mlj11

I play it almost exclusively in couch multiplayer mode with my nephew and nieces, and I've gotta say it's a blast.

Sad that the review doesn't go into detail, but I'm glad to report that the controls are tight and highly intuitive. In our experience you'll have picked up on your little avatar's weight and momentum - as well as the range and arc of your boomerang weapon - within just a couple of rounds.

You get a dash button that propels you forward several body lengths which is great for evasive maneuvers, but it's not cancelable so you've gotta commit to it. This presents a nice little risk vs reward conundrum: do you take the easy dash option to escape your attacker, but expose yourself to the chance that you'll land in the path of an unexpected incoming boomerang from another player?

Rounding off the moveset is a close-range slash attack. This is obviously good for close combat and the narrower maze-like maps where walls can impede your boomerang from returning once thrown. It's great for sneaking up on an opponent who's trying to retrieve their lost boomerang - especially if you're stealthy and have managed to hide amongst the level's flora, or when you've snagged the disguise power-up and are masquerading as part of the scenery when not moving. The slash lands with a very satisfying and meaty sound effect complete with accompanying pixel splatter, but the move does carry some momentum and requires a slight cool down, which is a sign that the devs know how to balance their game.

The power-ups - which randomly spawn around the map that you can rush to get - are very fun and all add to the type of joyous chaos you'll want in a multiplayer setting. Apart from the ones already mentioned, you can also get stuff like fire and ice effects that burn and freeze your opponents respectively, or my personal favorite: the teleport, which allows you to warp immediately to the location of your boomerang, and is as awesome as you'd expect for carrying out chain stealth kills if you're skilled enough. There's also the odd debuff in there, like a confusion state that mixes up your inputs, but you can choose to disable this or any other effect of your choosing in the menu.

Overall I'd rate this title an 8.5 for couch multiplayer enthusiasts and a 9 for those with kids who'll undoubtedly be charmed by the graphics and cute cartoon violence, with the smallish number of maps and game modes so far being the only minor drawbacks.

I'm picking up less sexism, more of just trying to adhere to the expected tropes of the vampire genre.

Poor Golu got kidnapped by Lord Mahabalasura's demons, but sometimes the real conflict is in the comments section.

I'm greatly disappointed by the news of Ages' demise, but people ought to take a step back and breathe before pilling on the Sega hate. Out of all the big publishers Sega have done really well with their numerous IPs imho.

Even though us Nintendo owners may not always get all their big releases, think of the good work that Sega's done to allow these franchises they publish/license to flourish: Persona, Total War, Yakuza, Football Manager, Bayonetta, Hatsune Miku, etc....

Sure, the strategy for their retro titles is confusing at best, but I think that's down to financial reasons - the sales of their older games probably doesn't justify the continued development work needed to update and port them to current consoles. But what development work they have done is exemplary: take Virtua Racing for example. The stuff they added was great; this title was no cheap cash grab.

I'd love for them to have a coherent strategy and project going forward that will allow us to dip into their back library, but without enough consumer interest (and I must confess I don't spend a lot on their older titles) I'm afraid this is a hard ask.

Great work! It's amazing what modders can put their minds to achieving, and I hope he finds success if he ever decides to turn pro and develop actual games.

That said, I'm betting the modder's own record won't hold up very long against all the wind bomb aficionados out there. I give it 20 mins after release tops before I see someone post their new record on the botw subreddit.

About the 3rd party bricking problem - I think this was primarily an issue with the first wave of docks due to lack of understanding about spec incompatibility. However the manufacturers were quick to identify and fix it, and by the time I purchased my own in end '18 the problem had all but been eliminated completely.

This product looks nifty but also has a pricetag to match. If anyone wants a cheaper solution just look up Amazon and choose something with enough positive user reviews, you'll probably be safe.

Finally, a game that draws attention to the back problems that used to plague Marie Antoinette. The poor woman used to carry such... heavy burdens.

I see a lot of people here speculating that this restriction reduces creativity, and they claim it's the reason this series hasn't been good since y installment x years ago.

