
Pound-for-pound, the Wii probably has my favorite lineup for the Mario, Kirby, and Zelda games alone, but people are really selling the handheld consoles short, particularly the GBA.
The Game Boy Advance had Pokemon Gen 3, WarioWare, Wario Land 4, two of the best Metroid games, Minish Cap, Mario & Luigi, two great Kirby games, F-Zero: GP Legend, Advance Wars, Mother 3, Rhythm Heaven, and loads of underrated gems like the Starfy, Kururin, and Drill Dozer games. That's a hell of a lineup and I'm not even counting all the ports.
The DS would probably also be a solid contender if you could include all the third-party DS exclusives.
This was definitely the strongest wave. Merry Mountain, Maple Treeway, and 3DS Rainbow Road are some of my favorite tracks in the series and they carried the whole wave on their shoulders, but the remakes of Boo Lake and Rock Rock Mountain are pretty great too. The city tracks felt a bit more forgettable this time, especially London Loop, but I think I just need to play them more. My only disappointment is Peach Gardens which is still great but feels like it's been simplified a bit.
Even then, my favorite experience with this update so far was turning on Only Blue Shells and watching the chaos unfold.
@Toshiro_Baloney I'd say this is a better game than Macbat 64, with a few caveats. The controls are probably the best out of any Siactro game, way faster and more versatile than what Macbat was capable of. The music and visuals are much better too. It's also a lot more consistent in quality, pretty much every level is your standard collectathon with no half-baked minigames like the racing or 2D stage thrown in.
However, if you really liked the charm and NPCs of Macbat 64, Super Kiwi 64 doesn't really have that. Most of the levels are pretty empty and the game goes for more of an isolating tone. Whether or not that's a good thing is up to you. And while Super Kiwi 64's main campaign took me longer to beat, the postgame and 100% completion isn't nearly as lengthy as Macbat's.
I feel like you're taking the camera thing a bit too seriously. Super Kiwi 64 is just a homage to N64 collectathons, faulty camera and all, there's no complex or parodical reasoning behind that.
I didn't think this one was anything amazing either, it had the polished controls of the Toree games but lacked the charming NPCs of Macbat, but I never got the impression that it was trying to be anything more than what it was: A brief but solidly enjoyable dose of nostalgia.
If you don't like the TRPG genre, you shouldn't be reviewing TRPGs. As someone who doesn't like the genre myself, I was never going to get this game because I'm not in it's target audience. If I was interested in the genre, I'd want to know if the Front MIssion remake is a good TRPG and I'm not getting that from this review.
Chalk it up to nostalgic bias, but I always loved the Wii U. Between Miiverse, Stamps, the Amiibos, all the Mii functionality, and the better E-Shop, it feels like that console had a much stronger personality than the Switch. Owning a Wii U felt like an experience, and that truly stellar stretch of games from 2013-2015 made it all worth it for me.
It was also the console where I discovered a lot of other Nintendo series. During the Wii era, I was mostly a Mario and Kirby diehard, but the Wii U gave me so many opportunities to try out other IPs of theirs, like the wide range of Nintendo Land minigames, the retro demos in Smash 4's Masterpieces mode and Amiibo Get Tap, the free game of your choice that came with Mario Kart 8, and the NES Remix series. By the time I got my Switch, I had become a full-on fan of Zelda, Metroid, and Pikmin as well.
Even today, I'm still getting mileage out of my Wii U with all the backwards-compatability it had to offer, and even some of its games that are on other consoles just work better on the Wii U thanks to the gamepad (Zelda ports, Mario Maker, and Captain Toad especially). Those asymmetrical games also still tend be my go-to multiplayer games whenever a lot of people come over, and my friends and I still get a lot of dumb fun out of modes like Luigi's Ghost Mansion, Bowser Party, and the House Party in Wii Party U.
The console definitely has flaws, and some of its potential unfortunately wasn't fully realized, but I'll always think of it as one of my favorite Nintendo consoles. It was fun while it lasted.
