Xenobound94

Three Houses is one of the most defining RPG titles on Switch IMO. That said, Engage was a nice step back toward Fire Emblem's traditional roots that also had nice callbacks to previous games in the series. I enjoy both, though I give Three Houses the edge between the two.

Would have been nice if Nintendo had this mentality during the Wii days when Microsoft and Sony established their account management systems that still remain in effect for their current consoles today. Better late than never, I guess. I hope Nintendo sticks to this for multiple console generations to come.

Overall, I thought the demo was awesome! The game feels like a natural progression of Pikmin in the year 2023 with some nice updated elements that absolutely work well for the game. I really disliked the early hand-holding, though thankfully, it let up a bit on it toward the end.... but that's around the time the demo ends. Speaking of which, the way the demo "ends" when 1,500 sparklium is collected feels needlessly frustrating; it would have made more sense to let players complete the first stage more freely. Nonetheless, these are minor gripes, and they honestly speak to how fun the game is because I couldn't stop playing it. Even if it is less than a month away, the wait for the full game's release is going to be agonizing!

Smooth Moves was my introduction to the zany world of WarioWare back in the day as one of my first Wii games around that console's launch, so I was so stoked to see Move It in the direct! I didn't even need to be told it was a sequel to know it was a follow-up of sorts for SM since it visually has much of the same visual charm that the game had. I am absolutely picking this up day 1!

Urghhh I literally just ordered a bunch My Nintendo trinkets a week ago after waiting around half a year to make the shipping worth it. Then they dropped this right after that... here I thought the Zelda Splatoon keychains were going to be the last new My Nintendo rewards for a while 🙃

Reading this made me even more hyped for the game (I have had it pre-ordered since it was first announced), but more paranoid that another world event will delay it. World, can you hold off on getting worse at least until this game comes out? Is it really that big of an ask?

So... Squenix has no 3DS eShop sales going on? Generous of them to want to milk as much FOMO money as they can get in the final days of the storefront's existence.

@DarkTron @NTDO89 I understand the Japanese VA did not change after the English dub change. Just personally to me (and just my opinion, of course), it would have been more interesting to see Ash take a step back to allow new trainers to take the lead in Gen 4 of the anime and onward.
The Pokemon IP is such a rich, diverse palette to work from, with a lot of potential for new casts in each generation. Using the same characters repeatedly, even if it pleased a certain nostalgic nerve in some fans, got very old to me. Especially since Ash never aged—honestly, I will never be able to get around that fact. There was a lot of missed potential watching Ash age over the years, watching how Pokemon as an idea evolved (no pun intended) compared to when he started his first Pokemon journey decades ago.
Perhaps there was still some character growth within his arc after I stopped watching the series, even if he did not age. But still, ugh, I see so much missed potential. Then again, that is how I would have personally arranged the series' story if I were the lead writer, for better or worse. Some people prefer how the story has unfolded, which is fine. Everyone is more than welcome to have an opinion on that matter. This is just mine.

To be honest, I checked out of the Pokemon anime after they completely overhauled their VA cast, especially after they replaced Ash's original VA, Veronica Taylor around the time the Battle Frontier/Diamond and Pearl seasons debuted. With that said, I'm honestly impressed Ash had stuck around this long in the series after that VA switch-up. No idea if this is a hot take, but I feel Ash should have taken a step back in the series a long time ago. He would have made a nice cameo character that appeared every once in a while as a mentor character guiding a new trainer protagonist each season (like a Pokemon professor?). Either way... very interesting change of events.

Between the releases of big titles like Splatoon 3 and Pokemon S/V, am I the only one who uh… forgot this game came out? Regardless, glad it’s getting patched, though I’m probably going to play the long game before I get it. I’m patient enough to wait for it to come down to $10-$20 like its predecessor. By the time I get it, maximum stability will probably be reached, so everybody wins. Especially me.

I knew Gen 5 was going to be on top of the list and poll (and rightfully so). But I was very pleased to see Gen 3 get its dues too. Perhaps I have nostalgia goggles (go goggles?) on since Emerald was the first Pokemon game I owned, but I always loved how cool it was to see two different teams rival each other with similar plans of harnessing the weather—via the means of legendary Pokemon—to achieve their goals.

It's not a deep plot, which I will concede Gen 5 does have that point going for it. But at the same time, it has a unique one that stands out, especially in comparison to the other Gens. Like a lot of people, Gen 5 has my "favorite" plot in a mainline Pokemon game. But I had to vote for Gen 3 in the poll, especially since I knew Gen 5 was going to have an overwhelming high margin of votes. Gen 3 will always have a special place in my heart for its uniqueness and charm.

