Comments 544

Re: Team Keyboard Rocks The Competition In Splatoon 3's Latest Splatfest

swoose

Nothing to complain about with this splatfest, we finally got a popularity vote so close that all 3 teams were above 30%. That's pretty remarkable, really. I didn't get a single same-team match all weekend, except a few in Tricolor battle.

Getting credit for 2nd place in a category might keep the final tallies closer as well. And it's more encouraging to keep playing because you know each category isn't all-or-nothing.

Re: Random: It's Done! Every Super Mario Maker Level Has Been Cleared Before Wii U's Online Shutdown

swoose

@mlt 3rd Strike parries actually had an input window of 7 to 10 frames, depending on the state of your character. So a tenth or sixth of a second is what Daigo had to hit. A frame-perfect Mario Maker jump means you’re hitting a 1/60th of a second window. It’s ten times shorter and not feasible for a human to get 18 straight times.

That’s not to take anything away from Daigo, who did those parries in the clutch in a tournament.

Re: Talking Point: Should 'Third' Pokémon Games Make A Comeback?

swoose

I see some parallel with fighting games, which used to drop a new edition for every balance update or set of new characters. Hence the half dozen versions of Street Fighter 4, where nowadays they’re a single supported release.

Radical idea, but Pokémon is so exceptionally profitable I don’t see why they need DLC cycles to begin with. Just make a good full game and nobody will complain, look at Tears of the Kingdom.

Re: Soapbox: As Splatoon's Online Wraps Up Nearly 9 Years On, How Does It Compare To Splatoon 3?

swoose

I sometimes see comments upset at Nintendo for abandoning the WiiU so quickly. But I think the biggest crime was shutting down things like Miiverse and Mario Maker levels. That was really driven home for me watching John at GVG's recent video on the Pretendo fan servers. Games like Splatoon and Mario 3D World used to feel so alive with community, being greeted by people's weird drawings and messages. Not to mention unlockable stamps in so many games that are already pointless now.

Miiverse posts were always meant to be ephemeral I guess, but when you give people a platform to make genuine artwork, or genuine game designs with Mario Maker, you really owe it to them to leave those things up. For a company with Nintendo's warchest, it would be so trivial. I'll be playing Splatoon's final week in April, but it will be bittersweet because Inkopolis will be a ghost town already.

Re: Dragon Ball Creator Akira Toriyama Has Passed Away

swoose

Only a passing fan of Dragonball and DQ, and still gutted by this news. Feels several decades too soon.

We live at a time when so many creators of landmark anime, games, and the like are still alive and kicking. Appreciate them while we can, because it won't always be so.

Re: Review: Unicorn Overlord (Switch) - A Crowning Tactical RPG Achievement For Vanillaware

swoose

@InJeffable I'd say story is really critical for a classic RPG, but for a strategy or tactics game the focus is more on the game systems and map designs. It sounds like that's what kept this reviewer up late thinking about this game, as they said, even though the story was basic.

What also comes to mind for me is Fire Emblem Fates: Conquest, which has one of the dumbest, most pandering stories I've ever played, but is still beloved by the community for how good its maps and gameplay are.

Re: Feature: Meet Morphcat Games, The New-Gen NES Devs Pushing The 8-Bit Envelope

swoose

We see so much ingenuity going into making substitute retro hardware, and new physical games for old hardware as good as these. My only hope is someone is figuring out how to make new CRT screens affordably. Or some kind of zero-latency alternative. That's the one thing that's been abandoned by all modern screens.

Games that were designed this well deserved to be played with no lag.

Re: Sony Lays Off 900 PlayStation Employees, Closes London Studio & Cancels Projects

swoose

Employees always seem to be the first to go. They'll be replaced with cheaper contractors and temps who have less expertise in making games.

I remember when all the puzzles and mechanics were getting praised in Tears of the Kingdom and Mario Wonder, some were crediting how long-term all Nintendo's designers are. They build up a lot of experience and company culture and heck, even guys as old as Tezuka are still working. Well, the industry's other owners are speaking loud and clear what they think of that approach.

Re: Talking Point: What Would Make You Happy To Give Up Physical Games And Go 100% Digital?

swoose

A number of comments are saying "if they can ensure it will always be downloadable / playable", but no company can actually ensure this. Because they go out of business all the time, platforms become defunct, etc.

This is why the actual solution is easy, user-end access to the game files. You should be able to plug a generic external drive into a Switch and back up your roms. Without that, a download will be simply inferior to a cartridge.

Re: Pokémon Legends: Z-A Announced, Coming To Switch In 2025

swoose

Very happy they skipped my favorite regions of Johto and Unova, so they won't ruin them with mediocre 3D games.