Sticker Star is easily the worst Paper Mario game, that's no debate, but it's nowhere near one of the worst video games ever made. Honestly, I still think it's pretty much mid at worst. I'll always love how the Modern games expanded on the exploration and secret-finding, and both Color Splash and Origami King proved good writing and creative setpieces can make up for generic character designs.
My big problem with Sticker Star is the goddamn battle system, the lack of XP combined with the consumable items combined with the Things really screws up the pacing. Origami King's a bit better but if Nintendo really wanted to make Paper Mario an adventure game, they should've just dropped the turn-based combat entirely.
New Horizons has more customization, while New Leaf feels more complete. However, as a Panel De Pon simp, I have to give the edge to New Leaf for the Puzzle League mode.
Even after all this time, Mitsuda's soundtrack for the first Mario Party is still one of my favorites in the series. He really established the general tone and vibe of the series, and it feels like many of the composers who followed him took some degree of inspiration from his work. It would be cool to listen to these early tracks to see how different the series could've ended up sounding.
Well, I did not expect to be hit with this much nostalgia today. EA Playground was one of my first Wii games (being a five-year-old I thought it was a sequel to Wii Sports) and I remember really loving it then. Haven't played it in years but I'm glad to hear it holds up.
I don't get why this is a big deal. He didn't compose for 06, Unleashed, or Colors and those soundtracks were great, some of my favorites even! Senoue is an awesome composer but there are other great Sonic composers too.
Having played pretty much every Mario Party game...
1. MP3 (Most balanced + aesthetic and music) 2. MP6 (Day/Night cycle and best minigames) 3. MP8 (My first Mario game, childhood nostalgia, Koopa's Tycoon Town) 4. MP4 (Similar aesthetic to 3 + amazing minigames) 5. Superstars (Finally, a return to the MP3 system) 6. MP2 (Great boards and lots of charm, but you can only hold one item) 7. MPDS (Love the shrinking premise) 8. MP7 (Great boards, great minigames, Bowser Time sucks) 9. Super Mario Party (Meh boards but lots of modes) 10. MP9 (Phenomenal minigames and music, gameplay too unbalanced) 11. MP5 (The RNG items kinda kill this one for me) 12. Star Rush (Coinathlon is a ton of fun but otherwise, it spread itself too thin) 13. MP10 (Bowser Party is fun and the gameplay is more balanced, but too generic and hardly any content) 14. Island Tour (Great minigames, inconsistent board design) 15. Advance (Honestly underrated, lots of charm, but the weak multiplayer drags it down) 16. MP1 (Way too RNG and simplistic, spinning joystick minigames) 17. Top 100 (Hollow, lacking in content, and surpassed by Superstars in literally every way)
As you can probably tell, I'm a massive Mario Party fan.
While not a Nintendo series, that Donkey Kong entry made me realize that Aardman would be a perfect fit for the Banjo-Kazooie series. One of the quirkiest and most British video game series getting an adaptation by one of the quirkiest and most British animation studios feels like a match made in heaven, and the series' iconic google-eyes would look fantastic in claymation.
As far as Nintendo Life's choices go, I think most of them make some degree of sense with the massive exception of Illumination for Kirby. I do NOT trust them to tackle the series' lore and darker elements.
Koizumi was the coolest. He's responsible for the ambitious stories Super Mario Galaxy, Link's Awakening, and Majora's Mask and it always felt the Mario and Zelda series were at their most creative whenever he was at the helm. It's a shame he hasn't directed a game in years.
I never really understood the complaints that Nintendo Directs have too many RPGs, but I definitely got it this time. There wasn't nearly enough genre diversity especially in the first half.
The second half won me back with Pikmin, Kirby, and Zelda, but I'd still call this one of the weaker Directs.
Mario Kart Wii was my childhood, and it's still one of my favorites. I think the reason I'm so good at Mario Kart in general is because MKWii's Rainbow Road had hardened me.
