echoplex

The Dire Dire Docks theme adapting to whichever section of the map you're at blew my mind during my first playthroughs of Jolly Roger Bay. Going back to that level thinking "I could I've sworn there were strings or percussion!" and when you reach those sections and the strings track starts merging into the general track (as soon as you go underwater), and then the percussion track (when you reach the cave with the collapsing pillars)...

I love how playful some Nintendo soundtracks can feel with their adaptativity. It sounded amazing to be able to play with the soundtrack like that, kind of like when you rode Yoshi in SMW or Epona in OoT.

That 8/10 feels somewhat higher than the rest of the article suggests the game is. I’ve only played NMH1 and NMH:TSA and don’t really feel like playing this one (at least not at full price). I know exactly what Stuart means when he writes “the joke is wearing thin”.

Great idea !! Thanks NL.

The Mad Wrencher might be a nod to Super Mario Bros 3 where you can find mole-type enemies tossing wrenches at Mario.

@gcunit it's not your typical city builder as your goal is not to play on a map for days IRL and see your creation thrive on its own. There are no roads to build, no deep management tools. There are no people on the map. You're just given a few structures that you have to place, doing so will give you more or less points according to what you have already placed or what was already there (a lumber mill near trees, fields near water, a house next to another house...). You need to reach a certain amount of points to unlock the next island. If you don't get enough points you will run out of things to place on your map and then the game is over.

The incentive to go further is that you'll get more different types of structures and larger maps on the next islands, but once you run out of points you'll have to go back to island one, but as the maps are procedurally generated it will not exactly be the same. And since you get to choose which elements to place you're given next, a game can be totally different right from the start if you choose a different route.

It's a very cool concept which does borrow elements from a city builder but it's not completely that. I'm a city builder fan and i didn't find anything off-putting in restarting a new level every 10-15 minutes, thought it was a refreshing angle on the genre actually.

Mod Developer Finds You Can Make A Game Look Better When Using More Powerful Equipment Needing Fifteen Developing Countries' Worth Of Energy

The Captain Toad parts in SM3DWorld were actually what stressed me out the most! Now matter how quirkily Cap'n Toad wobbles around those dreaded cubes of doom I always tried to play those until the moment I needed those extra stars.

edit : Yes, more Littlewood !

@SwitchForce and other people don’t really mind not playing the same games for decades.

It is a cute little game indeed but I don't think I'll pay another €30+ for it to collect dust on my shelves. I would love an expansion though...

The fact that you need to skip to page 3 (out of 4, not counting the 5th which is only one game) to find something above the 7/10 mark (which is only 'okay') speaks volumes.

Will they include it as part of Winter Wonderland next December? With styrofoam snow and £15 sleigh rides?

People are shallow about a games name, let me be shallow too — I hope they changed the Arial-based UI a bit because it was a big put off for me, as it looked very mobilegamey. I’m a bit worried they showed none of it in this particular trailer.

Also why do they always have to put creepy giant spiders?

@BloodNinja The slowdown ability is triggered when certain actions are executed at a perfect timing, which is not that difficult to master, but here the player is performing different of these actions in a very limited time.

No More People III : Lockdown

"There's also a special Quadrilogy bundle containing Crash 4 and the N. Sane Trilogy for $41.99 / £41.99 (normally $69.99 / £69.99)"

Is there a mistake here or did they forget about currency rates for that particular bundle?

@Yosher @Broosh I immediately thought of FF : Mystic Quest when I read the title of this article! It’s not bad but it’s too much of an RPG « by the numbers » to be a good game as well. It was even sold with a guide in case you got lost. And yes that soundtrack is one of the best I’ve heard, too.

I own a 2017 switch and I came to the same conclusions as the article, even though there might be a new new model coming along in 2022 or 3

@HammerGalladeBro @YoshiAngemon

I'm a bit confused here. Are you talking about a standalone cartoon? Because I remember there were no stories, no singing. They were just here hosting the show, with fake interviews and introducing the next part of the program : 'and now, let's get back with [insert 90s tv show name], have fun kids!'. I was 15 or so at that time and it felt very out of place to have the DK family doing this.

edit : found a youtube clip https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXEmslKVLaQ (the singing bit at the end is just lip-synching to a song that was released at that time, which is even weirder)

There was a kids show on French TV in the late nineties, running for 5 seasons, hosted by the Kong family (everything was animated).

I wonder if it aired in any other country because I would find it strange that it was only created for French TV.

I've always wondered how this sort of animation was programmed because I think it's one of the most important things when it comes to make animations lifelike. Like Link's legs bending more or less depending on terrain steepness in BoTW, or when What's-his-face is standing on a prostitute's corpse in GTA.

@Dethmunk "If you're not interested in the game, aren't going to buy it or play it, then fine, but do we have to read your ill informed garbage in a comments section."

Which would be wiser? Going to the forum section, starting a new thread titled "Skyward Sword Sucks" where everyone who hates the game will keep ranting about the same things over and over? Or keeping comments (negative or positive) in a news piece dedicated to the game where people of both opinions can actually interact?

