Vil

Bubsy 3D (with the revised controls and infinite lives cheat).

Yes, I'm dead serious. Yes, it's still terrible. No, I don't care and honestly find it quite endearing. It's got a delightfully Looney Tunes and 50's pulp sci- fi atmosphere, which I absolutely adore, and despite remaining hilariously broken and obviously being a very bad video game overall, the entire thing just has so much weird, wacky charm and personality about it that I still can't help but put it in my very own 'so bad it's good' category.

I especially loved watching my little sister try it out and immediately descend into marvellous rage and despair at its uniquely quirky awfulness. Despite everything above, however, that infinite lives cheat and those revised controls are definitely required to get any real enjoyment out of it whatsoever. Otherwise, all of its infamy and ridicule is well and truly warranted, as the horrid vanilla experience remains pretty much irredeemable.

That Galaxy bundle price, let alone what they're asking for each individually, is absolute highway robbery and felt frankly revolting to me the moment I saw it all pop up on the eShop. These are two decade old Wii games with bare minimum enhancements and some extra lines in a storybook that you're genuinely asking brand new AAA big budget money for again, Nintendo. You've finally achieved such supervillain greed right here that even myself, the biggest Mario fan there is, having bought nearly everything with his face on it you've ever put out, actually may skip a release for once. I was already on the fence, though ...but no way am I ever getting it now.

Out of all the absurd things I had on my Bingo card, a Pokémon farming sim certainly wasn't one of them.

What an absolutely banger shadow drop.

Edit: Turns out the price for it was also quite a banger ...in the opposite way.

I want the Kirby ones for sure. Those are adorable.

Edit: Never mind. The two of them together cost more than the actual game itself.

Ironically the biggest reaction I've ever had to any announcement ever lol

Absolutely hilarious! I've probably never laughed out so loudly before and can't wait to see the reactions to it all over the internet later ...

Favourite new announcement in the Direct for me. If I couldn't have a new 3D Mario teased, at least I got this adorable little dinosaur tumbling through another gorgeous platforming art piece. Already looks so much better than Crafted World, so I'm definitely interested.

By all means. Pretty sure we'll experience the heat death of the universe before Nintendo finishes uploading their current GameCube schedule, let alone N64 or any other obvious classics they just sit on and stretch out for half a literal decade longer. God forbid we get more than one or two of these ancient ROM and ISO files per month, right?

Pardon my saltiness, I guess ...but the salt is very much flowing when it comes to NSO nowadays.

Game looks amazing and Sakurai was a delight as always.

What got the biggest reaction out of me though, whether it was intentional or not, was his savage roast of Mario Kart World's racer count when he talked about the 6 racer limit. Absolutely loved it and I'm sure it'll be all over the internet pretty soon.

Ugh ...This game. Haven't played it since launch. I also have zero interest in returning, nor anyone else I know pretty much, who all seem to just tiredly sigh at the mere sight of its home screen icon just as deeply as me, unless some truly enormous changes are made ...and the fact that I could ever start finding a Mario Kart game boring and tedious still remains my biggest shock after trying so hard to get into it like I've so easily achieved with every other entry. It just remains so weirdly designed, directionless and messy at points to me that I've almost forgotten all about it already and this little 'event' thing sure won't revive that enthusiasm anytime soon.

Of course, this is all just my own opinion, but it's also largely shared by most others I've played with as well. I mostly just find it boring, far too chaotic and way too luck based, like a sort of oversized Mario Party Kart where you're forced to drive back to the board after every minigame or ...something. Still, if you like it, I couldn't be happier for you. We all need to find something fun to do and enjoy the little things in life as we suffer through these awful modern times together. My fun is just found elsewhere in this case, mostly in the older games.

Still playing Bananza. Reached end credits yesterday and my goodness …What a masterpiece. Thank heavens I wasn’t spoiled as that might've just been the single greatest finale to any video game I’ve ever played. I’ve never reacted quite like that to anything else I can remember. If you know, you know.

I’ve also not enjoyed just playing a game this much in years. Like Astro Bot, it reminded me why games are important and why I still love them to this day …and Bananza just takes it to a whole new level. The absolute joy, creativity, talent and energy of the people behind this just know how to make art, still, after all these years. It makes me so happy and relieved after my disappointment with Mario Kart World. Nintendo is still Nintendo with this one, thankfully. What also struck me about it is the amazing depth to the story, lore and characters. You’d think that shouldn’t be too important in a platformer, but it adds so much to the experience, learning about their world and how every single element actually has a purpose and explanation behind it, making all the hints and incredible plot twists that much more effective. I also just absolutely loved the concept of diving further and further, layer by layer, to reach the very core of a planet. Made everything feel truly epic way beyond Odyssey, almost rivalling Galaxy 1 in its sheer adventurous scale and scope.