The early 2000s era of Sega is hands down my favorite of the company, between the Dreamcast and their rebound with the Gamecube. The amazing and creative game lineup, the constant willingness to push boundaries (the VMU, for example) even if it didn't turn out the best, the incredibly effective way they introduced Sonic to a new audience through rereleases and new games alike, and the way they'd take advantage of console capabilities all made for an incredibly impressive run.
I may not like Cobra Kai all that much, but that show has an unabashedly corny 80s style that could fit Duke Nukem perfectly. The movie's still probably not going to be very good, but with those guys at the helm, it has the potential to be very fun.
As glad as I am that the later Zelda games started to get slightly busier boxarts, the simplicity and regality of some of the early boxarts like Link To The Past, Ocarina, Majora, and Awakening exudes a real sense of confidence. You don't need anything else, you see that shield and sword and you know you're getting a top-notch video game experience.
While the Japan one is oddly badass and artsy for boxart for a Mario game, I have to go with the NA one. That boxart feels like it does a much better job of capturing the spirit of a "Mario golf game"
It's definitely gonna a history site. I doubt Konami would announce an NFT via website launch but something like a history site with like one or two merch options would be the best way for Konami to pretend they care about the series without actually doing anything to celebrate the anniversary.
@Mauzuri It's rare to see someone who doesn't love Robobot as much as everyone else seems to. It's a fun game but you spend so much time in the Robobot Suit that just doesn't feel as smooth to play as regular Kirby does.
Remade soundtracks like for the Mario & Luigi and Crash remakes tend to not bother me since the differences are so minuscule but these really don't do it for me at all. Even if the original wasn't such a high bar, these new tracks are so different that they don't even seem fitting!
Fossil Valley especially, that was such a powerful and adventurous theme in the original game and this new version gives off a completely different vibe.
I guess this isn't entirely "old" yet but Mario Party Superstars is just screaming for some more boards and minigames and I'm baffled they haven't announced anything yet.
I think this list is alright. DC Super Villains and Marvel Super Heroes are definitely the better standard games on there, but I'd still put the Harry Potter Collection above them solely because of my bias for the earlier LEGO games.
LEGO City Undercover is still my favorite out of the bunch, though. It was such a creative departure for the series and the hub world is so vast and fun to explore.
As great as this is, I do have to say I hate that comments are turned off on the "Topic" videos. YouTube comments usually suck but there's something really heartwarming about reading a lot of people's positive comments about music.
It's been years since "Ocarina Of Time is the best Zelda" stopped being such a unanimously agreed-upon opinion so there are definitely a lot more people going around saying Majora's Mask is the better title
Not that I don't agree but it's definitely not as much of an "edgy hipster opinion" as it used to be.
Not gonna lie, this was one of my favorite directs ever. Klonoa alone made it one of my favorite directs ever, but Live A Live, Chrono Cross, the Mario Kart DLC, Mario Strikers, Nintendo Switch Sports, Xenoblade, and the new trailers for Splatoon and Kirby definitely helped out.
Nintendo tends to say a lot of stuff during shareholder meetings that doesn't actually stick ("The 3DS and Switch are going to be getting games at the same time!"). This very much feels like noncommittal corporate speak to please the investors.
It's also worth noting that Gibson just corrected himself to say Nintendo was talking more about the Metaverse than NFTs which does fall in line with Nintendo repeatedly stating they were interested in VR (only for us to get Labo): https://twitter.com/gibbogame/status/1489219423487422469
I've been following the development of Grapple Dog for a while now and I'm really excited to learn it's coming to Switch! It looks so fluid and colorful.
This probably depends on the person but I've always found this to be a "so bad it's good" kind of game. The story is ridiculous enough but the dialogue glitches just tip it over the line into hysterical for me.
