UpsideDownRowlet

Hello everyone, this weekend I'm playing:

Sea of Stars
I spent way too long trying to solve one of the puzzles for the Doccari Seal Fragments, and was mildly disappointed to find that the reward was just a slightly better weapon for my least used character. Anyway, now I'm sitting at the gates of The Fleshmancer's Lair.

Metroid Dread
After obtaining the Varia suit, I've been going around the first 3 areas checking out all the extreme heat locations.

As per usual, I'll likely also play a few online matches in Mario Kart World and Kirby Air Riders.

The State of the Nintendo Music App forum after getting just one track last week, an OST that's largely just 5-second microgame songs this week, and nothing at all next week:

The Tomodachi Lite™

Hope they implement VRR in lots of games, and not just new games, but old ones, too. Bananza could probably benefit from it.

@ShadLink what? Having an 8/10 score instead of a 9/10 is "trying to lower the average"? This just sounds borderline conspiratorial. There's no plot at Nintendo Life to lower the average critic score (and again, most of their recent reviews have been more or less in keeping with the general critical consensus). And if reading a review that doesn't even say the game is bad, average, or in the case of this game, just good, then yeah, I think you should avoid reading game reviews.

@uncleMike It's fair to complain about Nintendo Life's middling coverage of Fortune's Weave news, but I'm not sure if this issue really affects the review of the game. It's a review, not a hype report.

@Oldstalk You're making a comparison to two completely different games reviewed by completely different people. This isn't even apples to oranges, it's apples to porkchops. Try to fixate less on the arbitrary numerical score and just read the review and decide for yourself how much you care about the various pros and cons listed.

@Raffwaff79 With that game, I honestly don't know what people want. I've seen people complain it's too high, since it's apparently very handholdy, but I've also seen people say it's being rated too low.

@ShadLink You are complaining that different critics vary in their review. Surprise surprise: different people have different perspectives on the same game. Also, it's not even true that Nintendo Life has been extra harsh on Nintendo games. Many games have received 9/10's (Splatoon Raiders, Star Fox, Metroid Prime 4, Mario Kart World, Donkey Kong Bananza), and in the case of MP4, they went above the critic average in that score. Lower scores are often in keeping with the general critic average, with some marginal differences. The only major differences in score has been for Yoshi and the Mysterious Book, as far as I can tell, which even then was just 2 points then the average. This is a complete non-issue. As I said to Oldstalk, it's best to actually read the review rather than fixate on the numerical score. If you just don't want to read reviews, that's perfectly reasonable as well. If you want to play a game, you don't need reviewed permission to get it.

why are people acting like 8/10 ("Great") is a bad score?

I like the more earthy tone of the green in Link's outfit in the remake. Young Link's face is also a big improvement; the old one looked really strange to me. I don't really have much of a preference for most of the rest, though.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't Smash Bros something of a fairly iterative series? Sakurai's a great game director, no doubt, but I don't think he's the most groundbreaking, so I'm not sure why he's tooting his own horn like this. Maybe it's just a mistranslation, IDK.

18/21, which is better than I was expecting considering I've never played a GameCube game (unless you count Switch remakes of TTYD and Metroid Prime).

I bought Metroid Dread digitally and both Kirby's Return to Dream Land Deluxe and Pikmin 4 physically.

@bakamono99 I don't understand this mentality that there's some sort of double standard at play with people who criticize companies for using GenAI. It's super easy to not use AI... why do you find it inconceivable that critics of the technology may simply refrain from using it, as we did before it became a thing?

Hello everyone. This weekend, I'm playing:

Sea of Stars
On my journey, I've reached Mesa Island. I'm having a great time, even if the narrative is lackluster.

Mario Kart World and Kirby Air Riders
Playing some online matches. In Air Riders, I'm working on the Chef Kawasaki event.

Right now, I'm just looking forward to Ocarina of Time and, if it is still indeed coming this year, Silksong's Sea of Sorrow DLC. 2027, though, is going to be huge for me; with my 3 favorite game series (Undertale, Pokemon, Kirby) all getting major releases (Deltarune Chapter 6, Pokemon Winds/Waves, and Kirby & the World Beyond, respectively).

