nofriendo

Starlink was half off on the eShop so I finally picked that up and I’m having a blast. Also been seeing a lot written about BotW in the last week to honor its two-year anniversary, so no doubt I’ll put in some hours dashing about Hyrule acting the hero. Happy gaming everyone!

@roadrunner343 My thought exactly. There’s simply no way they’re decent quality at that price.

@MH4 I’ll chime in with The Gardens Between, currently 10 bucks on the eshop. Really an all around lovely puzzle game, heartfelt and made with careful attention to detail and narrative. If you’ve a soft spot for childhood nostalgia and puzzle games, I highly recommend.

Q.U.B.E. 2, obv, but what the heck were they thinking not giving your character a body? Can’t unsee that, unfortch.

Small bursts of OlliOlli. Illusory realm bosses in BotW. Moon-hunting in Odyssey. Further side-scrolling in The Messenger.

And on and on and on...

Happy weekend!

I have all this money I want to give you.

@Lionyone A real shame it isn’t. The audience is certainly there for it. Have you played Dandara? One of my favorite Switch games, and the protagonist is a black woman. It’s based on Brazilian folklore.

Not crazy about the procedural generation, but visuals and music are sick, and if they nail the combat, basically make a retrofuturistic Dead Cells, I am so totally in.

@JayJ
It seems that you've caught me in a low-information kind of position. I'll just back out slowly... nobody has to get hurt...

@JayJ I've heard this said a few times now and I don't really see it. I'm a big fan of the game, and none of the gameplay has anything to do with hitting buttons in time with music. It's simply a side-scrolling skateboarding game, where you have to grind and trick your way to a high score on each level. What it does share in common with rhythm games is it gets quite difficult to time your tricks at speed in the more complex environments. But you are not chained to a particular speed or a musical grid at any point.

This comments section will not age well.

Will almost certainly pick this one up. I'm glad the visuals are so polished. Looks like an immersive brain-teaser with a solid sci-fi atmo. Just my thing.

OlliOlli, BotW DLC, and Yooka-Laylee mostly. Miscellaneous others I’m sure, but those are my mains at the mo. Happy weekend and happy gaming to all!

@Laxeybobby
And I completely agree with yours. One of the first things I thought when entering battle was there needs to be motion control. One has to stop piloting one's mech in order to aim and fire at the same time. With motion controls that wouldn't be necessary. Right you are too about the auto-aim, which turns firing into a mindless exercise. Perhaps there will be an option to turn this off? And I was able to turn off the background music, which removed an annoyance, but also served to highlight the lack of a decent soundtrack. In many ways the game feels retrograde, uninspired.

And can we also mention the mission briefings? Dialogue is laborious, with a halting visual component that severely dampens enthusiasm for the mission as you click through. There's a ton of exposition with no real background or character development. It's a big ask of a player who can't possibly have any investment.

I found the controls stiff, the music ridiculous, the exposition very poorly timed in the middle of intense action, and the action itself messy, the screen too cluttered with text and targeting visuals. I think it all needs to be tightened up considerably. About the only thing I really enjoyed was the character creation. The biggest disappointment is the FEEL of the game. The weight and size of these machines is completely absent, and environment detail is previous gen or even mobile quality. I’ll monitor the game’s final development and release and see if comments and reviews bear out my first impressions.

@Scottwood101 I think in situations like this, where there is still enjoyment to be had from the game, it’s best to look up a guide and move on, rather than bash your head against the wall and discard the game. I used to have a strict no-guides rule but I realized I was missing out on some great stuff by giving up on games I couldn’t seem to make progress on. Just my two cents.

@klingki i would buy it on the name alone. Thanks!

@klingki off-topic here, but I keep meaning to ask, what’s that awesome looking game featured in your profile gif? And how do I play it?

Dark Souls, Smash, some Overcooked co-op with the Mrs. and probably some MK8D as well, and finally getting around to the BotW DLC. Here’s to a great gaming weekend y’all!

TETRIS EFFECT PLEASE

Games like this are for pure nostalgia only. Absolutely no reason to pay and play if you’ve never experienced it before, especially at that price. This is from the golden days of shareware (the demo anyway) and brings me right back to my early days of PC gaming. Therefore worth the price.

@SmaggTheSmug Jazz and Keen for Smash!

Oh HELL yes!! I downloaded this right away. My God, this was my favorite series growing up. Goodbye Galaxy was the best. I really hope the rest show up on the eShop!!

Um... this looks awesome!

If it weren't for the bumbling controls and the terrible soundtrack by Sting, I might have tried this.

D-Pad, ergonomic grips, and enough power to reach that sweet sweet 1080p resolution. Also, you can’t really call it a Switch any more, can you?