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Re: Random: Smash Bros. Melee HD Unlikely To Happen, According To Former Nintendo Employees
@TheBigBlue Brawl does play a bit slower than Melee and lacks a lot of that game's crazy tech, but mostly it's just the random tripping that bothers people. A remake that just fixes that would probably already satisfy a lot of people.
Re: Random: Smash Bros. Melee HD Unlikely To Happen, According To Former Nintendo Employees
Can't say it's not a bit sad to hear such a well-liked Nintendo game has such a shaky reputation at the company itself, but I also can't blame them. Melee brought on this massive unwieldly competitive scene by complete accident, it probably terrifies them. I'd say it's for the best that Nintendo and the Melee fans just stick to doing their own separate things, for both their sakes.
Re: LEGO 2K Drive Will Include Real Money Transactions
And they lost me
Re: Hands On: LEGO 2K Drive Is A Wild Ride, But Will It Prove Too Much For Switch?
That's my biggest worry here. The game looks like a blast, but most of the LEGO games have been severely compromised on Switch. Maybe it'll be different this time since Visual Concepts is working on it over TT, and the NBA 2K games have fared alright, but there's no way to tell until we see footage of it.
Re: Best WarioWare Games Of All Time
I'm a Get It Together defender, it's my favorite WarioWare since probably Smooth Moves? I like how physics-driven many of the microgames are, and how some of them have multiple solutions. The multiple characters makes getting flowers genuinely fun, the whole package has a ridiculous amount of polish, and I'd argue the soundtrack is one of the best in the series.
Re: Super Mario 64's "Impossible 1-Up" Has Finally Been Grabbed Without Dying
It's funny how so many solutions in SM64 speedrunning just boil down to do the same thing for X hours.
Re: The Legend Of Nayuta: Boundless Trails Is An Action RPG Spin-Off Of Falcom's 'Trails' Series
This gives off underrated PS2 gem energy and I mean that in a good way. Seems like it could be really fun.
Re: Mini Review: Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Booster Course Pass Wave 4 - The Brand-New Track Is An All-Time Great
Riverside Park got a pretty big downgrade layout-wise, all of its shortcuts from the original were removed, though I think the Ptooie mechanic still gives the track some life.
Re: Review: Metroid Fusion - An Infectious, Portable Pleasure
Metroid Fusion is hard proof that linearity is not and should not be a bad thing. It's because of that narrow focus that Fusion is able to be such a fun and briskly-paced action-horror with some of the most memorable setpieces and bosses in the series. I still prefer some of the more non-linear Metroids but I have immeasurable respect for Fusion for going against what was assumed to be the spirit of the series and managing to pull it off.
I'd also argue it's one of the hardest games in the series so maybe not the best for newcomers? Zero Mission always felt like the best entry point so hopefully that comes out soon.
Re: Every Yoshi Game Ranked
Most of this stacks up, but I'd say Touch & Go deserves to be much higher. While it's definitely lacking in content, the core gameplay loop is fun and addictive, and the overall package is unnecessarily polished with some of the best visuals and music in the series. It's definitely better than New Island and Topsy Turvy at the very least.
Re: Round Up: The Reviews Are In For Kirby's Return To Dream Land Deluxe
I noticed this in the preview too, IGN's general coverage of Kirby RtDLDX has felt really reductive. Practically every sentence or bit of praise was followed up by "even if it's easy" or "even if it's simple". It's been almost a decade since their infamous Triple Deluxe 6/10 review and it still feels like the people on that site haven't shaken the mentality that Kirby is some mediocre game series for babies and no one else.
Re: Poll: Which Nintendo Switch Online Console Do You Play The Most?
So far, it's probably been N64 for Paper Mario, Zelda, and Banjo-Kazooie alone, but as time goes on, it'll probably end up being the GBA since it's one of my favorite consoles and I could play those games for hours
Re: Talking Point: Which Nintendo Console Has The Best First-Party Games Lineup?
Pound-for-pound, the Wii probably has my favorite lineup for the Mario, Kirby, and Zelda games alone, but people are really selling the handheld consoles short, particularly the GBA.
