thesilverbrick

The fact that you forfeit the DLC once you end your subscription gives me pause. I’m happy to have these things for free with my subscription, but someday in the future when I move on to another subscription service on a new Nintendo console, I’m going to have to buy all this DLC anyway, if I ever intend to revisit Animal Crossing or Mario Kart.

I’m hoping the ninth generation incorporates a lot of what Legends Arceus brought to the table. If all the routes between towns are open and explorable and the catching mechanics stay like they are in Legends, that would be phenomenal. Also, having battles appear natively in the overworld is a nice touch. If you shoehorn those elements into a traditional Pokémon game with more intricate battle mechanics, abilities and hold items, I think we’ve got a winning formula.

This looks to be of exceptional quality, but I’m definitely suffering from Musou fatigue.

Gaming and eating are two separate activities and they should never mix. There is absolutely nothing on this earth more foul than a greasy controller.

There were a few gems, but most of the exciting stuff was either remakes, ports or games we already knew about. Xenoblade 3 looks great, and I finally just finished the second game, so I’m ready to go when that releases. Doubling the size of Mario Kart 8 (for essentially free if you’re a subscriber) was the overall winner for me. All in all, I was entertained and there will definitely be things to play this year, but I’m kind of ok if we get a slower year, because I’ve got quite a backlog.

@Angelic_Lapras_King Your logic makes no sense. The Switch sold more in five years than the Wii did in six years. By any metric, no matter how you judge it, the Switch has outsold the Wii. The fact that the Wii had essentially an 11 year headstart only makes the Switch’s success more impressive, not less.

@popey1980 It’s not surprising, really. The business model for a mobile app is to get consumers to constantly spend money over time, so Nintendo will try to refresh their apps as long and often as possible to keep the revenue coming. With a console game like New Horizons, once Nintendo gets our one-time $60 purchase (and then $25 for the sole DLC pack), they’ve gotten all they can reasonably get from you.

Also, maybe Pocket Camp got more updates over time, but never anything as substantial as we got for New Horizons, especially in that 2.0 update. Pocket Camp is still light years behind New Horizons in terms of overall content and features.

I really wish Nintendo would tell us which amiibo will be getting restocked after their initial runs. I always panic and pay a scalper after a few weeks of not seeing them in stores, and then they pop up again in large quantities, which happened with both this one and the Dread double pack. I’m more than happy to wait for restocks and not pay a scalper, but some amiibo never get reprints beyond the initial run and I don’t want to miss out. The longer you wait, the more expensive they get.

@Savino Realistically, what NES and SNES games would you still expect to see, beyond maybe Earthbound? Nintendo has essentially made available just about every first party title they have on those consoles. Most third-party companies that are still actively publishing games aren’t going to want to license them to Nintendo to make available for free when they can sell collections and charge for them elsewhere, like Konami did with Castlevania.

Maybe (and please hear me out), but maybe it would be best not to have someone who has never enjoyed a particular series write reviews for it. Nobody was expecting a review of a 20 year old puzzle game, so having an admitted hater of the franchise write a random review just comes across as trolling, if you ask me.

This is one of the mobile games I actually enjoyed playing here and there. At least I didn’t spend much money on it, but all the things I unlocked are just gone forever. I don’t know why they can’t just rework it into something offline. I would have even been willing to pay for it.

This is looking like it might be the first round of Pokémon games I skip, especially with Legends Arceus around the corner.

My biggest issue with cloud games is that if I don’t get to them within the next few years, the service will be taken down and the games are gone. And given the fact that this is a massive collection of lengthy RPGs, there’s no way I’m going to finish them before they become unavailable.

I’m just glad my collection will finally be completed and I won’t have to spend any more money on Smash amiibo. I try not to think about how much money I’ve spent on those dang things…

@Stubborn_Monkey It’s clearly the Chozo villain seen in the secret ending of Samus Returns. When the trailer shifts over to hieroglyphics you see him ordering the murder of the Chozo scientists who made the Metroids on SR388, just like he did in that ending cut scene. I’m so glad they are revisiting that and not just leaving it hanging like they’ve done with other secret endings in Metroid games.

@westman98 Of course there will always be pirates. But there are a significant number of people who would gladly pay to play legacy content instead of illegally downloading it. By refusing to provide a reasonable way to play their back catalog, Nintendo has made sure the only way to experience many of their older games is by illegally pirating them.

I’m not pro-piracy by any means, but if Nintendo offered any feasible way to obtain their massive back catalog legally, they could solve this problem and profit simultaneously. Just seems like a no-brainer.

@PoopScoop I actually haven't just played the game, I own it. I'm a collector and don't tend to part with games, even ones I find I don't like. And for the record, I'm not in any way trying to convince you not to like Wii Music. If you like it, more power to you. But my overall point is that it's not really even a game. The modes you speak of aren't exactly competitive, nor do they track any kind of score, if I recall correctly (it's been years since I last tried it). You play around with your remote, and your character reacts accordingly on screen. It's more of a tech demo or toy and less of an actual game. Nobody wins or loses. I found it cute for a couple rounds and then grew painfully bored.

