masterLEON

@Yosher It’s worse that it’s literally random which scales you get beyond the first 3 or 4 (EDIT: bronze). The only thing that increases the better your performance is the amount of scales you can get. I’ve once gotten 2 golds out of 5 scales total and we didn’t even finish off the Cohozuna! That said, I hear Profresh 2 and 3 is the sweet spot for comfortable scale farming.

@Geit_de Network issues (also people manually disconnecting) and the Splatoon gameplay complaints you commented are 2 different things. I never played LAN Fast RMX so I didn’t address that. That game is made by Shin’en Multimedia, not Nintendo. So if it’s bad network code then it’s Shin’en’s fault.

@TYRANACLES @Yosher True, scales are probably the worst grind in existence. At least the Triumvirate boss fights that start with this weekend’s BIG Big Run are ongoing from here on out (where we can get triple scale payout). I agree a multiplier scale weekend, maybe even a first boss clear of the day bonus multiplier could help as well.

@Geit_de I’d rather have “trades” happen (double, triple, quad in Splatoon terms refer to how many kills you got in succession as they’re displayed on your screen in that short amount of time) if the other player was a priority that needed to be taken out in order for your team to progress with the objective, like an E-Liter or Hydra, or an equally troublesome Splatana Stamper or Decavitator. Or, I’d rather trade instead of one player “winning” because they had a faster internet connection like in CoD, a hitscan game. Splatoon is a projectile game and it is inherently more fair in that aspect. Which is why balance adjustments to shot range, shot hitbox radius, and falloff damage exist it’s because each shot is an object. Whereas in a hitscan game both client devices “agree” that so-and-so got the kill since so-and-so’s “I got the killing shot” message reached both clients’ devices first. That, and there’s no such thing as ballistics except for things like grenades and thrown knives.

However, if you are fortunate enough to be playing with a LAN setup, and you guys are already communicating, why not just coordinate and focus down targets? That’s your biggest advantage. Double team them with your skirmisher and slayer. Unless you guys are competing with each other individually for some reason, if you want the wins you gotta employ those team tactics. Call out when you have specials ready. Call out when an enemy has a special ready or uses one. Call out if you die but the other player is a one-shot, “I’m down, (weapon) is weak.” If a trade happens, don’t negatively call it and leave it, but add to it like, “Traded (with (weapon)(respawn punished x seconds)), left side clear, push left (or push another direction if you already control that side)”

And yeah, instant special popoff happens. It’s best to anticipate when it’ll happen. If a skirmish drags on too long, and you know what can come out of the weapon you’re fighting, back off and ask for help but definitely warn the others that their special may be coming and split up.

I may be an eternal solo-queuer, but imagine all the stuff I could do if I had a team. Instead, I have to work with what I got, situational awareness. I have to form my own double-teams, create my own openings, mash “this way”, and hope for the best.

The day I finally take a break from my Machine may be coming soon when the Charcoal Decavitator comes out. Granted, I should try to make the most of the challenges in general this season as we don’t know how challenges will be handled in the post-new content era of S3.

@nukatha How about…Shelly and Donny’s picks? I’m eagerly awaiting the Machine with the Killer Wail they keep teasing with the Tableturf card and NSO icon.

Calling a way out there prediction now, Splatoon 3 is already ready for Switch 2. The underlying tech, all the under-the-hood graphics engine reworks, will upscale the game to whatever the Switch 2 hardware is using. And that’s not all! I’d like to see 4 be a battle of 4 idol groups, or even bands(!). You can pick a home base (Plaza , Square, Splatsville, new location) and basically rep your home base, with each having a unique style and presentation.

@Fizza Splash Wall: exists
Devs: Nerf it!
(my Sloshing Machine is shaking with PTSD, rn)
The nerfs seem to only affect certain shooters. I don’t use those, though. I imagine it might help those lower powered shooters who choose to chip away at the wall’s ink tank.

@Croctopus Manta Maria seems alright to me, but I’d like to see a cargo net go up the sides, in those sections off the sides of the center, if they ever feel like adding another flank. All the slightly altered maps feel like they might be blocks or grates, with an odd change of inkable/non-inkable surfaces, instead of drastic changes like Undertow and Mahi Mahi.

We did it Frye Nation! We’re back on the scoreboard! GGs to Same ‘ol and Save the Day, we got you in our bucket list, too! (That was too wholesome on Frye, btw. Why do they keep denying her wins?)

@abbyhitter Pro was legit pain my first day. I’ve never started off with Splatfest power at 1,100, ouch. The steamrolls in the beginning were so hard that I thought we were gonna lose again. I’m glad things picked up in Tricolor and day 2 Pro, though.

