masterLEON

@Anti-Matter I have the WiiU version, it runs pretty bad. But it’s more a combination of Unreal Engine 3 being “garbage, but compatible” on WiiU and Mn9 not being fully optimized. So they left the framerate unlocked. The WiiU version does hit 60fps in very limited situations and for really short moments in time. (a section of hallway in Dynatron’s stage, snippets of boss battles, portions of end of stage boss purification scenes, etc.) My XB1 version looks exactly the same as WiiU but runs 60fps mostly with drops here and there. IMO, there were too many unnecessary individual light sources and effects competing for resources.

Guys, Aura is just Opening Gambit with less extension time per splat, 7.5 seconds instead of 15. So, 30 points of Ink Resist, Swim Speed, Run Speed, and Intensify Action. Ideally Opening Gambit is better as you start the match activated, and if you can secure one splat within the first 30 seconds of the match you can then proceed to keep it so long as you keep splatting so your timer doesn’t run out.

Of course, the downside is anyone can get Aura.

Hopefully this encourages people to be more active or at least more aware of your team mates to back them up. The HP bars on your team mates will really help prioritize support. Though I wish they’d also add their HP status to the team bar at the top of the screen.

Also, thanks for rolling back one (of two) special points nerfs on the Sloshing Machine. It’s not the highest costing (offensive/support) Special anymore, WOOHOO!! It was one of the earliest reactive nerfs we got, and after all the nerfs that followed to home in on other issues (main bullet painting radius, increased ink consumption, delay ink recharge after throwing a fizzy, reduced ink trail width off the main shot, etc.), the increase to 220 points for Booyah was just unnecessary in hindsight! Especially when others (cough-Aerospray-cough) got to keep theirs at 190. I mean, you know how long it takes to get 220 points with a nerfed Machine that doesn’t focus on slaying? It takes for-freakin’-ever! Not saying that’s me specifically, but sometimes I can’t be in the front. I generally get 3-4 Booyahs out per 5-mintute battle.

@sikthvash At least it’ll be safer to hide in squid/octo form now that our hitbox isn’t sticking out as much.

@missingno_fgc @Kyloctopus I think 100 percent that they’re testing the waters for the next game with a lite version of an idea. Heck, this could’ve been a gear ability like Opening Gambit or Last Ditch Effort, or special.

Cool inclusions to be sure. With The GG Shinobi in there I don’t feel so bad missing out on the 3DS release. Emergency Call Ambulance getting a home port is also big news in my book.

@NeonPizza Even on a 48” C1 OLED I sometimes leave it at 00 filter, it’s just the right amount I feel because I’m just under 4 feet away. I don’t need the razer sharp pixel edges slicing my eyeballls, Lol. And vertical scanlines on vertical games are a great detail to see. Wish I had one of those Retrotink 4K’s with the new CRT filters Mike Chi has been working on. Space Invaders would really glow!

Every time I think of getting vouchers I go through the list and I can’t find any games I want or don’t already own or, for those keeping tabs on pricing, for those I’m mildly interested in I already know they’ll drop to like $40US during sales which effectively negates the money-saving aspect of the vouchers. Quite literally the only games it makes sense for me to get them for is Tears of the Kingdom for a cheaper upgrade path to the S2 version (and I don’t own it yet), and Smash which doesn’t see many sales, if any at all. Metroid is a huge maybe as I’d only save $10US in any scenario, S2 upgrade included, which savings could also potentially not be worth it if it gets $40US holiday pricing in the future. Then there’s the unknown 2026 compatible releases. For the short redemption period and since there’s very few first party games I’d even be interested in getting digital, yeah it’s looking like a no for me. Let them take it away.

Can they at least touch up some of the games for some QoL before going gold? Like add faster weapon rotating settings in ECO fighters (CAS2) and Forgotten Worlds? And the ability to start as player 2 on Forgotten Worlds without a 2nd controller present and without starting a 2-player game? How about some motion interpolation on fullscreen? I know no MI is kinda M2’s trademark but still!

