@Fighting_Game_Loser Agreed. Almost certainly a result of the PHP2Shell vulnerability. Expect a lot of online disruptions and patches as AI accelerates the discovery of vulnerabilities like this one

@kameryn It's the CRKD Nitro Deck

@AussieMcBucket I'm glad someone got the reference

Love this. The Direct format is the gift that keeps on giving

@StorminNorman Blast from the past lol

I picked up a white one at launch and have been loving it, although it's not exactly being played every day. The N64 is more of a guilty pleasure than a deeply enjoyable gaming experience at this point. But, I'm deep down the repro hardware rathole at this point, and it's fun to hear about the experience of others.

I second Gavin's conclusion: not worth it for most, but exquisite for a select few.

As many have said, there were fewer 1st party than I was expecting. We don't have any Nintendo-published titles in Aug or Nov and only a S2 edition in Dec. Surely we'll see a few more announcements before year's end.

Great article! I appreciate the impassioned call to evaluate this game on its own merits. I feel the tonal shift from MK8D to MKW is reminiscent of Zelda games to the Wilds Era. The formula was changed so drastically that it's barely recognizable as a member of its own franchise. To this day I say that I love BotW, but it isn't a Zelda game.
I'm personally not a fan of the MK series, so I wasn't going to have a strong opinion one way or the other. My kids are huge fans though, so my opinion is heavily informed by theirs, especially my two teenage daughters who played on eSports teams in high school. Suffice it to say they are not fans of World.

@Pirate1 Doh, I should've included that in the legend
M = Mainline
R = Remake/remaster
S = Spinoff

I just finished a playthrough of this game last week. So excited to see (hear?) it show up on the music app!

My Switch 1 was dusty this year. I barely played it, outside of a month where I picked up Star Ocean: The Second Story R for cheap obsessively played through it in 45 hours. Getting a Switch 2 for Christmas has brought me back for some Nintendo gaming.

Happy birthday Operation C! I bought OC and Motocross Maniacs at a kiosk in the Factoria Mall in Belleuve WA. I didn't have my Game Boy with me at the time so all I could do on the drive home was to carefully inspected the box and cart. Good times

Sad to see you go Felix. I have loved your videos and your banter with Alex, Zion, and the rest of the video crew. I wish you well in your future endeavors!

It's shocking that Super Mario Bros had almost no bearing in the initial marketing of the NES.

He got his Switch 2
@Old-Red @bonham2 @PushMyGran86 @Misima @Mana_Knight @mikestevenson216 @AverageGamer @Mr_Vistor @OorWullie @AmanPikon @TryToBeHopeful @BBBBBBBBBBB @SlimeRyu @dugan @26somnambulance @Broch83 @Nintendo_Thumb @Zaruboggan @UpsideDownRowlet @DennyCrane @MeatSauce @spiderman0616 @Anachronism @GoproGO @JasonLee99 @AverageGamer @Misima @sdelfin @Shepdawg1 @charliecarrot @Mikeopferman @AG_Awesome @darkswabber @foursider @timp29 @molkom @h3s @Rambozo @Tott @MeloMan @kevin74 @John_Deacon @LeMasters @YAT @eldersnake @CutMan003 @Citrus_Architect @Earl_Grey @Joriss @nhSnork @Carnictis @KITG_GROUP @N64-ROX @larrythumbs @w1p3out

I love these "revisit a recent game" articles. Great games are releasing so often that it's hard to remember what came out only a few months ago. I bought this for my wife but haven't tried it myself. Echoes of Wisdom didn't do it for me, so I'm excited to give it a try. Thanks @AlanaHagues

Just ran through my entire Switch library. Only one game (What the Dub) was not supported, but more interesting is the list of games that can't be found. A few are delisted, but others are not:

Delisted (understandable):

• Crayola Scoot
• Killer Queen Black
• Mad Age & This Guy

Not Delisted (why are these missing?)

• Portal: Companion Collection
• Ring Fit Adventure

Delisted, but c'mon Nintendo

• Super Mario 3D All-Stars

@Coalescence I'm glad you liked the article. That salty letter about Naomi was published during my first month working at Nintendo, when Kent Miller was the writer. I thought of his matter-of-fact response ("her work speaks for itself") when those three pieces of Naomi's work came across my desk. I didn't select the one of Chrono and Marle because we had so much CT art, but I got the other two!

@GrantGM Thank you for the inspiration to write it! And for carrying on the tradition of fan art

Virtual Game Card is huge for those of us with kids and multiple Switches, but the game announcements were weak.

Wow what a poignant article! The media and messages that we connect with over the years never lose their strength. They haven't for me, anyway. Chrono Trigger is one example, for many of the reasons Alana has so brilliantly expressed.
The movie Groundhog Day is another, in which Phil discovers that some things can't be changed, some acts of kindness go unnoticed, and you can't make someone love you. Even so, he learns that you are defined by what you do, kindness is its own reward, and to be loved you become lovable.
Thank you for this article @AlanaHagues!

YES!I I love seeing studios revive old IPs via a neo-retro "demake" approach. Here's hoping Predator gets the same treatment.

Great post. I'm greatful for video games as well. They're my last remaining childhood hobbie that I've retained into middle age. It's special to associate a life event with a game because it makes it easy to reconnect with that moment. Cheers and good luck on your health journey.

Can't wait! I love these retro remaster projects. Ninja Warriors, Pocky & Rocky, Ghosts n Goblins, Final Fantasy Pixel, et al. It's a great time to be a retro gamer.

Wonderful article! I played a handful of the many, many DS RPGs, but completely missed this one. CT is my favorite RPG ever so your comparison is enough to convince me to give RH a try. Thanks for the tip!