I wonder what Frye and Big Man have to say about this, Lol jk.

I’m not gonna fault them for the MK1 port, or Hogwarts in case there’s any roughness (I think it looks ok but I haven’t played it). I’ll just chalk that up to WB being cheap cash grabbing goobers, pardon my French, and giving out rushed deadlines. But I think Nintendo is bolstering their in-house porting capabilities for the next system, and this may be the first of a handful of studios/teams that will fill out those porting duties.

The M2 ShotTriggers Kyukyoku Tiger-Heli collection shadow dropped yesterday as well! In Engligh! Can we hope for a domestic release of Esp.Ra.De, please? M2, pretty please?

The Switch needed a bigger screen. Coming soon…180 inch wall-size (4,572mm)

Here’s a stream from 5 months ago from early access v 0.2.

https://youtu.be/iNL6jQ0kArA?si=aCLprTo6HrHxao1u

@nhSnork @eltomo @awaltzforvenus Confirmed that the OG graphics can be zoomed up but the new graphics and QoL/UI stuff are also part of the game and cannot be separated. Found out also that they ported the original Pascal code to C++ and that’s what’s running underneath Unreal Engine. Fascinating what the Digital Eclipse team is doing for this game.

@GamerGrandpa @awaltzforvenus @eltomo All the graphics are a frontend running on top of the original game! In the corner of the screen you even see the Apple][ screen updating at the same time! Of course, they've added QoL improvements like auto-mapping, bestairy that updates as you learn more about the enemies you encounter, and other streamlining improvements. But they left the brutal difficulty alone, thank goodness. I don’t know where I saw the original trailer that explains all this, but I’m going to check out some streams of the game to get more info. I think you can also play with the original graphics zoomed up as an overlay, but an option to play with the original graphics exclusively would be nice, though.

Welcome, Squeezer, to the 220p Special club! It’s a very exclusive club, with Sloshing Machine being the only other member, where Specials somehow cost upwards of 30p more than other weapons with the same Special because they think we’re getting them too much!

Really, SRL? A 220p Trizooka?! You know what would be more hilarious? A 220p Tacticooler!

“…stone masked enforcers…”?

(cue Roundabout)

Please buy your storage in person from a reputable retailer whenever possible! SD’s, SSD’s, HDD’s, NVMe’s. Wait for sales if you want to save money. You’re just asking for trouble ordering online from marketplaces full of 3rd party sellers, especially Amazon, Ali, Walmart, etc. SanDisk, Samsung (they make and supply internal flash storage for darn near everybody), Lexar, Kingston, PNY, Toshiba (especially for HDD’s), I’ve used all at some point with no issues.

Oh, on a Side Order side note, it looks like I gotta call up Nintendo because I can’t start up the DLC on my newer Switch. I’ve tried literally everything I could think of including backing up my save and redownloading the data and DLC on my newer Switch and my original Switch. It actually starts up fine on my original Switch and I can choose to go to Inkopolis Square or Plaza, which is weird since I bought the expansion on my newer Switch, but it was not set to primary at the time I bought it. But now I even set my newer Switch as my primary system, redownloaded, and it still locks me out of the expansion. I’m hoping there’s a fix, soon. For now I’ll gust grind the catalog until next weekend when I can call.

@skullivan I noticed some descriptions saying Metroidvania, too. But they seem to be from 3rd party and indie titles and not Nintendo themselves. Since such a word makes it through the eShop listing process, then ultimately Nintendo is cool with it (maybe Konami, too?) just as long as the game itself doesn’t present itself as a Metroid or derivative IP, using assets, or directly use Metroid UI without changes, then it’s fine according to copyright law.

The first time I heard of Roguelite was from TotalBiscuit (RIP) around the time Rogue Legacy came out. It was probably even from his review of the game. That’s when the Roguelike/Roguelite semantics debate was going strong. Since there’s more Roguelites out there now than Roguelikes (top-down dungeon RPGs, originally for old computers and drawn in ASCII, where everything only moves when the player does, one step at a time) it’s probably best that we call them all Roguelikes now. I mean really, how many actual Roguelikes are coming out these days other than a new Shiren the Wanderer game or something. Or else someone’s gotta come up with a better descriptor for a randomized action/adventure dungeon that everyone can agree on.

Gonna dive in this weekend while taking breaks from the usual end of season ranked grind.

@UltimateOtaku91 Once we hear terms like randomized levels that change every run, endlessly replayable, and customizable upgrade system, that pretty much screams out it’s a roguelite. As it is, Nintendo can’t actually say “Roguelite” since I believe Rogue is still copyright by someone and while Roguelite is a term adopted by the gaming community at large but casuals aren’t going to know what it is if you just say it. The safe bet was to just show what kind of gameplay you’d be in for and leave it at that.

