Zaruboggan

Pokemon Diamond and Pearl.
Right this wrong.

Ended up getting really sick, so I'm still putting off playing more Urban Myth Dissolution Center and starting Avowed until I'm well.
I hate playing new games when I'm sick. Especially this kinda sick. Hopefully I'm well before Monster Hunter Wilds on Friday.
Sigh. I had such plans.

Pokemon's shorts have always been pretty darn good on Youtube. Some of their bigger ones have been fairly average by comparison.
This one, however, should be a treat!

I love that yellow jumper!

I am flabbergasted. There was a time when I couldn't convince my friends that this show was real. Even I had started to question my memory, before I finally found an episode while in college, many, many years later.
And now it's getting a new game. Absolutely wild.

I get excited because of directs, not for them.

I'm trepidatious about Z-A. I hope they fix Legends' downsides (story, battle system, environmental design) while maintaining what worked (catching mechanics). I'm afraid they'll be doubling down on the agile/str styles and new speed mechanics instead...

I'm glad they've taken more time for this one, because they clearly need it. Dunno if any of you have played any of the older games recently, but it's striking how they used to be the showcases for each system. They were beautiful before. Heck, the non-wild areas in SwSh still looked good.

Now even the Remakes are given the short end of the stick. Makes it harder to be excited for BW remakes if they're just going to be uglier versions of the DS games.

I still love this series and enjoy the games (with asterisks, now), but man, get it together, Game freak! I know there's no reason to when you get a solid 15m+ no matter what, but do it for us!

Hm. That puts me in an awkward position come XCX, which I was gonna get with a voucher. I suppose I could still grab Pokemon Z-A or MP4 with the voucher, but there's also the possibility that they may have enhanced Switch 2 versions.
Which we won't find out about until after XCX is out.

I had a dream where the white Switch 2 was $349, and the black Switch 2 was $449.
All I remember is the white Switch 2 had bigger L buttons.

Cool! Too bad it doesn't have the DLC ones (yet?) but I'm exited to give this a listen.
It'll help make the work day little easier. I've come down with a nasty little bug, ruining my three-day weekend, so I'll definitely need the help tomorrow!

Happy Weekend, gang!
I tried out the demo for Stories from Sol: The Gun-Dog, and I gotta say, I really dig the style. It's got this old-school mecha anime aesthetic with Gameboy coloring (alt. Color options are available). The opening was intriguing, so I may finish the demo up. Otherwise, it's already done its job.
I'll be starting Urban Myth Dissolution Center (probably) today. It's another one with a sick aesthetic, so I'm excited to dive in!

There may be some Rise of Nations with the cousins, but I'll be out and about for a lot of the weekend. Playing spikeball at the beach this morning; catching Captain America in theaters; and hitting up the bookstore, since I'm just about done with The Ikessar Falcon and am all out of new stuff to read. We'll also be picking up a few manga volumes for things we've fallen behind on.

StarFox Assault, aka the best StarFox game! Just played it in the last couple of years. It holds up marvelously.
If anything, it was only more fun!
Spent so many hours mucking about in multiplayer with my cousins...

Just downloaded Urban Myth Dissolution Center last night, which I guess was last week's title, as well as the demo of Feb 20's Stories from Sol: The Gun Dog, which I guess is going to be one of next week's titles.

So even though I'm about to start two new games this week, uh, I guess nothing for me this week lol

My tops are:
Mario Strikers Charged
Mario Power Tennis
Mario Superstar Sluggers
Mario Golf 64

Some of the later games for tennis are still decent fun (Open, Aces), and golf has done okay by me. That said, Battle League was a huge disappointment. Is it decent fun on the field? Mostly? Just don't get ahead, or the game will swing enormously against you. The roster was pretty disappointing compared to its predecessor, and the lack of unique dodges smarts. I liked being able to tackle my friend up the field, though. That was fun.

Shout out to the early handheld titles with their RPG modes!

So we're NOT in the worst timeline!

I'd probably get the OLED version if they did both at launch. I like my vita's OLED, but I never upgraded my Switch--mostly because I rarely play handheld.
I don't even use an OLED TV. Just an old LCD that came with my brother's couch a decade ago. Works okay. Basically anything's an improvement from how I USED to game (4-player split screen on a 12").

Sweet!
I'll probably run through this during work tomorrow.
This is a day earlier than usual, right?

"And you have more options than previous Tales games. Oh, and everyone is fun to play as."
Except you have fewer options, because you can't play co-op, so while everyone is fun to play as, not everyone can play Tales of Arise.

Tales of Abyss is my pick, and if I could have my way, it'd still have the instrumental Karma opening* and local multiplayer.
I'm still sad the Tales of Symphonia ports have returned to the OG J-pop opening song, rather than keeping the mood-setting, beautiful instrumental piece we got in the west. An option to change it would be nice!
Throw me a bone, here!
*And I say this as someone with several imported Bump of Chicken albums.