While I don't agree with Miyamoto I'm not sure these particular criticisms hold water. Any Mario fan past a certain vintage already recognizes Toad as an archetypal character anyway, and from what I've seen this team has actually shown a lot of creativity by giving individual Toads more personality to differentiate them.

I thought the real problem is how Nintendo is so ridiculously protective of their IP and how they seemingly don't want it being diluted/changed in the minds of their fans - so much so that Miyamoto apparently didn't want this RPG to have an actual story? Lol I can't even wrap my head around that. Maybe it's to do with an established Mario canon that Miyamoto doesn't want to mess with?

But then again we've seen Nintendo being very liberal in other instances, eg allowing Cadence of Hyrule to have such an interesting (and totally unexpected!) take on the Zelda franchise. So I dunno, maybe there is a method to the madness.

I sometimes wonder what would've happened if Yuji Naka had been the one to oversee Sonic's foray into 3D gaming. Maybe this game night provide some clues.

I bought the game on sale many months ago, and only started playing recently. Currently on v1.10 the visuals are fine and the gameplay is mostly smooth as long as I'm playing docked (in handheld it stutters a fair bit). Some areas like the tower can cause dropped frames, although I hear this is an issue on PS4 as well.

I have, however, encountered more crashes than I'd like - about 4 now in roughly 40 hours of gameplay.

Disregarding port issues, the game itself is enjoyable and a worthy successor to the SotN-style Castlevania games.

I'd say it's perfectly playable right now - just save often - and you don't really need more patches to have an overall good experience though of course further improvements will be welcome.

So, Miyamoto rules over Nintendo's IP with an iron fist. Next up on the news: water is wet.

I've just about finished Astral Chain so I was thinking of giving this a go. How's performance right now? Can anyone who owns the game chime in?

Don't mind me, I'm just here to complain about this website's complainers complaining about the complainant from reddit... and how today must be a slow news day (and yet we're all still here reading this article!).

Hope this plays as well as it looks! My only worry is that they take too much inspiration from Celeste's often pixel-perfect platforming design and make the difficulty here unnecessarily high for a fast-paced shooter-slasher.

@UnknownReader Haha Japan always gets the good Nintendo stuff!

@UnknownReader I'm not sure about that - you may be right. However my main issue wasn't about the dollar value of the download, but rather the fact that Nintendo even requries something in exchange for it at all. I mean we live in an age when it's standard practice for digital book retailers like Kindle and Google Play to allow users to download samples of all their digital books without having to give up anything.

I'm already not estatic about Nintendo charging premium prices for their mobile apps like Mario Kart Tour or the fact that I have to pay a "Nintendo tax" for ports on the Switch. Does Nintendo really need to appear so greedy when it comes to digital book samples too?

It's kinda absurd that this excerpt of a book costs any points at all. It's a digital copy too, so what could it cost Nintendo to let interested users download it for free?

Smart of Grid Autosport to go on discount for the first time just before this launches. Gotta say, I wouldn't mind a arcade racer like Burnout in my library too, but it's honestly quite expensive. Gonna wait for the inevitable Digital Foundry review before I take the plunge.

I don't get all the people calling the movie awful. It's generally targeted at kids, so yes it was never going to be a cinematic masterpiece. Shocking I know.

Yet its tone was spot on - more earnest and less campy - and it really hit all the right notes action-wise. (Also I was so glad there was none of that early 90's edgy 'tude or the franchise's later obsession with chili dogs but that's just personal preference.)

The jokes were surprisingly decent and included a few zingers I really didn't expect, like that Robotnik line about being an orphan, which by my reckoning must be the best joke in any videogame-to-movie adaptation ever.

True, there were maybe one too many instances of product placement, but the movie smartly owned it and made most of them into cleverly placed running gags, which I could appreciate. Anyway, given the movie's financial success I'm guessing they'll cut back on outside sponsorships if a sequel ever gets made.

Overall my family really liked the movie. It was a humorous and enjoyable time-waster for us adults and, for the kids, the best movie they said they've watched this year. If you haven't watched it yet, don't go in expecting Citizen Kane, but just one of the best video game movies ever made.