@PoopScoop Im glad you were able to enjoy Wii Music, but my issue with it is that it was a glorified tech demo packaged as a $50 game. There’s no “game” really present at all. It’s just playing pretend band with Wii remotes to a selection of generic songs. Amusing for a few minutes, but nothing more, really.

@cyrus_zuo Wii Music has only a losing outcome.

@sanderev Modding isn’t the same thing as piracy. There’s no theft of IP when you’re manipulating something you already purchased a license for. I get having an issue with articles pertaining to illegal emulation, but this is different.

@SwitchVogel This guy understands.

As much as I’d absolutely love an official translation of this game, I don’t ever see it happening. The Magypsies in the game would cause too much controversy (especially in the west), as they’re essentially portrayed as trans women in a comedic fashion, and they’re too integral to the plot to be rewritten or removed entirely. Nintendo doesn’t want to come under fire, and as we’ve seen with Mario 3D All Stars, they don’t like investing much effort into re-releases, meaning I doubt they’re willing to put any work into coming up with a way to make the Magypsies less controversial for a western release. As it stands, I highly doubt Mother 3 will ever officially leave Japan, which is a shame, because it’s one of the most emotionally rich and compelling games I’ve ever experienced.

I get why they did this but I feel like it cheapens the value of the themes as a limited time release. I was proud to have earned every single one up to this point and now that achievement doesn’t mean anything anymore. Oh, well.

I really would love it if they added new music tracks from recent releases of IPs already represented in Smash. Spirits are fun and all, but I would love to hear music from games like Bowser’s Fury, New Horizons, Age of Calamity or Pokémon Sword and Shield in Smash. I feel like adding new music would go a long way in making the game feel more current without having to add anything too costly from a development perspective.

Any extra incentives to add value to NSO are welcome.

I'm still seeing plenty of copies of 3D All Stars in stores. Picked up a second one to keep sealed just to see if it fetches a good price in a few years. Even if it doesn't, I'm sure someone will be able to enjoy playing it for a reasonable price and I won't have lost anything.

@AbejaGrande Games can be made to appeal to adults and children simultaneously. The 3D Mario titles are living proof of that. And even games directed solely at children can be better designed or at least run smoothly. I'm glad your kids enjoy the game, and nobody wants to take that away from them, but Balan Wonderworld has some serious game design and performance flaws, and noticing and pointing those out doesn't make anyone a "man baby."

@dugan I’m finding the latter to be the case. The combat system doesn’t change with the difficulty, but since battles are easier, not knowing the intricacies of how to battle effectively doesn’t seem to matter as much. I’m only a dozen hours in, but there seems to be a good balance. The game is pretty good about guiding you where to go next, so I haven’t gotten lost yet, but the environments definitely welcome free form exploration, plus the side quests are fun an plentiful. I would definitely give it a shot if you’re curious and have the time for a huge game.

Im about ten or so hours into Xenoblade Chronicles 2. The story is engaging and the world is fun to explore, but man, the combat system is way overcomplicated. I just turned the difficulty down so I can simply enjoy the story beats and get through the game without having to perfect the insanely intricate battle mechanics. I’ve also begun to pick away at Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time. It feels very much like the old games, difficulty and all. It’s definitely worthy of being called the fourth entry in the series.

@E_Gadds_Garage Nah, the Wii U eShop will be around for quite a while. Nintendo farmed out all online services for the Wii to a third-party company and shut them down to cut off their contract. Everything from 3DS and Wii U onward is running on Nintendo-owned servers. There’s no real reason to cut off the Wii U eShop from Nintendo’s standpoint.

@NikHogan I save mine. I trim them into highlight reels and make a montage for every patch.

@Porky What hammer wielding characters are good candidates in terms of importance to Nintendo/gaming and feasibility of inclusion? Genuinely curious. What I’m trying to say is that characters aren’t chosen because of what weapons they wield, but rather their legacy and relevance to Nintendo and gaming. There just happen to be a ton of sword wielding characters in games, so they wind up being represented quite a bit in Smash.

I was surprised there wasn’t a single additional Xenoblade costume. I’m hoping that before the DLC is finished, we get at least one premium Mii Swordfighter costume (where the proportions are correct and you can’t see the Mii’s face). Brawler got Bomberman and Gunner got Sans, Cuphead and Vault Boy. Hollow Knight would be a perfect candidate for a premium Swordfighter costume.