Oh man, RIP. I remember spending free periods on my college’s OG iMacs playing Suikoden and having a blast (using Connectix Virtual Game station because I couldn’t afford the real thing). I even made sure I bought it again on PSN. It’s always sad hearing a legend leave so soon.

Maybe it’s one of those safe bet games they let a bunch of new Nintendo devs on so they get used to development and production or something? You know, low on investment and resources just to get their feet wet.

They deleted the impaled cars in Mincemeat! And they added yet another pole in the middle of a stage! The wider areas are…interesting? I’ll see how I feel about it after the weekend.

@_Figo_ A hardcore mode could always happen, maybe an unlock after completing the tower once? Me personally, I’m hoping for specialized builds where you can develop a style around different weapons. I’m not a dualie main, so what if I want to go through the tower with a Sloshing Machine or Splatana? And exactly how “endlessly replayable” is the DLC? What’s the benefit of playing over and over even though there’s an almost clear story endpoint? (Or at the very least, a final confrontation)

@_Figo_ I’m thinking the “roguelike” aspect that they’re using is more about the randomization of the floors and their layouts and building up Agent 8 to be able to survive a single run up to the top, probably with a save point on every floor or some other checkpoint, and not in the way where you start off with a new Agent 8 character if you fail. The palette, as it’s shown, seems to lock in upgrade chips as progress. Given that this is Nintendo and the age group that Splatoon starts at, they would probably not go completely roguelike and take away everything upon failure, or else they’d turn off a good chunk of players.

@_Figo_ Not so much explained but some of the answers to your questions have been shown in the previous trailer.

https://youtu.be/3WkvLvhqYoo?si=MvBxIgQhYMwKMpQb

The new character shown in the key art and previous trailer, Dedf1sh, takes Agent 8 up and down the spire’s elevator and introduces you to the expansion’s color chip upgrade system. Presumably the large mechanical alien thing in the key art and end of the trailer is waiting for you at the top of the tower.

@Jimgamer8 I let the attract mode play and I was waiting for it so I could quote it. But there was only silence, disappointment, and BGM.

@GrailUK Everything is so grey, vibrant dark blue, and red. Like who decided the color palette?

@canaryfarmer @FlyingPoliceBox The Contra Collection emulation on arcade Contra and Super Contra isn’t as accurate, as far as I know. (Unless they patched them at some point) For whatever reason it was omitted in the Anniversary collection, the Arcade Archives release of Super Contra restores the voiceovers in the attract mode.

Hideki Kamiya noticed this as well:

https://twitter.com/hidekikamiya_x/status/1747688836040450270?s=46&t=RwAO7MmFOpWfd1iIOEYYYg

I’m a stickler for supporting the versions of games that are most accurate to their originals. So I don’t mind double dipping on this with the ACA version, since they basically do their own fresh ROM dumps straight from authentic boards. That way, they may even catch and fix errors, like in Contra. They’ve essentially caught a long-standing error in MAME emulation where the rolling barrels in the 3D sections would always seem to roll to the right in emulation. It turns out that there was a coprocessor that has never been emulated before that was handling that. The Collection has barrels rolling to the right and ACA has them correctly rolling in perspective. So Arcade Archives Contra was more accurate than M2’s Collection. On top of that, I noticed the sound was more fuller in ACA, and the Collection lags hard in the 1st level right before the fortress if you have the Spread gun and are mashing the button, which people will do.

@PKDuckman Double Dragon was a movie tie-in so we’d be waiting forever for Universal for permission. And funny thing about Gowcaiser is Masami Obari, the character designer and owner of the IP, stated in a post on Twitter that he is cool with seeing the game released on ACA but wonders why it hasn’t happened yet. (hopefully it’s not due to some long-reaching distribution rights issue from the States or somewhere) Someone should really get him and the HAMSTER guys to sit down and hammer out an agreement.

I still can’t make 2 watermelons

@Croctopus Frostyfest is the weekend of January 13–15 according to the SplatoonJP account.

Theme is a spin on the Family/Friends theme which is now “When you have a day off, do you have fun with friends, relax with family, or relax by yourself?”

He probably doesn’t want to see things evolve to Kaizo Zelda dungeons. Though, that does sound very chaotic and appealing to watch to me.

