sfb

Nice game, played it a bit on Steam. Mechanics are pretty good. The game’s greatest strengths are its whimsical humor and style.

One of my favorite video game voice samples: “Get ready!”

Granted the gameplay is a bit thin, but the nostalgia remains strong.

I recall Outrun 2 (2006?) being pulled from some online storefronts years ago, apparently because the Ferrari license expired.

Would be great if it could be released/ported with the Ferrari models removed, if necessary

@OorWullie X-Multiply is developed by IREM, and feels somewhat similar to the first two R-Type games. But Instead of a detachable pod, your main upgrade is a pair of tentacles, which shoot from their tips. Aesthetically, it feels like Salamander, with its biological theme.

Not my favorite IREM title, but I am still hoping that in The Hunt reaches the Switch at some point!

@EmirParkreiner thanks for mentioning those lesser-discussed titles. I’m curious about Sisters Royale, given how little coverage it has received.

By the way, a few weeks ago I read that Radirgy Swag is getting a Western release — IIRC, later this year.

Good pick from the Irem archives, which I will enjoy — but I still want Hamster to port In The Hunt

@Shmupsnstuff I thoroughly enjoyed Jamestown as a single-player experience, both on PC and PS4. Not only is the core gameplay solid — there is a good amount of stages, and lots of different ships/upgrades, challenges, difficulty levels, etc.

Yes, yes, a thousand times yes. I actually applauded when I read this headline.

Excellent game, very suitable for the Switch platform. Even the aspect ratio is a fit. Great news all around.

@ryobi85 IMO, horizontal and vertical shooters can be difficult to compare, as they often feel different in terms of reaction time, bullet patterns, even aesthetics.

With that said, I’m partial to the Thunderforce series, particularly 3 and 5. The one currently on Switch is TF4 - many players’ favorite of the series. I like it, but I’m not so much a fan of the vertically scrolling play field. Generally I prefer to see the entire field at once. Still a very good game. Quite challenging though; really requires fast reflexes

You’ve already broken the first rule of Animal Fight Club

Played the first Super Mega Baseball. Pretty solid mechanics, particularly in terms of pitching and hitting.

I’m not much of a sports person, but found the game lots of fun. Heard the sequel was even better, but haven’t tried it.

@Late haven’t played this in quite a while — but IIRC, the gameplay of Hyperlight differs significantly from Geometry Wars, in that you don’t shoot enemies in Hyperlight, but instead avoid and occasionally ram them.

Not a bad game at all, but very different mechanics and feel

@retro_player_22 @RedderRugfish

I humbly present the Xonox double-ender Atari 2600 cartridge for the win:

https://images.app.goo.gl/fXxLJu1JxudUn7Ye8

FYI to anyone who has a hankering for more vintage Konami action on the Switch: (at least) two of their early arcade games have been released as stand-alone downloadable titles on the eShop, namely Time Pilot and Pooyan.

Both of these play great on the Switch. Pooyan is especially well-suited for vertical orientation & the Flip Grip.

@gimmi_c I also just confirmed that the displays of Contra (Arcade) and Super Contra (Arcade) can be rotated while docked. At least the English versions; I did not check the Japanese versions

On the Castlevania collection, so far I have not found find any titles that support TATE mode - understandable I suppose, as I don’t think there are any arcade titles there, unless I’ve overlooked something

@gimmi_c I just checked the Arcade Collection, and can confirm that Scramble, Twine Bee and Typhoon can be set to vertical orientation (TATE) while docked

@Lroy For the Arcade Classics Collection, TATE mode was patched in after the initial release, specifically for the titles that were originally vertically oriented (IIRC, Scramble, Twin Bee,and one other)

There is a video on YouTube, I believe both the NintendoUK and NintendoUS channels, detailing all of the improvements that the devs made to DxM based on demo feedback. It is a long list with specific gameplay clips as examples for most of the points.

Hue, if true.

The color-change mechanic reminds me of Runbow. Totally different game, though.

@sword_9mm

My understanding is that Nvidia has had a successor chip available for some time now, and actually is fabricating the current Switch chip (Tegra 1?) only for Nintendo, as it is based on tech that has been superseded.

From N’s perspective, I think they (as usual) need to balance the desire to maintain current market momentum vs. additional titles/capabilities that upgraded tech would bring. IOW, i think it is a (tricky) question of when and how they migrate to the next chip.

