Comments 430

Re: Rumour: Bandai Namco Could Be Working On An Unannounced Switch-Exclusive Shooter IP

the8thark

How to write an article 101

Step 1. the article title.
"Blank could be working on an unnanounced blank exclusive for the blank IP"

Step 2. Fill in the blanks with whatever will produce the most page hits at the time.

Step 3. Write up the article to fit the article title. Opinion or fact? Doesn't matter as long as the article is entertainnig enough or generates enough hype for the required amount of page hits.

Re: Review: VS. Super Mario Bros. (Switch eShop)

the8thark

The review scores here are slowly becoming meaningless and not a true indication of a game’s quality. This gets a 9 whereas other objectively great games get worse scores. Just proves how broken the scores are here now.

However the meat of the reviews are still mostly good with only a little bias. So I think we should read the reviews, ignore the bogus biased garbage scores at the end and use the meat of the reviews to see if the games are worth getting or not.

Re: Bloodstained's Latest Level Reveal Has A Very Far Eastern Feel To It

the8thark

Still not released yet. Was a kickstarter around the time Yooka-Laylee was too. The kickstarter for Bloodstained didn't give me much hope. Sure the IGA is a game developing legend, but the kickstarter has so much focus on extra content and relegating a Nintendo release to a stretch goal that turned me off backing the game.

I gladly backed Yooka-Laylee and passed up on Bloodstained. It looks like I may have chosen wisely as it's getting harder and harder for Bloodstained to meet all the expected hype. However I am sure the fans will love it, no matter hoe bad it is, because the IGA. I don't think the fans are capable of properly criticing an IGA game.

Re: Feature: Vote For Your 2017 Nintendo Life Game of the Year

the8thark

Breath of the Wild
Yooka-Laylee
Mario Odyssey

Those are my three choices.

A shame that NintendoLife does not understand how good Yooka-Laylee is.

NL says Y-L is good. But NL refuse to admit it's game of the year quality, which it is objectively. It's equally as good as Mario Odyssey.

This forces me to abstain and not vote. What's the point in voting when all the best Nintendo games of the year are not nominated on the list.

Re: Review: Yooka-Laylee (Switch eShop)

the8thark

@Galenmereth

Digital Foundry disagree with you. Both games Mario Odyssey and Yooka-Laylee) have made compromises to make it on to the Switch. You can see the compromises to both games if you look hard enough. However overall from a straight average gamer perspective, both gamnes look and play equally as amazingly.

@AlexSora89

Thank you for your reply. It's well worded and I agree with most of it. The timing is unfortunate, but as we both know the delay had to happen, because the game releasing on WiiU would have been a sub par mess due to the WIiU's lower tech specs. Also Playtonic decided to remake many of the assets specifically for the Switch, not just do a straight downgrade. This took quite a bit of time. Also it took time to collaberate with Nintendo directly on everything.

Yes it's crowded funded. Most crowd funded games are a mess. There's few successes there. However as we all know Playtonic is basically RARE version 2.0. They know how to make a good game. The reason I (and many others) backed this was because of their history of making gresat video games. Also their last stretch goal was "add more polish to the core game" They placed a better core gaming experience over copious amounts of extra stretch goal ingame content. That's something I've never seen any other kickstarter or otherwise crowd funded game do.

You also mentioned the whole point that Mario Odyssey innovated with it's overal game design. That's true to an extent. It's not revolutionary. I'd call it more evolutionary. Still it's there and totally worth noting. Yooka-Laylee on the other hand was designed to be a love letter to the 3D platformers of old. It's what the developers are good at and it's what the kickstarter backers wanted. Playtonic reached out to the community and asked them what kind of 3D platformer they wanted and all of them wanted the old experience redesigned for a modern console. I've read hundreds of kickstarter backer comments for Yooka-Laylee and that is the feel I got from them. The final game is sxactly what they backed the game for.

To that end, it's a little un fair to say that Mario Odyssey gets more ponits because it's a little more evolutionary in scope whereas Yooka-Laylee is not. Accurately assessing what your core audience wants and making the best game possible around that audience need is also a skill that should not be underestimated.

However the new ideas of today is what people will come to love in the future. It's a risk really. New ideas might go great or they might fail. To that end we can say both games succeeded very well in what they were aiming to do. It's clear from the customer reactions that both games will not be loved by everyone. Some will love both games and some will like one of the two and not the other. It's just a personal taste thing as both games, even though are 3D collectathons, feel and play quite differently.