I'd be happy with Eternia, Innocence, Tempest, or Rebirth simply because I haven't played them before. Wouldn't say no to Hearts, either, especially if they could add some MP support. It was a pretty decent game.

Whichever one gets brought over, I just want them to ensure they're the best version of the game. None of this ToS debacle.

I'm still kinda inbetween games at the moment as I await the first of the 2025 games I'm interested in.
I worked through a few hoops on stitch. and tried out Minami Lane yesterday. Sometime this weekend I'll be playing both Helldivers 2 and Rise of Nations with cousins, but I'm not really sure when.

None of that really matters because Viz just announced that they'll be publishing Kingdom in English--that's right, the 74+ volume war manga, and the last of the top 10 best-selling manga of all time to cross the ocean, is finally coming to the west.
I am absolutely thrilled!

Side note: I did finish reading Deadhouse Gates (Erikson is a genius). Next up is The Ikessar Falcon. Hitting the bookstore next weekend and crossing my fingers they've got Memories of Ice in stock!

I'd often scroll through Miiverse and appreciate the art people got up to, and even posted my own on occasion (my PFP here was actually a Miiverse post originally).
Plus, it was fun just posting screenshots with funny captions (allegedly).
I miss the little experiment, but yeah, in today's society? I don't want to read an article about how Switch 2 radicalized the youth and led them down the rabbit hole.

Urban Myth Dissolution Center for me!
Gonna try to sneak it in before Avowed and Monster Hunter.

My work will have just gone from remote to in-office before then, so it may be hard to catch it live. Would have been so easy before... Grumble grumble.

I grew up on playing co-op RPGs with friends and family. I swear by the likes of Tales of Symphonia, Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles, and Champions of Norrath.
I skipped Tales of Arise because it's missing the one feature that's important to me.
For me, nothing beats co-op. I wish every game had co-op. Online and offline. Shooter, RPG, action game, whatever. Give me co-op!

I need a Reject All button for my phone and computer yesterday.

We picked up Phantom Brave: The Lost Hero, though I'll probably wait until I finish La Pucelle Tactics before I jump on that.

There will be some Rise of Nations on Sunday with the cousins, and maybe some Helldivers 2. I might try out Minami Lane or something, too. That's about it!

Crap, didn't realize Urban Myth Dissolution Center was so close!
That and Omega Six: The Triangle Stars have caught my eye.
I'll otherwise be grabbing Avowed on Xbox and Monster Hunter Wilds on PS5.

@Red_211 Use the side bar button (three stacked lines)
Your Account -> Profile settings

The sound of pressing A three times when you wake the switch IS the jingle

Picking up Phantom Brave 2. Tonal shift aside, it's still the sequel to a game I grew up with 20 years ago, so...kinda have to lol.

@LEGEND_MARIOID Pretty sure it's just a copy/paste of the weekly press release lol
Not to discount their consistency in putting these up!

I'd prefer if it stayed in the Mario universe, especially now that Wonder and Odyssey have broadened what that means with lots of fun designs.
I'm tired of the trend of putting more players into every multiplayer game, so no thanks to MK99.
Mostly I just want the surefire bomb soundtrack on CD lol
I'd be happy with creative shortcuts coming back. Nothing like discovering the tunnel off the side of the rails in the Yoshi map from Double Dash.
Conversely, I don't really care for the every lap is different stuff from Tour. Or anything from Tour, tbh.

Give me some whimsy, some good music, and tightly designed courses, and I'll be happy.

Ah, the old F2P classic--make everything as convoluted as possible.
Some games are made with the player in mind. But they're not F2P.

To throw another opinion into the ring, every Tales from Xillia on to Arise is mediocre, while Symphonia, Abyss, and Vesperia are king.
To throw another (unasked for, if not umprompted) opinion into the ring, I think the DQ and Xenoblade series are pretty average as far as JRPGs go, too. Not including XCX, which is fantastic.

I'd say the highs of Tales stand toe-to-toe with the genre's bests. The lows, well, at least they're playable.
I'm looking forward to playing Grace f (which I think of as kind of standing guard between Good Tales and Bad Tales).

Nothing's impossible...
But trademark renewals rarely pan out to actual game releases.

If this does come out, though, ya'll better buy it!

@WheresWaveRace Bias is the foundation of the entire endeavor, though.
Like, I totally agree that because people haven't played them all, the most popular game will rise to the top irrespective of the quality of the mission relative to the competition. 100%.
But I don't think the nature of these lists revolves around unobtainable objectivity.

Of course, you're already asking the real question: where's Wave Race? And why have we had to wait 22 years for another 1080?