There is also “Levelhead” coming from Butterscotch Shenanigans, the team behind Crashlands

IIRC, Levelhead has been in development for quite a while, well before we heard anything about Super Mario Maker 2

Gimme Skelter

FWIW, it’s sitting at 94% positive on Steam (n=131)

@purpleskittles8 Riggah-goo-goo, riggah-goo-goo.

Nice Tenacious D reference. The game sounds good too.

@gutsy ACE does make interesting games. Abyss Odyssey is another good one. Nice to know of a good development studio from Chile.

Another notable Switch-related developer from South America is Aquarius, which is based in Brazil. They developed Horizon Chase Turbo.

Extremely positive reviews on Steam

I’ve played some of this developer’s games on Steam. This might be one of his more conventional ones. Some of his games are further “out there”, with psychedelic visuals and intentional misspellings.

@NinChocolate You’re referring to the “rebirth” games, right? I grabbed them from the Wii eShop shortly before Nintendo disabled adding credit. Haven’t tried them much; need to go back sometime — thanks for the reminder!

@Gerald I can’t claim to have special insight into the Sega Ages game selection process. But it seems that, given M2’s painstakingly thorough approach, progress is never going to be brisk. Obviously they have mostly focused on Sega’s older titles so far; progress might be even slower when they (hopefully) tackle later eras.

With that said, it sounds like M2’s version of Virtua Racing is (typically) excellent. Looking forward to the western release. I enjoyed that game during its initial arcade run, and on Genesis and Saturn as well.

What a great legacy in gaming that Sega has. So it’s natural that many of us want it to remain alive and accessible.

@Gerald Actually, Reiko Kodama also happens to be the lead producer of the Sega Ages series. This article doesn’t mention it, but I recognize her name, and checked several outside sources to confirm. She is also known as “Phoenix Rie” form the time when Sega did not allow staff to include their real names in game credits. Some of her early work was as an artist on Phantasy Star and some of the early Sonic games.

With that said, I skimmed a couple of recent interviews she’s done. She does not directly state that a Sega Ages port of Skies will not happen. But the overall tone of her commentary she might be inclined to leave the game in the past. She does say that the game was complex to develop, given its two combat systems. At the same time, she acknowledges that there is fan interest in doing something else with the IP.

Played this a tiny bit, earlier in its Early Access period, have held off since.

When I played Black Paradox, it was (understandably) a bit light on content, but I could see the potential. Somewhat like Steredenn, but a markedly different feel. Will be interested to try the final product. Did not realize it would coming to the Switch so quickly!

@RetroOutcast

I played Bot Vice on Steam & loved it. Solid arcade action & controls with a retro visuals. Nice music and audio too. For me, the Switch version is a day-one purchase.

You might want to look at the Steam reviews for other data points. As of this writing, the positive ratio is 95% of 837 reviews — quite high, even for Steam. But I’d suggest skimming the write-ups as well.

The developer (DYA) has a few other games also on Switch, including Super Star Path (also launching today), Strikey Sisters, and Viviette. Played the first two of these, both of which have similar aesthetics to Bot Vice and are fun experiences. But Bot Vice is easily my favorite from this developer.

Great news.

Hope Zen can work out the rights to bring their Marvel tables to Switch as well. Some of their best work was with the Marvel and Star Wars licenses.

FYI, this game is on sale via Steam for the next couple of days.

@Cipher1332 The game has crashed on me twice, each time in the middle of Season 2.

I’ve been playing Rogue mode, but considering switching to Arcade just to minimize my loss of progress!

Hope they patch and make the game more stable.

@Haywired Fair enough, I respect empirical data — but I also think it’s fair to consider how the data was captured, and whether we can be confident that it is truly representative of a larger population.

This wouldn’t be a practical approach — but in theory, i think a more neutral data capture method would be to have a 3rd party compose a representative, randomly selected sample of players, have them play the game, and record and compile the results. Again, not realistic, unless someone commissions an academic study. In the absence of that, it’s difficult to say whether the data on that site is skewed towards more dedicated players. I suspect it might be, but I can’t prove it.

In fairness, I probably should admit my own bias. I tend to play through games very slowly. I’m not a completionist per se, but I tend to take lot of side quests and optional routes, go back soon after level completion to search for a few more collectibles, etc. And I often don’t even finish the main story. So my own (admittedly skewed) perception of game length is probably much longer than average. Plus, I nearly always game alone, so I don’t have the experiences of others to consider. So, I can’t claim to have any real authority on the topic of game completion length!

tl;dr - although I have some doubts about that particular dataset, it has some value & is more grounded than anything I have to offer - so I concede you have the better argument here.