"I rolled my eyes so much when people called the Crash Bandicoot N-Sane Trilogy "the next Dark Souls" they started to HURT), but that was largely overshadowed by how good the game was."
I totally agree with you there. Very few people actually understand what Dark Souls difficulty really is. It's just an overused meme that is overused incorrectly most of the time. I'm not a Crash Bandicoot fan but overall it's a great set of remakes and well worth the praise it got.

"That still doesn't stop Odyssey from being better, or should I say even better, because both games are absolute milestones that prove once and for all that platforming as a genre has still a lot to say."
I would rather say different, not better. Innovation and evolution of the genre (and any genre) is always a good thing. However paying trubute gaming past (when done well) is always a good thing too. I think the industry needs both. A good recent example of the latter is Cuphead. Sure I think Cuphead is the wrong type of hard (it's more Battletoads hard when it should have been Dark Souls hard) but despite this, it's an amazing tribute to gaming and early animation.

In conclusion, I agree with almost everything you said, apart from saying Mario Odyssey is even better than Yooka-Laylee. Both games just different, not better or worse in my opinion. I feel they are equally as good. We can agree to disagree on this point and that's ok, different opinions are a good thing.

Also you should know I have subbed to the youtube channel and I do share the youtube videos and site articles out quite a bit. I even use the affiliate links when I can on Amazon (mostly when what I'm after is either too expansive in Australia or is not available in Australia). I think everyone here knows I'm Australian by now.

The only reason I can debate here on the NintendoLife website is because the reviews overall are written so well. Of cause a review is an opinion and everyone has different opinions, but the reasonings behind why the opinions are as they are are actually explained and explained really well. This site is my go to side for all Nintendo game reviews. It's seriously the best review site out there for Nintendo games and related products.

I must say there's quite a few games I either did or didn't get based on review reccomendations from here. By that I don't mean the final score, I mean the actual meat of the review.

I will take up your offer of making myself a nice cup of tea. I'll put the kettle on now.

PS. There needs to be a ring tone out there that says "Hello there lovely people" on loop. People would buy it you know.

Re: Review: Yooka-Laylee (Switch eShop)

the8thark

@Agent721

Yooka-Laylee is equally as good as Mario Odyssey. From a technical standpoint Digital Foundry prove this. NintendoLife are saying Mario Odyssey is better.

An 8/10 is a slap in the face to Playtonic. It deserves the same score as Mario Odyssey. The review of Yooka-Laylee here is good but not as “glowing” and you claim it is.

That’s the point I was making. Two games are equally as good but get do not get the same praise or final score.

This is not just “another great game for Switch” as NL claims. They didn’t say that about Mario Odyssey. Alex gushed about Mario Odyssey in several videos. Said it’s an amazing must own for all Switch owners. Since Yooka-Laylee is equally as good, where is Alex gushing about Yooka-Laylee in multiple videos also saying it’s a must own for the console.

Alex didn’t do this. He and the NL crew are unwilling to say Yooka-Laylee is a must own Switch game on par with Mario Odyssey.

Yooka-Laylee is better than good. It’s Mario Odyssey like amazing. Alex and the NL crew refuse to admit this. I have no idea why.

8/10 for Yooka-Laylee from NL. What a slap in the face to Playtonic. If this was Mario Odyssey 2, same game just replace Yooka and Laylee with Mario, NL would have said 10/10 must own Switch game.

I am calling NL out for a bad review of the game. Sure NL praised the game but not in the way that the game deserves.

Hopefully you are no longer lost as I restated the obvious for you. Thanks for your comment here.

Re: Review: Yooka-Laylee (Switch eShop)

the8thark

@AlexSora89

Digital foundry videos

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9PBzalIcEQCsiIkq36PyUA
Yooka Laylee on Switch

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOpdeMVB5_8
Mario Odyssey on Switch

There is one commonality between both videos. Both games make the right compromises to deliver an amazing visual and gameplay experience for the player.

"its amazing fidelity to the nineties' platforming style also holds it back a fair deal."
Actually it doesn't. It's what the kickstarter backers wanted and Playtonic delivered on it. it's just a different style to Mario Odyssey. Neither is better or worse, only different. Some people will prefer one style over the other, this doesn't make either better or worse.

The Mario Odyssey kingdoms individually are pretty small. Nothing huge there but they are very fun.

Breath of the Wild easily deserved Game of the Year because of all the reasons we all already know. Mario Odyssey as amazing as it is, in my opinion is just slightly below that level.

"Just put your heart to rest with the fact Mario Odyssey blew it out of the water."
No. Because that's a lie. Yooka-Laylee and Mario Odyssey are equally good games from a technical standpoint. Also both are fun games too but fun is a more subjective thing as we both know.

Your Mario bias is showing now.