@Silly_G aka art!

Finally digging into Dark Souls and the game is really getting under my skin. I’ll be heading to Skyrim and Hyrule for respite from the gloom and to scratch my open-world itch. I’ll also continue working on Marker Dell Farm in Stardew Valley. Happy gaming to one and all!

This is an absolute must-have, if the price is right. I have a soft spot for high-quality renditions of analog pastimes, where music and visuals really stand out.

@SeerCoot was just reminiscing with a friend about Turok. And wouldn’t Goldeneye be a blockbuster remaster as well?

@Balta666 I’ve collected three so far and definitely plan on squaring up to those challenges, though it’s hard to imagine some of these levels getting even MORE difficult.

And that’s an impressive death count!

I have just reached the final stage of Celeste. It’s been more fun than I could have imagined. I’ll be quite bereft after the credits roll on this one. Once done I’ll probably take up my pro controller in pursuit of more fighters in Smash, grab a few more moons in Odyssey, and perhaps download the BotW expansions, having just completed the 120th shrine and donned my classic outfit as a reward. Happy gaming!

@BenAV Exactly!

@SuperCharlie78 I’ve had some good fun with Hyper Sentinel. Love the simple setup and the hectic gameplay. Enjoy!

@NybroCymerej ummmmm.... how about we skip touching people without asking them if they want to be touched and go straight to the video games?

@Heavyarms55 I’ve had my eye on Shantae some time now. I like Hollow Knight and Dead Cells and Rayman but not Dust... Shantae’s down to $10 on the eShop... worth it?

Reading Jane Eyre and loving it. Writing at the Public Library. And playing rounds of Smash and Lumines Remastered in the moments between. Happy weekend!

@MrGawain I’m in the same camp you are. 2018 is almost past tents and I knew, as NintendoLife canvassed their readers and published the results of the pole, that the circus was only at intermission. I’m happy the long pitch of Smash Bros. is finally over and that Nintendo have seen a dramatic sales spike. All those pitched tents over preview footage were getting annoying.

@IceEarthGuard You may have a point there. I love a good pick up and play arcade sports experience, and something about the mechanics of MTA turned me off. Too complicated for casual fun and too arbitrary to inspire mastery. I guess I had the wrong idea going in. Was also hoping it’d be good fun for couch play with my wife but the odd special moves turned her off, as they did me.

This is the only game I’ve deleted from my Switch after purchasing. Utterly dull gameplay with a lot of noise and color. Huge disappointment.

My brother-in-law is getting a Switch for xmas and a copy of Smash, which means I finally need to purchase Smash so I can establish my dominance.

Apart from that, I’ve been loving Hyper Light Drifter and Skyrim.

I get a week off from xmas to New Year’s and I plan on getting to all of my backlist: Dark Souls, The Messenger, Hollow Knight, Yooka Laylee... plus more Mario Odyssey Moons, and maybe even back to Zelda... I’ve been stuck at 114 shrines for months!!

Happy gaming y’all, and happy and safe holidays to everyone. Be good to each other.

And thank you NintendoLife staff for giving us great games coverage and providing a (mostly) nontoxic forum for discussing the things we love. Cheers!

Picked up a copy of Yooka-Laylee for $28 on the eShop... I’d been eyeing it for months and could no longer resist in the face of a discount. Really looking forward to launching that this weekend. Otherwise I’ve got it bad for Skyrim, which I’m playing through for the first time. It’s so absorbing I think about it all day at work and can’t wait to get back to it when I return home.

Before I bought a Switch earlier this year, it’d been 15 years since I’d owned a console or been any kind of gamer. I must say I’ve had so much fun with the Switch and my return to the hobby. It’s been a great year.

Enjoy your weekend folks!

@Krull LOL

FINE.

As for price, the last movie I saw in NYC was close to $20, was only two hours long, and I didn’t get to control any characters in it. I get why some people consider game length and replayability when it comes to dollars spent, but some games don’t aim to please on those levels, and have something entirely different to offer, which I think is thrilling.

@PolarExperience Definitely. I’ve been sinking a fair amount of time into it recently and it really is a total joy. I wouldn’t say I’m all that much of a fan of the genre it’s paying homage to but it’s obvious they’ve done an incredible job with it. Gameplay is stellar, and so’s the music and humor. It’s a standout gem made with lots of love and with tongue planted firmly in cheek. It would be the stuff of legend if it’d been made 30 years ago.

Warframe totally took me by surprise. I’m smitten by the ultra slick visuals and the addictive gameplay. Not doing any multiplayer stuff, just solo slashin’ n blastin’. Great fun. So that’s me this weekend. Happy gaming!