The Game Boy Advance had Pokemon Gen 3, WarioWare, Wario Land 4, two of the best Metroid games, Minish Cap, Mario & Luigi, two great Kirby games, F-Zero: GP Legend, Advance Wars, Mother 3, Rhythm Heaven, and loads of underrated gems like the Starfy, Kururin, and Drill Dozer games. That's a hell of a lineup and I'm not even counting all the ports.
The DS would probably also be a solid contender if you could include all the third-party DS exclusives.
Re: Forget Mario, The Tetris Movie Has Secured A Date For Its Own Premiere
Remember when they said they were planning a sci-fi Tetris trilogy? Whatever happened to that?
Re: Random: The Ace Attorney Court Bot Is Probably Closing Shop Thanks To Twitter's New Rules
Didn't expect to see Monopoly Mermaid Monday brought up here. Its loss will be truly tragic.
Re: Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Booster Course Pass Wave 3 Is Out Now With New Custom Items Update
This was definitely the strongest wave. Merry Mountain, Maple Treeway, and 3DS Rainbow Road are some of my favorite tracks in the series and they carried the whole wave on their shoulders, but the remakes of Boo Lake and Rock Rock Mountain are pretty great too. The city tracks felt a bit more forgettable this time, especially London Loop, but I think I just need to play them more. My only disappointment is Peach Gardens which is still great but feels like it's been simplified a bit.
Even then, my favorite experience with this update so far was turning on Only Blue Shells and watching the chaos unfold.
Re: Mini Review: Super Kiwi 64 - An N64-Style Platformer Ripe With Tricksy Energy
@Toshiro_Baloney I'd say this is a better game than Macbat 64, with a few caveats. The controls are probably the best out of any Siactro game, way faster and more versatile than what Macbat was capable of. The music and visuals are much better too. It's also a lot more consistent in quality, pretty much every level is your standard collectathon with no half-baked minigames like the racing or 2D stage thrown in.
However, if you really liked the charm and NPCs of Macbat 64, Super Kiwi 64 doesn't really have that. Most of the levels are pretty empty and the game goes for more of an isolating tone. Whether or not that's a good thing is up to you. And while Super Kiwi 64's main campaign took me longer to beat, the postgame and 100% completion isn't nearly as lengthy as Macbat's.
Re: Mini Review: Super Kiwi 64 - An N64-Style Platformer Ripe With Tricksy Energy
I feel like you're taking the camera thing a bit too seriously. Super Kiwi 64 is just a homage to N64 collectathons, faulty camera and all, there's no complex or parodical reasoning behind that.
I didn't think this one was anything amazing either, it had the polished controls of the Toree games but lacked the charming NPCs of Macbat, but I never got the impression that it was trying to be anything more than what it was: A brief but solidly enjoyable dose of nostalgia.
Re: Review: Front Mission 1st: Remake - Impressive Visuals, But A Slog On The Battlefield
If you don't like the TRPG genre, you shouldn't be reviewing TRPGs. As someone who doesn't like the genre myself, I was never going to get this game because I'm not in it's target audience. If I was interested in the genre, I'd want to know if the Front MIssion remake is a good TRPG and I'm not getting that from this review.
Re: Feature: Wii U Memories - Our Pre-Launch Thoughts On Nintendo's Charming Misstep
Chalk it up to nostalgic bias, but I always loved the Wii U. Between Miiverse, Stamps, the Amiibos, all the Mii functionality, and the better E-Shop, it feels like that console had a much stronger personality than the Switch. Owning a Wii U felt like an experience, and that truly stellar stretch of games from 2013-2015 made it all worth it for me.
It was also the console where I discovered a lot of other Nintendo series. During the Wii era, I was mostly a Mario and Kirby diehard, but the Wii U gave me so many opportunities to try out other IPs of theirs, like the wide range of Nintendo Land minigames, the retro demos in Smash 4's Masterpieces mode and Amiibo Get Tap, the free game of your choice that came with Mario Kart 8, and the NES Remix series. By the time I got my Switch, I had become a full-on fan of Zelda, Metroid, and Pikmin as well.
