Zaruboggan

@BodkinDQ I think Unicorn Overlord is less auto battle than you think it is. I mean, you do move your units individually, just like, say, FE, only in real time. The battles are about as automated as Fire Emblem, in that once combat starts, you're hands off. Only there's so much work to be done to make your units come together, so much fiddling with equipment, strategy, and more, that it's much more involved than maybe it initially appears.
I won't pretend playing further will change your mind, but I think it's worth giving it a fair shake!

So far I've gotten stitch.
It's not on this list, but it is on a nice sale (about $7.5 USD).
I'm considering Infernax, Balatro, or Ghost Trick. We'll see.

Gonna give it a listen next time I work! Always love me some Mario OSTs

Started the weekend off with some Windblown, which added a couple new weapons and balanced some mechanics about a week ago.
Snuck in another Proto Bahamut fight in Granblue Fantasy Relink. We're tryna do one a day, at least until we have every weapon. Two to go for my brother. Five for me! Then it's back to sliver centrums and fortitude crystals...
This weekend might be when I finally start Another Code, but I'm also tempted to buy Balatro. My brother's working through Eldin Ring again with our cousin, this time on PC with a sweet MP mod. It's just distracting enough that I don't think I could get as immersed in Another Code as I need. Hence Balatro.
Still busy with holiday stuff, too, so I might not get to either of them!

Nintendogs + Guinea Pigs

I liked Nintendogs a lot on DS, but I'm not sure if I'd actually be back for another one. Unless it exploded in ambition or something.

Fantastic little game. Some real nice stage work. These small fixes sound like they should smooth things out for when my brother borrows my Switch to play it for himself.

284 hours this year compared to last year's 654. And 74 of those hours were for work lol.
Most played was otherwise Unicorn Overlord, which I also put as my favorite.
Part of the reason for the drop is my PS5 going from 45 hours in 2023 to 450 hours this year due to Eldin Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree and Granblue Fantasy Relink (among other games).

I think I actually played a similar number of games on Switch. They were just shorter.

Loved every minute of it, as has been the case with everything Vanillaware has done, but especially with this, Muramasa, and 13 Sentinels.

Finally!
While it was quick relative to the launch of the game, even as a free-to-play user I was getting so little in the way of new cards that I stopped caring to log in and open even my free packs.
I'm not gonna use my hourglasses because then I'd be in the exact same spot.

Just don't muck em up!
I would love to be able to play Tales of the Abyss with friends again.
Without having to hook up the PS2.

I'm ready and waiting, Capcom!

Had a little bit of trouble getting my brother's Windblown to launch properly last night, but we think we know the problem, so hopefully we can get that sorted out and try out the update.
We might do a night of Dragons Age: The Veilguard (been progressing at the same rate), but tbh I don't foresee a whole lot of gaming this weekend. Lots of holiday prep to get through.
We are going to do some hotpot tonight! Not a game, but good for warming up all the same.

Oof, two player hurts.

@Daniel36 Stop me if you've played this one, but iirc Tales of Symphonia had a great balance between world saving stuff and the ol fireside chats. Because it had literal fireside chats. Plus, a lot of city and side stuff had the pace pulled back for some downtime. It also had the skits referred to in this review where you got some silly, casual conversations between party members.

Love the look of despelote!
Even if soccer is one of the few sports that I find boring =P

Pro-tip for people struggling to get into EoW: don't summon a guy and wait. In combat, spam the summon button as if it's an attack button. Much faster and more intuitive way to deal with mob(lin)s. I recommend using the Club Moblin for this.
Also, take a nap in the middle of a boss fight. Very cheeky; very rewarding.

Doubt it. As has been said, the switch logo will probably appear at the bottom of the screen after a few trailers, but that's it.

I've watched every TGA to date, so I'll probably sit through this one, but eh. The players choice awards have showed their true colors (remind me again why an ancient gacha game is in the running?) and highlighted why the actual awards are so heavily weighted against the popular vote.

I'm mostly just curious to see how/if they respond to last year's backlash.

Hell yes. I know what I'm working to tomorrow!

Loved the heck out of this game when I played it on GamePass.
I might have to buy it proper and play the DLC next year!

Echoes of Wisdom, Unicorn Overlord, Neva, Paper Mario... I'm sure I'm forgetting stuff, but those are the big ones!

