Teksette

Alas, it would have been a delightful surprise for longtime Nintendo fans.

As it is, I’m bewildered by WHY they would want to make posters and market Fox so boldly. The only people who’d be excited by seeing Fox on a poster are the hardcore fans, who were going to go see the movie anyway and very much would have loved a surprise cameo. Why reveal everything up front? 🤷🏻‍♀️

@HatesCheese
Yes glancing at the comments, I see NL’s not to blame here. The movie’s marketing team just threw the news right out there and revealed all.

I wonder what other surprises the Bros. will encounter in space?

It’s probably way too much to hope for a new Star Fox game now. 🙏🏻

I intentionally have not read the article above, but the headline, the thumbnail are huge spoilers! C’mon, why would you do this NL??

I’ve avoided all the Mario Galaxy movie trailers because I’m trying to preserve some surprises when I go watch the actual movie. Must I avoid your top page as well?

Normally NL is careful to hide spoilers inside articles, not plaster them on the top page!

Edit: ah, I see, Nintendo and Illumination are the ones promoting/revealing. I have to focus my bewilderment at them. Sorry, NL!

@jsty3105
making digital games cheaper doesn't suddenly make physical games the premium option

Doesn’t it? There was price parity. Now I’m paying a $10 premium to get a hard copy of Yoshi or, most likely, any future 1st party Nintendo game.

Aw golly gee heck yeah! 😆
They’re gonna patch it out, though, I just know it.
More reason to buy physical perhaps? 🤔

Happy for those satisfied with buying digital.
May your licenses never be revoked!

Bummed for those of us who prefer physical copies, though, because now, officially, we are paying a premium to own games physically.

I suppose it was only a matter of time, really, as publishers continue to push digital on us and boost their margins. They’d be dumb not to!

And I suppose it’s only fair, too, since (if you ask me) you always got less for your money when buying digital at full price. No shiny case, no booklet, no asset you can lend or sell or stare at and love. With this switcheroo, now we have to pay extra to get these niceties. No more subsidized goodies from Nintendo! Cost-cutting is the way of the world lately.

Eventually the number of physical snobs like me will dwindle to completely negligible numbers. And acts like this only hasten the conversion.

Either way, I’ll still prefer physical games first and wait for steep sales before spending on digital or game key nonsense.

I'll be skipping this DLC, and I'm certainly not spending $80 to replace my cartridge of the original game. Playing as Rosalina would be neat, but not $20 (or $80) neat.

Really, though, this is such a missed opportunity - Nintendo should have fleshed out and powered up the main game rather than tack on a few Mario Party minigames.

Ah well... Still keen to hear more about Splatoon Raiders and Fire Emblem Colosseum (whatever that title was) from the big-N later this year.

Woohoo great!
One of my kiddos is counting the days till April 16th, so she, at least, will dive right into this demo.

I for one am grateful for this timely article, but especially so because the comments remained open. Bravo to the hard-working NL moderators for having the chutzpah to do so!

“But it’s a game site! Keep politics out of it!!” rings hollow when tariffs directly impact the affordability of gaming, and we in the comments section deserve the chance to air our grievances. And if you think that the net impact of the tariffs was a mere $5-10 price increase on amiibo and accessories, you’re not using your imagination.

Let me illustrate. Imagine you’re a manufacturer/supplier of industrial machines you sell to other U.S. manufacturers for about $30K each. Suddenly, “pro-business” Don snaps his fingers and your cost to produce one machine increases $4500 because of tariffs on raw materials and components you have no choice but to import. The tariff wiped out your profit margin. You can’t slash your employees’ wages, so what do you do? Raise the selling price, duh. You PASS THAT COST ON, or most of it at least, to your customer. Even if your customers are other businesses, eventually the increased cost gets handed off to the end users, Timmy and Tammy at Target annoyed that their toothbrushes went up by $1.50 each (even though they’re “Made in USA!!). That’s $1.50 less now that Timmy can consider spending on Super Mario Wonder Nintendo Switch 2 Edition Plus Meetup in Bellabell Park, which he wasn’t all that eager to buy anyway because it’s not the ambitious Starfox sequel he keeps wishing for, and since it costs $80, but hey that is how Nintendo is choosing to offset higher development costs which no doubt includes higher tariffs and import duties.

