Comments 378

Re: Review: Kirby Star Allies (Switch)

brakeman90

Sounds like a pleasant game, if not one that'll get me to plunk down my cash when more interesting games are available (on Switch or elsewhere). Playing the demo, I ended up feeling pretty disappointed in the game's performance - I've been playing Planet Robobot recently and the polished, smooth feeling present there was not the same in the 30fps Star Allies.

It's discouraging that HAL wrung better performance out of the 3DS hardware than they could out of the Switch, particularly given that Star Allies isn't even running at 1080p. I'm no snob for tech specs, but the different game-feel between Robobot and Star Allies was jarring.

Re: Review: The Final Station (Switch eShop)

brakeman90

Very intriguing! This did not review particularly well when it initially released elsewhere, but perhaps the Switch version is an improvement. Even if the praise is down to particular interests of reviewers, I'm happy to see the game offering different strokes for different folks, so to speak.

Re: The Nintendo Switch News Channel Took Almost A Year To Create

brakeman90

I adore the news channel, and visit it a few times a week! It's the kind of feature that I wouldn't have thought of, but is charming and offers that same sense of a connected virtual world that the Wii U's home page or the Spla2n plaza presents. The writing for articles is often quite engaging as well.

Re: A Hat In Time Developer Confirms The Time Travel Platformer Won't Leap Onto Switch

brakeman90

This is entirely understandable. Hat in Time took a good long while to make and it's possible that the dev want to move along to a new project rather than work on a port. Plus we've seen that more advanced indie titles struggle to make the leap at times due to their underlying programming not being a good fit for the Switch. I suspect that whatever this team makes next will get published on Switch and folks will just need to play Hat in Time on another platform. No worries.

Re: Random: This Zelda-Inspired Beer Looks Like It Might Refresh The Parts Other Beers Cannot Reach

brakeman90

@Razzy Haha, I fear you may be out of touch with modern American beer. It's very good, and absolutely rivals beer being produced in Europe. Just avoid the major breweries - Budweiser, Amstel, etc., yuck! - and you'll be fine.

As for this particular beer, I'll pick up a 6 pack the moment I see it. Baltimore's Heavy Seas Brewery produces a fantastic hazy IPA (I'm not sure what that means) called Alpha Effect and I'm excited to try out other beers bearing this... er, genre.

Re: Breath of the Wild Developers Discuss the Zelda Timeline

brakeman90

Haha, as a professional archivist and historian I take exception to Aonuma's comments on history books. More seriously, it's hard to imagine caring about where a game fits in the timeline. It's fun to speculate about, of course, but ultimately inconsequential. I don't get the impression that the creators worry about it (though Hyrule Historia exists, so who knows?).

Re: ARMS Version 5.0 Is The Last Content Update The Game Will Recieve

brakeman90

It's such a rich game at this point, I don't think any more content updates are needed. What is it - 15 fighters, 15 stages, multiple game modes, etc.? They even have events now, along with an 'achievement' system. I thought it was worth $60 in June and it's even more worth it now. I'm grateful that the support has lasted as long as it has, and I hope this frees up the team to get to work on ARMS 2

Re: Feature: Yooka-Laylee Jumps Onto Switch in December - We Learn All About It

brakeman90

Woo, very excited for this one. I held off on the PC version to pick it up on Switch, since it feels like it should right at home there. I'm still holding out hope for 60fps (and will indeed opt for the PC version if it doesn't pull that off), and I don't think 600p will be an issue in handheld mode - Snake Pass dipped below that, if memory serves, and I thought that still looked good.

Re: Review: Gear.Club Unlimited (Switch)

brakeman90

Huh, this came out of nowhere for me! I'll have to wait at the moment, since I've been on an indie buying spree (Steamworld Dig 2, Lumo, Cat Quest and Kingdom: New Lands), but this sounds like it'll be up my alley during what I assume will be a winter lull.

Re: Review: RiME (Switch)

brakeman90

This is so disappointing. I'll be keeping my eye on other coverage and patches, but frame-stuttering is just something that I can't overlook (given an over-sensitivity to motion sickness). What a shame that they couldn't get it running well on the hardware, despite what has clearly been quite a bit of effort.

Re: Digital Foundry Gives Its Full Analysis of DOOM on Nintendo Switch

brakeman90

Thanks for sharing this. I'll sadly be passing on DOOM Switch, as sub-720p resolution and frequent sub-30fps framerate are not things I'm willing to accept in a full-priced game (or, to be honest, virtually any discounted game). I hope it does well to encourage more third party support, but I'll be eagerly awaiting Skyrim and confirmation that it runs/looks well on Switch.

Re: Review: Moon Hunters (Switch eShop)

brakeman90

I will definitely be picking this up. It really came out of nowhere for me, too, as I'd never heard of it until Gita Jackson wrote about it for Kotaku and now Nintendo Life published a positive review. Thanks for publicizing so many cool games that could easily fall between the cracks!

Re: Review: Quest of Dungeons (Switch eShop)

brakeman90

I picked this up a couple weeks ago and have logged more hours into it than many other Switch and 3DS games. It's very tightly designed, always beckoning you to one more floor/room/session. I'd recommend it very highly.

Re: Random: Someone Claims to Have Unearthed Star Fox: Red Zone Virtual Boy Assets

brakeman90

@Zelda_Geek It's worth noting that there was a legit Star Fox project being developed for Virtual Boy: https://www.unseen64.net/2008/05/18/star-fox-virtual-boy/. It may well have simply been a tech demo, of course, like Mario 128 or the GC Zelda footage. That has no bearing on whether this new info is real or fake, and I think the ESRB info points in the direction of it being fake.

Re: Digital Foundry Comes Away Very Impressed With Skyrim On Switch

brakeman90

I won't be pre-ordering, just because I don't have the same confidence that I put in Nintendo for stable software, but this looks very promising. Assuming the press is good at release, I'll be picking up a copy. Haven't played the game since 2011, and I couldn't pass up a handheld version of one of the last generation's best RPGs.