We've been trying to play less Granblue Fantasy Relink since we've been playing too much, but we'll be playing it tomorrow anyway with some friends. Woe is me!

I'm making gradual progress through La Pucelle Tactics (ch6), and still enjoying revisiting this pre -Disgaea classic.
More Rise of Nations and Windblown are on the table, but unfortunately Conan Unconquered seems to be completely broken. After about an hour of crashes and troubleshooting, my cousin and I have decided that it's just no longer meant to be. Which is a shame, because there's not really a game like it (in co-op). Closest analogue is...Pikmin 3's missions?

EA is a ***** company that has made too many ***** games that follow too many money-grubbing trends; its failing is not the existence of minority representation in one video game. Let's not forget they were voted the worst company LONG before DAtV.

@reztobi AAA Game Devs as a whole notoriously underpay devs and writers relative to other industries because countless people want to work on games and will undervalue themselves to do so.
And, uh, maybe you haven't noticed, but there IS no money in game journalism. No money, and no job security. The number of sites where game journalists of any political leaning can write actual articles is dropping every month. Most game journalists are being bent over backwards to produce slop of the highest order, chasing fluctuating SEOs with drivel. Freelancers write about games for the love of it, because it's hardly a sustainable career.
Liberals exist. Some of them work in the game industry. Sometimes they're given the freedom to tell the stories they want to tell. That's the conspiracy.

We used to be kids who'd open a pack and be happy.
Why now adults open pack to be sad?

@Smithylfc2008 I'm on the long-term investment train myself, but it is certifiably untrue that the only people who complain about the stock market are those that don't understand investments.

The stock market is why companies chase profits to the point of damaging their products, undercutting their employees, and selling out their users.
The stock market is why Google search has progressively gotten worse; AAA gaming is destined to crash; and social media has turned its users into the used.
Investments are also why we got Henry Morgan, but that's a story for another time.

I'm glad it has at least come to an amicable end. I look forward to seeing what both parties come up with in the future.

I heard an idea from someone about using it to replicate DS controls, and that's sweet.
I like the idea of 'mouse controls' allowing a suite of indie RTS games to make the jump.
Don't care for mouse controls for shooters. I'll stick to good ol' thumbsticks or gyro, thanks.

Whatever I use it for, I'm trying to figure out if I'd have to like, sit next to an end table? Use it on my knee? It'd be handy if I had my Switch at a desk, I suppose, but I have it set up at a TV.

No thanks!
Purposeless in the broad landscape of my gaming habits, as have been all accounts beforehand.
I'll happily pay the $70 MRSP for the latest and greatest SEGA release, but let's let it end there, eh, SEGA?

Astro Bot was fun!
Not Mario Odyssey fun, but a great game nonetheless!
I look forward to whatever Team ASOBI does next.

Grains of salt and all that, but I'd be happy with a nice June launch, and so will a bunch of kids out of school for the summer!
(If the school year still even ends in June...)

Sweet! I haven't listened to this one before, so I'll be happy to enjoy it tomorrow.

Found D4 kinda boring when my brothers and I played it co-op when it came out, which was pretty disappointing. We had been looking forward to it.

Honestly, I'm for fewer players. Higher player counts seems to result in wider, less interesting tracks.

I'm hoping games in general start figuring out that higher player counts isn't great big innovation they think it is. Battlefield learned it's lesson, thankfully.

Larger player counts means less intimate competition. But then, I'll only be playing MK local anyway, so I guess do what you will online.

We figured out what was making my brother's brand new computer build reject Windblown, so we got a couple runs in last night. Exciting!
I started up Lapucelle Tactics this week on the switch NIS collection game, and it's as good if not better than I remember it from circa 20 years ago.
That's held true for Phantom Brave, too, which my brother started this week for a little side-by-side NISJ classics. He also tried out the demo for Phantom Brave: The Lost Hero, for which he has mixed feelings. The changes are especially pronounced since he's playing the first one right now.
We've got plans to play our favorite Rise of Nations with the cousins today, and maybe even a round of Conan Unconquered on the PC front.

On the reading front, I'm working through Erikson's Deadhouse Gates and, to decide whether or not to keep buying these Orient (manga) volumes, I've started in on that. Iirc it's by the Magi mangaka, so I've got decently high hopes.

It's a long weekend for some of us in NA, so only time will tell what else gets a chance in the sun.

My brother is picking up Tales of Graces f, though we might not find time to play it right away.
We played it back on PS3--he did most of it alone, since I was in college, but I got to join in on the last couple of dungeons haha.
It'll be nice experiencing it from the start this time!

Just don't spoil April with all your leak articles, NintendoLife, and we can stay friends!

@BTB20 dammit, you're right hahaha
Fingers crossed for Donkey Konga 4, then!