Well, this turned into quite the essay ...but to wrap it all up, I definitely can’t wait for what the next 3D Mario will bring after this quite literally groundbreaking achievement by EPD Tokyo, as all the new and vastly improved features in here, alongside the excellent game engine and destructible voxel tech they've created, could truly make for some revolutionary stuff.

I believe it easily deserves a 10/10, one of but a handful of games I’d ever give that score to, because it's as close to perfect as any game can possible get for me, and has been one of the very best, most magical experiences I’ve had with one since at least Mario Wonder. The only real flaws worth noting were the obvious frame rate problems when tons of stuff is happening on screen, alongside some fiddly controls here and there. Beyond that, getting stuck and in turn overly frustrated and annoyed at the occasional difficulty spike is always a given as well, but like any game that is actually polished and designed well, I can’t blame anyone but myself for such moments the vast majority of the time here, even with the odd severe stutter.

It's still a very easy game overall, but it's also very easy to make brutally difficult for yourself through either a stubborn refusal to follow the intended path, or when you inevitably brute force through your own, far more complicated and rage fuelled solutions to very simple problems because of either pride, overthinking or just plain stupidity. I fully believe these are all signs of a truly great game though, where you're totally free and even encouraged to completely break it apart. It might just be the purest possible definition of a video game overall, taking the form of a huge, wonderful sandbox made of concentrated nostalgia, polish and joy, literally made to be dug through and absolutely brimming with treasures to find. It will definitely remain one of the greatest games I've ever played from now on.

I will indeed be playing more of the monkey game.

Never really found Odyssey that captivating (pun entirely intended) as I had quite a few problems with it by the end ...but Bananza has pretty much fixed all of them for me. It's just the purest form of fun to play, which I feel we all need in these miserable times we're going through right now.

For real, though ...It feels like almost every single thing I've experienced so far has just been an absolute joy to blast through (again, pun intended I suppose), and I wasn't even that interested in it at first. Sure washed away the disappointment I've felt with Mario Kart World at least ...Haven't even touched that one for over a month now. Can't wait for what the lovely folks at EPD Tokyo is cooking up for the next 3D Mario, as if it's anything like this ...we're in for a treat.

Still no Mouse Work ...so nothing again for me this week.

I've tried out Vibrant Visuals on PS5 and I just have to say ...Wow. It's been 84 years. Finally, Minecraft is starting to look as good as it plays and arguably deserves with how much money it makes. After having waited almost a decade for Mojang to finally get their act together and deliver on their Super Duper Graphics promise, I was impatient to say the least ...but it definitely delivered. Completely transforms the game alongside the atmospheric stuff in the rest of the drop and finally brings Minecraft into the modern era visually. Impossible for me to go back to the old fancy preset after this.

Meanwhile, the Switch version already ran worse than Starwing on the SNES even with the bare minimum amount of graphics turned on, so I've never played much of it ...but a proper Switch 2 upgrade might be worth a second look, especially if it comes with this stunning modernisation.

No more than an 8 from me unfortunately, and even that's mainly thanks to its truly spectacular soundtrack that might just be the best I've ever heard in any video game ever. Without it, I couldn't give it more than a 7 without lying to myself. It's still stunning to look at and fun enough to play, but has too many flaws to count. At first I was of course blinded by hype and excitement and had a blast for the first day or two, but after playing it extensively for an entire week now, I just gotta be honest with how increasingly disappointed and frustrated I've felt about so many aspects of it, both big and small. They've really added up over time, unfortunately. And I've played through every single game in the franchise (except Tour I guess), loving them all in their own unique ways. Super, 64 and Double Dash are still three of my favourite games of all time.

It's hard to describe, but this one also just feels strangely hollow and empty compared to all the rest. Like, it's missing some kind of heart or soul or quirky charm I always immediately felt, and still feel, playing all the other games. Maybe that's just nostalgia talking ...but I just didn't like it nearly as much as I hoped I would. I really wanted to, I still do, but I don't. Only my own opinion, though ...I'm also getting older and more cynical with these things lol

I've got 3 main thoughts after the first day (or evening) with it.

1. Might be the single greatest soundtrack I've ever heard in anything ever. I probably spent almost a quarter of my entire play time so far just listening in absolute awe instead of actually playing the thing.

2. While not a huge step up from 8 graphically in my opinion aside from some very tasty HDR ...this game's absolutely stunning take on Rainbow Road still managed to deliver perhaps the single most jaw- dropping visual experience I've had since the launch of Uncharted 4 way back in early 2016.

3. Controls are mostly excellent, but I still struggle with the grinding and wall riding. It's just so different and so unlike any other Mario Kart game ...or racing game for that matter. Not worse, just ...different.

