Whirlwound

@Gohanjin Being done back in 2007 on a now-long-dead PC - never mind that I'm like 97.5% Mac-based these days - unfortunately the source files are long gone. Dunno why, but every time I've worked on a music video, Premiere has killed the OS of the PC it was done on...

I wasn't that keen on the World Cup arc of the manga. They could have done more with it - I think they were starting to run out of ideas (Militaria? And wasn't this a YOUTH World Cup - with Agon, Gaou and the worryingly-foreshadowing Mr Don?) - could have gone through to the Christmas Bowl in the animu though.

There was a Dan Marino reference in the Nagas game though, so far as I'm concerned the rest of it is golden.

@Gohanjin I made this video based on it back in ‘07, attending AmeCon before running it proceeded to inhale my spare time. Won an award too.

youtu • be / mEy2MPFYFQI

@Gohanjin Ya—Ha—!! An ES21 game I would be all over. I was kinda hoping a series about Sena’s college years might have come from that 21st anniversary animation last year, but I guess Murata is still busy with One Punch Man…

@Supadav03 There's a physical version for the NS2?

Well I would, but I don’t have the space, do I.

If only it was actually on the cart, eh... 🤷🏻‍♂️

Oh - and no higher-end versions like other formats either. Kinda says sawn the hell off to me.

I came away from this with two things.

• I get to slot my RPG group's cats into Little Kitty Big City at some indiscriminate point in the future. Still just an OG title though.
• Pure Pool Pro isn't coming to either Switch because (a) there's no way the OG can handle 4K, never mind 8K - and (b) Nintendo, still being stingy with NS2 devkits, haven't sent VooFoo one.

Very little here for me - even the retro-looking stuff didn't scratch much of an itch. But if Nintendo keeps being that tight with the gear necessary to turn stuff out for the NS2, the next Indie World is gonna wind up ten minutes long.

4/10 - to quote a recent teardown of the NS2 Pro Controller, ‘piss-poor’. And I'm being kind.

Oh, and for the record - STILL getting a ton of eSlop and so-called 'hentAI' sh1te turning up in the eShop. Plus ça change...

Mods, hmm? Are we going to see those on the Switch as well?

My eyebrow remains steadfastly elevated until this not being the usual sawn-off afterthought on a Nintendo unit is proven. Just had a reply about another game I was hoping to see not coming over (blaming not receiving a devkit), so my inner cynic holds a firm grip on dominion right now.

Starting to feel like the GameCube and Dreamcast all over again…

That’ll be our Dark Heresy cat posse getting done then. Ellie the grey-white so-far-beyond-done-with-your-s**t floof, Loki the tuxedo void, Odin and his orange energy, Misha the Persian & Rexy the Maine Coon House Lion let loose on the town…

@Unit_DTH Or even better… how about Digital Eclipse’s next big anthology being Hewson/Graftgold. From Gribbly, through Nebulus and Netherworld, right through to Morpheus.

Hewson Consultants have been a huge mainstay of legacy C64 content - Uridium, Zynaps, Cybernoid, Rana Rama, Alleykat - on Blaze/Monster plug’n’play units, RGL’s THEC64 boxes, the Virtual Console. Their repertoire is rich for the plundering.

A 0% Game Key Card ratio.

Hey, let an old fart dream…

But outside of that:

• Blue Prince
• Pure Pool Pro
• Dispatch (Critter checking in)
• Hades II

If a purchase does not confer ownership, then piracy is not theft.

If Mario's getting something for his 40th, Samus better be getting something for hers next year... •cough•echoesandcorruptionremastered•cough•

Fun Fact: One game on this list has both a ZZAP!64 Gold Medal and a Sizzler to its name.

The C64 version of Bombuzal scored 97% back in late 1988. The Amiga version was covered a month later, but only scored 92%.

Plus ça change... 🙄💨

It would have to be a generational, once in multiple lifetimes, quadruple-A, 11/10 (Spinal Tap: The Game?), play-this-yesterday-if-not-before title to get me to even consider going for a Game Key Card.