This is a great conversation starter. I've got at least one of each of the six variants. As much as I love the big screen of the New XL, I prefer the feel of the New 3DS. The New XL feels somehow cheaper than either of the New 3DS models. But they're all great.

Ok, ok. I went back to see whether multii-targeting is possible in IV and sure enough it is. I forgot how long the intro is for that game! I had to play quite a while before I had a black magic spell that I could multi-target with. Thanks to @RushDawg, @KingMike, and @Deusfaux for the fact check.

@spacepope4u I wish I knew! I believe these were the names in the build that we played but I don't have any proof beyond these hand drawn notes. One thing that I distinctly remember is changing Terra/Sarrah's name to Megan since that was the name of my crush at the time. 😊
I tried, but was unsuccessful, in tracking down James to ask more details about the playtest. Hopefully @KingMike has more details.

@Kienda LOL, I'm glad you picked up on the reference. I was actually watching the LotR EE while writing this post so I couldn't resist quoting Elrond. I had never noticed the physical resemblance, but I think you just picked out this year's Halloween costume for me. Cheers!

@gojiguy Yes, the TG-16 is highly underrated. I might get to the CD games eventually. I debated whether to play those next, but all the FMV games scared me away for now. Instead I started working on all English-friendly released in Japan or Europe. I just finished the Super Famicom (~450 games) and am gearing up to review Mega Drive (160) and PC Engine games (170).

@DanijoEX-the-Pierrot Nope, there are 704 of them

@Yousef- Good question! There are several data points I captured about each game which didn't get added to the blog posts. The Memorable flag is set for games that I have a particular nostalgic memory of, or an interesting story. For example, I played quite a few of these games before they released and had some interesting experiences, like when I met one-on-one with the president of Enix of America and had to tell him that King Arthur and the Knights of Justice was terrible. Some of the memories are personal so I left all of them off the blog.

Great article! LOL
For anyone wanting to do something similar, it took me a couple of years to complete the project. I'd play and write up a couple of games each night. It's a mountain of work to do, and all those football, soccer, and baseball games will test your patience for sure.
Regarding, the critique that I'm anti-Genesis, having played everything I can 100% say that the cream of the crop from the generation are mostly in the SNES library. But that doesn't mean there aren't a lot of good games on the SMD. You just have to scroll down a little to find them.
As for the Sega Sound, I'm convinced that it's like cilantro. Either you love it, or it tastes like earwax. My understanding is that's a genetic trait that you can't will out of existence. The Motorola 68000 techno sounds either appeal to you, or they don't. Obviously, they don't to me. 😎 But hey, to each his or her own, right?

As a collector, it's SNES all the way for me. They look amazing on a shelf and aren't as bulky as the NES carts. Nothing else comes close to those two cart designs.

@PinderSchloss I'm glad you liked the article! Props to the editor Gavin Lane @dartmonkey for the cheeky headline 😇

@Zverik "on a real world map, we don't have a symbol for jump" 😂

What a great topic! I love hearing about the history of video games and companies. From the outside looking in, it's odd that a company would greenlight a project like this. It was obviously technically impressive, but had no chance for commercial success. It reminds me of Ian Malcolm's famous quote, "Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should."

Nintendo ought to just hire Michael from DekuDeals to rewrite the eShop. He leans heavily into prebuilt filters, which suits me just fine.

@-wc- I get it. I have a brother who absolutely adores Earthbound too. It's very charming and I wish I could enjoy it, but these limitations hold it back too much in the gameplay department for me. I'm working off of memory but I'm pretty sure it has my first and third complaints, the third being the need to navigate two layers of menus to talk or check something. Maybe I'm not remembering that correctly. Either way, I know I'm in the minority in my distate for Earthbound.

Love this topic! For me, pretty much every RPG from the early generations fits into this category. There are a handful of quality of life improvements in an RPG that I simply can't live without, such as shared inventories, random selection of a target if the target has been killed, not having to open and menu to Talk, etc. For example, I've always found Earthbound to be charming, but I cannot stand playing it these days because it's missing all of those modern features.

My first thought while watching Link fight Ganon at the beginning of the trailer: "Oh wow, they've remade the OG Legend of Zelda!"

You forgot Castlevania Symphony of the Night. It makes zero sense that Konami released Castlevania Requiem on PS4 but has never ported it to Switch. We've got the two collections but not the best Castlevania title ever. Zero sense.

• Kid Icarus by Capcom
• Super Metroid remake by MercurySteam
• Star Fox or Pilotwings by Bandai Namco
• 1080 or WaveRace by, I don't know, somebody
• Golden Sun by Sabotage Studio
• Mario Golf/Sports RPG by Camelot (make what Sports Story ought to have been)

Konami needs to sell their IP to someone. Give Contra and Castlevania to WayForward, MG to Namco, Goemon and Gradius to Treasure, and officially leave to industry. You won't be missed.

What? No Bo Jackson?

This game feels like a step sideways. There are no QoL improvements from the mostly-excellent BotW. I could itemize everything I dislike about TotK, but suffice it to say I'm not enjoying it. BotW was a joy from start to finish. I'm six hours in and I'm going to take a break and come back to it sometime.

JoyMasher is one of my favorite retro indie devs. I loved Odallus and Blazing Chrome so I'm not surprised this one turned out well.

I can't speak for everyone but for me 2022 was a barren wasteland. I didn't buy any first party titles and after getting a Steam Deck I bought all indies and non exclusives on that system. Everything plays much better over there.

As they say, no news is no news

RIP
Thank you for including links to his articles. I'll read a few today to honor him