Even today, I'm still getting mileage out of my Wii U with all the backwards-compatability it had to offer, and even some of its games that are on other consoles just work better on the Wii U thanks to the gamepad (Zelda ports, Mario Maker, and Captain Toad especially). Those asymmetrical games also still tend be my go-to multiplayer games whenever a lot of people come over, and my friends and I still get a lot of dumb fun out of modes like Luigi's Ghost Mansion, Bowser Party, and the House Party in Wii Party U.
The console definitely has flaws, and some of its potential unfortunately wasn't fully realized, but I'll always think of it as one of my favorite Nintendo consoles. It was fun while it lasted.
Re: Soapbox: Paper Mario: Sticker Star Was When The Series Came Unstuck
Sticker Star is easily the worst Paper Mario game, that's no debate, but it's nowhere near one of the worst video games ever made. Honestly, I still think it's pretty much mid at worst. I'll always love how the Modern games expanded on the exploration and secret-finding, and both Color Splash and Origami King proved good writing and creative setpieces can make up for generic character designs.
My big problem with Sticker Star is the goddamn battle system, the lack of XP combined with the consumable items combined with the Things really screws up the pacing. Origami King's a bit better but if Nintendo really wanted to make Paper Mario an adventure game, they should've just dropped the turn-based combat entirely.
Re: Poll: So, Animal Crossing: New Leaf Or New Horizons - Which Do You Like Best?
New Horizons has more customization, while New Leaf feels more complete. However, as a Panel De Pon simp, I have to give the edge to New Leaf for the Puzzle League mode.
Re: Random: Yasunori Mitsuda Reveals Almost 200 Songs Were Scrapped From Mario Party's Soundtrack
Even after all this time, Mitsuda's soundtrack for the first Mario Party is still one of my favorites in the series. He really established the general tone and vibe of the series, and it feels like many of the composers who followed him took some degree of inspiration from his work. It would be cool to listen to these early tracks to see how different the series could've ended up sounding.
Re: Soapbox: After 10 Years I'm Finally Getting A Wii U, But Where Should I Start?
As someone who would defend the Wii U with their life, I'd still recommend:
Re: Soapbox: EA Playground Is A Forgotten Gem And Deserves To Be Remembered With Wii Sports
Well, I did not expect to be hit with this much nostalgia today. EA Playground was one of my first Wii games (being a five-year-old I thought it was a sequel to Wii Sports) and I remember really loving it then. Haven't played it in years but I'm glad to hear it holds up.
Re: Jun Senoue Isn't Involved In Composing Music For Sonic Frontiers
I don't get why this is a big deal. He didn't compose for 06, Unleashed, or Colors and those soundtracks were great, some of my favorites even! Senoue is an awesome composer but there are other great Sonic composers too.
Re: Poll: What's The Best Mario Party Game?
Having played pretty much every Mario Party game...
1. MP3 (Most balanced + aesthetic and music)
2. MP6 (Day/Night cycle and best minigames)
3. MP8 (My first Mario game, childhood nostalgia, Koopa's Tycoon Town)
4. MP4 (Similar aesthetic to 3 + amazing minigames)
5. Superstars (Finally, a return to the MP3 system)
6. MP2 (Great boards and lots of charm, but you can only hold one item)
7. MPDS (Love the shrinking premise)
8. MP7 (Great boards, great minigames, Bowser Time sucks)
9. Super Mario Party (Meh boards but lots of modes)
10. MP9 (Phenomenal minigames and music, gameplay too unbalanced)
11. MP5 (The RNG items kinda kill this one for me)
12. Star Rush (Coinathlon is a ton of fun but otherwise, it spread itself too thin)
13. MP10 (Bowser Party is fun and the gameplay is more balanced, but too generic and hardly any content)
14. Island Tour (Great minigames, inconsistent board design)
15. Advance (Honestly underrated, lots of charm, but the weak multiplayer drags it down)
16. MP1 (Way too RNG and simplistic, spinning joystick minigames)
17. Top 100 (Hollow, lacking in content, and surpassed by Superstars in literally every way)
As you can probably tell, I'm a massive Mario Party fan.