That said, Capcom could/should have published this themselves. Instead they turned to the FOMO distributors. Even if the projected sales is lower than the fighting game collections, they have strong enough brand recognition to keep these collections around as an evergreen option (as they should with all their physical collections up to this point). I hope everyone that wants it gets their copies within 4-6 months.

@WaveBoy The AA releases in general now get the backdrops. And my mistake, the streak is now Wallpaper2, Wallpaper1 is the new reddish one that’s full of triangles and gear-like shapes, Wallpaper3 has the Japanese instruction cards that could be available on a game-by-game basis. They really should go back and add them to the other games. That’ll be the most massive update though, that’s over 475 games give or take.

@Teksette Believe me, the entitlement has been around since the early days of MAME in the 90’s because they can get games for free. Even nowadays we have people that don’t appreciate the value in hardware accuracy and just look at the price tag. Speaking of whom…

@RoboCube If Hamster wasn’t prioritizing accuracy I wouldn’t even care about them. As small of a company as they are, I respect their dedication to hardware accuracy and not taking the low quality way out (like Johnny Turbo). But what does that matter if they ain’t selling the games for cheap, and have a fancy 3D UI, and museum content, right? (/s) I can’t even enjoy my favorite game off Capcom Arcade Stadium, Forgotten Worlds, because the controls are too slow and it’s obvious the job was a one-off contract with M2 and everything else works “good enough” (input lag included). At $2 a pop you get what you pay for, I guess.

At least with SEGA AGES, M2 went the extra mile with each game. They’ve worked together for decades rehashing many of the save games for current consoles, after all. But, not enough people bought SEGA AGES games on release when they were new. So now we’re never getting any new games and prices get slashed every month so SEGA can get some money out of it. But hey, $3 games with a ton of extras, right?

Hamster doesn’t even own 80% of the games they publish, it’s almost all licensed. Money has to go back to Namco, Konami, SNK, Taito/SquareEnix, etc. under whatever payment arrangement they worked out, so it would really be tough to charge $2-3 each to begin with. But you don’t seem to understand or care about the how and why we got here. Companies are all the same whether they’re big or small, old games should be cheap or free, but still add every piece of superficial fluff to pad out the package, as long as the game works, right?

@Teksette Dumping ROM data isn’t that bad, it’s the security/encryption, and then making sure it all works is usually what takes time and dedication. I can’t go over details, of course, but yeah, whenever an unemulated game or new system or boardset gets emulated, a piece of encryption goes down, or a new MiSTer core gets completed or introduced, it’s a big deal.

@RoboCube I, personally, don’t have a need for Time Attack mode or VRR so I can save a couple bucks (or ~200Yen as it is) but that’s just me. The point is there are people who want those features and will pay extra for them. Maybe most of them are those hardcore arcade guys in Japan who asked, who knows?

@PKDuckman I noticed! I just got ACA1 Space Invaders Part II and it had the new UI and everything. It had to be recent though, as my last point of reference is Macross II from the summer and that still has the old UI. There was no update prompt so I’m not sure if they’ll add that to the existing games.

@DwaynesGames Give a try to XBox Live Gyruss if you can. It’s like $5 and is a decent unadvertised HD remaster.

@SillyG Not just Switch 2, XBox and Playstation got the price bump as well on the Arcade Archives 2 lineup.

@WaveBoy The streak is GONE, after all these years! The newest releases have a new red/pixelly background, all black, and maybe something extra (Like the Japanese arcade instruction cards for Space Invaders Part II) as the 3rd wallpaper.

@Teksette Absolutely, while hobbyists provide varying degrees of quality based on their technical know-how, most are indeed good at making X ROM work with Y boardset and such. Though sometimes we need more than just CRT filters, masks, and fancy UI. We need expertise, preferably from those who have seen these games running in their native form, in order to validate that the experience we’re getting is as close as we can get to the original but running on modern hardware. That’s what Hamster is providing here, and why I believe their pricing is fair.

