mr_benn

I've never quite 'got' Pikmin for some reason, but I think it's definitely a me issue given the praise heaped upon it. The timer in the first one would surely give me some sort of anxiety though. Is each day/mission timed, or can you find yourself in a position where you're a good way through the game but it's basically impossible to complete within the time you have left?

I'd love to see them work with SEGA on getting all of those delicious games they have in the Yakuza/Like a Dragon series out as proper releases. Daytona 2 (ahem, 'Sega Racing 2' would be very welcome!

@cammers1995 yes - the rights issues have been an absolute headache all stemming back to GCC and Midway. It's been released on PS5 and Xbox though so the Switch is an outlier!

It's a shame because it feels like PacMan 99 was closed down for this, and I rather enjoyed that. Would be great to see a Ms PacMan 99... but then Ms PacMan has never appeared on Switch at all ! sob

Not just the first NAMCO game, but the first game by Toru Iwatani, the creator of Pac Man. So it gets points for that at least

@DaniPooo "I also think that the question should be asked when you start the game (do you want cheats to be available? You can't change this settings later)"

If I'm going to be in a game for 10+ hours before I hit a difficulty spike that eventually makes me want to change the difficulty, I don't want to have to replay those 10 hours just to do it.

It feels like lots of people feel that the temptation of the reduced difficulty/cheat (whatever you'd like to call it) is too great and therefore everyone should be inconvenienced as a consequence. I say GIT GUD at self control.

I'm a huge supporter of differing difficulty settings, letting people who've paid for the game play how they want.

'Waaaaaaaahhh just watch a youtube video instead' just misses the point. Lots of games have lots of fun sections to play and mess around in, coupled with some difficulty spikes that for some, aren't that fun. I turned the difficulty down in Remake for a few boss fights as by the time you're on your third go of a fight that takes the best part of 10 minutes I've had enough.

I was musing about the original Hollow Knight (and how I'd gotten a bit stuck on one of the bosses to the extent it wasn't fun anymore, so I'd missed out on a lot of the subsequent game), and found this excellent John Walker article: https://kotaku.com/skip-boss-fights-elden-ring-metroid-prime-argument-1851781231

To all those players who are 'git gud' - it's fine, you're better at some games than I am. You can keep being on hard mode, but I'd like to PLAY the rest of the game (not watch it on youtube, predicting your responses) and not get hammered by difficulty spikes.

I've always been slightly confused as to the benefits of these controllers, but then I'm terrible at fighting games anyway and surely it's not a million miles away from playing a game on a keyboard. I've got the 8bitdo arcade joystick and absolutely love it, from the look to the feel and weight of it, so I'm sure that this will greatly appeal to the sort of people looking for this sort of thing!

I really enjoyed Hollow Knight, but there was a serious difficulty spike on one of the bosses that I just couldn't get over (even after knowing what I was 'supposed' to do) and so that was kind of it for me. I suspect this would have the same issue which is rather a shame.

I went pretty late on Gamecube, probably about 2005 or 6 I reckon - I ended up picking up a second hand silver one with the Resident Evil 4 branding on it. It really picked me up out of a funk of playing WAY too much WoW with some absolutely excellent games - I have fond memories of sitting on the floor with friends playing two player Donkey Konga!

I did wonder whether this was going to be the absolutely pure arcade port with single track only and obviously this is indeed the case, so it's a no from me. Love a bit of Ridge Racer though - If Namco would ever consider a collection of them I'd be all over it.

For that matter, given that Sega have stuck Daytona 2 in Yakuza games in the form of 'Sega Racing', I'd LOVE to see Daytona 1 and 2 in a collection too!

Loved the original Fantasy Life so I do hope this is good. Would like to see a better running Switch 2 version too if possible...

I've put off a replay of Tears of the Kingdom until Switch 2 - other than that I'm looking forward to (hopefully) improved loading times and/or lack of any notable slowdown on a few Switch games.

I don't know how this review can exist without a mention of this song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFiNAGP1KlY

I'm so terrible at F-Zero.but happy that it's getting some attention I guess. I lament the disappearance of PacMan 99 and Mario 35 or 40 or whatever it was!

Unfortunately Donkey Konga is unplayable on modern TVs due to the input/visual/sound lag, so they'd need to do some mucking around with the options. Still a pretty fabulous game when you have a set up with a CRT and two pairs of bongos though!

