TheFox

Of the game's I've played, the ones that provided the most fun while grinding was SMT IV and Strange Journey. There were so many side quests to work on while you leveled up and it gave you plenty of time to formulate new demons. They did take an eternity to finish though.

I don't really disagree with the description of events in this article, other than to say they don't really do justice to how predatory these hedge funds are. Pick a company, make their stock tank, normal investors panic and dump their stock at a loss, hedge funds buy the depressed stocks and make money as they recover once the engineered crisis is over. It's really scummy and probably the only reason that it's not a crime is you'd need to read minds to know it was done on purpose rather than lucky timing.

Normally, I don't really care about special edition controllers. But it just so happens my one and only pro-controller is starting to be less responsive. And this is a pretty sweet looking design.

Isn't Ridge Racer missing from EVERY system at this point? I'd love a new RR, but the last one I remember being released was the early 3DS game.

I'm just going to say it. That thing is UGLY!

Since Dark Fate, any time the Terminator franchise comes up, all I can think about is that kids in the Simpsons crying, "Stop, he's already dead!"

@Noid Maybe that's why he's the only blue hedgehog. There were others, but then Sonic decapitated them.

I like Fatal Frame, but it's design was was so focused on using the gamepad, so I'm not sure how good it would be ported. I lot of the reason I enjoy that game comes from swinging around the gamepad as a camera. I wish NL would quit praising Star Fox Zero because it was trash. The controls aren't even why I didn't like it. It was absurdly short, it tried to throw in too many different styles of gameplay leaving it an unfocused mess. Plus the parts I did like totaled about 40 minutes of gameplay. Thinking of the parts I liked, I did enjoy the Arwing free range mode, but the size of the battle space was pathetically small and a lot of times the boundaries were invisible so you'd smack it's them without having any way of knowing they were there. I'd be open to a sequel where they go back to the drawing board, but Zero was terrible. I did love Star Fox Guard, but that would be REALLY had to do without the touchscreen.

In my opinion, the Switch is an OK but not great handheld. Which is to be kind of expected considering it's a hybrid so there's compromises between handheld and console. A lot of my favorite games are miserable to play with JoyCons and others require the JoyCons to be taken off. Many of my favorite games on the 3DS used touchscreen controls and while the Switch has a touchscreen, it's not used in any meaningful way because it would cripple the game when played in TV mode. When I fly (granted, it's been a while because of the pandemic) I still grab my 3DS, not my Switch. Not to mention, a handheld whose controllers wear out on a regular basis shouldn't even be considered for the honor of "greatest." So of the four portables I have I'd rank them:
1. 3DS
2. DS
3. Atari Lynx (it seemed like PFM in 1989 and it still works!)
4. Switch

Isn't NYT on team lockdown? There's so much I want to say about that, but this is NL, so must use restraint. That said, what do they expect people to do?

@nessisonett It does seem like they post these Brie Larson stories because they know it whips up the fans and gets clicks. I'm here, so I guess I can't say too much. I'm not a big Marvel fan, so I don't have a real strong opinion about her, but I couldn't miss the never ending controversy either. On one hand, I think the outrage mob that follows her around needs to calm down. On the other hand, I do think she was intentionally antagonistic with some of her PR when Captain Marvel came out. So is she a victim of controversy or playing it to raise her status? Either way, I think Nintendo and NL would do well not to make her the face of Animal Crossing.

@Sanangelo89 Yeah, there's a lot of whiny people out there, but when they announce a game in 2017, I can't blame people for getting impatient as the release date drags out to 2022.

Splatoon 2 is the only Switch game I'm playing this weekend since it's a splatfest. On PS4, Deliver Us the Moon and COD: Cold War.

2025: Platinum hopes to share a Bayonetta 3 update. Nintendo hires new director for Metroid Prime 4, with every single Wii U game ported to Switch, Nintendo starts porting CD-I games.

I'm somewhat surprised by the Switch's success. I wasn't in the camp predicting it would fail like the Wii U. With it's portability and lack of competition from other dedicated portables, I figured it was safe to assume it could sell similar numbers to the 3DS. That system proved there's still a market for hand held game systems in a world of smart phones. At the same time, I thought it was unrealistic to think it would sell over 100 million consoles. I'm happy to be wrong.

@gcunit It's a sleek design compared to the chunky looking systems that came before and after (GBA SP, and original DS). Plus I think it gets a few bonus points because not many people bought it so now it has the mystic of the one that got away.

Outside of Nintendo, I think the coolest looking consoles are ones that all failed miserably. The NEC SuperGrafX, Atari Jaguar (until you put the CD unit on it), and Amstrad GX-4000 were all sexy looking machines.

@StevenG Ick! That was hideous! But from a functional standpoint, at least they got rid of the stupid hinged cartridge loader that ended up making it hard to get a good connection.