If you look at this individually with zero emotional attachments, then yeah $8/10US+tax is pricey for 1 game. But if you’re coming in because you remember playing back in the day, or you played this every day with your late gramps at your local supermarket, or you heard that this was the game that shorted an entire country of its 100yen coins and you want to see what it’s about, and you get to choose how you played it either on a black screen, or with the colored cellophane, or the color monitor with the 5-digit display, or with the asteroid/dark blue sky and reflected game field, AND you get to hear the bassy audio as you remember it, AND you get to see how your score compares with people around the world (AND you get to rewind that last death if you paid the extra $2), which altogether is a good value for $8, I feel. If people aren’t that invested, get the collection or play it by other means, it doesn’t matter.

I got the Invincible collection myself but I’ll pick these up because they’re the most complete versions. I think I’ll use my JP account for these since with the place I get cards from the money conversion works in my favor.

@RoboCube If I’m not mistaken, Arcade Archives 2 versions (Switch 2, PS5, XBox Series) add rewind, a Time Attack mode, multiple save slots (as opposed to one), VRR for games that display different refreshes normally so they can be shown more accurately, and online multiplayer to games that support simultaneous multiplayer. The Nintendo US listing for Space Invaders for Switch 2 specifically mentions Time Attack, multiple save slots, rewind, and VRR. And this is another release where they tweaked the audio a bit to make it sound closer to the original arcade audio (like they did with Donkey Kong), because old games from late 70’s-early 80’s did not output 44.1kHz 16-bit audio like most emulators have us believe. Their releases may not have as much extras as larger companies like Capcom and Atari can put in. A lot of people would even say this is standard. (It is now, not when they started). But in a lot of cases, they are doing more than expected to ensure the core experience is preserved. They’ll even patch games long after release, which is more than I can say with some compilations out there that were obviously one-and-done contract jobs (looking at you, Namco).

Hamster is working with the original PCBs on every game, making fresh dumps of the ROMs so they can ensure accuracy. Sometimes they even catch long-standing emulation mistakes. Like emulation Contra has been wrong for literal decades. In the 3D sections, the rolling mines and most enemy fire has been veering to a spot on the lower right of the screen. Hamster found out there was a coprocessor on the PCB that was never emulated. They programmed it in and sure enough, enemy projectiles correctly fan out along the corridor. Even M2 got it wrong in the Contra Collection, with shots and mines going to the right. There’s even slowdown in the first stage when someone picks up the Spread gun. Audio sounds weak, as well. (there is a new update to the Contra Collection, however, that I want to try on one of my spare Switches to see if those things were fixed).

I’ve had mine in the box for a couple weeks and forgot to set it up before Christmas. No harm in waiting a couple days for server traffic to die down. Also, I don’t have the urge to rush into it. I kinda feel I want to keep using my Splatoon 3 OLED because it still feels like it’s too soon to move up (even though I must have put 400 of my 700 hours of Splatoon 3 game time on the OLED). The OLED will still see use when I take it on my job-related travels, at least. And given the circumstances how I ended up with the S2, that thing’s gonna stay well protected at home until well past the warranty period is over. I don’t have any specific games for it but I’m really keen to start testing how improved some of my games are running on the S2. The House of the Dead remake(s), the City Connection(Zer0Div) Psikyo shooter ports, the City Connection Saturn Tribute games, the Mega Man Legacy collections, basically any game I have with an unlocked framerate or unsatisfactory input latency on S1. All that stuff.

@Truegamer79 It was the Legends 3 Demo that was essentially finished and was going to be used to gauge interest and get feedback. Still sings, man. MML3 was one of the main reasons I got a 3DS. That, and portable Street Fighter IV.