Insert "7.8/10 too much water" meme here.

But if you close your eyes
Does it almost feel like nothing changed at all?

I know a lot of people are burnt out on Musou games, and to be frank, they aren't games I'm that into. However, as a huge Fire Emblem fan, I adored Fire Emblem Warriors. And as someone who's mind was blown playing Three Houses, I am so hyped for this game! I'm so happy to see they are incorporating aspects of 3H into this one such as the eating with students part. I'm really curious to see what other 3H activities may arrive in the game too.

I’m happy to see the game added—it’s an absolute classic racer on the N64 being added! But when I read the headline, mentioning the expansion pack made me think for a split second that F-Zero X on NSO was going to include the N64 DD-exclusive expansion pack for the game. Now I feel sad for expecting that much 😭

@JasmineDragon Good call, I forgot Stardew Valley- I played the heck out of that game when I got it on the eShop in the Switch early days. I also forgot Fire Emblem Warriors, a game I got along with my Switch that I played the heck out of.

With that all said. A lot of those games you mentioned didn't really click with me when I tried them (i.e. ARMS, Mario + Rabbids) or were ports of games I already played plenty of (i.e. Mario Kart 8, Skyrim, Yooka-Laylee). And a few I had/have zero interest in playing (i.e. Rocket League, Disgaea 5C).

To be clear, I'm not saying the first year's drought was that bad. I lived through the 3DS's first year and that system had one of the worst launch year droughts ever. I'm just saying though, after I played through BotW and SMO (ok- and when I had my fill of Stardew Valley and Fire Emblem Warriors), I didn't really feel compelled to play my Switch for a long period of time. I mostly played other consoles in 2018 over my Switch, namely my PS4 and even my 3DS. It wasn't until 2019 with it's amazing lineup where I felt like I could finally say my Switch was my "main" console.

Of course. This is all my opinion, so if the Switch was your main console since 2017 and you enjoyed all those games you mentioned, more power to you! Seriously, don't let me (or anyone else) stop you if loved the lineup of first two years of Switch. It's just for me, it took a while for the lineup to get consistently great for my liking

Great read, Kate! The Switch is honestly one of Nintendo's more (for a lack of a better word) "magical" consoles, thanks to all the different ways it could be played. Sadly I didn't really realize it at the time — though to be fair, I had a bit of a reason to be a little skeptical.

I was a little on the fence early on in the Switch's first year. As a Nintendo gamer since the N64/GameCube days, the Wii U was very underwhelming, despite all the potential it had. No developer knew what to do with the asymmetric gameplay possibilities — not even Nintendo. The Switch had a lot of potential, for sure, but I was so afraid Nintendo was going to squander it yet again. And plus, really the only game I wanted to play on the system was Breath of the Wild, which also had a release on Wii U. So I settled for the first several months with that version.

It wasn't until Mario Odyssey was revealed (around E3 2017) that I realized Nintendo was going to go all in with the Switch, especially since it was going to release exclusively on Switch and not Wii U. And when I saw they were going to release a shiny new red Joy Con edition of the Switch with the game, I knew what I had to do and pre-ordered my system. Come October 2017 when I had the console hybrid in my hands, I knew Nintendo finally (mostly) figured out how to make the most of their system, like in days of old.

I do want to point out I felt the Switch was somewhat baron with notable game releases outside of BotW, SMO, and Xenoblade 2 in 2017. And 2018 wasn't that much better until Smash Ultimate came out in December of that year. But imo 2019 was the year the pipeline really opened up with amazing game after amazing game. I've had my share of Joy Con issues, but outside of that, five years later, I am so happy with my Switch. Nintendo, ya did good!

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

I grew up playing Digimon World 2 and 3. I only recently played the first game a few years ago, and maaaaaan is it so different. Actually, each of the Digimon World games have completely different structures to them, but the first one is no exception. I was too scared off to get far into the game since I felt like I didn't know what I was doing (like uh... the other DW games).

With that all said, I have a lot of nostalgia (and heartache) from the DW trilogy, so I would absolutely love to see them all get a release of some kind. Even if it's a port job, the games would be such a blast to revisit on handheld mode for Switch!

Well, at least they gave us a year’s heads up. Better start saving up for my final purchases.

As if the vast majority of situations where the Switch drops is intentional... but, um ok, Nintendo.

Makes me want to see Shesez do an episode of Boundary Break on the game to see if there are any other interesting out-of-camera secrets in the game.

@Edwirichuu They exist! So no need to feel alone, fam. One day X will get more love- hopefully with a Switch port or something.