@aresius I totally agree. Despite it having 3D in the name, this is the closest any mainline Mario game of the last 25 years gets to feeling like a classic 2D Mario game. Very linear with so little depth to many levels it almost feels like 2D level design. And like those old games, there's much more emphasis on carefully timed jumps that you get in other 3D Marios.

I'm torn. I like the clean design of the Wii, but it's not exactly exciting. I'd probably go with the Super Famicom (but not the US version!). Why do they lump the Super Famicom and SNES together when they have completely different shells, but they list a specific edition Game Cube and 3DS that amount to nothing more than a paint job? I thought the Game Boy Micro looked cool, but I'd have to completely ignore ergonomics to consider it. I played one once and it was not a good match for my big man hands.

If Bowser's Fury is a totally separate game, I hope at some point they sell just that on the e-shop. I'd like to play it, but I have no interest in buying 3D World again since I have it on the Wii U.

I think I bought a game with a discount from My Nintendo once (Captain Toad / Wii U). My lack of interest is twofold. One, I prefer physical copies. Two, by the time I see a game one My Nintendo, I've long since made the decision if I want it or not. I did download a bunch of 3DS themes from there though.

While everyone is saying, "we all knew this, Japan isn't into the Xbox," I do want to point out one thing from when I was in Japan last year. Despite the awful sales numbers, Xbox does have surprisingly good availability in Japanese stores. When I went into Bic Camera (for Americans, it's like Best Buy on Steroids), I was wondering if they'd have anything for Xbox, and if they did, probably just a handful of games. No! They actually had a really good selection. Judging from the impressive display in stores, you'd never guess that system was DOA in that country.

Before anyone yells at me, I'm not trying to say that Xbox actually is selling in Japan, but that stores do in fact try to sell it. At least in America, you can usually tell when a system is really failing because stores either don't carry it or only dedicate a tiny amount of shelf space for it.

I think it looks nice... Until I imagine it sitting on my entertainment center. It would stand out glaringly bright among all the black equipment sitting around it.

@Friendly When I look at professional critics' reviews, I tend to ignore the score but pay attention to what they actually say about the game*. Three reviews isn't much to go on, but two of the specifically mention unintuitive puzzles, which is worrying.

• Two quick examples, when I read the terrible reviews for Devil's Third, what they were actually describing sounded like a lot of fun, so I bought it and ended up loving it. Other example, Battlefield V got pretty decent review scores but when you actually read the reviews, almost all of them described it as a barren experience that had more bugs than content. Some even admitted that they were giving a positive rating based on what it might be in six months and not what they had actually played. So in both cases, the score was completely worthless (at least to me), but the description within the review was actually very informative.

@RudeAnimat0r I can relate as I'm not a big Jim Carey fan, but I thought he did a good job in this movie. In a way, he was standard Jim Carey but compared to most of his early movies, the "wild maniac" was actually toned down to tolerable levels.

As much as I love my 3DS and still play it often, I've never once played it online.

@Jam78 This is one thing that frustrates me with several industries and the general public. People keep returning to what they know. So these people waste their talents on ripping off Nintendo IP, but if it someone survives long enough, people will be like "OMG, it's Mario! Ignore all these other indie platformers, I want THAT!" Different industry and on a different scale, this is always what inspires Hollywood to beat to death franchises like Transformers (people still keep going), and digging up then violating the corpses of classic franchises like Terminator and Star Trek. Unfortunately, the public rewards with behavior because they keep coming back (except in the case of the last Terminator).

@GameOtaku In concept, I think collector's edition without the game makes sense, but should have a name change for the sake of honesty. Maybe "Collector's pack for <game x>" Some of these special editions come out after the initial release of the game, so maybe the customer already has it and just wants the collectables. Or maybe people aren't sure they want the ultra deluxe edition until they try the game. For example, the most recent one I got was for the game Deliver us the Moon and one of the big items was the soundtrack on vinyl. If I could have added the collectables AFTER I tried the game, I would have. Needing to preorder was really taking a leap of faith, because what if the music sucked? Beyond the one song in the game's trailer, I had no way of knowing. Of course, for collector's editions of multiplatform games that will actually be in stores, it also means the store doesn't have to worry if they're ordering the right number for each console.

@DrDaisy I can only speculate, but my best guess is that they were really focused on games like Super Mario and Kirby. These 2D platformers were their bread and butter at the time. The SNES was really good at making colorful, pretty graphics, and the types of games Nintendo published as first party games didn't really suffer from the low clock speed. However, the 3rd party publishers (who Nintendo was well known for not giving much consideration to) really struggled to get their 2D shooters and sports games running well. Nintendo may have looked at it as, "Well, that's their problem, we're doing just fine with our platformers." But that flaw really kept Sega alive because at the time I was in college and most people I knew (the late teens, early 20's male demographic) were buying Sega Genesis specifically for sports games.

Balan Wonderworld is what I'm most interested in from this list. I really enjoyed 3D World on Wii U, but unless they really went crazy with upgrade, I don't feel the need to buy it again. But for anyone who skipped that console, I'd say go for it, especially if you want a Mario game that does multiplayer well.