I still remember playing Rogue Leader on a GAME display unit and was absolutely blown away - I'd love to see this and Hit n' Run come to NSO but the licensing feels like it would be a headache.

What's the deal with owning a S1 and S2 at the same time - will it be like owning 2 Switch 1's, where you have to set a 'primary console' and deal with all that malarkey, or will they just act as two entirely independent consoles not caring what someone might be playing on the other one?

GAME are such an odd shop - they go through phases of being REALLY GOOD for some niche things - in the past it's been retro stuff like Evercade and mini consoles before suddenly everything was really expensive, also I've had a good few cheap Transformers and bargainous board games from them. The games sections themselves are pretty dire in-store, though the online sales have the odd bargain in. Also I have to go through a Sports Direct to get to one, which is a bit of a pain!

I got the 'invitation' e-mail from Nintendo this afternoon, but having heard the news that Argos were doing pre-orders earlier I spaffed all my Nectar points with them instead. Might still see if I can get a GC controller from Nintendo though they're taking their sweet time sending the verification code through!

edit - got the GC controller - and some Pro controllers - through the Nintendo store. Hurray! Quite fancy having an extra two joycons too but figure I'll wait until they start doing some different colours for that.

Just seen on the UK Nintendo shop that pre-orders will be ‘by invitation’ on 8th April, based on a number of criteria including your usage and Online membership.

Missed one for Friday afternoon in London. And no chance I was going to go all the way to Excel on a weekend - I can wait instead!

Balatro teaches you about as much about how to gamble/play poker as Yahtzee, insofar as it teaches you about pairs/full houses/straights etc. Maybe there's something there about the Tarot deck that people are sensitive about too? Anyway, it's a great game and an 18+ rating is madness.

@HammerGalladeBro, you really don't need to know how to play poker to play this. Strong recommend from me.

I still like being able to actually own the music - I've got all the Club Nintendo 'Sound Selection' albums which are tremendous!

Using the Bank of England inflation calculator, £280 in 2017 is equivalent to £362.54 now - which at current exchange rates (according to xe.com) is $473 USD. So $500 isn't terribly far off really.

I'm surprised that the concept of inflation and cost equivalence hasn't really been mentioned in your article - the fact that the Switch has remained at around the same price represents the product actually getting cheaper over time rather than staying flat, but this then causes a bit of an issue in people's minds when it comes to a significant jump for the new console.

Looking forward to a new Switch that has a bit more oomph to it, but really hope it's backward compatible as I've got a pretty big mostly digital library on the current one. I hope - but I suspect it won't be the case - I could happily use both in the house at once without having to faff around with primary accounts and whatnot.

Taito before 2024: No, you can't have the original Rainbow Islands on Switch ever ever.

Taito in 2024: Oh! Here you go, twice!

Already got the Arcade Archives versions of anything I want here. 10 titles ultimately seems a bit stingy anyway.

I loved it, but hit a few difficulty spikes and eventually just gave up on it, it simply wasn't worth the frustration in the end which was a bit of a shame.

Probably wish I'd never thrown away all my old GC boxes ages ago now - I see boxed copies of TTYD going for triple figures now!

@sd7232 One wonders what that 7MB is taken up by - the roms are 32kb for Alleyway and 64kb for the other two!

Really enjoyed 99, took a while to get into but then it really clicked and top 10 was a regular occurrence (only managed #1 once or twice though!).

This just seems a bit sad though. At least, as you say, there are LOTS of good Pac-choices on Switch already.

Ah, the store in NYC is really great. My first ever experience of playing Super Mario Wonder was on the big gaming wall there which was quite fun. Kind of wish I'd bought a huge plush Bow-Wow or Piranha Plant there though too (although massively impractical!).

Third picture down looks like a Humboldt squid, which can sometimes be quite interested in people diving, to the extent that divers are often recommended to keep their distance. Seems a curious decision to just let people swim right by all of these creatures without having to worry about them at all.

HUGE fan of Super Mario Land here. It's short, but lacks any fluff whatsoever - 12 pretty solid platformy/shooty levels that you're easily going to get through on your battery life. Perfect to smash through on a morning train commute, and the New Game+ genuinely makes for a good challenge. SML2 absolutely looked the part, but seemed to lack a little bit of soul.