And we're still playing it!
And will still be playing it until the next one. SSB is my #1 and always will be!

I just beat Kunitsu-Gami (fantastic game!), so I've got to decide on another game to play. I miiiight start up Another Code on Switch.
Otherwise, my brother and I are continuing Dragon Age: The Veilguard side by side. Last weekend we got the last party members.
I started Infinity Nikki, and my main takeaways are: awkward loc that forgot to fix the sentence structure; absolutely gorgeous cloth animation; great open world feel; relatively lame side quests; unfortunate gacha/live service daily BS.
But it does have an awful lot of cosmetics to purchase with ingame money that doesn't require gacha, so it's actually pretty nice in that regard. You can slay without slaying your time or wallet.

I'll probably also do another run of Trash of the Titans, a fun lil roguelike strategy game on Steam that's good for a few playthroughs, but relatively light on content (early access).

I do want to experience the graphics and soundtrack in their natural state...but it sounds like a game that isn't for me. I like strategizing for fights as much as the next guy, but this sounds a bit much.

@Samalik I work with ESRB. There's no change. I'm not privy to what went down with this one for obvious reasons, but they probably submitted for E or T, got rejected, and decided it wasn't worth re-submitting.
Perhaps they misunderstood the rejection for their desired rating as rejection of the game entirely.

Wow. Who picks the player choice nominees, and why didn't they play some of this year's best games?
Like 33% of these games didn't even come out this year. What bizarro world are we living in?
UFO50, Unicorn Overlord, GBF Relink, Animal Well, Prince of Persia, about a trillion indie darlings on Steam...the list of 2024 bangers not represented here is astounding.

@JoakimZ They're not connected so it doesn't really matter. Maybe by release date?
Symphonia->Abyss->Vesperia->Graces f->Arise

Bring back multiplayer and we'll talk!
I'd also appreciate if they dragged the series out of mediocrity while they're at it.
I can only hope the days of such heights as Symphonia, Abyss, and Vesperia return.

I will probably be doing a lot of staring at my wishlist today and trying to decide if I want to get anything on my Switch.
I bought Kunitsu-gami earlier in the week for PS5 (not on sale), and am about 4 hours in so far. Really satisfying game. Was working out how to cut down on my boss times last night.
My brother built himself a very powerful new computer, so I bought him Technocide off the Steam sale. We played about a half hour of it while waiting for dinner to come out of the oven. It's a vertical shmup for one or two players with roguelike business going on. Easy recommendation at the price, and definitely doesn't require the specs of my brother's computer.
Still working my way through Dragon Age: The Veilguard. Closer to twenty hours in and still love exploring and fighting. Still giving me an itch to go back to Origins and Inquisition, but neither is on sale right now...
More UFO50, just playing one game at a time. More Element TD 2 with family. Axon TD: Uprising hit 1.0 a couple months ago and made the campaign playable in co-op, so some of us might fire that up, too.
Oh, and I got Trash of the Titans on Steam for myself. Might try that today.

I loved street pass, but if it does come back, I'd like them to have a little pokewalker-style dongle. The switch is a little too big for me to bring everywhere, so a smaller tagalong would be appreciated.
Also, yes to Miiverse. I know moderation would be a nightmare, but man, I loved it so much.

TBH I'm probably giving Nintendo more of a pass than I normally would because 1 OST a week is WAY better than I expected.
And I'm with some of the other commentators in that I LOVE that they're going with some out-there picks, and not just the most expected.
It helps that I have brand-new, expensive earbuds to get the most out of these tunes. There are entire instruments I had no idea were in the background...

I enjoy listening to the newly added OSTs while I work, and one a week is honestly about as many as I have time for.

Trailer looked great way back when. Maybe I'll pick it up! I could do with some good humor.

Yes, please.
Gonna need a bigger bookshelf.

I guess my swan song game would be Chibi-Robo, since it IS dead. So dead the creators are making their own spiritual successor. But I don't want a spiritual successor. I want the chibi man in another household fraught with a broken marriage and insane characters.

@nebzila Yes please to both of these games!! Just did a few rounds of frolf with friends last year when we fired up the GameCube.

@Not_Soos Checked out the SpongeBob stage video. I was not ready for the spot-on impressions!
You've got an easy candor on screen. I hope more people recognize it and your channel takes off!