Welcoming us all soon ...for a nominal fee.

I'm sorry, but you really shouldn't be allowed to patent such trivial things.

That suspiciously sleek Bowser render still looks like it's been taken straight out of a new 3D Mario's promotional art ...I remain confident we'll get some kind of announcement or tease in September.

Nintendo just keeps being like

Nintendo's just been in the midst of a rather intense, coincidentally price- related controversy, when Sony decided to kick the door in on everyone and scream "Watch this!"

Hilariously sad how the ol' PS5 Standard Edition I bought way back in 2021 has actually appreciated in value over the years like it's real estate or something lol

Then again, the world is currently getting engulfed in a chaos almost rivalling 1929 at this point, so I guess it makes sense ...maybe ...Still, I've never seen this happen with consoles before (or much of anything else for that matter), where prices just keep going up and up, at least this fast, instead of down ...or heck, even remaining the same.

Sure ...As long as you're not living in Norway like me, getting scalped by Bergsala AB.

Don't even need to be scalped by resellers up here when the distribution company itself does it. At least we're slightly better off than our meatball- loving neighbour (coincidentally where their main office is), but it doesn't excuse the fact everyone around here now wishes more than ever for Nintendo Europe to finally save us from our ever more shady- a**, greedy- a** local distributor, acting like we're in Brazil or something. Says a lot that you can still easily pre- order from most places around where I live because it's just way too expensive for ordinary people.

It's not just the console either. Everything Switch 2 related over here has almost a double markup. "Oh, you want Mario Kart? That'll be well over a thousand of your NOK, more or less twice the price of all the latest first party Switch games up until now. You want that new USB-C camera too, right? That'll be 900 NOK, so almost a thousand as well, for a glorified webcam. How about the new Pro Controller? The last one was and still hovers around 700 NOK, a reasonable exchange rate ...but how about we just make the new one over 1200 this time. Why? Because f*** you."

...Sorry about that. Just had to vent a bit. I'm very excited and would probably still buy it no matter how outrageous the upcharge, but I obviously had to go for the bundle like most people I know because no way in hell are we paying over a grand for a single standard edition video game. Still, Nintendo is one of the few things keeping me sane nowadays, so I just gotta have it. I did briefly consider getting it from Germany or something instead, but our import taxes and customs are no joke, so I'd probably not save enough on doing that anyway.

I'm sorry, but despite all of this, I just gotta pick the N64. While it may only have launched with one game pretty much, the sheer impact Super Mario 64 had back in the day will never be matched ever again. You can't possibly understate just how influential and revolutionary that one game was when it first came out. I may not have been around back then, but I know plenty who were that keep on gushing about it to this day whenever I've brought it up. It was clearly mindblowing at the time.

So it will really feel like you're being recorded through the mouth of a Piranha Plant.

Looks excellent. Reminds me of the Double Dash title screen.

I've died and gone to heaven.

The microphone means Mario Party 6 and 7 are possible as well. Absolute paradise.

Here we go again ...

They've already burnt me way too many times on this stuff. The whole Super Duper Graphics mess is an utter disgrace still fresh in my memory. I won't trust anything to do with this until it's actually out, fully featured and a permanent part of the game from now on. Only after that finally happens, and it all works well enough, I'll happily retract my doubts.

My uncle works at Nintendo and he said it'll be free ...if you just sign the terms and conditions that may or may not include forced participation in corporate blood rituals, selling your soul to some kind of ancient pagan god ...and an obligatory donation of any remaining gold points to fund Reggie's upcoming TED Talk.

WHAT?! WHY?! That is total garbage!

I guess it's not too surprising, though ...when every other loyalty program, service or subscription is also sneakily getting worse while steadily getting more and more expensive. Capitalism FTW.

Just want to say ...maybe not the best idea leaving comments open on this one.

If there's one survival tip the nightmarish hellscape that is the modern internet has taught me, it's to avoid bringing up things even the slightest bit related to another thing coloured orange ...as it almost always ends up with everything just getting soaked in red.

Please bring back Banjo-Kazooie already ...It's absolutely ridiculous and borderline criminal we haven't even seen a remaster of it yet. Even Yooka-Laylee, its spiritual successor, is getting a remake before it ...which is just total madness if you ask me.

Nothing against a new Virtual Console, but with all these articles I honestly start to feel like Hideki Kamiya talks too much.

Making good, complete, polished games people actually want to support, buy and play makes you ...money? And chasing NFT's, short term gains, live service slop and mobile shovelware ...doesn't make for a long term sustainable business? No way ...

@NintndoNik Yes please! I'd buy a 3DS or GBA- sized Switch in a heartbeat! One of the major factors of me just playing docked is its size honestly ...They'd better fix the drift first though.