I totally don’t expect it since it’s on a separate sale from the rest of the catalog but it’d be awesome if Steve Jackson’s Sorcery! ended up as one of the free games. (Every other likely free game candidate, and then some, is currently $1.99 if you check out the publisher page)

@Vyacheslav333 Oh yeah, the Special stocks make Hunter way more manageable. It’s the first and last game Capcom let you build up to 9 stocks, Lol. I’ve only beaten both games with Felicia and Morrigan. And the last character I picked up from Vampire the Night Warriors, before the cabinet got swapped out at my college, was Victor. By the time Savior came out I was too busy with MvC 1, KoF 98, and Soul Calibur. By the time I got around to it, everyone was already way ahead in their tech and I got stomped on, Lol.

Guilty Gear is a series I always wanted to try out. I have XX Reload on original Xbox(?), original GG on Switch and Xrd on Steam. If I only consider gameplay I believe Xrd may be a decent starting point but I hear Strive might be easier to get into. Is that right?

Maze Craze! Otherwise known as how to keep 4-year-old me occupied and in one place at Sears for a couple hours.

@andyg1412 Same here. I didn’t like that I couldn’t update one of my Switches to play 60FPS Tempest 2000 because it would mean losing Warbirds (as much as it’s already worn out its welcome for me but that’s besides the point).

@Vyacheslav333 I mean, I don’t know anything about Persona but it sounds like one version existing makes the other one redundant. Like Vampire Hunter makes Night Warriors redundant since it is now rendered incomplete due to lore added in the update (and new game mechanics aside). A similar situation with Fatal Fury 2/Fatal Fury Special and Breakers/Breaker’s Revenge. But say, for example, Hunter retconned some of the story in Warriors, then yeah, I’d call it non-canonical at that point.

Warbirds is back, featured in a trailer for the update, even. And a bunch of 2600 titles, with some homebrew, too.

@Vyacheslav333 Wait, Vampire Hunter is an update of Night Warriors. The “SFII Championship Edition” of Darkstalkers, essentially, because the bosses were playable (and Donovan and Hsien-ko/Lei Lei). That doesn’t make Night Warriors non-canon, just expanded via arcade update kits. And yeah that’s what I meant, taking the same CPS hardware and bumping up the storage and restricting colors to allow for an increased amount of frames per character. That shift to anime-stylized characters made Night Warriors the prototype for X-Men:CotA and Street Fighter Alpha, and basically all of their 2D fighters, up to the end of the CPS2 and beyond.

Funny enough, I spent more time with Night Warriors than Vampire Hunter because we a had Night Warriors cabinet in my college cafeteria, and I’d try to beat it in under $1 every morning. (Pyron was so cheap, Lol) Most places where I saw Night Warriors didn’t get the Vampire Hunter update, though. I only saw that in 2 arcades. Instead, they replaced it with either X-Men, Marvel Super Heroes, or Alpha, because that’s where the money was.

And yes, the CPS2 and NEOGEO platforms basically stayed the same, respectively. Later NEOGEO games blew past their 330Mb spec limit when they started to bank switch their ROMs (the “GIGA POWER” era)

Luckily, I can still play Warbirds on my original Switch because I didn’t download the update there. Then again, I once owned the game on Lynx and I find it to be a bit dull and barebones. It’s novel considering the hardware. But it doesn’t have legs unless you’re able to play local multiplayer. I can’t wait to see what the new games are when I update it on my OLED. (Fingers crossed for Arch-Rivals and Battlecars)

@sixrings We literally just got (sigh) Salmonid Smokeyard this past season. And we’re getting a new King, the new specials, and QoL improvements (knowing the which King it is and starting from a higher EVP than 40). We’ll get Ark Polaris eventually. (Maybe after a NEW map) What more do you want? Lost Outpost? It’s only been a year!

@Vyacheslav333 They’re $2 each. I don’t see anything wrong there for 2 game collections that gather like 90% of Capcom’s 2D arcade history together. Though SFII is kinda borderline, considering all the iterations, but to me it’s amazing to see how far the hardware evolved in the 3 years between SFII and Darkstalkers 1. Between Super Turbo and Darkstalkers, even.

Added a feature that displays information such as changes in the tides of battle in graph form when watching a battle replay.
This can be displayed by pressing the R Button while watching a battle replay.

This might be some interesting revealing info about what happened to make a particular battle turn south. (My guess is that happens whenever I get picked off, Lol)

@dew12333 It’s no surprise, Nintendo always treated it as a service game since they intended it to be a competitive eSports title since the first game. Only with 3 they’ve committed to releasing content through a season format instead of randomly or through major point updates. I think the push for faster content updates in 2 may be in part due to the team having to splinter off to work on Animal Crossing afterwards (Splatoon 2 2017 -> Animal Crossing 2020). And when most of the AC content was dealt out. The team came back to develop Splatoon 3 but also gave us treats in the form of the 4 special post-Final Fest Splatfests.