Anyway, mid-term elections are coming this November, my fellow Americans. I sincerely hope people wake up and vote and send a strong message to Washington. 😤

Edit: just realized this missive above was my 3,000th comment here! It’s been awhile since I went long-form like that! 😅

@AussieMcBucket
It’s disturbing, isn’t it?
Almost as if the country was being run by a crooked, monstrously greedy real-estate mogul.
Oh… 😓

You gotta hand it to Trump and his minions, they're very innovative when it comes to skirting/breaking the rule of law, even on the rare occasion that SCOTUS actually sides against him. If leveraging IEEPA was illegal, well let's just contrive some all-new schemes to levy onerous tariffs that, in the end, only hurt American consumers. The courts can't keep up with all the slimy practices of this administration.

It's no mystery why the S2 sales in the US are lower than anticipated. Are we winning yet, my fellow Americans?

Except players aren't alone - we have plenty of other human players to reach out to, if we're so inclined.

But instead, let's get paid by-- err, COLLABORATE with Google to shoehorn their product into our game.

This weekend we’ll celebrate my oldest kiddo’s birthday. This time next year she’ll be asking me how soon she can get her driver’s license! As ever, today will be a mix of bday dismay at how fast these years flash by, together with bday joy and gratitude for having such a wonderful daughter.

Spare time this weekend will be devoted to the continuing journey of the starship Voyager because I’m well and truly hooked on Star Trek Voyager - Across the Unknown. Sadly my chief engineer B’Elanna Torres got split into her human half and her Klingon half, so I have a bad feeling we’ll never make it back to the alpha quadrant now. But Janeway wouldn’t give up, so neither will I!

I’ve also got a stern shmup challenge awaiting me at the end of Minishoot’ Adventures. I’ll probably give that another go, in between away team missions.

Wishing all NL friends a fun weekend! 🕹️🎂👾

What? Loved the first game on my Dreamcast, so long ago.
But I can't play this, I never played Shenmue 2!
I'm glad it's on the cartridge though.

As if boxed game codes and key cards weren’t bad enough, now we have boxed DLC codes. Blech 😑

I’m sure some parents will end up buying this empty box for their kids and wonder why there is no game on it at all!

@WiltonRoots
Thanks for chiming in! I played Area 88 all morning! I’m stuck on the mountain fortress with that damn ceiling boss, though. Even flying the Efreet, I need to play smarter and devise a strategy to beat that thing.

This should be a quiet weekend with TV time available, as my oldest will want to chill following last weekend’s busy musical performances. I’m so proud of my stage-loving kids! 🥰

But yes, GAMES. Mainly, I’m planning to explore more and push through the post-credit challenges in Minishoot’ Adventures. I don’t exactly love wandering around looking for the hidden secrets I missed, but at least they throw in surprise new encounters with tough purple enemies to keep things interesting.

Other than that, I have to decide whether to go back to RE: Requiem or start playing Star Trek Voyager - Across the Unknown. I just purchased the latter following Gavin’s glowing review yesterday. I pray my eyesight can endure the game’s tiny text.

And then I can always fall back on my retro game of the week - I’ve got Area 88 (Japan version of UN Squadron) poised at the ready in my SNES. A little more practice and I’ll be able to beat it on easy! 😅

Wishing all NL friends a fun week of drama (the good kind) and adventure! 🕹️⭐️👾

I'm glad to hear this is a well-realized Voyager sim! I have fond memories of watching the show, even if it's been ages and I never did watch every episode. I caught enough of the story beats to really want to experience the journey in this game.

@dartmonkey Thanks for the in-depth review with the Trek feels, Gavin!

My intent is to buy the game, but I was half-hoping we would get a physical release. Holding out for this one probably wouldn't be prudent, though. Mostly, I was keen to hear if the devs had improved the tiny font size. Trying to read the text in the demo from my couch was nearly impossible for my aged eyes. I guess I can use the screen zoom feature (thanks for the reminder, @Jeff2sayshi !) or else move my couch closer to the TV!