Scaling back to the single city of Lumiose makes me cautiously optimistic that they can make a more dense world again. Maybe with city building stuff, they can make a more interesting gameplay loop than "bonk 25 of this pokemon on the head with heavy balls". Maybe revamp the battle system and feature more trainers? And we can expect some new evolutions. This is another chance to make certain pokemon's evos permanent like they should have been, Mawile and Absol come to mind.

Re: Review: Pocket Card Jockey: Ride On! (Switch) - Game Freak's 3DS Gem Is Still A Prize Pony

swoose

There’s no “unfairly” lost races on 3DS. Solitaire is a game of chance, and so you’ll sometimes have to play through a bad hand. That’s central to the moment-to-moment tension AND the overarching gameplay, that some horses will have luckier careers than others. The last thing I want to hear is that the game now skews it so all horses above a certain stat threshold will win.

Add that to the downgrade from 2D to 3D visuals, and from 2 screens to 1, and from a nice handheld to a clunky drifting one… I see no point to this port of you can play it on 3DS.

Re: Team Friday Triumphs In Splatoon 3's Latest Splatfest

swoose

@Porky This time around it can't be simps or Japan, since the splatfest was region locked and Frye's team got 66% of the vote. The fact is, which team comes away with the best win% is mostly down to dumb luck and maybe some 333x battles.

I would say the rate of mirror matches is a problem though especially with a lopsided poll like this. The game tries to matchmake a 66% popular team with a 10% popular one for every tricolor battle, AND make the 10% team the squad of 4 about a third of the time. And you get zero Clout for playing a mirror match, so yeah, I wouldn't spend long trying to get real ones for Team Saturday either.

I'm starting to think the game should just lie to us and display all the matches as vs. opposing teams.

Re: Splatoon 3's Mincemeat Metalworks Stage Will Temporarily Close Next Week

swoose

I'll echo that I haven't had an issue with the maps in this game, aside from them being a bit plain and lacking moving parts. The Mahi rework adding so much space made it feel MORE sniper-friendly to me, funny enough. But I've really liked the more recent stage additions in the game, so I'm excited to see what they try with Mincemeat.

Re: Pokémon Fans Set Their Sights On Palworld's Monster Designs

swoose

Another game that will be here today, gone tomorrow because it fails to create its own identity. Not worth getting up in arms about.

Putting aside how tasteless the concept of "Pokemon with guns" is in the first place, and the default Unreal assets and shady business model, I do agree that this game has managed to make an overworld that looks more like what people want from their 3D games. Pokemon's delivery on that front has been a big failure this gen. However one thing Pokemon has always maintained is appealing creature designs, that are consistent with its tone and world building. It's stupid to justify Palworld on the grounds of Game Freak being creatively bankrupt; the creative side is literally their one clear strength, it's the technical side where they're shamefully cheap.

Re: Shigeru Miyamoto Isn't Really Thinking About Retiring

swoose

I'll be the first to say I think Miyamoto actually squandered some of the potential of some Nintendo series, especially what was done to Paper Mario.

But it does sound like his days of micromanaging and upending the tea table are behind him. That quote about not feeling ownership since his games have been cultivated by so many people, is a pretty mature view of things.

Re: Splatoon 3 Version 6.0.0 Is Out Now, Here Are The Full Patch Notes

swoose

Pretty huge change to Salmon Run and Big Runs!

I’m skeptical about the X Battle changes, I’d say its biggest issue is long matchmaking times or not finding enough players at all. Sometimes I spend more time waiting for matches than actually playing them. It should look to match you with more players, not fewer…

Re: Splatoon 3 'Chill Season 2023' Update Revealed, Launches December 1st

swoose

@gizmo998 The 2 stages played on in the trailer are new, there's a new special weapon (the Splattercolor Screen), all the weapons shown will have new kits (the Painbrush, Reef-lux, Splatana Stamper, Splat Dualies, Blaster, S-Blast, Undercover Brella, and Squeezer), the music is new, there's new clothing options, and a glimpse of a new Big Run stage (Barnacle & Dime) and a new king salmonid.

Can't blame you for asking though as there was not much of a write-up here.

Re: Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Has Been Updated To Version 3.0.0, Here Are The Full Patch Notes

swoose

I'm with @HalBailman that 150cc is far too easy, and 200cc is more of a special mode. The CPUs in 200cc aren't even any more difficult - they drive off the track and into walls just as an unpracticed player might. Mostly the mode answers the question "what if Mario Karts went really fast?" which opens up funny interactions such as taking shroom shortcuts by simply... hopping over them, or outrunning blue shells. That's right - if you drive without hitting walls, you basically go at the same speed the blue shells travel at, and can outrun them for a whole race. Hard mode!! Even the competitive multiplayer scene defaults to 150cc.