I work at a small bookshop in NYC and December is an absolutely bonkers month. Six-day work-weeks and the days are non-stop activity. Therefore I'll have very little energy in the evening and will most likely fire up Stardew Valley in bed for a tranquil 15 minutes or so before it's lights out.

@Giygas_95 I’ve grappled with this same feeling quite a bit. Avid gamer through my adolescence, then a 15 year hiatus, and now a strong aura of nostalgia coming from the whole enterprise, and a retro revival that brings me right back with brilliantly designed games that, miracle, have sophisticated adult sensibilities. (I’m looking at you, Celeste.)

Sometimes I wonder if I enjoy reading about games and anticipating their release more than playing them. Certainly that’s a much bigger part of it, for me, now, the community and the journalism. One thing I’ve found helps is, since I’m a grown-ass human now, setting aside time specifically for gaming, and incorporating it into my life in a more holistic way, rather than closing off the world to indulge and compartmentalizing too severely a passion I still possess. That can’t be healthy in the long run. But time must be made to allow feelings to progress beyond nostalgia, and maybe to choose games with dimensions that better suit your modern self.

(I find also the glut of games and fast and furious nature of their releases diminishes our ability to focus on a few great titles.)

@MajorasLapdog As you Brits might say: thanks mate. Or the French: j'appreesh.

I know how toxic the gaming community is. I know how skewed toward anti-social, young white males it's historically been (at least here in the states). Which is why, as an adult, I've stayed well clear of it. But I've always been a Nintendo fan and recently I returned to gaming after a long hiatus to play the Switch. Apart from Kotaku, I don't visit other gaming sites, and NintendoLife is the only forum in which I participate. The tone of the site is congenial and light-hearted, as any Nintendo-dedicated publication should be. But the community is not. Maybe it's the internet "community" in general, which seems anything but, to be honest. More like a bunch of individuals who constitute communities of one, making hostile remarks to foreigners as they cower behind the ramparts of their anonymity.

Now, as an adult with a conscience who's had to change (or make up) his mind about so much over the last decade, I realize that not even Nintendo and a Nintendo fansite are free from the ills of society, because, of course, they're run by humans. Male humans.

I love video games. Specifically I love Nintendo games. If I count myself a member of the Nintendo community, then you better believe I'm going to take opportunities to make it better, and to answer the call of my conscience when doing so. At the best of times, it's something like a family on here, and as with any family, impassioned arguing is bound to occur. Feelings will be stomped on. Injustices carried out. But we should all understand the devastating effects of silence on the marginalized. And we should all, especially the men among us, get some skin in the game by reaching out to the people in our lives who are actually affected by the issues we so vehemently weigh in on without any direct experience of them. A great way to do that is to seek diversity in your community. And a good way to do THAT is to create a safe environment to encourage it.

Racism is bad for the racist. Misogyny is bad for the misogynist. Let's buy into a better system, where people don't need to lose for us to win. I think it's a sick culture that's driven some of us to always side with the powerful, to ignore the cries of the vulnerable and dispossessed. There's nothing in that for any of us. The illusion of power, maybe. No dignity. No respect.

The issues surrounding sexual assault are extremely complex. There's not enough nuance in the way we handle it as a society, there sure as hell won't be in a video game message board.

Yesterday was a dispiriting day as I watched my community defend a famous man accused of sexual assault and attack me for sticking up for the victim. But your message of support turned that right around.

Thanks for speaking up, mate.

@Captain_EO I hear you. It’s hard to be objective about such an artificially polarized issue. And I think it’s very telling that the only recent high profile conviction of a famous serial rapist is a black man, Bill Cosby. And the dynamic is different when the victim is a male child, as in the case of Michael Jackson, unless it’s not a famous black and maybe gay man and instead a priest, in which case we allow it to go unchecked as thousands of boys and girls are raped while their rapists get shuffled around from church to church. We are so screwed up about this. There is so much work to do.

@Captain_EO Fair enough. But I would argue that the opposite, in fact, is what’s happening here, and what always happens. A public figure with millions of adoring fans and practically unlimited wealth and status gets accused of something terrible, and everyone jumps to his defense, claiming to detest false accusations, of which there are a vanishingly small amount in reality, but not in people’s heads, and we are left with a chorus of men trying to shout down the victim and her defenders, all in the name of fairness and “innocent until proven guilty.” Seriously, let’s see all this evidence of false accusations. It just isn’t there. Meanwhile, there’s a staggering amount of evidence of underreported sexual assault, of hundreds of thousands of rape kits going untested in police departments around the world, of careers and lives and reputations ruined... not of the men who commit the crimes, but of the women who dare to come forward about them. How can people say it’s more important to them that a man’s career and reputation not be ruined than that women finally have access to justice? It’s mindboggling, really.