I remember buying Silver Surfer used from a video rental place and thinking the BGM was wild for an NES game! I do not remember if I made it past stage 2 though. A wicked tough game!

I’ll definitely pick up a copy of this collection, even if it’s just for e- e-e-e-e- X-men arcade and Capt America arcade. Silver Surfer, Capt America NES version, and all the rest are just gravy. 😋

Well done, LRG!

@Ooyah
Thanks for the warning!
As is usual for me, I went through Minishoot in a plodding, grindy way, and got my ship’s firepower close to maxxed out. Hopefully it’ll help me get through the late-game stuff. We shall see!

Wishing you good luck and many happy chirps from your ship if you battle on, too!

@Picola-Wicola
I knew you'd like it! I'm so glad to hear my hunch was right and you are enjoying the adventure! It really is such a satisfying, solid trip - utterly adorable but it had me white-knuckling my controller in some of those boss fights!

I'll zoom on into the post-credit content later this week to see what's up, though I can't justify starting a new game on hardest right now - I left RE9 waiting at the alter!

Fascinating. I knew, back in December 2022, that I was taking a risk preordering this game (for that reason, I kept it to just the standard edition of Chained Echoes). My first and only order from FPG, and most assuredly my last!

FPG should refund customers such as myself with interest for this debacle.

I recall thinking even at the time, though, that Mattias Linda never should have aligned with this distributor. Even in late 2022, FPG had gained some notoriety for long delays and unreliability. Live and learn, I suppose...

I just rolled credits on Minishoot' last night, but I don't think it was the TRUE ending - I certainly didn't 100% the game.
What a fun time, though! I could barely put this game down. It did feel somewhat short, but that lends it to trying to pull off a no-death run. Somebody better than me at bullet-hell shooters could pull that off, I'm sure!

@Picola-Wicola
Oh you’re welcome! I doubt you’d regret the purchase, other than potentially adding another must-play game to your pile. 😅

I think it’d be the perfect palette-cleanser after Requiem. I broke off of Requiem just because I had to play Minishoot right away, so I’ll need a different mental-health game afterwards. If I can make it through Requiem! The game terrified me, and I barely started the hospital.

@Picola-Wicola
I’m sorry! I meant to get back to you with my impressions on Minishoot’ Adventures!

I’m not even a quarter of the way into the game, but can I just be brief and say it’s wonderful? Just a modest yet marvelous marriage of twin-stick bullet hell ballet shooting with top-down Zelda-like exploration & dungeons. You zoom around and snipe at the many random baddies while avoiding their shot patterns and scooping up crystals which you exchange for incremental power-ups for your chirpy little ship. You’ll gradually get more power, range, speed, and shot multipliers as you gain important new abilities via dungeon rewards, and open up the overworld. The gameplay loop is so very satisfying!

The art is cheerful and intentionally uncomplicated, like cartoony versions of the ships and enemies we encountered in the early arcade era. Except now you have the freedom to scroll and shoot in any direction! It runs very smoothly on S2 (probably 60fps?) and I’ve been struck by some quite atmospheric music, too. My one nitpick would be some noticeable load times as you enter caves and dungeons - it’s really just a few seconds, but I felt a little impatient wanting to get back to the sweet flow of the game.

I can’t wait to get back to it, really, and would be much deeper into the game by now had it not been such a busy, tiring week. I’d wholeheartedly recommend it to you!

My high-schooler performs in 4 shows this weekend, so my game consoles will get a bit of a break.

Even so, I’ll still have time to zoom through some more Minishoot’ Adventures, perhaps my favorite shadow-drop EVER. It’s been at least a year since I first heard NVZ and Bally rave about Minishoot on their This Nintendo Life podcast, so I was itching to play it. The wait was well worth it!

I'll also take a few laps in Rave Racer and try to pull off the glitch that nearly doubles your car’s speed.

Had I more time, I’d probably plunk my Area 88 cartridge into my yellowed old SNES that I rescued from storage and hooked up this week. I’m amazed something I bought in my teenage years still works!