@Moshugan
Not every game has wall jumping. That's not a flaw. The fun in 3D platformers is to use the moves given to you, to traverse the landscape.

Did you complain that you can't climb every wall in Mario Odyssey like you can in BotW? No because you accepted that climbing every wall like a ladder is not in Mario Odyssey. You havew to use other moves/ways to traverse the landscape.

Actually it's clear when you don't have the right moves to do a challenge in Yooka-Laylee, so you just come back to it later. That's not a game flaw as you claim. Once you get the required ability you jsut go back to it.

No different to not being able to get every moon in a kingdom till you beat the game in Mario Odyssey. The game never tells you this till you actually beat Bowser. It just says deal with the moon rocks later.

If you had said Yooka-Laylee is slightly less accessible then Mario Odyssey I would have agreed with you. Not a bad thing, just a difference between both games.

@Agent721

When digital foundry evidence goes against what NintendoLife's review says, it's always better to believe the cold hard digital foundry evidence. it's rare that both are not in total agreement, but this review is one of the exceptions where the facts don't match up with NintendoLife's review.

Re: Review: Yooka-Laylee (Switch eShop)

the8thark

@Hughesy

People are highly biased. They are willing to love Mario Odyssey but when a game like Yooka-Laylee comes out that is equally as amazing, people get their pitchforks out.

This bias is one of the bad things the Nintendo fan community need to deal with as it blinds then from seeing how great some not Mario games really are.

Re: Review: Yooka-Laylee (Switch eShop)

the8thark

@thiz

Mario Odyssey has many recurring tasks as well.

Koopa races
Find the hidden cap creature
Use a costume to enter a challenge room
3x timer challenges
Unlocking the moon rock
And more

All of this repeated in every single Mario Odyssey kingdom. People love repetition in Mario Odyssey but hate it in Yooka-Laylee.

Biased much?

Re: Review: Yooka-Laylee (Switch eShop)

the8thark

Broken scoring system.
Yooka-Laylee is objectively as impressive as Mario Odyssey in every way. Digital Foundry proved it. The game is also equally as fun and both game have lots of content.

This review basically is saying, we refuse to accept a platformer without Mario can be this good so dock it a couple of points.

If this was Mario as the main character instead, NL would be praising this as 10/10 perfection.

Proof that NL can’t publicly accept that a game can be just as good as a key Mario title. Very biased review unfortunately.

Re: Yooka-Laylee's Nintendo Switch eShop Price Is Revealed

the8thark

@PlayedNSlayed
What you say is correct. Hoever you need to look back to the initial PC/PS4/XB1 release of the game. Almost every review of the game hated on it for at times very cotradictory reasons.

Sure the Nintendo fans liked what was to be, the industry lead game reviewers did not though. They just hated it because it was not what they wanted in a game and made up pathetic lies to try and justify their irrational hatred for the game.

Both Y-L and Odyssey are not perfect games and both have many compromises to be a thing on the Switch. However both games when taken in the context of a Switch game are brilliant. Both Nintendo (Odyssey) and Playtonic (Y-L) should be proud of their achievements.

I just feel sorry for Playtonic that a toxic fanbase and toxic game reviewers didn't give Y-L the praise it deserved.

The Nintendo fans who backed this game seemed to understand what was to be delievered with this game. Even today they still really love and praise this game. Not as it should be, an equal of Mario Odyssey but they still say it's a good game. They just wished it was released earlier and hate the fact that new Switch games are not on sale like months old PS4 games are on sale.

Not all games get the credit they deserve. Y-L is one example of this.

Re: Yooka-Laylee's Nintendo Switch eShop Price Is Revealed

the8thark

Y-L at PS4 launch was not a buggy mess. Many reviews lying about it though. There was a few minor issues that supposedly have been fixed now.

Y-L is as good as Mario Odyssey as in both are very good but not perfect games. Both games have their flaws, but overall both are worth playing. The fanbase is just ok to gush over every 3D mario game but they hate on other 3D games that are just as good. Fanbase bias there.

The price on Switch is not AAA. It seems to be the budget price of $40US which is $60Aus. The issue is that Y-L is often on sale and can be found for cheaper on PS4. The non sale price for Y-L on PS4 is $40US and $60Aus.

Also the "Pre-order on Amazon" link to the right is an affiliate link. Just saying to people know. Some want to give a help out NL, some don't. I'd rather people knew so they can decide if they want to help out or not.

Re: Xenoblade Chronicles 2 Makes Top 20 Debut in the UK Charts

the8thark

@HalloHerrNoob

You heard people talking bullpoo about the game.