@Adam Good questions. I don’t know the answers, not having tried the game - just reflecting what some of the Steam reviewers said. I didn’t dig too deeply in the reviews, but it’s possible someone addressed this - or might be discussed on the Steam discussion board for the game.

Generally speaking, I get the vibe that some board-type games are regarded as inherently more fun for multiplayer because of the interpersonal dynamics, joint or adversarial tactics, etc. - not necessarily easier to complete. I might be way off base, though.

The Vandals portion of the trailer reminds me of “Hitman Go” - but it sounds like there might be more to the game

Great review. The structure of the campaign, as explained here, reminds be of another great 2D shooter that would be great on the Switch: Jamestown.

@sketchturner Great point. As you might know, this is also known as selection bias, or self-selection bias in this case.

@RetroOutcast Dynamite Headdy is certainly unique and memorable. Did you play the (more difficult) Western version or the Japanese original? I can hardly get anywhere on the US version these days.

Also, I like your comment about offering grades vs. going for extreme difficulty. While I don’t mind high difficulty (to a point) in Rogue-lites, extreme difficulty in games with pre-defined levels can be discouraging to those of us who are... shall we say... “differently skilled.” Gating off content, and all that. With that said, I think I understand what the designers of Cuphead are going for. I never made much progress on the PC version, but will give it another try on Switch.

@dartmonkey I haven’t read your “Mechstermination Force” review yet — but wanted to compliment you (and/or the editors) on the Dalek / Doctor Who reference in the subtitle. Nice one; made me smile.

FWIW, For the King is 83% positive on Steam, with a large number of reviews (4,365). Skimming those reviews, sounds like a good game for co-op, possible for solo players, provided one has a substantial tolerance for RNG and enduring defeat.

Might be my type of game. Might be more easily sold if I had friends for multiplayer, which I don’t. Still might check it out.

Initially it reminded me of Q*Bert, of all things, with the main character apparently trying to change all the tiles to the same color. But the later scenes suggest some other mechanics at play here. And I like the aesthetics, for what it’s worth.

I’m not usually drawn to puzzle games these days, but this seems moderately appealing to me.

@Tyranexx Wrist pain is a formidable adversary indeed.

About three months ago, my primary care professional suggested I take turmeric and glucosamine daily, to ease inflammation related to things like wrist/ankle/knee pain. I followed his suggestion, and it seems to be working pretty well for me. If you have chronic issues in this area, you might consider the same.

@JoeDiddley seeing as you like SMT and the 3DS — if you haven’t tried it already, you might also like Soul Hackers. It is an SMT offshoot that originally appeared on the Sega Saturn, and was ported to the 3DS many years later. Structurally, it is a dungeon-crawler at heart, laced with lots of SMT mechanics and lore. Another one with strong story elements. Not an SRPG at all, but you might enjoy it for other reasons — it holds up quite well for its age.

@Tyranexx I know those games quite well. Yesterday I wound up playing a related title: “Unexpected Washing Machine Breakdown & Repair.”

@JoeDiddley In terms of SRPGs, I think you’ll really enjoy Devil Survivor. I played the original version; haven’t yet tried the Overclocked release or the sequel.

Very engrossing. The basic mechanics are a mesh of traditional RPG battles and SRPG grid-style positioning. The elements come together nicely. And as someone who is typically indifferent to the narrative elements of games, I quite enjoyed the story, including the branching choices and outcomes.

I believe the Overclocked version includes the “7th day” coda to the story, plus some other tweaks. I’ll have to go back to it sometime.

@JoeDiddley Those are some truly great 3DS picks.

I also had a brief trip recently & opted to bring my 3DS instead of the Switch. Didn’t play it too much, mostly on the plane, fiddling with a few eShop downloads I had overlooked such as Picdun 2. Not a bad game for its budget price, actually. It’s no Etrian Odyssey, but it’s more clever than I expected.

So many games to play on the Switch as well. I find myself repeatedly drawn back to various rogue-lites. Have been playing Nuclear Throne heavily since its shadow-drop last week. And it always easy and fun to pick up and play Downwell.

@pupypup Last I checked Downwell is only $2.99 on the Switch eShop. Also, playing it with the FlipGrip is my favorite way to enjoy the game.