Wishing Pokopians and all other NLifers a peaceful and fun weekend! 🕹️👾

I am so ready for this game, since about 1984!!
And that theme song seems like it stepped straight out of the 80s Transformers movie! WOW!

I will be doing my utmost to be patient and not double-dip on this, so please announce that physical soon! Fortunately, I've got my copy of Marvel Cosmic Invasion coming next week, and I still have to go back and give Absolum some proper play time. Meanwhile, that new Rotwood game looks decent, too.

Friends, we are living in scrolling brawler paradise lately!

@CRASH64
I think the He-Man IP is in good hands with this dev, Bitmap Bureau. They released a quality beat 'em up called "Final Vendetta" a few years ago, and I love some of their other games, too - namely, Terminator 2D: NO FATE and Xeno Crisis.
This He-Man game will be under the microscope, though, just because the IP is so beloved and nostalgic, and so tailor-made for a beat 'em up!
I am hoping they deliver BATTLE CAT and not CRINGER!

I thought that was quite the densely-packed Direct! I already bought MiniShoot (hope to play more of it tonight), and Rotwood will be a must-play for me, too.

@Picola-Wicola
You’re not alone! Deadzone Rogue caught my eye, too. I can’t justify buying now, right after picking up MiniShoot and so soon after bringing home the RE Generations Pack, but I’ll watchlist it for sure, for a rainy day. I hope you have fun with it! I’d be interested in hearing your impressions of it. 😁

Funny you ask, because I discovered a couple weeks ago that my long-idle baby blue DS Lite couldn’t charge up or operate at all!
I ordered a replacement battery for it and now all is well.

I'm only 2hrs into Requiem, but I'd rate it a solid "HORRIFYING."

I haven't played an RE/Biohazard game in decades, and I worry I may not have the intestinal fortitude to get through this game! (@_@;;

I'm happy to hear Pokopia turned out better than the rather creepy vibe it gave me initially! But my gaming cup runneth over right now and there is no way I'd consider picking up this game key card. How sad that they couldn't give it proper physical release with a playable build of the game on the cartridge!
Also, stacking this one month prior to Tomodachi Life, another builder game, seems odd to say the least!

Whoa outta nowhere!!

I am buried in games at the moment, but
GIVE US MINISHOOT ADVENTURES!

I’ve been doing laps on & off all weekend - just pure arcade racing fun! When you think back to the Atari, NES, and Genesis/SNES days and how playing arcade-perfect games at home was just a dream, it really feels like we’ve come a long way!

I imagine I’ll dip in and out of this game a lot as time goes by, much like Outrun and Virtual Racer.

I think I remember hearing that the local splitscreen mode was exclusive to the “Arcade Archives 2” version of the game, and not available in the plain “Arcade Archives” version. That feature makes the extra $2 investment well worth it, I’d say.

I’d like to ask @AlexOlney or anyone who’s played the eShop version of Star Trek Voyager: Across the Unknown if the text size has been improved?

Text in the demo was too small on my 50in TV for me to read from the couch, and even with readers on I don’t know if I could squint hard enough to read it in handheld!

I was hoping the devs would address that in the full release. Especially since their audience is going to be an older demographic!

@DennyCrane
KUNG FU! Such a classic. It was a really fun, quality port of Irem’s arcade game.
Thank you for reminding me I need to add that to my NES “must get” list!

I picked up my RE Generations Pack yesterday, but no way am I playing those games with my kids around. When the coast is clear, though, I’ll try out either Requiem or maybe 7, since Ollie spoke so highly of it. While that downloads for 3 hours or whatever, I’ll do a few laps in Rave Racer and continue on in UFO 50 while wishing Capcom gave us real, big-boy cartridges for their flagship horror franchise.

Or I may just crank up my NES - I came close to beating Jackal solo last weekend so I may give that another shot.

Whatever I play, I’m happy, as we’re not facing another snowstorm this weekend! 🥳

Wishing everybody fun times and good games this weekend and always! 🕹️💕👾

Were I to choose, it’d be Pombon for sure! Winds & Waves seems so Okinawa-inspired to me, and Pombon has got to be a pokefied version of Okinawa’s shisa lion dog guardians.