@Porky I see that rationale for the Fire Emblem characters, but canonically the other characters included use swords (and only swords) in their original games. It would be rather foolish to randomly and arbitrarily give Sephiroth a lance or Pyra an axe. Smash Bros is about honoring games via their source material, not creating a weapons wish list and characters to fit around it. The bottom line is, sword wielding characters are very, very common in video games, so you’re going to see a handful of them in Smash. It’s about accurate and proportionate representation of games, and anyone who thinks there are too many sword characters clearly isn’t looking at it objectively and just wants to complain.

It’s not even that bad. There are 20 sword fighters in a cast of 85+. That’s less than one in five, and that 20 even includes Ganondorf and Steve, who can barely even be considered sword fighters. There are tons of video games with sword fighters in them, hence the representation. It’s not disproportionate or inaccurate, plus the sword wielding characters all play dramatically differently. People just love to overreact and whine.

It’s almost as if they’re leaning into their reputation for refusing to update their games visually. This looks worse than ORAS.

I lost count of the number of Monster Hunter games I’ve bought over the years in an attempt to get into them. I’ve never been able to have any meaningful fun whatsoever. Yet I try again and again, and I’m so dang tempted to give this one a go. I need to be stronger.

The 3DS demo units in the Nintendo World store in NYC used to use a feature similar to this.

@PikaPhantom Yes, and in Terry’s case we got a warning tweet from Nintendo a week beforehand warning that replay data would soon be erased. Banjo is the only character to release so far without a patch balancing or affecting any other characters, so his drop didn’t erase replays. I’m saying they won’t release Pyra/Mythra without such a warning, assuming they come with a balance patch, which every character but Banjo has up to this point.

Cheating in Pokémon years ago wasn’t a big deal until online battles and trading were introduced. When it was an experience limited to local play in your own social circle, there wasn’t much harm in hacking Pokémon into the game, but now I can’t stand when I am matched up against someone with a clearly hacked and broken team or I receive a traded Pokémon that was clearly artificially created (often with a ridiculous, permanent nickname). I say punish the cheaters to the fullest extent possible. They ruin the experience for honest players.

I doubt they’ll drop them right after the presentation. They seldom do that, since a huge version update wipes replay data and they always give some kind of warning before that happens.

The complaints about sword fighters always baffle me. As of Pyra and Mythra’s release, there are 84 playable characters in Smash and only 20 of them use a sword in some capacity (I’ve even included Ganondorf and Steve in that number, and they arguably wouldn’t be considered sword fighters). That’s less than one in five characters in the whole roster. And sure, Marth/Lucina/Roy/Chrom are very similar, but other than that, the characters who use swords all play very, very differently. You can’t honestly argue that Link, Meta Knight, Sephiroth and Corrin play even remotely similarly to each other, any more than Mario, Diddy Kong, Banjo and Terry resemble each other because they fight with punches and kicks. There are a significant number of sword characters in Smash because there are many, many games with sword wielding characters in them. It’s not disproportionate representation, nor has it made for samey characters. There are far more unarmed fighters who just punch and kick, and if Crash gets announced, nobody will say, “Ugh, another punching/kicking fighter?” despite there being far more characters who fight unarmed than with a sword.

@rjejr Glad I could clear it up, then, so you don’t think of me as the kind of person to block others just for thinking differently, haha. I honestly have only blocked two or three people in my roughly ten years here, and they were all people who clearly were trolling for attention. You are one of the good ones, for sure, and I know when I see your avatar the post that follows will always be well worded and intelligent, whether I personally share your perspective or not (though I generally do).

And I’m definitely with you on being pumped for Splatoon 3. I kind of fell off the bandwagon with Splatoon 2 after the major string of Splatfests ended, but seeing the trailer and realizing I’ll have to wait another year for it makes me want to dig out Splatoon 2 and shake the rust off. I also find myself shouting at the game during Turf Wars, but my wife has yet to ban the game outright, haha.

I’m curious to see how this all works out. Nintendo is new to the world of iterative online exclusive multiplayer games, and having more than one Splatoon on a single platform divides the player base. Curious to see how it goes, especially since they’re still selling Splatoon 2 for $60.

There were definitely some highlights (Mario Golf, Splatoon 3), but this was a tad less exciting than I had hoped. But it’s hard to complain, seeing as we went a year and a half without one of these. Hopefully this is a sign that full-fat Directs are going to be a regular thing again.

I usually double dip when games get ported to Switch, but I’m perfectly fine playing this one on 3DS. It was fun and funny while it lasted but I can’t see myself ever wanting to play it again. I am happy to see Miis get some recognition, though, between this game and the story mode in Mario Golf.

The Wii U still retains its value as the best place for Virtual Console support. The Switch Online game catalog and apps are terrible.

@rjejr Color me surprised. Pleasantly surprised, but surprised. Feels good to be wrong. And I never blocked you, for the record. I enjoy friendly debates, especially with intelligent, well spoken people like yourself.

After paying $140 for Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door a few months back, I can honestly say I wouldn’t have been too upset to buy a functioning bootleg for a fraction of that price.