All I own from the list is Splatoon and I’m fine with that. Great time for those who want to jump in on Odyssey, Thousand Year Door, and Splatoon 3, however. The rest we may or may not see a better sale next Black Friday or throughout the next year, I expect.

@Misima Nintendo was using Gamespy’s network for online multiplayer before WiiU and 3DS as it was cheaper to license an already established service than maintaining their own. Since IGN bought and later shut down Gamespy in 2014, the Wii and DS online multiplayer shut down with it. Nintendo was fine with that, though as they had a new infrastructure in place (revolving around Nintendo Network ID) and Nintendo WiFi Connection likely wasn’t seeing much traffic anyway. However, I suspect since WiiU was underperforming and 3DS only had a handful of online games to play (again, at the time) there wasn’t much online traffic there, either. So the cost to pay for and maintain the online matching servers for that amount of users was low enough to absorb. Not just that, since Nintendo was in full “goodwill mode” after discounting the 3DS and WiiU selling poorly, they really needed to focus on and retain their core player base while working on the Switch.

Then something unexpected happened in 2015, Splatoon 1 got crazy popular. Sure, MK8 and Smash 4 were already top sellers, but I see Splatoon’s popularity as what made Nintendo realize that they were going to need more servers. Even though they’re just for matchmaking, paying for equipment, maintenance, and renting out space for servers all around the world is not cheap. Could Nintendo have still paid for online for us? Probably most likely. But since the Switch did so well at launch, and thank MK8 Deluxe and Splatoon 2 for being available so soon, that success opened the door to allow NSO to be monetized. Trust, if Switch didn’t sell well or had low average concurrent users then we’d still be on free online.

And I know PC is largely free, I mentioned that before. The amount of microtransactions people are buying, however, greatly offsets the cost of servers. Nintendo (not including The Pokémon Company) still mainly focuses on complete releases plus one or two DLCs/Expansions. So the amount of money those games pull in is limited, and the operations costs they can therefore pay for will be limited, too, unless there’s an active online component (like MK8D, Smash, and Splatoon). Smash is an exception with the DLC, though I feel the fighter passes/buying characters pays for licensing those characters and their associated music.

@Misima Fair if you didn’t catch the videos. I’m traveling for work and can’t look at my box but I found a scan online. On the back, under the number of players/game mode supported chart it says -

“Nintendo Account and paid subscription may be required for some network services and features, including online gameplay. Not available in all countries. Visit Nintendo.com/switch-online.”

From https://www.covercentury.com/index.php?p=switch&l=s&f=switch_splatoon-2.jpg#gsc.tab=0

Unless you’re playing on PC, or an advertised Free to Play game (like Fortnite, CoD Warzone, World of Tanks, etc.) you gotta expect to pay something for first party or premium 3rd party online gaming, it’s just how it is, don’t blame Splatoon. But absolutely feel free to blame Microsoft and XBox Live Gold for starting it all, though.

First Splatfest I had to pass due to IRL getting in the way. Had to happen at some point. I still got a couple sea snails out of it. At least Shiver got another win finally and Big Man’s seasonal supremacy seems to have ended after a couple losses.

@Misima I’m sorry but how did you not know about NSO before you got the game? There were literal segments of Nintendo Directs and separate videos about it being free for a limited time.

I know I got a pair of Real3D movie theatre glasses somewhere. I’m willing to bet that’s all this VB recreation is doing. All I’d need then is a stand like the HORI and play at night or a dark room for the full effect.