It's okay, Nintendo. I appreciate you up to 30%, too.

@Phelaidar If I understand correctly, games need to be updated to support Docked VRR, and right now the only one that has been updated is Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour. While we have the update now, it'll probably be a minute before we really start to see the benefits.

Now that VRR is consistent between Docked and Handheld, maybe we'll see it utilized more often. Also, music in the Mii maker could very well be Nintendo testing the waters for bringing back system music (and from there maybe even themes), which is an exciting thought.

Nice to see they're improving spectator mode...

y'know, for the WEAKLINGS

I was hoping for Ravenous to take the $50/$60 price point. There's such an abundance of high quality Indie Metroidvanias available for fairly cheap that it often feels hard to justify purchasing an actual Metroid game for full price.

In the end I thought it was a good direct.

Much like the previous Direct, I got precisely what I came for with the reveal of a new 3D Kirby in Kirby and the World Beyond. The new movement options from the copy abilities are really exciting. I feel like just a bit more info would have been nice, though.

The Mario Kart World update is nice but nothing major. Metroid Ravenous looks great but I don't really know when I'll get to it since I'm behind on Metroid games. There was a big 3rd-party focus in this show but none of it really did anything for me at all. Also, opening on an already announced 3rd-party port is a weak way to start.

Mostly because of Kirby, I am satisfied with this presentation.

I'm super hyped for a new 3D Kirby. I'll be there on Day One for sure. The open zone/world direction is really interesting, and I'm glad they're experimenting since I feel like Forgotten Land already sort of perfected the linear style.

This should add a bit more variety to the online. Nice. And good to see more knockout tour routes.

Is Zelda as scalpable as Pokemon?

HERE I COME SANFRANDISCO!!!

I thought it was a great showing. They didn't spend too long on the non-game initiatives as I was expecting, and Ocarina of Time on the Switch 2 looks phenomenal!

The concert is exciting as well. I recently saw the Undertale Determination Symphony, and I'd love to go to a Zelda Concert as well. I just hope there's a showing in my area.

The textured foil looks quite nice. As of now, I'm planning to get Ocarina around Christmas, so I hope that the physical stocks last a month.

@PersonaTexas The issue with Switch 1 games in handheld mode has been resolved. A few months ago, a system update for Switch 2 added a somewhat hidden setting called "Handheld Mode Boost" that would make Switch games appear in their docked resolution in handheld, thus fixing the pixel density issue.

@PersonaTexas Eh, I ran with my standard Switch 1 without needing an OLED, so I doubt I'll want to upgrade to an OLED Switch 2. Maybe it's a hot take to say, but I think the Switch 2's LCD screen is excellent as is.

I don't need a second system and thus don't plan to buy this, but it looks really nice.

The art style turned out way better than I was expecting. I'm definitely looking forward to it.

It honestly feels like Nintendo Life is trying to irritate people who don't want rumor and leak spoilers. If you must report on leaks, just make the headline "Leaker claims to have info on several upcoming Nintendo games" with the caption
"Call a plumber who is unaffiliated with the Mario Bros." or something. You don't gotta give away the whole article in the headline.

@Braulio_O Welcome, and sorry for your loss.

Hello everyone. This weekend I'm playing:

Sea of Stars
Last I played, I saved The Vespertine from the Sea of Nightmare. I'm still enjoying this a lot.

Mario Kart World and Kirby Air Riders
I'll likely play a few online matches, as per usual.

I hope this weekend goes by fairly quickly so I can get to those double Directs, but in any case,
Have a great weekend everyone!

I'll put my actual predictions in the Next Nintendo Direct forum, but as for my hopes:

• New 3D Kirby; it will be 5 years since Forgotten Land released come Spring next year. This is my biggest hope.
• Metroid Ravenous is revealed and is $50/$60.
• A big update or DLC for Mario Kart World
• Hollow Knight Silksong: Sea of Sorrow gets a release date.
• New 3D Zelda isn't revealed, but I sort of think it will.
• Ocarina of Time looks great and isn't $70/$80
• Though I highly doubt it, a trailer for Pokemon Winds and Waves confirming a Summer 2027 release window.
• Sea of Thieves coming to Switch 2
• Something wholly original

Also, as a random gut feeling, I think Frederick Fazbear will appear

Awesome news! 30 minutes is a long time for Zelda, I wonder what they have to announce (maybe we'll get an early announcement of the big 3D Zelda). And then a General Direct the day later, this is great stuff! Can't wait!