Nintendo is buying Capcom reveal

/s (...or is it? 🤔)

I'm so happy Nintendo is making the game even more accessible for more people to try out so they can experience more of the EarthBound/Mother series. It was always so odd to me that they localized a perfectly fine RPG (that was acclaimed in Japan) back in the day, just to shelve it before release in North America. I understand they were afraid they were going to lose money releasing it late into the NES's life, along with the hit-or-miss reputation of RPGs in the West at the time, but still.

At any rate, the game still holds up fairly well today. Though the grindy nature (as were most RPGs of the day) is pretty frustrating. It would have been nice if Nintendo went the extra mile this time and added an easy exp option like the fan translation of the game did, but I'm not going to complain too much since I'm stoked to see the game get more attention landing on NSO! We are one step closer to Mother 3 getting an official release in the West 😎

Man. I’m really surprised seeing all the hate Three Hopes is getting. I see a handful of people that are mildly excited for the game, but am I the only one who thought this was the best announcement in the Direct?? Man, I’m out of touch I guess because I was hyped. Hmmm…

I loved the original Fire Emblem Warriors. A lot of people forget the Switch had a pretty barren start in 2017 if you don’t count BotW and Mario Odyssey. Warriors was one of the few bright spots that year for me. I dumped over 100 hours into it, and while I haven’t “100%” it fully, I have done most of it, even most of the dlc (So much for thousands of hours). So I’ve been ready for a sequel.

While I had been hoping the sequel would be a better celebration of the series that included glaring omissions of characters from games outside FE Shadow Dragon, Awakening, and Fates (there was wayyyy too much Fates representation), having a Warriors game set in the Three Houses world is the second best thing.

And besides, as a few people already mentioned, this isn’t really going to eat into development into the next FE game since Koei Tecmo , so just chill. Supposedly it might be announced later this year, so again, it will happen sooner rather than later.

EDIT: I also want to add, before anyone pointed out my username, Yes—Xenoblade 3 was my second favorite announcement! And EarthBound (and Beginnings) being on NSO was my third favorite announcement. Man, I loved this Direct 😁

Good gravy, this distribution event is among the most useless I’ve seen yet. I caught a Hisuian Growlithe ages ago in the third area of the game.

On a positive related note though, I switched out the Ponyta/Rapidash I got from the first area of the game with my Growlithe as my Fire user in my party. He has been sooo much more useful, especially when I evolved him. I fully recommend doing this if anyone needs a better Fire type since there aren’t too many Fire types early on in the game.

Dang, are people still fixated on hating Sword/Shield? Different folks, different strokes I guess because I enjoyed my time with Shield. Is it perfect? Heck no. The story is terrible and is perhaps the most braindead easy game in the series in terms of the main adventure. And the Dexit controversy did rub me the wrong way on Gamefreak's end.

But even with those missteps, they nailed the Pokemon collection aspect of the game with the wild areas. As a Pokemon fan since gen 3, I hadn't felt compelled to complete my Pokedex in any Pokemon game since OR/AS. That along with max raid battles is easily what kept me hooked to the game for over 100 hours. With that said... I still need to go back and finish the Crown Tundra dlc because I did fall off/lost some interest after Isle of Armor. But I think I will go back eventually after I finish Pokemon Legends Arceus (which is an AMAZING game that I will wholeheartedly say is better than Sw/Sh in pretty much every single way).

Again, everyone is entitled to like what they like. If you didn't like Sw/Sh, you're not wrong necessarily. If you hated it, that's ok — I understand nothing is going to change your mind. Just remember you don't speak for everyone in the community, even if you think it is the "general consensus" that most people hate the game. Even if there are people who regretted getting the game, it is now the second best-selling game in the series. So clearly at least some people at least liked it more than you.

Makes me glad I pre-ordered my Amazon copy back in May of last year, unlike all the Johnny-Come-Latelys. Ye of little faith in thinking Pokémon Legends: Arceus was going to be bad! 😤

Either that or I just got lucky in knowing (read: hoping) it was going to be good while thinking ahead 🤔

I am interested in perhaps getting this, but the last two times I bought a "budget" Nintendo game, Clubhouse Games and Game Builder Garage, I ended up being fairly underwhelmed by them. They're not bad, don't get me wrong. But I spent maybe 5ish hours on them both before I lost interest in them.

I will admit, this game looks like it has better replay value. But I'm also swimming in a ton of games I got for Black Friday prices the past week. So Big Brain Academy is a definitely maybe... eventually. Perhaps next year.