I never played Tour and had limited access to MKWii, so I went into half this wave having not played the tracks. I took poor lines and routes, drove out of bounds, got blue shelled repeatedly... and still cruised to 1st on every track in 150cc. You don't even need to utilize drifting or items, because the CPUs drive so slow, you pass them just by driving forward. The single player in this game plays like it's for babies, which makes me wonder what on earth 100cc and 50cc are for.

And to make matters worse, ALL the online multiplayer relies on the roulette system, so there isn't even a way to reliably pull the new tracks. The only way to see the new cups in order, is to populate your races with bots driving so bad that it's pretty much Time Trial With Blue Shells.

Re: Nintendo Confirms Delay Of New Development Building

swoose

Thinking about the DYKG report on Retro's early years where they spent a ton on office space and furniture, then layoffs hit and most of it went empty and filled with literal crickets. Meanwhile here's the parent company waiting until their 139th year to open a 2nd development building.

Re: Talking Point: Along With Joy-Con Drift, What Does Nintendo Have To 'Fix' With 'Switch 2'?

swoose

Sad to see no option for ergonomics, like we've just accepted the Switch 2 will be an even clunkier beast than the Switch and handheld play will be an afterthought.

For this whole generation I never bought a 2nd Switch model, and it's because the Switch was such a poor handheld. It's too loose and heavy for something you hold in such a cramped hand position, especially compared to past Nintendo handhelds. They really spoiled me with the DS Lite and later 3DS models.

If I were to point to the biggest disappointment this gen (besides drift), it would be when they DID release a more handheld-friendly version in the Switch Lite... and removed its ability to output to TV! As an avid Splatoon player, that half-functionality was a huge no-go for me, and eliminated any chance it could be your dedicated Switch. Such an insult, that they couldn't spring for the tiny component to allow HDMI output through its USB-C port. If it just had that, I could have actually unplugged my Switch to play so many more smaller titles this gen, instead it's just been a docked box.

Re: New Details Emerge On Satoru Iwata's Work On Pokémon Gold And Silver

swoose

All due respect to DYKG, but this reporting is based on one line in the game code that bears Iwata's signature, VS multiple interviews with developers who actually worked with him, stating he helped them to fit Kanto into the final game.

As pointed out in their comments section, it's possible GameFreak was working on their own faster algorithm, but couldn't get it to use a comparable size to the Gen 1 original until Iwata provided his. Or, he may have helped at other parts of development. I think it's a little silly to call this a "debunked" rumor, or that it was even hearsay to begin with, since it was always based on direct testimonial from his coworkers.

Re: 3DS And Wii U Online Play Ends In "Early April" 2024

swoose

For me the biggest loss from this will be Zelda Tri Force Heroes. Still the best multiplayer Zelda experience in my opinion, and it will continue to draw interest over time as a mainline Zelda game. Right now you can fire it up online with friends, but soon I'm guessing you'll have to be in proximity to each other. Well, at least that's easier than Four Swords Adventures.

Re: Soapbox: 'Switch 2' Doesn't Really Need Backwards Compatibility

swoose

Backwards compatible:
GBA
DS
Wii
3DS
WiiU

Not backwards compatible:
SNES
N64
GameCube
Switch
(Not counting the NES and GameBoy as they didn't have predecessors in the same way)

Arguably Nintendo consoles have been backwards compatible more often than not, especially the "handheld" line. I'm guessing we'll at least see the option to patch 1st party games to work on the new chip architecture, on a game by game basis, as has been rumoured through Pokemon datamining. What this would mean for the Switch's huge indie library though, is what I worry about.

Re: Soapbox: FOMO Nearly Ruined Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom For Me

swoose

I would add the burden placed on the game by the higher price point didn't help either. I know it was only $10 USD more, but that's still the most I've spent on a videogame to date. That made me really feel like I should squeeze my money's worth out of it rather than enjoy it for what it is.

Given the recycled Hyrule, I don't think the price increase was all that justified in retrospect.

Re: Princess Peach: Showtime! Opens On Switch In March 2024

swoose

Count me among those confused as to what the core gameplay even is here. Beat em up? Luigi's Mansion sort of adventure game? But it all appears to take place in the same theatre... I worry this will rely on set pieces and mechanics that have nothing to do with each other.

Re: Talking Point: What Do You Want From A 'Splatoon 4'?

swoose

Very interested to see if Splatoon 3 is playable on the Switch 2 or if there's some kind of cross-play. They'll want a game early in the console's life but 2024 or 25 feels too soon for a brand new Splatoon. Maybe a Splatoon 3 Deluxe is in order.

As for these suggestions, I actually like the idea for a warthog! Maybe that could be a new ranked mode, the newest ranked mode is still Clam Blitz from Splatoon 2.