@TwinFami Man, I didn’t know the dude’s missable sense of humor was causing such a stir here, Lol. I see it as that uncle or other older relative humor at family gatherings that you groan at and move on. I do give him a point on the deadpan delivery, as it’s very similar to what I do, but I digress. His info is on point, at least, and he doesn’t seem to be a corporate shill as no brand seems safe from his criticisms. But yeah, nowadays I’m pretty sure you don’t need to spend $2k on a TV just to get HGiG. My 48” C1 has it, and I didn’t even know it when I first got it (my C1 was $800 on clearance as the C2’s were already out, and I got a wallet-saving 18mo no interest promo because I’m perpetually broke). I think HGiG might be available to primarily OLEDs, QLEDs, and MiniLEDs. In any case, HGiG shouldn’t be a selling point. It’s nice to have, yeah. But the differences are very subtle, at least to my eyes. And not every game that has it implements it well, and it’s all contingent if you set the TV and console settings properly. So basically, lots of opportunities to not get the full experience. I’m of the mindset that as long as the TV you want or got does what you need, that should be good enough. I feel no one has to chase specs or feel FOMO if they’re behind the curve. Heck, I bought a used 2006 Panasonic 42” plasma for $91 in 2017, on purpose, because I always wanted one and I also didn’t like any of the big screen LCDs at the time, and OLEDs were still far out of my price range. And now that I have an OLED, to be completely honest, while I love the deep, rich blacks, contrast, and vibrancy, I still prefer the reds and natural skin tones on my plasma. So I’m still holding onto it until it dies. It only has a little over 9,000 hours on it, of which I’m pretty sure only 1,000 or so were mine, Lol.

It was interesting, and bewildering, to find out how this was Nintendo’s process for DIY HDR calibration. (Really, from consoles to TV’s, they should ALWAYS show the number values with disclaimer text for the power users) At least it’s nice to know that I’m well equipped with a Series X to help calibrate my Switch 2, whenever I finally get one that is. His other videos showed me I did the X’s HDR completely wrong, but somehow got surprisingly close to what I had before with my overcomplicated adjustments. But now, with less crushed black levels because I didn’t know that was my TV (LG C1, here)

@MoldyPasta I know, but that was just 1 weapon. Why stop at a charger (and 1 scope)? Why not expand Z+F with a bunch more?

It’s out of bounds geometry that normally doesn’t get seen but is still drawn and calculated to the overall scene load. You literally wouldn’t see most of it unless you jump off the sides of the stage. It’s totally just optimization (that AAA doesn’t know how to do, and why we don’t get Switch 1 specific ports) It’s fine.

Crabs aren’t my priority when chucking Booyah Bombs but if one happened to be within the blast radius I’m totally ok with that, Lol! I haven’t updated yet and can’t play until later but I like what I’m seeing for increased points gain in Ranked modes. It’ll really help the new season grind after they drop your position. Maybe it’s also to help get more people into S so they can be in the weapon power matchmaking.

Also, I’m still confident a 3rd Sloshing Machine could still come out. Z+F is the last Splatoon 3 exclusive brand that could get a line of weapons. From off the top of my head the new weapons like the Decavitaor, Heavy Edit, Wellstring, Recycle Brella, Snipewriter, Douser Dualies, and S-Blast are ripe for 3rd kits. And from the other weapons regular brush, Heavy Splatling, Splattershot Jr., regular Brella, E-Liter, Explosher and Slosher, Sploosh, Flingza, Glooga Dualies, Luna and Range Blaster, and Bamboozler. That’s well over 15 weapons that can fit into a 3rd brand collab, especially for the new weapon types.

@TrogdorTheBurninator Grand Festival, the rematch? Callie and Marie come to defend their title. I’ll be down for defending Team Past again!

