gutsdozier

@Supadav03 Yeah. That seemed to be a very successful series of transitions for Nintendo. There was no major confusion over the differences between the three systems, each one being a demonstrable visual upgrade over the one before it. And the backwards compatibility ensured that you could keep releasing games for the older hardware without needing to keep that older hardware available in stores.

It's a pity that these systems were only out for a limited time. I still prefer original hardware plugged directly into an HDTV with AV inputs, but these were the next best thing (and a LOT cheaper, to boot).

@DiggleDog It was my summer game back in 2000.

My spoiler-free tip for new players is to approach it like an 8-bit RPG: talk to absolutely every NPC twice, and explore every inch of the map.

I am one of the weirdos who has completed every Picross game on the DS, 3DS, and the Switch so far. I started playing Picross on a controller (on the Game Boy, and later the Super Famicom) so the lack of touch controls hasn't been a deal-breaker for me.

I do get tired of standard Picross, but I cannot get enough of Color Picross and Mega Picross. And I would love to see a return of 3D Picross, if they can find some way to make it work well on the Switch.

This does indeed look amazing. Rescuing all the Waddle Dees reminds me of the Toad rescue mechanic in last year's Paper Mario, which was a lot of fun.

I'm tempted to double dip to get Disco Elysium for the Switch.

The game is really unique, but I would caution people that its subject-matter is quite disturbing at times.

@FragRed They're probably unsure whether it'll be coming to PS4 or just PS5.

If that Lil Cactus plush were to come to the North American Square Enix store, I'd be all over it.

@Aurumonado It looks like a Square Enix store exclusive, and they only ship within Japan.

Futoshiki Math looks interesting, but I was a little disappointed with Hook's previous "Slither Loop" game, so I'm not sure I'm willing to try another logic puzzle game from them.

The problem with "Slither Loop" is that there wasn't a rigorous quality control of its puzzles. Four of the game's 90 puzzles are unwinnable, and some of them don't have unique solutions (thankfully, the game will accept any correct solution). Furthermore, solving the game's harder puzzles requires a lot of trial-and-error, and there's no "try it out" mode. If you've played any Slitherlink puzzles created by Nikoli, you know that there's always a very elegant flow to how they are solved. Hook's "Slither Loop" puzzles don't have that satisfying flow to them; they feel like they were designed by an algorithm instead of a human mind.

More Picross is always a treat. I love that we're getting steady releases on the Switch.

I'd love to see 3D Picross make a comeback, but I'm not sure if that would work well without stylus controls.

It's a pretty good brawler. It's in the more sluggish style, and some of the bosses are cheap, but it does have some unique tricks. It's a pity the text is only in Japanese (for the most part), since the story looks wild.

@KitsuneNight And major publishers are often reluctant to revisit properties they own but which were developed by a separate studio. For example, Square Enix owns the rights to Quintet's SNES games, but they haven't done anything with them since ActRaiser came to the Wii Virtual Console.

FF9 is one of the highlights of the series, for sure. But a lot of the things that make me love the game can also make it impenetrable for newcomers.

• First of all, the game is pretty difficult. Even regular enemies have deadly status effects that can incapacitate or insta-kill your characters.
• Second, many of the game's secrets are EXTREMELY well-hidden, and available only for a short window of time. And the reward for your ingenuity is often nothing more than a secret cut-scene or an item with no tangible use.
• Third, the method of learning abilities from items means that you're constantly hoarding equipment, never selling anything, so you're often short on money.
• Fourth, "Chocobo Hot & Cold" seems like a silly optional mini-game, but it holds the key to unlocking the game's best equipment and the ultimate optional boss.

I love all these foregoing things; they give the game its distinct identity, but they can be tough for newcomers to handle.

Of course, the game does have some undeniable flaws: the card game (Tetra Master) is a pale shadow of FF8's Triple Triad, and the game's characters become increasing detached from the story as it progresses.

@OorWullie Both are fantastic entry points into the series. I'm inclined to recommend X over 7 for newcomers, if only because the former is more modern: full voice acting, more realistic character models, etc.

I tried playing the game with detached Joycons at first, but I found that the Classic Controller works much better.

The original game is much shorter than its sequels (you can beat it in an afternoon) but it does have the best soundtrack.

@IHateTombs Well, if the assist trophy spawns metroids, then the game is soft-locked. Otherwise, it looks fine.

@Varkster If a challenge in adventure mode seems too hard, you need to come back with an appropriate ability. It's tough in the beginning when you don't have many.

And when fighting a 3-star or 4-star spirit, you'll often be at a power-level disadvantage. Make sure you have at least one "ringer" spirit; raise your most powerful primary spirit to level 99. But even then, I still needed to lower the difficulty to Easy for a couple of fights.

I remember an interview with game designer Aaron Conners (writer of the best Tex Murphy games, along with many subsequent projects for MS and EA) where he said that the flop of Grim Fandango was why he ultimately gave up on making adventure games.

Here was a game that was absolutely brilliant and unique in its story, characters, setting, and puzzles, and it couldn't find a wide audience. It was disheartening.

I'm absolutely delighted that the game has found a second life 15-20 years later.

@AxeltheBuizel For the big chains like Toys R Us and Wal-Mart, there are huge central distribution outlets that decide what to send to each individual stores. And those central outlets are often really bad at ensuring that stock of things like toys are distributed evenly. So some stores will get huge supplies of a rare figure, and other stores will get none.

What's really impressive is that the NES Mini was only available from June 29.