Re: Talking Point: Which Animation Studios Should Tackle Nintendo's Other Franchises?
While not a Nintendo series, that Donkey Kong entry made me realize that Aardman would be a perfect fit for the Banjo-Kazooie series. One of the quirkiest and most British video game series getting an adaptation by one of the quirkiest and most British animation studios feels like a match made in heaven, and the series' iconic google-eyes would look fantastic in claymation.
As far as Nintendo Life's choices go, I think most of them make some degree of sense with the massive exception of Illumination for Kirby. I do NOT trust them to tackle the series' lore and darker elements.
Re: Newly Translated Interviews Reveal "Serious Debate" Over FLUDD In Super Mario Sunshine
Koizumi was the coolest. He's responsible for the ambitious stories Super Mario Galaxy, Link's Awakening, and Majora's Mask and it always felt the Mario and Zelda series were at their most creative whenever he was at the helm. It's a shame he hasn't directed a game in years.
Re: Talking Point: What Did You Think Of The September 2022 Nintendo Direct?
I never really understood the complaints that Nintendo Directs have too many RPGs, but I definitely got it this time. There wasn't nearly enough genre diversity especially in the first half.
The second half won me back with Pikmin, Kirby, and Zelda, but I'd still call this one of the weaker Directs.
Re: Talking Point: What Was Your First Mario Kart Game?
Mario Kart Wii was my childhood, and it's still one of my favorites. I think the reason I'm so good at Mario Kart in general is because MKWii's Rainbow Road had hardened me.
Re: Feature: SEGA's Astonishing GameCube Rebound Following Defeat In The Console Wars
The early 2000s era of Sega is hands down my favorite of the company, between the Dreamcast and their rebound with the Gamecube. The amazing and creative game lineup, the constant willingness to push boundaries (the VMU, for example) even if it didn't turn out the best, the incredibly effective way they introduced Sonic to a new audience through rereleases and new games alike, and the way they'd take advantage of console capabilities all made for an incredibly impressive run.
Re: Duke Nukem Is Getting A Movie From Legendary & The Creators Of 'Cobra Kai'
I may not like Cobra Kai all that much, but that show has an unabashedly corny 80s style that could fit Duke Nukem perfectly. The movie's still probably not going to be very good, but with those guys at the helm, it has the potential to be very fun.
Re: Poll: Box Art Brawl: Duel #92 - The Legend Of Zelda: A Link To The Past
As glad as I am that the later Zelda games started to get slightly busier boxarts, the simplicity and regality of some of the early boxarts like Link To The Past, Ocarina, Majora, and Awakening exudes a real sense of confidence. You don't need anything else, you see that shield and sword and you know you're getting a top-notch video game experience.
Re: Poll: Box Art Brawl: Duel #91 - Mario Golf
While the Japan one is oddly badass and artsy for boxart for a Mario game, I have to go with the NA one. That boxart feels like it does a much better job of capturing the spirit of a "Mario golf game"
Re: Back Page: Ranking The Kirby And The Forgotten Land Enemies By How Much I Don't Want To Kill Them
Sssnackers are the absolute worst in this game, zero sympathy for killing them.
Awoofies should totally be S tier though. There are articles and reviews about how hard they are to kill!
Re: Poll: Box Art Brawl: #90 - Super Paper Mario
Even putting my nostalgia aside, I think the NA boxart just looks better without that cramped yellow border the JP and EU boxes have.