10 years and I’m still playing! This series hit me at just the right time when I was burnt out on FPS but I was willing to give it a shot and it’s hooked me ever since! The movement, the implementation of gyro controls, the speedy gameplay, the options to sneak, the weapons shoot actual projectiles, the quirkyness of the presentation, the (post-apocalyptic) lore, and the odd take on sea-life-turned-land-dwellers who picked up instruments and started to jam with their original music, is all strangely addicting and honestly compelling if you’re willing to roll with it all! And the creative weapons! What other game has giant brushes that can zip around the map and can stop and saturate an area and/or the opposing team. Or a weapon class of just buckets that can shower the enemy team from behind walls or even toss ink in an arc if you swing the controller while shooting, it’s so wild! Truth be told, if it was all just Turf War I would have dropped it after a month. Thank goodness the good stuff was delivered after a couple days after launch when ranked battles were globally unlocked! Tower Control (Payload), Rainmaker (Capture the Flag but you run it to the enemy base and can lob explosive shots), and Splat Zones (Domination), Nintendo flipped common modes and made them way more exciting! Sure, we had growing pains. What game doesn’t? But overall, in the thousands of hours I put in across the 3 games, Splatoon is one of a handful of games I can keep coming back to and it’d never get old or tiring. Here’s to many more years of the squid (and octo) game!

Capcom posted a link to their Capcom Fighting Collection 2 survey on their Street Fighter twitter.

https://twitter.com/streetfighter/status/1925281749191250227?s=46&t=LP-acURda8NizgY6_3RFQQ

This is mainly the general feedback survey but you can voice your opinions about the collection 3/4 of the way through. Anyone can participate whether you bought the game or not or will buy it later or even if you’re not interested because of reasons. Feel free to give them hell or (gasp) praise. Just keep in mind that a separate survey about content will go out in August. Well, I guess do it all again in August, then!

From my standpoint the collection is ok. The remixed music in the Naomi titles was a nice surprise. But the lack of crossplay, EO mode being the only ranked mode instead of the FGC popularized mode, Arcade Mode, (RIP anyone who doesn’t use Cammy/Sagat/Blanka or the bosses and K-groove online), and simply not being able to use online to meaningfully train for your CvS2 locals or tourneys are huge missteps (given the arcade-centric scope of the collection). I did forget to mention (and you can’t go back in to retake it) the matchmaking doesn’t seem to care about your rank, but maybe that’s something crossplay could fix with a bigger pool of players. Maybe the game gives you whoever because that’s who’s available? Who knows.

Go take the survey so we’re less likely to get blindsided with boneheaded corpo decisions again! Complaining on news sites and not telling the company directly how you feel accomplishes nothing!

@DonkeyKongBigBoy You like 1943 you can have it officially on Capcom Arcade Stadium (the first one) for free! And the entire series is in the collection and are only $2 each separately. 1942, 1941 Counter Attack, 1944 The Loop Master, and 19XX The War Against Destiny. I also recommend Carrier Airwing, in the same collection.

@Jester676 Bro, I wasn’t even talking about the article video. I was commenting about another scummy GameStop practice entirely.

Splatoon 4, battle of the bands!

@TheExile285 Maps (the design philosophy changed between 1 and 2/3 from complex and focus on verticality in 1 to flatter and smaller with less routes and more skirmish-focused), weapons (3 different weapon kits for most weapons in 1 and 2, only 2 kits in 3 but 3 had the most weapons), higher tick count per second for more accurate representation of the state of the battle, less input lag (3 was better than 2, but 1 was the best), and the overall aesthetic. The Switch2 sounds like it already has less input lag, at least.

@Galaxy2IsTheGOAT @Anti-Matter I can confirm that GameStop does this. It’s one of the main reasons I stopped buying games from them. Even way back to the original Xenoblade Chronicles release on Wii. They were the exclusive distributor of the game in the US yet none of the “new” copies of the games were in shrinkwrap. There is literally no logical reason to do this.

@thor8467 you’re right, it was about 5 months after Smash came out. Given that, XCX would have been well into QA testing by that time amiibo were released. And amiibo takes many months of lead time to produce enough for 1 run. Nintendo would have had their amiibo labor force’s concentrating on Smash and Animal Crossing. So unless amiibo was already part of the planning of XCX, then we probably wouldn’t have seen any until much later, if at all. So now with the DE, that would have been prime time to work some in but it’s not looking likely now the game is out.

Man, I hate that that’s literally my old neighborhood GameStop. Then again, I shopped that store when it used to be a Software, Etc. 20 years ago.