EA monkey-pawed Madden by making it a GKC when they didn't have to. Ergo, my 4½ decade plus NFL/WLAF/NFL-E/NCAA/AFL/XFL/UFL/UFL*/ELF-following ass is going nowhere near.

• Yes, there's been two distinct UFL entities. The second is a merger of XFL v3 and USFL v2.

They want feedback? How about DITCH THE NFTs?

62 gigs. So they could get it on a true physical card.

They could.

They just don’t wanna.

@AlexOlney Just done a bit of research on this earlier today when the Sixth preorder went live, regarding…

• total cost to the UK
• payment methods
• how caffeinated you’re going to have to be when the starting gun fires

UK Cost: $175 for of the leather Magnetics, including shipping and import charges, comes to around £137 right now. I did throw in for a $3 karabiner in this as well, however, so along with the GBP-USD rates being what they are, allow for numbers to fluctuate a little, and you’ll wind up there or thereabouts.

Payment Methods: cards, obviously, but there’s also ShopPay and PayPal - so Pay-In-3 and PayPal Credit are totally options. Most of us are still in cooldown within 2 months of scoring our New Shiny, so this will certainly help Take the Edge Off.

Caffeine Level: oh boy. Oh boy. Make not a bone about it, you are gonna need to be buzzed to the absolute eyeballs right here. Both the City Slicker and Magnetic cases were fully gone, in all colours, inside of five minutes. The City Slickers probably went inside four minutes.

I mean, I’ve seen things run out fast. I’ve witnessed places at anime cons get snapped up at a rate of knots; the big UK ones like Minami, Aya, Ame, Kita et al, and the CR show at the O2 next October was almost fully booked when I got in, but this, sir, this takes the utter mickey. I was freshly Costa’d up, and I was about to go for it, but decided to hold off until my Kanda hotel is paid, so I refreshed and - yep, they were picked clean. You’d think I’d be ready for it after the shenanigans Amazon was pulling with the NS2 - nope. Not even close.

As such, I recommend enough coffee to equate to the power output of a quantum leap accelerator (hologram observer optional). You are gonna need to be sharp, clear-eyed and comedically alert to land one of these. Seriously, do not mess about, second-guess or hum’n’ha about it. If you aren’t sure, don’t. If you’re in, go for it. F o c u s . Be certain of which type and colour you want. Not a slip, not a fumble, nary e’en a typo if you can help it. Autocomplete your details if you can. Take no prisoners - because it doesn’t look like anyone else is taking any either.

And if you’re still down after all of that - the next preorder starts Tuesday 12 August, probably at 8am Pacific / 4pm BST again. I get paid a week tomorrow, so you heckers better have a high initiative roll. (Not the time to see some nice new Chessex Lab Dice sets either. Ach, mein schmerzlich Wallet…)

Mr Alex, sir, if you’d be so good as to put the word out…

Totally playing to the meme crowd with the number of characters.

(I mean, I’m down with it anyway, but still, know your audience…)

And at least we know it won’t be a Game Key Card, since it’s going to be on the OG.

New song (or at least a remix/update) from Laura?

Blue Prince has been the most intriguing game I’ve seen since Balatro. Need it on the S2.

Anyone got the over-under on the percentage of stuff that’ll be Game Key Cards instead of true physicals?

Huh. Got overtaken in the charts, so it engaged its Dynamic Difficulty and shortcut its way back in front.

Who knew.

Well hey now, you can choose to “believe” that all you want.

Same way that I choose to “believe” my money is better served going elsewhere.

Paging Bill Engvall... gonna need a Sign or two (hundred) here, man.

Well I would, buuuuuuuuuut I don't have enough space left for a game of that Game Key Card/half-frame-rate magnitude, do I... [le shrug]

Welcome to the new Switch, same as the old Switch.

Afterthoughts, sawn-off subpar versions, cancellations once everyone else has theirs, or never even involved in the first place.

Nothing ever changes.

Eventually. Probably. I’m still a bit honked off with the amount of downloads.