@HammerGalladeBro
You beat me to it!
JUGGERNAUT WILL FLATTEN YOU!! 😆

Excellent! Like a Marvel version of the Cowabunga Collection! I’m surprised to see Cap & The Avengers (Data East) collected with X-Men Arcade (Konami). Does Konami own Data East IP now?
Either way, I loved some of these games (even Silver Surfer had its charm back then) and I’ll preorder this physical without hesitation.

I enjoyed pogo'ing around a bit in NES Ducktales long ago, and always wanted to own a copy of the game. Bring on the Capcom Disney goodness! This collection is long overdue on Switch, and I'm really looking forward to picking it up physically.

Sounds excellent! This, 7 and Village in the Generations Pack will be my first Biohazard/R.E. games since the original trilogy and 4. Although my pre-purchase hype is deflated a bit, as these are all game key releases. Like, I don't even care that any potential Mercenaries mode would be DLC, because basically the whole game is DLC.
Capcom, why do you hate physical media so much??

I haven’t played any RE games after 4, though I’d heard that they really returned to form these last few entries. With that in mind, I preordered the Generation Pack and it sounds like it’ll be worthwhile! 7 sounds suitably creepy l, and as a native Rhode Islander, I’m positively intrigued by Auntie Rhody!

I do hate that the games are all game key nonsense but considering Capcom’s track record I knew we’d never get these on proper carts. At least they’re not code in a box!

No, I was a working adult when the first Pokémon games came out and I’m nostalgic for older games. My younger daughter enjoys the newer Poké titles though. I’m content to just watch her play and I’ll occasionally help when asked.

I think it was Feb of ‘87 when I took a chance (based on the weird TV commercials I’d recently seen) and used some spending money during a family trip to buy this unknown NES game with the gold cartridge. After getting home and slotting it into my Nintendo, the game was amazing! It imprinted hard on my early teen brain and really opened my eyes to the potential of home video games. I was burning bushes and dropping bombs on every flat surface, looking for secrets - the original Zelda must be my most-played NES game.

Happy 40th to a true masterpiece and progenitor of one of gaming’s greatest legacies! 💕🎂🎉

More big snow on the way Sunday night (I am so done with this winter) so I'll be distracted somewhat, but I’ll play a little more Tennis Fever and no doubt a few more puzzles in Sega Picross.

I should probably add that last weekend I thrifted and found a retro rattan TV stand upon which to put my retro CRT TV and retro top-loader NES to play some retro NES games. Yes, I’ve decided to try and rebuild some of my long-lost 8- and 16-bit collection from the 80s/90s, starting with the ‘ol Nintendo. I’m planning to play some Jackal this weekend, that old “desert rat” style, top-down jeep shooter from Konami. It’s a nostalgia trip plugging in that big chunky cartridge and hearing that box TV hum. Just change it to channel 3 and away we go!

Wishing all NL friends a fun weekend with your favorite pursuits! 🕹️👾🛻

Bimmy?! I thought he was just an urban arcade myth! 😮
Who’s next, Shen Long??

But what a great update to an already stacked little game! You’ve really got to hand it to this dev team, they’ve built one of the most fun beat ‘em ups of the Switch gen and they’ve been super generous with the content. Excellent job!

Well, that should make the Poké fans happy! Although it’s a bummer Nintendo very intentionally omitted physical releases (code in a box doesn’t count). I suppose that means we’ll actually get that big physical Gen 10 game announcement next week, and Nintendo doesn’t want to cannibalize it.

Oh damn, they’re making me buy this game for a 3rd time.
WORTH IT! 🤩

The fact that it’s BlazBlue but NOT a vs. fighting game actually piqued my interest. I might consider a physical pickup sometime! Though I’d probably have to wear my best readers to see the tiny sprites and text on the screen! Is that what Tom’s “Not for boomers” comment meant??

I’d like to think the dialogue and story are hokey on purpose, like the original Biohazard games were in Japan. Multiplayer control of a single character sounds like a bad time, though, unless you’re teaming up with close friends or family.

Either way, I do hope it hangs on and gains a following over time. Unloved games make me sad. 😢