@YorkshireNed The game originally came out (EDIT: in the early days of amiibo) and didn’t have any Smash Bros. representatives. They probably could have worked some amiibo functionality in, though.

Ok, NOW we have real issues here. For people that were interested in getting into CvS2, and perhaps use this collection as an accessible version of CvS2 to play, they won’t be able to play the accepted standard competitive format in ranked. EO is great for casuals, don’t get me wrong. And normal lobbies are still a thing. But taking away the ability to see where you stand vs the community at large in ranked matchmaking is so backwards. Especially since the arcade version is the mode most players are expecting to play CvS2. I mean, what about opening separate matchmaking, one queue for Arcade and one for EO? That should be possible, right?

@romanista Similar with me though it was Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii on Series X and The Ocean Hunter. (Technically not my first Yakuza I bought but the first I played; I own all except IW, The Man Who Erased His Name, and Isshin) I got there, but now I’m caught up in the open world collect-a-thon trap, Lol.

Yeah that Yoshi clip gave me serious Spy Hunter vibes (for those who remember that, and Knight Rider). Hopefully the world between the courses will be packed with things like that!

@Anti-Matter With the amount of vehicles available in World, it would be hard to game balance all that if they had to worry about parts. Since it seems like World is going for a more casual setting, streamlining the vehicle options was be the better way to go. It also deters people from coming up with “meta builds” that entire lobbies online were using in 8 Deluxe.

Nice, SoR1 and EEEE-Swat. Super Thunder Blade….eeh, play arcade Thunder Blade on 3DS.

@Protion9 It is based on the arcade and it’s great!

Still got my hub and my Smash 4 Controller. Wildly enough, I have never bought Smash 4 WiiU or Ultimate because I’m always just bringing my controller somewhere, Lol. The only game I use it for currently is Grid Autosport on Switch. Here’s hoping for more racing ports on Switch2.

The cars don’t have collision boxes, I thought they said they’d add that in. Immersion broken, but a minor gripe in the overall package.

@Diablo Ah, I never owned a PSP. Was it part of a collection or standalone?

@PKDuckman @NeonPizza @MontyCircus I found out from industry accounts on Japanese Twitter that there’s also a special Japan AM (Amusement Machine) Show Prototype version of Gradius III included. The game had a bunch of enhancements that didn’t make it to the arcade release such as being able to have more shots on screen at once like 3 Doubles and 6 Ripples. You can also have Force Field and Reduce active at the same time, though Reduce only lasted for 3 hits instead of 5 or 6. There were also additional background details such as animated flowing sand and a galaxy background in the 1st stage. And overall the speed of the game was slightly faster, though slowdowns were still present just not as frequent and in the same places. This build was only shown off on the first day of the show and never seen again. You can see it as the 4th Gradius III option in the trailer, and you can even see they used that prototype version to show off in the trailer.

There’s also the JP version of Life Force which changes some of the graphics and bosses to be more “organic” and the BGM is a bit different. The big change is that it has the standard Gradius powerup system instead of the dedicated powerup pickups. Otherwise, basically the same as the world release.

It was a highlight for me since I don’t recall Salamander II getting a port at all. And the new one looks so slick and fast for a Gradius-style game. I can’t wait!

Predictions? I dunno, Balloon Fight World, Ice Climbers Revolution, Gyromite Infinite?

@anoyonmus They’re on the West Coast so I guess they’re morning people

I trust that all the meaningful 3rd party devs already have their kits, more because they have proprietary game engines that need extra time to tweak a version for Switch2. And for those that weren’t on board already they will likely need to wait. Aside from that, current devs have been primed for a while to expect certain capabilities from the Switch2 (4K, DLSS, back compat, etc.) and would probably just need to have a Switch2 build ready to debug when their time comes. I don’t remember when, but it’s been reported here before how relatively simple it was to get Switch ports of some PC indie titles going. And the new hardware is not going to be radically different to develop for, just more capable, as far as we know. The base Switch dev environment should already be available. The dev kits are more for getting builds ready for Switch2 specific stuff, runtime tools, testing and debug, et al. I wouldn’t surprised if devs can get games running and submitted within a few weeks after receiving a kit, provided they weren’t starting from scratch and already had a game targeting and more or less ready to go on Switch1.