Not two months deep with it and its 256GB internal storage is already down to just 32GB left! All I’ve really done is get the free upgrades and shift over the virtual game cards that have them! Haven’t picked up any Game Key Cards on principle, and don’t have a μSD-EX card yet either. Maybe once I’m back next January.

They totally knew what they were doing there. Like the word 'koinu' isn't a thing...

FTR the feline equivalent is nyanko/koneko — though the former can also be a minefield if your m- and n- hiragana are a tad rusty... o-manko ja nai yo 😨

Let's see who gets it to GDQ first...

On the cartridge, or is it going to nom ever more storage 🎮🔑🎴❓

@Filthy Yeah, it didn’t go up for years then made up for a lot of lost time.

Looking at the stuff we’re doing in the middle week, it should work out; the second half is a bit fluid depending on when/if we can get tickets for Ghibli Park and the Nintendo Museum.

Not this time. Not just The Trip™ - Kanda hotel is ⅔ paid for, but there's others in Osaka & Nara to cover yet, plus a JR rail pass and eSim - but that Waterfield magnetic case is also giving me the eye, and Critical Role have announced they are doing two live shows here next year: The O₂ and Edinburgh Castle. They won't be cheap, no sir.

Hey look. Nintendo: Not Just For Kids.

Who the hell knew, eh.

Anyone going for this, the next preorder opens up 31 July at 8am PST (4pm BST). I'll head in to work early that day, so I can sort it out over something at the old Caffeine Mermaid there. Given this looks a bit more streamlined than the Goji case I picked up as a stopgap (£10 at Currys, down from £15), it should go in my Alpaka sidebag (which takes the Goji and an iPad Mini at a push), and will definitely fit in the MagGo I kicked for last month.

Hoping PayPal is an option - Pay-In-3 is doing a lot of heavy lifting right now...

@Filthy They do that too, along with a lot of other stuff.

Missed the fifth preorder, I was on a bus at the time and ran into a signal blackspot, but I’m going to have a bash at the next one.

@Tibob Nope, that was Mighty Mouse. Danger Mouse lives under a pillar box in front of 221B Baker St (yes, that one).

Wonder who’s on the other voices these days, given Terry Scott and Willie Rushton are long gone… [imdb] …damn, there was some names in there… Fry as Colonel K, fair, probably going full Melchett (M’BAAAAAH!)… oh, and Jimmy Hibbert is still involved as well, that’s cool.

No slight against Alexander Armstrong, but they probably couldn’t afford Sir David Jason. And it would at least allow for knowing winks to have Richard Osman on board.

Rock on! I can put one of those on my next paycheck! No damage to the payments for my hotels!

Well if Seth Rogen is involved, I’m expecting at least a reference to Almost Unreal from the 1993 movie. I know he’s a Roxette fan - he’s snuck in references in his other movies - so hopefully he’ll be on the blower to Per Gessle to borrow something like Big Black Cadillac or Crush On You…

I'm three Golds deep on Mario Kart World's 150cc class, but the shenanigans are happening again - and wouldn't ya know it, it's &£$%ing LAKITU again!!

Shouldn't be surprised, though, should I. After all, think about it: who's always been at EVERY SINGLE FREAKING TRACK? At the start? At the finish? And always Johnny-on-the-Spot when you fall off or point backwards? Clearly he's abusing his intimate insider knowledge of the ENTIRE DAMN S E R I E S to cheat us right on the last turn...

Going nowhere near it. Not for that bloody much. I did consider the GameCube controller until I saw the cost. Just got my third 8BitDo SN30 Pro for £35 - they’ll get used on the NS2; also got two N30s that’ll go with the OG (no firmware update that lets them hook up to the new one).

Also got a 8BD Pro 2, Ultimate and a PDP Afterglow should I want to use that form factor.

I hope the same goes for using the eShop while on a VPN. Hasn’t happened for a while, but I’ve had multiple 30-day bans for that on my OG.