@pdapanda It can be. Take, for example, Italian football fans who would imitate primates in order to enrage Mario Balotelli.

In the context of this episode, if it could be taken in isolation, it's probably fine. But the problem is that you can't ignore hundreds of years of racism. When you use blackface in any context today, at least in the West, you're sending a message to people of colour that their feelings don't matter.

I really enjoyed the game on PS4 (and that was with the inferior original localization). The combat is simple but challenging. The story is linear, but there's plenty of opportunity for exploration. Switch owners are in for a treat.

@guamyankee I just started Regalia, and there are a lot of minor issues that are annoying me so far: voice acting is mediocre at best, the story sequences between battles are a little too long and meandering, and the tutorials have an off-putting "smug" tone to them.

None of this was enough to make me abandon the game completely, though (I'll give it another hour or so this weekend) .

@SmaggTheSmug I just started the PS4 version of Regalia, and I can confirm that it has some wonky interface issues: the sensitivity of the analog stick makes it really awkward to select a tile, and it's very difficult to select icons from the game's skill ring. The PS4 port was obviously made without the input of anyone who actually cared whether people would like it.

@thesilverbrick I don't know. I think when he says "we have visibility to the software", he means that he knows what games Nintendo tentatively plans to release for 2018.

Whether those games will actually come out in 2018 is another question entirely.

@Blizzia @Don I suspect that Nintendo still haven't quite sorted out how they'll manage a traditional Virtual Console (as on Wii, Wii U, and 3DS) alongside their plan to include free classic game downloads with their online subscription service.

I'll be interested to see what Nintendo do to target the "people who don't normally play console games."

I don't see the Switch becoming the kind of house party novelty that the Wii was, but it could really catch on with older audiences who are used to killing time with smartphone/tablet games, and want a more polished and robust experience.

Lately, it seems like the Switch has consistently been in stock in the major retailers in my area (Nova Scotia). I wonder if supplies will remain strong through the holiday season, or if this is just the eye of the storm.

How's it been for everyone else?

@fafonio You'll still get a full year's worth of daily puzzles for free.

The Day One DLC consists of a half-dozen additional outfits for Katrielle (each of which comes with one bonus puzzle, like the outfits you unlock for free during the game). Each outfit is like $2, or you can get a small discount if you buy them in a bundle. So it's expensive, but hardly a huge amount.

If there's any disappointment here, it's that they've only included the manual for Zelda, and not the sealed mini-hintbook it came with.

@Alikan It's funny. I've played through EVO: Search For Eden a dozen times or more, despite its obvious flaws. The controls are sluggish, it's very grindy, and the music is extremely repetitive. But that sense of satisfaction you get from upgrading your animal is so great. Every upgrade looks and feels distinctive, in a way that most RPG-style upgrade systems don't manage.

@AlexSora89 I don't think they ever topped that one.

I've been enjoying this game. The puzzles require a lot more intuition (i.e. trial and error) than a Sudoku or Picross puzzle. And it doesn't bother me at all that I'm only getting one kind of puzzle here; gimmicky variations in puzzle games usually just annoy me.

As far as presentation goes, the framing story is cute without being obtrusive. I play the game with the d-buttons and A-button on the Joycons, which works fine. It is grid-based, after all.

The load times are a little slow, especially when you start the game. The game's big weakness, as the reviewer noted, is the music. It consists of a single uninspiring ditty on a very short loop. To top it all off, the "seam" in the BGM loop is extremely obvious and jarring. After a few puzzles, you'll be playing this thing on mute.

@NESlover85 I don't begrudge the decision of Nintendo (and its third-party licensees) to sell limited quantities of a $60 system which could sell for $250.

But I suppose I shouldn't begrudge those people who are unable to find the $60 system, and can't afford $250, from playing the games another way.

As I said, in a perfect world, Nintendo would have its own Virtual Console service on PC, where people could download flawlessly-emulated games a la carte or via a subscription, and play them with an official Nintendo USB controller.

The other option would be the NES/SNES Classic DX: the systems retail for $50, and come with only one or two games pre-loaded, the rest need to be purchased via Nintendo's retro game shop, a la carte or subscription-based.

@Al_Godoy There are two potential reasons that Nintendo doesn't make more classic systems. Either,

a) To do so would be a prohibitive financial risk due to issues around licensing, manufacturing, marketing, distribution, etc, or

b) Nintendo hates money.

@NESlover85 I think there's a failure on Nintendo's part to communicate to its customers. With the hype around the NES Classic, you would have thought that the games were otherwise unavailable. Instead, every game was in fact available for $5 on the Wii Virtual console (also accessible through the Wii U).

So Nintendo has something that's meant as a limited-run novelty which ends up blowing up in popularity. Fine. But how do they respond when the NES Classic is unavailable? With regret. They don't actively encourage people to use the Virtual Console on the Wii, Wii U, or 3DS.

Downloading free ROMs is by no means the only practical way to enjoy most classic Nintendo games (aside from truly out-of-print rarities, like <i>EVO: The Search for Eden</i>), but it would be nice if Nintendo worked a little harder. Offering its classic games on a service for PC/Mac would be the ultimate dream, but...

I lucked in to a pre-order (assuming Best Buy Canada doesn't have to cancel it) and rest assured that it will be coming home with me, and not going up on eBay.

It's a shame that the release of the NES/SNES Classic systems has coincided with a time where Nintendo's home console retro emulation has been so poor (i.e. dull on Wii U, non-existent on the Switch). That situation has turned what were presumably intended as cute novelty products into desperately sought-after items.