It'll beat the PS2 easily. In fact, it better pass it just to stick it to Sony (but mostly Jim Ryan) who are being petty AF rounding up to 160 like that, stretching the number as vaguely high as they can get away with decades after the fact. Wouldn't be surprised if they say something like 'almost 170 million' soon.

It's a wonderful game so doesn't surprise me. Even if it's just an HD port of a Wii game, I'd also rather buy something that's just fun, polished and complete at launch instead of all this unfinished live service microtransaction crap spreading like the plague out there, so good on them. Feels like Nintendo is the only one upholding that standard anymore though, aside from indies. At least I still trust Nintendo enough to buy their games at launch, unlike every other 'AAA' publisher pretty much. Helps that they also retain their value like gold lol

Should lay off all those corporate executives and greedy shareholders instead lol

I will support physical media until the bitter end. Even if it's eventually just relegated to boutique items in this late stage capitalism hellscape we all live in, I will keep supporting whatever I can until my very last breath.

Astro Bot is a delight. Finally got some use out of my PS5 after almost a year of collecting dust. It'll collect dust again now until at least Indiana Jones and GTA VI, though ...or the next Blu- ray movie night. Base launch model with disc drive is definitely worth it for both that very occasional cutting edge title coming along I want to try, and for its great Blu- ray player ...while Switch (and Switch 2 later) remains my main game playing device.

Honestly, I'm just so tired of the toxic tech race outside Nintendo and all these marginal overpriced upgrades. All games I've played recently look more than good enough for my already years- old base PS5 to serve as the 'graphics machine' for another half a decade at least ...and after it kicks the bucket, I'll probably just ditch Sony for Nintendo only, as graphics have pretty much peaked and levelled out if all this recent forced AI fakery and minuscule improvements from Nvidia is any indication.

Maybe I'm just getting older, but me actually starting to think games are more than good enough on base hardware, soon only needing a good old, low powered Nintendo ...feels pretty good, honestly.

It'll be out in June. Not a hint of a doubt about that. It's a clear and confident statement of fact without hesitation from me ...that June is the time ...when it will be out. The Switch 2, that is ...will be out ...in ...June.

...

I hereby declare the minimum Nintendo Life word count has been reached ...with all the style and grace of a broke science fantasy novelist.

I'm betting on that 400 mark. Still, price for hardware in Norway has gotten insane because of the combination of a high sales tax and our currency now being firmly stuck in the dumps, so even at a nice, round €400 it'll be more like €650 where I live. Base PS5 rose to around €700 equivalent and has stayed there, while the already hilariously overpriced Pro paperweight goes for well above €1000. But what can you do as a non- Euro zone pleb. As long as it's at least cheaper than what I paid for my PS5 a few years ago when it was still somewhat reasonable ...and Mario is there ...I'll show up.

I'm a longtime fan and Ys series veteran, but more of an old school one. New games haven't clicked for me after 8 (Celceta was still a good remake though). For the classics I've actually played extensively ...I & II are just magical, all time classics. III is just OK to me. Both versions of IV are decent enough ...and V, while requiring a fanmade translation for most, is a true hidden gem in the Super Famicom library that deserves way more love and attention. Ys VI (original version), Origin and Seven are all peak though and absolute banger masterpieces. No question my favourites in the series and just plain fun, wonderful games in general. Love them dearly. Shame only Origin is on Switch ...Give me all of 'em, Falcom!

I personally think the reason it looks a bit underwhelming is because it might be pushing a truly massive open world behind the scenes with all the tracks integrated into it, not unlike Forza Horizon, where you can play online whether you are free roaming or racing, take part in quests or missions, upgrade your load outs all while keeping separate cup and versus modes for pick up and play stuff. They're just hiding all that, obviously, but I can definitely see plenty of signs of it in even the tiny glimpses we got. Pushing such a potentially huge, seamless open world with all the typical potential variety would explain the relatively minor graphical leap yet still showcase the Switch 2's huge leap in power.

I also highly doubt it'll be called 9 as I've definitely heard Nintendo considers Tour the ninth entry no matter how little I care about that game. Mario Kart X, or 10, or simply 'Super Mario Kart ...something' is a way safer bet from me personally.

Geez, finally ...with new Mario Kart as well as predicted! Only took a decade for both lol
Time to watch this 100 times and then get spammed with analysis, reaction and commentary videos all over my YouTube feed for the next few months.

Everyone but Nintendo will showcase the thing at this point lol

340 hours total, with TTYD number 1. No big surprises here, but I love the feature.

Astro Bot is my 2024 winner without question. Fabulous experience from beginning to end.

Beyond Good and Evil ...2?