Top Hat and monocle and showing off with the ‘You’re Welcome’ I already use, SOLD! (We do need more pants/bottoms selections though)

GGs Handshakes. Fist Bumpers weren’t bumping enough, this time around. Too focused on inking, I feel. There were battles where I’d be charging in, Hug or Handshake would be charging in, I’d look around or check the map, and the rest of the team is still painting spawn. Like, really?! We still doing this in “Pro”? Who says the popularity curse isn’t a thing anymore? It was definitely out on full display this weekend! I guess all the x100’s and x333’s were coming from Open? Ended up with the lowest clout I’ve ever had for roughly 3 and 1/2 hours of Splatfest time 25,000 in “Pro” and 15,000 in Tricolor (amazingly from one of 2 actual tricolors fought against the other teams). My Splatfest power was so low I started seeing Squid/Octo parties again. Sigh.

They should award points for gold medals, so even in mirrors it won’t be a total waste of time. What’s the point of #1 Overall Splatter, Enemy Splatter, Enemy Base Inker, Home Base Inker, Defender, etc. in Splatfests/Turf if it doesn’t convert to some points like they do in Ranked Battles?

@RenanKJ It was safe to start when it came out, it sold like 3 and a half million on opening weekend with a total 8 Million in its first month. Not sure how many concurrent players there are but it’s generally seconds to get into another Turf War battle, seconds to a minute for lower rank Ranked battle, seconds to 2 minutes for rank S and above, X battle…sometimes you want to watch youtube or something while waiting in the queue, but that’s been like that since 2 (the time of day matters, too).

Also, support as in new maps and weapons should be guaranteed until this time next year. Splatoon 2 went beyond 2 years because of the Special Splatfests past the Final Fest. So we may see something similar. And some weapons will get a 3rd version, like Sheldon’s picks in Splat1 and the Toni Kensa weapons in Splat2. I hope that all weapons will get a 3rd version this time around. Just because new weaopns, maps, and gear stop coming out doesn’t mean the game dies instantly. There’s still balance patches and Nintendo still holds their national tournaments in Japan so the game will still be alive for a couple years past the end of content updates.

Honestly, the best time to enjoy a game with live services is when it’s active and has people playing. And while Nintendo’s online my range from great down to dubious quality depending who you ask, they like to keep their online gaming running longer than many others would pull the plug. Put it this way, Splatoon 1 is still up! It’ll end up being 8 years and 10 months online before shutting down.

Got Shiver and Frye a day early from Best Buy and they look fantastic. Good use of air-paks in the box as well. And just got my notif for Big Man’s delivery. I’m just praying they’re not in a bubble mailer. All six could have fit in the box they sent but Big Man may have been delayed slightly on Best Buy’s end and they shipped the others first.

Got my preorders in for 2 sets the day when it went up. Hope the ship to home takes care of me better with a nice box because store pickup did me dirty with the bent backing cards on my Pyra/Mythra amiibo.

@Cheez I was about to say you probably don’t play Splatoon, because there have been literal giant amiibo figure bubble packs in the plaza of every game where your amiibo materializes in when you tap it. You can even walk behind it and see all the usual graphics (Nintendo seal, a hand holding the Mario amiibo, pics of the 3DS/WiiU and Switch, etc) and fine print.

LaD out there really pushing out consoles. I respect that. I need to pick it up myself so I can finally play some Daytona 2 Power Edition at home!

Excited for more Harmony and Chirpy Chips! And Bluefin Depot with expanded spawn area and lifts! I hope they kept the drawbridge ramps in the middle. (EDIT: I just caught it, they have asymmetrical ramp placement this time around)

I’m on Team “terse nod”, as the Splatoon NA account bemoans the lack of (a quick nod at a friend or acquaintance, usually paired with a, “Hey” or, “ ‘sup”). But I guess I’ll go with the greeting with the minimum amount of contact, Team Fistbump. Hey, fistbumping’s in the game so it’s a natural pick!

I hope it’s not secretly a hand warmer for those cold winter handheld gaming sessions, Lol. It’s nice that it came in under the price of the 1TB when that was new. I might try to hold out longer for a 1TB sale as I don’t quite need that much, but 1TB would let me install some bigger games that I’ve had archived for a while.

@KingMike I hope so. I wouldn’t want to wait 70 years for a centennial edition, Lol.

If it runs well, I’ll pick it up. Then I’ll see how my Mayflash adapter holds up on the combo trials.