@METROIDDREAD I didn't have issues with the controls (I found the Wii Motion+ worked fine but I still wonder to what extent the original Wiimotes couldn't do the same). One of my issues is that it was not designed as a system seller but an accessory seller, and it really shows in the game, too many times.

No matter how the lady in the trailer tells us the story as if we're all 5 years old and makes it all very enticing and wonderful and great, the images shown only remind me of very tedious and repetitive gameplay phases. It's a shame because the story is great (can't say the same about how the plot unfolds) and the items/weapons/artefacts were very well thought too. The music is amazing. But the general structure of the game, in terms of progression (the same sequences over and over, filler mandatory quests and the sky — god the sky — that is as empty as Zelda's stare in this one), as well as in terms of level design (the world is divided into small maps that feel very disconnected from one another) doesn't make me want to double dip. And I really disliked the character design (Zelda looks absolutely derpy — a masterful Dobby the House Elf impersonation) which doesn't really help in an action 'rpg'.

That said, it's still a game everyone should try because of the story and probably the fixes they made. I didn't have a bad time playing it, but out of all the remasters/remakes that were made out of Zelda games, this is the only one I don't want to go back to.

Metroid Dread, Advance Wars and maybe Project Zero

Does anybody have the numbers for Sony's latest State of Play?

While needing these Amiibo to 100% the game would suck, I doubt Nintendo would lock that behind them when they sell out this fast and are virtually impossible to find anymore, unless they release new batches in the future.

“Breath of the Wild” was not particularly revealing as a sub-title. It could have been Wind Waker’s subtitle actually. So I guess this one will be more artefact- or story-oriented.

Let's hope it's not dreadFUL haha.

Whoa, that music! Why didn't the review say anything about the absolute BANGERS featured in that game?

@Heavyarms55 You don't have to apologise to make a judgment or even have an opinion on something you don't have special skills for. I've always found the "think you could do better?" argument extremely silly. As if you have to be a movie director to enjoy a movie or a 3-star chef to know that a restaurant sucks 🙄

I think the game looks ok, but the UI could be a little more polished.

They should call it Swiitch.

Seems like a lot of people, including myself, will be playing Themselves after all the rumours about rumours this week.

@Rayquaza2510 What issues are you talking about?

If Leon is an idiot beefcake, what is Krauser?

The NA one has strong colouring book energy.

A company trying to make more money. Shocking.
That's just Nintendo being Nintendo.

Rosalina turns balls into star bits, lol

(And I'm not sorry)

The thing I’ll remember form this is that Mario is really part of our culture now, as anyone could say, ‘this is from those Mario games’. Not a lot of games could do that.

I'll be playing Monster Hunter Rise, trying to finish the Village Quest (after having 100%ed the Hub ones so it should be a breeze). Then I'll launch Animal Crossing New Horizons for my daily dose of beached DIYs duplicates. Finally I'll explore new horizons in Littlewood that I bought this week and I must say it is quite charming. And after watching @KateGray on twitch the other night I decided to give my second playthrough of Resident Evil 4 a go, things are much easier with a fully loaded magnum right from the start.

I can't see them announcing a next-gen system when he said Switch is in the middle of its life cycle. An update (the 'pro' version if you will) is more likely but maybe not too soon either. That wouldn't make sense as the past few years have been amazing in terms of sales for them. For the rest, it's just corporate chit-chat and obvious statements. Of course they've started R&D on their next console.

EA Play Live, more like pay live, ha

I think the last EA game I bought was a second-hand Sims 3, and my game crashed somewhere in the middle, making my progress impossible because of a kind of softlock.

I'm so hyped about it that I can already feel the disappointment coming.

@sanderev @Rika_Yoshitake I would love to be as optimistic as you, but February's last 'big' Nintendo Direct and the underwhelming anniversary update have put me in a different mindset. I hope I'm wrong, though!

There are still parts of my island that I've left untouched since the beginning, over a year ago, because I don't know what to do with them, or because I've been waiting for more buildings to show up in updates, so I'm fine with the size of the island as is right now. Now I understand how people with more creativity than me would love to see this expansion happen.

That said, I'm still playing the game daily, mainly to expand my catalogue, complete the art section of my museum and kick out some uglies whenever I get the chance (next eviction : Alli).

I'm sure he also got supportive messages. Not to give any excuse to the abusive crybaby bullies, but you never really hear about trains that arrive on time in the news.

Now we are not entitled to receive anything from Nintendo. We have to get used to the idea that games from a certain era will never be remastered or remade, while other franchises will be milked forever.

@BloodNinja I don't know about that, but I remember the game was so long (and challenging) that I have no recollection whether I ever beat it or not.

My visual and auditory canals both melted.

Those texts and menus in Helvetica are very mobile-phone-y (= no personality). And that clarinet loop or whatever wind instrument this is (the one in the law & order opening credits) sounds suite annoying.

Other than that it looks cool

@konbinilife @ilh alright I might get it then! thanks!

@Fandabidozi @Sonofstaypuft Thank you!