Is it Resonating with critics?

If I ever end up subscribing to NSO+EX, this is one of the games I'll want to try out, since I loved Thousand Year Door. The soundtrack is just okay, though.

That being said, I do love the song title "Goodbye, Twink!".

"If it isn't fun, why bother?"

When it comes to fully completing games or playing without any sort of cheat, I mostly just do so as long as it's fun.

I've 100%ed Kirby and the Forgotten Land twice, just because it's fun to do so, but there are plenty of games that I've enjoyed that decided against completing, in some cases even when I've gotten extremely close to 100%. In Pokémon Legends: Z-A, I did everything except for the final Research Mission requirement that called for winning 1000 Pokémon battles; if I recall correctly, the entirety of that other 99.9% hadn't even gotten me to 500, so it would've been a nightmare slog to go for 100%, so I stopped then and there.

As much as possible, I like to figure out problems using nothing but my own head, and refrain from using guides or cheats, but sometimes I just can't figure it out and pull out the ol' Google Search. Now sometimes I do regret this---in Deltarune Chapter 3, I had somehow managed to convince myself that I needn't check out the S-Rank room until finishing the second board, thus leaving me unable to find the Secret Boss of the chapter. Not wanting to miss the Secret Boss, I went to Google and asked "how to find deltarune chapter 3 secret boss" and was of course given not that information, but a major story spoiler ("Knight to C3"), at which point I finally realized I should go back and check the S-Rank earlier. I don't always regret looking things up, though. I had a blast playing Silksong earlier this year, and adored exploring the many corners of Pharloom, but later on in the game, I started to feel that Pharloom had perhaps gotten too vast for its own good. I knew that somewhere, there was a single tile of breakable wall hiding what I needed to progress through the story. Not wanting to feebly attempt to cut through every vertical surface in an entire kingdom, I gave in and used guides to find what I needed. In the end, I was able to finish Act 3 with 100% completion, and in this case, I don't think using guides really detracted from the experience overall.

@AussieMcBucket Emphasis on "little" while. I'm just saying a week or two really. But it'll end with Mario Golf in like 2 days, mark my words.

"The Ancient Ship of Doom"

Ah, like Mario x Bowser

@Nep-Nep-Freak *For the second time

It would be awesome if this is the start of getting a new Switch 2 patch every day for a little while, but knowing Nintendo, they'll stop for 2 days, do Mario Golf, and have that be the last one.

Nothing for me in this selection, but I still have plenty of games both in my wishlist and backlog to keep me busy.

Good that they're still putting out free updates (still hoping for Legends: Arceus). I wonder if this one is a precursor to a Switch 2 Edition for Pikmin 4. It is September Direct season, so it wouldn't be surprising if we got one revealed soon.

I got 11/12. The only one I missed was the Pokopia event question. I was split between Zorua and Jirachi, so I was pretty surprised to find that it was neither. Oh well, at least I'm in first on the leaderboard for now.

Love these monthly quizzes!

I quite like the Z Megas. I'd say they're all substantial upgrades over their normal Mega variants. Mega Lucario Z also has an incredible shiny; I love the look of the turquoise fur.

Hello everyone. This weekend, I'm playing:

Sea of Stars
I just started this yesterday. I'm on the second major island now. The pixel art is impeccable and the combat so far has been engaging.

Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream
I've been playing a bit lately. Probably going to add some more Deltarune Miis.

Mario Kart World and Kirby Air Riders
I'll probably play a few online matches.

Happy gaming, everyone!

"Rotom... why do you know the move 'Pay Day'?"

It's nice that they're throwing in a few months of Online. They'll definitely sweeten the deal when it comes to these two games.

Well, they have to have a Dubious Drink. Get some Red Wine, Vodka, and Beer, then throw in various animal parts to add the delicious kick of tapeworms.