The game is easily a 9/10. It's not as as good as XCX by a long shot but it's still a fine game if you can handle a few of it's flaws. Totally worth the price and has lots of content. Easily one of the better Switch games so far.

Re: Xenoblade Chronicles 2 Makes Top 20 Debut in the UK Charts

the8thark

@Melkac

This is a UK based website, that's why.
Worldwide sales would be better obviously but it's a lot harder to get these figures. Also Chart Track only do physical sales as far as I know. Digital sales are not counted. So the actual sales figures listed here are not representative of every sale of the game.

Re: Review: Xenoblade Chronicles 2 (Switch)

the8thark

@Setery
XC or XCX being better is a personal choice. Many people like XCX better. I am one of the people who like XCX more. So I am calling you out on what you said being a lie.

XC2 is a lot more like XC so that's why people should compare XC2 to XC more. That's all.

People are really particular when it comes to open world games. If it's Mario or Zelda, the fans love it. If it's anything else (which is equally as good) like Yooka-Laylee or XCX, then some of the fans just hate it without even a good reason for their hate.

Re: Review: Xenoblade Chronicles 2 (Switch)

the8thark

@MarcelRguez

Neither of the three games represents the XC series though. All three are very different in design and aesthetics. Saying 1 and 2 are representative of XC where X is not, is a simple lack of understanding of the design choices and aesthetic choices in all 3 games.

Re: Review: Xenoblade Chronicles 2 (Switch)

the8thark

@Balladeer
I only played XC because I really liked XCX and hoped XC would be just as good. My hopes were dashed. I found XC to be much worse (in my opinion) then XCX. XC is still a good game, just nowhere (in my opinion) as good as XCX.

XC2 is though a better XC. Just as linear and has many of the same polarising design choices as XC. XC2 is a good game. I think a 9/10 is fair for it. XCX in my opinion is a straight 10/10.

Re: Review: Xenoblade Chronicles 2 (Switch)

the8thark

@BensonUii
The review lied there. I am calling Nintendolife out on it.

The facts are that the game is animated well. Probably the bext animation out of all 3 XC games released so far. The issue that people can't seem to get is that the Switch is not a PS4. It's more like a PS3 Pro in terms of what it can do. With that in mind it's quite amazing. Also as a portable game it's doubly amazing.

Fast travel doesn't have any noticable load time. Sure the textures have to laod in and that's clearly visible but I'll take that as it's like 1-2 seconds at most.

Expect PS4 pro graphics and be disappointed. Accept good Swotch graphics and you'll be pleasently surprised.

Re: Review: Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp (Mobile)

the8thark

@kobashi100

The Pokemon and Mario mobile games at least tried to offer something slightly different to the console games. THis AC game does not.

@Tsurii

I've been playing AC games since the GC original. So I know what an AC game should be like. I really like the GC game and played so much of it.

@arpaktiko

Compared to something like the 4 Quell games, Infinity Blade Trilogy, Hearthstone, and so many other games, this mobile AC game just falls flat. It's not even close to the best games on the iOS app store. If you think this mobile AC game is a jewel, then you have very low standards in mobile gaming.

@NTELLIGENTMAN

The Swtch's portable screen is a capacative touch screen. The downside is you can't use the touch capabilities in docked mode.

@premko1

Correct it is a smartphone game. A very average one. There's many many better games on the iOS app store.

@cfgk24

No idea for the rest of the world but I am Australian and have played it quite a bit as it has released here already.

My 4/10 for this stands. it's not reactionary. It's based on what this game is. A free to download and pay to avoid massive wait timers game. A very average game with nothing to keep long term interest. Mario Run and FE Heroes are much much better games than this.

Re: Review: Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp (Mobile)

the8thark

@KIRO

We all need to tell everyone that the Switch full experience will be much better than this very average mobile game. We don't want anyone thinking the Switch game will be anything like the mobile game. If they think like that it'll turn people off AC all together.

Re: Review: Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp (Mobile)

the8thark

@Yamyum

The game in my opinion is a 4/10 only. Read my above long post to see why I believe that. The NL review does not get into the reasons why this mobile game has no lasting appeal as compared to the Nintendo games that have lots of lasting appeal.

Re: Review: Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp (Mobile)

the8thark

@V0LuG Pay to win nothing really, apart from levelling up your character faster. The real life timers exist in AC games sure but being able to pay microtransaction $$ to pass these timers in an instant is not in the usual Nintendo AC games. It's on this mobile game though.

Want to re-loot that tree for fruit? You can't till 4 hours later (for example). The game literally has a timer on the tree (and everything else) to say how long you need to wait to loot it again. Which you can pay $$ for to by pass and loot it again instantly