There was a time when these glitches were not a limited time deal back in the days before updates. There were 1.1 or 1.2 reprints of certain games that would often times stomp out those glitches of course, but it was still fairly infrequent to see happen overall. I vividly remember the cloning glitch for Pokemon Emerald that you could do in the Battle Frontier, which I did all the time — mainly to clone Pokemon holding rare candies, hehehe.

With that all said though, I'm probably not going to clone my Pokemon in my copy of Brilliant Diamond before this update takes out the ability. Maybe I will, but after my heyday of cloning Pokemon, it honestly feels hollow doing it for the thousandth time.

Ughh I missed out on Astral Chain physical, which is the one I wanted. However, getting NSMBUD, Paper Mario, and Splatoon 2 for close(ish) to the price of one game ain't bad, so I can't complain too loudly! here's hoping I'll be able to catch another sale for AC somewhere this week.

This is seriously one of the most solid sale I have ever seen for first party Nintendo games, so thanks for the heads up, Nintendo Life!

EDIT: I took the advice of some of you in the comments and tried my luck in store and was indeed able to get Astral Chain for the Black Friday price! You just gotta ring it up and have them scan it — don’t trust the box sticker. In unfortunate news though, thanks to my panicked state of purchasing online afraid of games running out before I checked in-store, I accidentally bought two of my games pre-owned ughhhhh. We’ll have to see if they both come in the cases… but still a great deal overall.

@Grumblevolcano Good point, but I dunno if I'll pick it up. I might, but I would really like to get it on sale because I really have no strong feelings to pick it up compared to Re-bootcamp. Yes, I know it going to be like $30, but even a tiny discount would mightily tempt me. Plus the price tells me its probably going to be a much shorter/limited experience compared to the AW remake that features two beefy games inside.

But for now, it looks like December will a pre-orderless month for me. Which honestly, looking at the silver lining, it may not be a bad thing after all considering how inflation (as well as the prices of a lot of things that have been going up in general) has been hitting us here in the States quite bad just in time for the holidays. My wallet might want a break 😬

Ugh dang it. Now Nintendo is going to ruin their monthly streak of at least one game of theirs I pre-ordered for many months now. Was looking forward to it being the pallet cleanser for Pokémon Legends Arceus in January after the gen 4 remakes in November, but… I realize this is a very entitled first world problem.

Well. I guess it goes back to what Miyamoto once said about delays: a bad game is forever bad, but a delayed game will be eventually good. The game looked a little rough around the edges too in its reveal, so it could use the polish, I’m sure.

Dang, I had no idea the 3DS is still being sold in Japan. I really wish Nintendo kept supporting the 3DS family of systems outside of Japan. The secondhand market is having a field day selling any of the non-regular 3DS systems for stupid amounts of money.

I am thankfully mostly set with my refurbished New 3DS XL I bought for cheap off Nintendo's website before they discontinued it. However the collector in me is kicking myself for not buying a regular 2DS for its novelty (especially that amazing green OoT 3D 2DS) and discounted value. That value however has gone out the window with scalpers now though, ughhh.

I know this is a very unpopular opinion (so I guess a "hot take" as the young people call it these days), but I really struggle to see the hype with Streets of Rage 2, let alone any of the games in the series.

I guess it's because I'm not really into side scrolling brawlers because they play a little too slow for my liking, but I actually enjoy Golden Axe games quite a bit, even more so than SoR. I actually played through the first two Golden Axe games with a buddy a few times. Maybe it's the fantasy setting that interests me more? The attacks look cooler? The controls clicked with me better?

I don't know, but I mention all of this to express my slight shock seeing SoR2 place the highest out of all the games, notably placing higher than Sonic the Hedgehog 2 — the game I feel is the most quintessential game for the console. I'm also a little saddened to see the first Golden Axe game placed so low, but I will admit it's pretty jank and hasn't aged terribly well.

Ah whatever I guess. Different folks, different strokes and all that. shrugs

I’m so happy the Directs continued to be released even the years after Iwata’s untimely passing. I honestly didn’t know at the time if Nintendo was going to keep doing them without him. With that said though, I still really miss Iwata’s presence in them.

I put my order in, along with some My Nintendo goodies I've been waiting to redeem with my next order. The Nintendo store website seemed a little buggy to me, dunno if it was on my end or if it was related to high traffic on the site (both?). But I was able to place my order, so hopefully I'll see a confirmation email soon.

I know the controller was a tad pricy (along with the expansion pack) and that Genesis controller is a big nope for me at the same price considering it isn't even the 6-button kind, but I'm honestly willing to pay that price as long as it's built well, especially if the analog stick doesn't wear out fast like the original N64 controllers.