@Truegamer79 They sort of normalized the weakness weapon damage starting in 3 so damage wouldn’t be all over the place like in 2, but also made it less obvious what the weakness is. (4’s damage is even worse, IMO) The only one that can potentially 1-hit is Top Spin vs Shadow Man if you hit him just right. So I start with Top Man.

I bought the 3 of these that were available on VC before it shut down. Only Lord of Darkness wasn’t available but was the one I never played but the one I wanted to try most. I rented these several times over back in the day. Ended up getting RotKIV as a b-day present from my best friend as I liked it so much and we both loved the military SRPGs. Solid strategy game drop this time.

@dustinprewitt We’ve got raised to level 99, FWIW. But I think augments are still the main way to buff your characters.

@mlt Honestly, just reload your manual game save. If you’re fighting tricky end game tyrants like Gradivus the Headless Emperor, Buchwald the Guardian, Pharsis the Everqueen, the giant Sandworm(s) in Sylvalum, Telethia, etc. and they start doing their annoying gimmicks, does anyone expect to beat them on their first try? I sure didn’t. You can come in with what you feel is a decent loadout but didn’t account for later phase Reflect, Sleep attacks, or add-on enemies then you wipe. (I sure as heck didn’t expect a second sandworm!) Well, time to reload, get the right augments in place, save, and go back to try again.

@RadioHedgeFund Reload a manual game save and/or bring enough healing items next time.

@Yalloo It’s not an action RPG in the same sense. You do kinda keep track of what the thing you’re fighting is doing in terms of position and status effects, but it’s largely about managing your special attack cooldowns and answering “support calls” from your party members (by responding with special attacks that match the same color as their word balloon), and later targeting parts of enemies for farming parts, like Monster Hunter, for upgrades or rare weapon drops.

This! 100% this!

I’m currently also playing Like a Dragon Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii and I got this preordered. My free time is in danger, Lol. I’ll try to get to the new end parts in 100-120 hours.

I cannot stress this enough, and I fully back what PJ says in the review, DO NOT RUSH THE GAME. Whether it’s to get to the Skells and your flight module or to try to blaze through your backlog. You will miss a ton of what makes the game special! Take your time to learn all the combat tactics including positioning and Overdrive, take time to understand the augment upgrade system, take the time to collect all the shiny crystals in the field as they may be precious materials for upgrades, INSTALL AND OPTIMIZE YOUR PROBES THROUGHOUT THE GAME BECAUSE THAT’S CONSTANT MONEY AND MIRANIUM, take the time to keep your ground gear and skills upgraded as you will still need to fight on the ground all the way through Post Game. And whatever you do, absolutely DO NOT approach the outside corner of the Skell weapons research hangar until late game to check out that tiny innocent-looking red/pink object on the ground! (previously Post Game)

So we're allowed to jump now? I mean, that’s cool. But I think we lose a bit of urgency in the process. In the original game when the eye is open and red, you weren’t allowed to jump, you had to wait until it was closed. Also, the red tiles you run over in the level converted to an energy beam that fired at the shield that protects the eye. When you run over all the red tiles, the shield disappears and you have to jump to the platform in front of the eye to run over the last red tile to destroy the eye. After that you fly off the level into space for a short shooter section until you reach the next level. The flow was somehow similar to Major Havoc, a vector screen platformer by Atari, but instead you try to land at a space station to self-destruct the reactor and escape to do a shooter section until you land at the next station.

Anyway, I’ll be getting it at some point.