I’ve listed my ideas before, so taking Follow The Leader and There & Back Again as read…

• Magical Mystery Tour* - Start at a random course. The race holds to set courses to start with, but when you get to the 4th checkpoint, the map opens up and it’s an any route necessary sprint to the finish line which is marked directionally on the radar, within a 2-checkpoint radius of where #4 is (but not doubling back on the route taken so far).
• Kartball - 2-4 teams. One kart holds a ‘ball’ which causes it to glow. Race as a normal KO Tour, but nobody gets knocked out; whoever hits the racer in possession (with a weapon, not normal trading paint - KO Tour is something of a bullet-bill-hell as it is, so might as well make use of it) takes the ball. Players can ‘pass’ the ball to a nearby teammate by pulling a charged jump stunt in their direction.
  A ‘goal’ is scored each checkpoint by whoever has the ball. Should two teams be tied after six checkpoints, the map opens up and an Overtime Scramble takes place; the game picks at random - P-Switch, Peach Medallion, ?-Block, ?-Tile or a meal from Yoshi’s. First team to take one wins.
• Dip Your Kart (or Mario Auto Salon for those who get it) - I can’t be the only one here who loves the DipYourCar videos on YouTube. (And I don’t even drive.) We’re playing this game in up to 4K60. Let us respray our karts and just coo at how pretty (or, y’know, not) we can get’em.
• Swap item order when you have two, kinda Double Dash style - just once per lap/stage
• Custom lap counts (2-lap sprints to 10-lap marathons)
• Different track features depending on time of day (in-world or nah) and direction. Who says they have to feel the same each way? Getting a coach down to London feels way different to one back to Sunderland…

** Yes, I know I’m making some pop culture references. I’m trying to think of one for Joyride…

@CapnCrunch East Durham checking in - and I mean the original, not North Carolina. I do root for Duke though, the Magic’s done alright off them over the years with the likes of Grant and JJ.

Need to know if it’s a full physical release or just a Game Key Card. Previous releases nommed entire continents of my OG’s μSD card. I was hoping for Paolo Banchero on the cover, this not being Madden and all that, but I guess we’re not getting a 7th-seed knockout up in lights, are we. Orlando just hasn’t been cool enough since Dwight left. Plus, OKC did win the title [cough]fsckthePacers[cough] and SGA got MVP.

Hoping the new look and team upgrades - Desmond Bane, Moe Wagner coming back, the draft picks Richardson & Penda - will have a positive effect on that; Cole Anthony will be a miss, and we coughed up a lot of future picks to snag Bane, so we better not have overreached to win now.

@OorWullie I think the closest you’re gonna get these days is NBA2K Playgrounds 2. The first one’s been deleted now, but the sequel still pops up in offers sub-£10 on occasion. Still nice and arcadey, with a slightly more ‘real’ feel to it. I’d like a modern NBA Jam (or even that mahoosive NBA Superstars coin-op) to head console-wards too, but the licensing would probably be a nightmare.

@milonorth Possibly, if they’ve scrubbed the piece about those , erm, “games” that kicked off the whole asset flip-off argument.

If not, there’s a 1/10 out there somewhere (and I assume it’s only politeness that prevented such bilge getting a Zero).

Trying to be good - the Tokyo hotel is only ⅓ paid for, and I still have to look at one in Osaka yet. And that’s before locking down a JR Rail Pass and tickets for everything we want to do…! 💸💸💸💧

Romancelvania. Given up on it ever materialising on either Switch - looks like the devs have near as dammit ghosted [arf] all comms, including Steam and Dicksword. Still bugged to balls, but it seems this is as close as I'm gonna get to it - unless 2124 is an ETA as well as the publisher...

I’m working through the GPs, with a splash of KO Tours and Free Roam here and there. Just 3-starred Special 100cc earlier this week to complete that tier, including no small amount of shenanigans on the home straight (gods bollock it Lakitu) - spent a bit time farting about on missions after that.

@HammerGalladeBro …which is in this article pourquoi, précisément…

There’s a lot of folk going to read that wrong, y’know.