More Windblown in co-op, more Neva (starting up Winter) with just my tears, and more Dragon Age: The Veilguard.
I'm hoping to get some of the games I missed this year (Kunitsu-gami) after wrapping up Neva, but we'll see. The holiday season is always a busy one!

Hard to look at a video game company planning to double in size and not think about all the layoffs.

@Zeebor15 Gotta spin for investors

I ended up dropping it about 5 hours in. Charming game, but I just didn't enjoy the battle and leveling systems or something.
Lol it's been a while so I forget.

13/19
Only really missed the silly trivia, a fact I will use to bolster my ego.

Absolute gem. I've got to get back to it at some point.

Reading through all of these picks is a reminder that this console ****ing rocked.
Advance Wars: Dual Strike, Brain Age, Castlevania, Pokemon, Hotel Dusk, Anima Crossing: Wild World, etc etc.
I'll try to highlight five games not yet mentioned (unless I missed em) that I loved very much:
Bleach Blade of Fates/Dark Souls
Treasure's fantastic fighting games
Etrian Odyssey 1-3
The start to an excellent series.
Star Fox Command
Still one of the best games in the franchise.
Electroplankton
One of many bizarre experiments.
Magical Starsign
A cozy RPG from Brownie Brown.

Not to mention the excellent Naruto: Path of Ninja games, the swift and tactical Luminous Arcs, the one-of-a-kind LostMagic, the not-as-bad-as-it-scored Tenchu DS, the multiplayer fun of Puzzle de Harvest Moon, and the miracle port of Disgaea DS. And of course all the other games everyone already pointed out. Maybe I oughta bust the bad boy back out...

Looks like a good week to peruse the sales.

The game with gacha elements I enjoyed most was Mass Effect Andromeda's multiplayer. Good rate, no money required, and gave you fun new tools to play with different from what showed up in your friend's file.
I like that feeling of personalized playing that comes with getting everything at random, but of course it's typically tied to aggravatingly aggressive greed. And in the end, the greed always gets worse.

Please don't be a pain in the ass to buy...
PS5 wasn't in stock locally or easy to get online for TWO years here.

I hope you do actually spin to a dizzying degree. It'd be disappointing if it was just a standard FP view, without the constant rolling.

Seriously, what are they buying?

This year's nominees are, as usual, a reminder that rewards shows that combine the highest possible number of judges return the most boring possible nominees.
The GOTY category picks are mostly fine, but, as usual, Art Direction and OST look like they were only allowed to pick from the smallest subset of game releases.
Because when you have the whole industry combine their opinions, that's all you can really get.

I look forward to reading everyone's individual lists, personal nominees, and lasting favorites in the weeks and months to come, because those are the only lists that have any actual value.

My friend used to draw his own stages for Donkey Kong Country in his notebook.
Some kid noticed and told him that Nintendo was going to sue him and that he was breaking copyright law.
Good times.

Didn't remakes, ports, and remasters already get awards? Or am I totally off base?
Eldin Ring's expansion was fantastic, but this year had Metaphor, Granblue Fantasy Relink, the Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, Astro Bot, Unicorn Overlord, Dragon's Dogma 2, UFO50, and more.
If a season of anything gets nominated for GOTY, I'd scream lol
I mean not actually because whatever, it's the Game Awards. But you know what I mean.

I DID manage to close out Metaphor last weekend. Loved it. I'd be very much tempted to run it back in New Game Plus if I didn't have Dragon Age: The Veilguard to start. I'm only a few hours in so far, and I'm enjoying the combat, but I wish they had the courage to actually make the Dread Wolf the antagonist, and not what he is. Maybe that'll change as I get further.
Since I'm only playing that when my brother is around (and he's spending the weekend studying for his master's), I'll need to figure out something else to do. Maybe Neva. Probably some Windblown.
Otherwise, we'll be catching Ghost Cat Anzu in theaters tonight and then taking a nice trip to the bookstore!

I loved the heck out of MP2. We actually got it before MP1 growing up, since it had multiplayer. Loved blasting around Sidehopper Station and tumbling around Spider Complex.

I hope that the game both gets the MP1 treatment when/if it comes over to the Switch, and that its multiplayer is entirely in-tact. I'd love to revisit both.