I for one hope it copies as much from Cuphead as possible - Cuphead is an amazing game after all - except the difficulty.

Not judging, but the users on the Switch subreddit appear to be older than those here and also represent a broader range of console/game sharing situations. I've found their explanations of their issues with the game's design to be more nuanced. Those interested in constructive feedback can take a look there: https://redd.it/fo13xf

I too was lured by the prospect of an Abzu-like, but this appears to have players navigating menus more than an actual 3D seascape. Nonetheless all the UI design and animations do look gorgeous, so I guess I'll keep an eye on it.

Yeah seeing all the comments from other gamers saying "This is how Animal Crossing has always been, just suck it up" is very disappointing.

Simply put, the game could've been designed to accommodate both single and multiplayer play styles, but the devs chose not to give us the option. It's bewildering because I bet 99.9% of all other Switch games allow separate save data for different player profiles, so it must be a rude shock for those of us who didn't realize this game was going to be so different from all our other games on the system.

Looks like a fun little time-waster, perfect for kids or parties.

@dBackLash I suggest maybe only use monastery time for meals/tea to keep student morale up (so they can still level up skills during class), or to recruit from other houses. That way your team builds won't suffer too much.

Game looks fun! And I found the trailer no more cringe-inducing than many of Nintendo's own videos haha. I mean, this isn't much worse than that one where some kids suddenly decided to have an impromptu multiplayer Switch session at the skatepark, or the other one with unembarrassed young adults playing Arms at a rooftop party 😂

@mesome713 You forgot to add an "/s" at the end of your comment.

On a related note, the stick drift of my joy con and pro controller actually causes me to unintentionally click on stuff that I hadn't intended to. Maybe that's what happened to the guy.

@BlubberWhale I feel you, man. On the flip side, you probably have access to a lot of great PS exclusives that many of us don't. Pros and cons etc.

Whatever you choose, I wish you many hours of gaming bliss ahead!

@BlubberWhale My commiserations over your predicament 😊

Fortunately for me (or is that unfortunately?) my only other available platform is the PC, and N:A is reportedly quite buggy/unsupported on it. A Switch port would be a no-brainer for me!

Speaking as a pure of heart and completely unselfish person, wouldn't you like to have your very own copy of Nier? Please consider joining any potential crowdfunding efforts 😋

I have almost zero knowledge of this game but it can't be all that bad if Platinum made it.

Now is it wishful thinking to hope they'll crowdfund Nier: Automata on the Switch..?

Witcher 3 on Switch already lacks a lot of the visual polish that the other platforms have, to the detriment of the fantastic world that CDPR painstakingly built. Yes, I'm aware it's fully functional, but you can't deny Geralt's world is just not as beautiful as it is elsewhere.

I'm as big of a Switch fan as anyone else here, but I wouldn't want to play in a watered-down, muddy-looking Night City on it. However I'm willing to change my mind if Ninty develops a much beefier Switch Pro that won't require as many sacrifices on the visual front...

I hear a lot of players fall at the bosses, and they feel too demoralized to continue. Here's a tip on how to get better: save scum to practice. The game now gives you multiple save slots, just quit to the main menu before a boss, and copy your save to another slot. Keep replaying that save until you learn all of the boss's moves and how to counter them. This really helped me improve by a lot.

Writer must've mixed up Linhardt and Claude..

On a separate note, I'm finding the idea that there exists a group of disenfranchised students happily living their lives in the bowels of the monastery an extremely silly premise, and I wonder how they'll justify it in the lore.

The dream is mod support. I'd gladly have gotten Skyrim again on the Switch but for the inability to use my favorite mods from the PC version (on my non-hacked Switch). How amazing it would be if we could get mods for the Witcher!

@Lemon500 Thanks, Buxer's interview doesn't appear to mention this Connole at all. Additionally, the idea that S3 isn't being released anymore due to legal issues stemming from somebody not being credited is speculative at best, as there's no hard evidence of this, just another third party's allegation.

@Lemon500 Interesting, but do you have a source for that?

@Woomy_NNYes If past events are any indication, the envelopes will be a special currency you earn after each online match. During the recent Christmas-themed special event, about 10-15 "snowflakes" would drop after every game: I'd wager we'll get the same drop rates for this doodad too.