@jamesthemagi I could certainly agree with "Improved performance" but not a radical change or 4K. There are a bunch of Switch games like Astral Chain that run... fine. But they could definitely benefit from better frame rate.

Just to stir the pot on the question of weather or not the New 3DS was a new system, I'd say that was determined by marketing. If Nintendo had pushed hard for New 3DS exclusives, so Xenoblade 3D and Fire Emblem Warriors would have been just the beginning of a large number of games you could only play on the New 3DS, I think you'd have to consider it a new system. But since they decided to allow those to be rare exceptions, they are seen as a revision of the 3DS even though they could have been a new generation. If you want to geek out on gaming history, NEC did the same thing with their TurboGrafX (PC Engine in Japan). They came up with a new version with modest improvements called the SuperGrafX. It ran the same games but could also play exclusives for the new system. But like the New 3DS, they only released a handful of games that made use of the new system.

@jamesthemagi Of your three examples, only one of them really works (GBC). As far as games, the DSi didn't offer any upgrades. In theory, the New 3DS was an upgrade, but then they only released five or so games that used the additional graphics capabilities.

@bobzbulder Yeah, that's a doozie! JFK getting shot is far enough in the past, I don't think anyone will honestly be offended, but it's a really weird reference for video games.

Everyone knows the F-Zero fanbase is a long suffering people. This article seems like it was written to taunt them.

Personally, it's not my favorite, but I'd certainly keep an open mind if they did make a new one. And sure, it won't move units like a game with Mario in the title. But it seems like Nintendo should have more second tier games. Not everything needs to be a huge production like Mario or Zelda.

@hitherehello I don't doubt that the threats are real, there's a lot of idiots on the internet. But one thing I have seen a lot of, from people on both sides of this kind of argument, is blowing things out of proportion. A handful of idiots without any real following will post something about being upset and call for a boycott. But then the media or YouTubers start talking about it as if it were a big movement and all of a sudden you have what looks like a major force, when in fact all you really have is a handful of people complaining.

@Snatcher I highly doubt the threats of review bombing are coming from their fanbase, fans of this type of game, or possibly even gamers. This reeks of the Twitter puritans that look for something to be offended by, and then attack. And as the comic book industry has found, if you give into their demands, they DO NOT BUY your product.

That picture with Fox McCleod is horrifying.

@Dr_Lugae Did anyone ever make that argument? You "putting it to rest" is the first time I've ever heard anyone say that.

I don't think it's surprising at all that Just Dance sold as well as Watch Dogs Legion. Whatever you might think of them, Just Dance has always sold very well. And for people who enjoy that sort of thing, there aren't many alternatives. Meanwhile, Watch Dogs is in a very crowded segment of the market.

@k8sMum It looks like everyone took a fistful of crazy pills before commenting on this article. My only previous post was pretty vanilla in my opinion and someone equated it to Ted Bundy (For the sake of non-American readers, Ted Bundy was one of our worst serial killers).

I'm not really a Kanye fan, but he's never boring. It would be interesting to see what he had in mind.

@Kilroy Yeah, that Florence one is awful. I can appreciate the simple, clean design of Control, but it certainly doesn't stand out. I Am Dead is the only one that actually looks good.

@Gwynbleidd Despite not being a big fan of Animal Crossing (I have new leaf, and I just find it boring), I wouldn't argue New Horizon's being on this list. It was a huge success, so many people love it, and unlike many games on this list, you can't point to several other games and claim they deliver roughly the same experience. But I will agree with you on 3D All Stars. Slapping together three old games with half hearted upgrades doesn't really make them new games.

@Retro_Player_77 I only have one game on your list of disappointments, and the Playstation version at that. But I agree, Samurai Showdown was disappointing. The actually fighting is decent, but the amount of content is woefully small. And after charging $60 for what amounts to half a game, the DLC characters cost $6 each? Outrageous!

I checked out my stats, but the "Most played games" was empty. But a big surprise is my total time playing was barely over 300 hours and a big drop from last year. But I have been playing my Wii and Wii U a lot this year.

Now that I know the dice rolls are rigged in Mario Party, I can feel better about Animal Crossing Amiibo Festival. You definitely have some control of the dice rolls in that game.

@Anti-Matter It's real, although it's a gaming PC instead of a console. I'm thinking it's going to be made in very small numbers because it essentially is a marketing joke, but if you want it bad enough, you can actually buy. Now what would be hilarious is if the KFConsole outsold the new Atari VCS.

What surprises me is how many people own both Playstation and Xbox. I totally get having one of those and a Switch, but I don't see much to be gained by Playstation and Xbox. You've got to REALLY want those handful of exclusives. (I know I could trigger a war with this comment, but Xbox exclusives haven't looked very enticing for years).

@Bunkerneath Change that to Rolling Rock and I know one temperamental YouTuber that would be onboard.