Absolutely loved Donkey Konga and its sequel. Sadly it's absolutely unplayable on anything but a CRT, as any lag completely spoils it and there's no calibration possible in the game unlike Rock Band etc.

I was all over these when I didn't have them - but embarrassingly I have to admit that since getting them I've used them once and then everyone has gone back to using the Switch Pro controllers again!

All I've been told (from someone who has seen all the sets but takes confidentiality agreements very seriously) is that 'I'll like the sets, and there are decent sets at all the pricepoints' - so that's a good start

It's a real shame - this and Mario 35 were definitely my favourite ones of these big games. I'm so awful at F-Zero it's just not that enjoyable for me.

@NintendoJunkie you're not doing reactionary vitriol right!

(Thanks for your insights though. These things are always more complex than they may appear!)

Well this makes sense now… I have a prototype build for this set (that I got from Lego, so it’s a thing) that’s got a lot more studs on show than this version, didn’t quite know how it came about. I’ll share a pic here when I get home.

edit: here we go! https://ibb.co/zJzXNJj

@nocdaes it was at a place called the Pixel Bunker in Milton Keynes - the CRT was a bit knackered so the whole thing had a bit of an orange hue but otherwise running fine. Whilst there's something nostalgic - almost romantic - about playing games on the original cabinets, there's a LOT to be said about how comfortable my sofa is and how nice my tv looks

@nocdaes I had to go and check this as I wasn’t sure if I was misremembering! Playing the Arcade Archives version on Switch which I think is the same as you’re talking about?

I think the empty spaceship has always been there in 2-1! If you go out of that area and then back towards it the spaceship guys will also appear.

Equally I didn’t have the same whale experience as you, took plenty of hits (and a good few drips) to despatch it.

I actually played a proper arcade cabinet of this a few months ago and the Switch version seemed pretty true to that experience!

Overall NZ story is a funny one… I’ve played so many different ports of it that have totally different level designs I can never totally remember how it all goes on the specific one I’m playing… was playing it on the PSP Taito Legends pack recently and it was once again different compared to Arcade and other versions (such as, indeed, the excellent Amiga version you mentioned, which I expect actually had a bit more processing power behind it than the original arcade machine, though I may be wrong here)

@Clyde_Radcliffe totally agree. The last release of it was the nasty Extra version on Egret II mini… I’d have probably bought that system if they’d put the original version on. I’d pay full price for a Bubble Bobble, Rainbow Islands and Parasol Stars collection for sure.

@farrgazer the FX3 collections have reliably appeared on 50% off sale every so often, though granted they're getting on a bit now.

This table used to be in the Union at Leeds Uni where I played it quite a lot (over 20 years ago now!) - more recently I've been playing it at the Pinball Office near Harlow. Excellent table. Shame that FX3 seems to be retired when it comes to new tables, also seems pricey for just a single table, I'll wait for a half price sale down the line I think!

I can't remember the last time I 'shopped' on the e-shop. I tend to buy everything via Deku Deals now and then it magically turns up on the Switch (which even now impresses me that I can buy something on one device and it's delivered to another!).

Amazing obviously because it's a great game (have enjoyed it on the PC Engine mini), but as per the other comments - ARCADE PERFECT RAINBOW ISLANDS PLEASE! And not that horrible misjudged Extra version that they put on the Megadrive and the Egret II mini as it's ugly as hell.

The Bubble Bobble trilogy and NZ story are such a classic suite of games, but Taito seem absolutely determined usually to give us Bobble Bobble all the time and occasionally NZ story - the last re-release of Rainbow Islands must have been the best part of 20 years ago?

@Nanaki precisely what I thought - this feels like exactly the same concept.

Genuinely have enjoyed this game off and on. The promise of an Optimus Prime skin was sufficient to lure me into this season after at least a year off - and I am pretty confident that I'll give it another decent break after this one too.

It's always been a very accessible and fun shooter - easy to grasp, hard to master. I'm terrible at building, but often find that employing different tactics deals with the builders one way or another!

Genuinely quite disappointed about this, I'll often fire it up once a week for a single game. Only ever won one! Hopefully we'll at least see something else taking its place.