Re: Random: Metal Gear 35th Anniversary Site Appears, And We Don't Know What To Think
It's definitely gonna a history site. I doubt Konami would announce an NFT via website launch but something like a history site with like one or two merch options would be the best way for Konami to pretend they care about the series without actually doing anything to celebrate the anniversary.
Re: Best Kirby Games Of All Time
@Mauzuri It's rare to see someone who doesn't love Robobot as much as everyone else seems to. It's a fun game but you spend so much time in the Robobot Suit that just doesn't feel as smooth to play as regular Kirby does.
Re: Grab Some Headphones For This Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition Music
Remade soundtracks like for the Mario & Luigi and Crash remakes tend to not bother me since the differences are so minuscule but these really don't do it for me at all. Even if the original wasn't such a high bar, these new tracks are so different that they don't even seem fitting!
Fossil Valley especially, that was such a powerful and adventurous theme in the original game and this new version gives off a completely different vibe.
Re: Talking Point: Which Other 'Old' Switch Games Would You Like To See Get New DLC?
I guess this isn't entirely "old" yet but Mario Party Superstars is just screaming for some more boards and minigames and I'm baffled they haven't announced anything yet.
Re: Best Switch LEGO Games
I think this list is alright. DC Super Villains and Marvel Super Heroes are definitely the better standard games on there, but I'd still put the Harry Potter Collection above them solely because of my bias for the earlier LEGO games.
LEGO City Undercover is still my favorite out of the bunch, though. It was such a creative departure for the series and the hub world is so vast and fun to explore.
Re: Chrono Trigger, Secret Of Mana, And Final Fantasy Soundtracks Appear On Square Enix's Music Channel
As great as this is, I do have to say I hate that comments are turned off on the "Topic" videos. YouTube comments usually suck but there's something really heartwarming about reading a lot of people's positive comments about music.
Re: Video: Some Of Us Prefer Zelda: Majora's Mask Over Ocarina Of Time Because We're Right
It's been years since "Ocarina Of Time is the best Zelda" stopped being such a unanimously agreed-upon opinion so there are definitely a lot more people going around saying Majora's Mask is the better title
Not that I don't agree but it's definitely not as much of an "edgy hipster opinion" as it used to be.
Re: Random: This Disc Will Wipe Your Nintendo Wii Clean
As a kid, I thought this literally cleans your disk reader. It cleaning the console's internal memory makes a lot sense now that I think about it.
Re: Poll: What Did You Think Of The February 2022 Nintendo Direct?
Not gonna lie, this was one of my favorite directs ever. Klonoa alone made it one of my favorite directs ever, but Live A Live, Chrono Cross, the Mario Kart DLC, Mario Strikers, Nintendo Switch Sports, Xenoblade, and the new trailers for Splatoon and Kirby definitely helped out.
Re: Nintendo "Has Interest" In NFTs And The 'Metaverse'
Nintendo tends to say a lot of stuff during shareholder meetings that doesn't actually stick ("The 3DS and Switch are going to be getting games at the same time!"). This very much feels like noncommittal corporate speak to please the investors.
It's also worth noting that Gibson just corrected himself to say Nintendo was talking more about the Metaverse than NFTs which does fall in line with Nintendo repeatedly stating they were interested in VR (only for us to get Labo): https://twitter.com/gibbogame/status/1489219423487422469
Re: Super Rare's First Published Game, Grapple Dog, Comes Out Soon
I've been following the development of Grapple Dog for a while now and I'm really excited to learn it's coming to Switch! It looks so fluid and colorful.
Re: Mini Review: Twelve Minutes - A Tedious Time Loop That Squanders Its Potential
This probably depends on the person but I've always found this to be a "so bad it's good" kind of game. The story is ridiculous enough but the dialogue glitches just tip it over the line into hysterical for me.
Re: Five Sega Genesis Games Have Been Added To Nintendo Switch Online's Expansion Pack
Dynamite Headdy is my favorite Genesis game! If you have the pack, I highly recommend trying it out.