You can accumulate the currency to exchange for cosmetic items themed after the event. At about 150 we can make an exchange for one aforementioned Golden Lantern, which is essentially a mystery loot crate we can get up to 5 of and can open for free.

I love Whitehead's version and have it on mobile, but my guess is that porting it to Sega Ages would go against the point of Ages, which is to provide the classic games we remembered with minimal changes. Additionally it would cost Sega more money to license Whitehead's engine and also commission him to do more compatibility / bug fixing work, so those are more reasons why Sega have likely decided against letting us enjoy the best version of S2 on Switch

Does no one else find it suspicious that a PS4 owner just happened to have his designed-for-home-use console on hand during the reveal of the game? For all we know he and the other "protestors" were planted to generate controversy and, consequently, interest in the game 😂

I loved the old levels that Mania revisited! The devs' creativity gave them really wonderful new twists to the layouts and mechanics. I mean, Mania's take on Green Hill and Chemical Zones - with the former's zip lines and underwater sections and the latter's bouncy goo and Eggman fight - must be the definitive versions of these stages now.

With the same awesome devs at the helm I wouldn't mind more refreshed zones in the sequel. In any case, refurbishing old zones may just be Mania's thing going forward so I suggest adjusting expectations accordingly.

I replayed it almost immediately after my first completion, choosing Master Mode difficulty. I actually didn't find the second time a grind at all - I was much more efficient (to be fair, you have to be, given the mobs all regenerate health) and also decided not to prioritise Korok seed hunting too much. Additionally I knew how to handle the tougher enemies from the get go, and so could navigate the world more freely.

On the whole I'd say I enjoyed myself a lot more overall that second time around. I intend to replay it again before BotW2 comes out.

I too prefer SoR3's mechanics. Growing up I skipped SoR2, and when I finally got to experience it years later I found its controls and movement to be much clunkier compared to 3's.

Ideally I'd have preferred that DotEmu make their game a combination of 3's movesets and 2's musical style and atmosphere.

@Wavey84 Young and defensive? Haha. If you were born in '84 (like your handle suggests) then I'm actually older than you... No my friend, I wasn't defensive at all; just providing a counterpoint to the one which you seemed to have written from behind rose-tinted glasses.

You are free to be nostalgic for the past, but my own mantra is to move with the times. I only suggest you don't get too sentimental, otherwise you'll soon find yourself being the resident "old man shouting at clouds". From one old-timer to another, I must say your comments seem to be veering dangerously close in that direction 😄

(Edit: I see you've removed that bit about me being young and defensive. I'm lazy to change what I've said so I'm leaving it untouched for posterity. Cheers!)

Yes we should all go back to the past, I heard the earlier you go the more innocent everything was - preferably the Neolithic age where there was zero nudity and absolutely no humans being murdered by other humans or huge carnivorous animals...

@Moistnado I know right?!

8bitdo must've mistakenly ordered too many d-pads. First they put two more than is necessary on each of their Switch Lite controllers, and now they're sticking one on a mouse... 😮

@thesilverbrick I agree that it's absurd to pretend all violence is the same, so fortunately I never expressed that notion anywhere. Look, I get the feeling we're taking past each other because while you're trying to explain the obvious about how Smash is made for the 10 year old demographic, my point was made in regard to the entire video game industry as a whole, not SSB in particular.

I have no further interest in Smash beyond playing and enjoying it so I'll leave the finer points of defending Sakurai's decisions to you.

@thesilverbrick Qualifying violence with the word "realistic" in front of it doesn't change the fact that it's still violence. Look, I've nothing against Smash (I mean I own the game myself) but I'm just highlighting the fact that the industry is ok with [edit] video game characters punching each other in the face but somehow not ok with a little cleavage.[/edit] I'm in my 30's so this fact is just absurd to me; If it isn't also absurd to you then of course please feel free to continue failing to grasp my point.

I'm not that big of a Mai fan so this doesn't bother me. However I'd just like to point out that yet again the video game industry is nay for sex, but yay for violence. 😔