I have so many questions about the NSO expansion pass now… namely, if you get Happy Home Paradise via the expansion pack, do you keep it forever after purchasing a year of it, or do you just “rent” it for the year like it’s a game on PS Plus? I presume (read: hope) the former because the latter would be flat-out unpractical.

Also, why haven’t we had an update on the expansion pack details yet anyways? Without proper context, this announcement in the AC Direct just makes things way too confusing.

I go back and forth on whether this creation is cursed or blursed, but I'm heavily leaning towards cursed. Especially if it uses original parts.

I remember back in like 2013, Amazon sold a bunch of new copies of Mega Man 64 for Nintendo 64 for around 15 bucks new. I'm so glad I jumped on that opportunity when I did because just complete in box copies are worth a whole lot more now.

It's extremely refreshing to see these kinds of listings in today's price-gouged world of retro game collecting. The market manipulation that has been going on has made collecting these days extremely tedious and unfun. I've visited many small business-owned gaming shops the past month that have many insane prices for their games for systems (namely N64, Gamecube, Dreamcast, etc.) that used to cost a fraction just 10 years ago.

As much as I like the idea of many of my prized games being considered "rare", I hate to say this, but I'd rather pine for a crash similar to the comic book crash of the 90's than see prices continue like this for the majority of games that have inflated. ESPECIALLY if the market manipulation going on the behind the scenes is really happening.

If there was more of a Switch game drought (especially akin to 2018), I might have considered getting it around launch. But I haven't played any of games in the series — and honestly, I've not been particularly interested in playing them. The rest of 2021 is going to be packed for me (Warioware Get it Together, Monkey Ball Banana Mania, Metroid Dread, Pokemon BD/SP, Advance Wars 1+2, Pokemon Legends, etc.) on top of games already in my Switch backlog.

So put simply, I just don't foresee myself getting any of the NMH games until there is a decent sale for any of them sometime in 2022, if not later than that even. If you are one of the people who's excited for NMH3 though, by all means enjoy yourselves when you get your copies/downloads!

It's a nice little bonus for those who go digital, for sure. I'm still going physical either way.

A surprise to be sure, but a welcome one!

Well.... that is "Illuminati Confirmed" level of conspiracy, so what did you expect?

Memes. That's what.

The day SEGA decided to scrap the Chao Garden after Sonic Adventure 2 and the day they thought up the boost formula for the gameplay in 3D Sonic games were the two darkest days in Sonic history.

Gen 4 is probably one of my least favorite gens, but they are still super solid games and I have a TON of nostalgia for it. And as a game collector (of sorts), the prices for the originals on DS are insane on the second-hand market.

I'm really hoping the remakes being readily available will not only make the gen more accessible to the general public, but will also deflate the prices of the DS originals. Either way, it is looking like Nintendo is expecting the games to sell well with the huge Pokemon demand going on right now. And based on current Pokemon sale records on Switch, they have good reason to expect that.

As a huge Rock Band fan (and an active crew leader in Rock Band 4 on PS4), Fuser has been on my wishlist since launch. But from the beginning I knew deep down that it was going to be discounted eventually — heavily discounted.

Why do I suspect that? Well I've seen RB4 go on sale for a much smaller price since launch, so I'm still holding out until the base game drops down to $20-25 on sale as RB4 (+ it's Rivals expansion) has in the past.

To be clear, I do want to support Harmonix and I do enjoy music mashups, but dance and modern pop music isn't my things much as rock and alternative is. Plus, the DLC for Fuser (as has Rock Band's DLC as of late) has been a bit lackluster for my tastes thus far tbh.

Welp, this confirms it. Waluigi coming to Smash in June confirmed. He will be announced during Nintendo's E3 stream. 😉

They're all good, but the North America one perfectly embodies the game to me while matching its 90's time period: a big ol camera with Pokemon arranged around it—all with bold colors and lettering that makes the artwork "pop". The colors especially match the N64 box art and labeling imo.

Technically, playing ROMs in a browser is technically legal, or at least, is less of a grey area in law. You aren't distributing the ROM in a downloadable sort of way and it isn't going to be stored on someone's hard drive. So there is no duplicating piracy business. Heck, you could technically argue this is no different than a friend letting you play Mario 64 on one of their many N64s (many many N64s).

This probably still won't stop Nintendo from finding a way to shut this down. And they are still probably in the legal right since it is their product. But still, this is a cool project either way. It would be a shame to see it die unceremoniously by the Nintendo Ninjas.