vincentgoodwin

When I pre-ordered my Switch, the only way I could get the system was in a bundle with a few games (Zelda, 1 2 Switch, Has-Been Heroes, Binding of Isaac, and Redout).

I'm pretty sure Gamestop already has all my money, and now I'm not getting a game I definitely paid for.

I really just wanted my Switch, so it's not a big deal to me. But I do wonder how others feel.

I wanted to love it. I love the concept.

I was fine with the controls & camera.

I just found it to be a dull 3D platformer. Based on the marketing, I think I expected it to be transcendent. But its gameplay was more on par with the weaker Gamecube era 3D platformer games (Spongebob, Jimmy Neutron).

The Ever Oasis demo also sold me on the game. I'm looking forward to a nice, light ARPG.

Definitely interested in River City: Knights of Justice.

MercurySteam? Didn't they make the Castlevania: Lords of Shadow games?

Still love my PSP/GBA. Just last night I was re-playing Metroid: Zero Mission...with save states and a decent screen.

"Full storyuken"

You deserve a medal for that subtitle.

I'm still surprised that Vectorman never came back. I thought that game was so rad in the mid-90s. It was a good, fast shooter that had 2 games in quick succession, and then nothing.

(I haven't played it in 20 years, so it may be incredibly rough and terrible to play now, but I thought it was so cool when I was a kid).

Kamiko looks interesting and it's pretty cheap. I know it's not supposed to be very long, but it should be fun for a weekend.

Puyo Puyo Tetris came in the mail yesterday, and it's pretty much what I expected (which is good). The script is too chatty so I've already started skipping scenes. And I realize I really need to brush up on my Puyo Puyo strats.

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is one I'm on the fence about. I've never loved Mario Kart (Diddy Kong Racing 4 lyfe), but MK8 was objectively really good. I don't know if I'd play enough to get value out of the double dip.

I never played the original, and I am astonished how well this plays. It's had practically no gameplay changes, and I was expecting it to be a little creaky just because of its vintage and ambition.

But no, it plays like a new game released today. And I say that with no nostalgia.

Also, the new graphics are beautiful.

Y'all always choose the weirdest credits for developers. I feel like Grezzo is far better known for their Ocarina & Majora’s Mask remakes (which most people like) than Triforce Heroes (which most people don't like). You did this with IntiCreates & Blaster Master Zero, citing Mighty Number 9 instead of Mega Man 9, Azure Striker Gunvolt, and Mega Man Zero.

I'd like to see the HD remaster of Final Fantasy 12 make its way to the Switch.

And I don't know who owns Soul Blazer/Illusion of Gaia/Terranigma these days (I think Enix had a hand in publishing), but I'd love to see those again.

And a port of the PSP Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together. That remake was too good to leave on PSP, and would probably do well with the Fire Emblem audience.

I'll probably get it. My 3-year-old loves Mater and I'm trying to get him into videogames.

Dig 1 and Heist were such fun experiences. I'm more pumped for Dig 2 than any game this year other than Mario Odyssey.

@ShadJV — You don't have to use smartphones. You can use any device that has a decent web broswer, since you're really just going to a website and typing in a room code. So if you have available tablets or PC/laptops, you can play that on the same network.

That's how our young son plays with us, since he doesn't have his own phone.

Also, I'm sorry this may make me sound like an out-of-touch rich person. Don't have smartphones? Maybe you have expensive tablets instead?

Sweet! I've heard good things. I generally prefer arcade-style golf over simulation-style. If I really really really like Mario Golf (especially the GBA one), how does Neo Turf Masters compare?

I'm eventually going to get Blaster Master, but for the time being, I'm putting all my focus into Zelda.

When I'm done with Zelda (either because I beat it or I'm emotionally done with it), Blaster Master or the Shovel Knight expansion are up.

@Nono18 - I love that Worlds of Power book! That and the Metal Gear one. You can get it pretty cheap used on Amazon.

Blaster Master (Worlds of Power) https://www.amazon.com/dp/059043778X/ref=cm_sw_r_other_apa_PmJTyb7F7C6Q0

Yusssss! I loved the first game. And Heist!

I probably would've cited Inti Creates as the developer of Mega Man 9, or Mega Man Zero, or Azure Striker Gunvolt.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inti_Creates

@NEStalgia — Yup yup yup. I am so glad to hear about the sleep mode. I have a 3-year-old and I can only squeeze in gaming between his naps or when he's playing by himself (which can end at any moment, nearby save point be damned).

I'm much more likely to play 3DS, Vita, or PSP because I can instantly put the system in sleep mode and come back a few days later without losing my spot. I rarely play console games because I never know when I'll get stopped and can't find a save point (and I can't leave the Wii U on pause for days).

Sounds good to me. I've been playing a lot of 50-hour games lately that have worn out their welcome by hour 10 because the missions & objectives started repeating too much.

How can any Contra game be more hated than the PS1 entries?

Why on earth did they wait till January for all these N64 titles? Pokémon Snap should have been released in July/August to capitalize on Pokémon Go fever (like how they did in Europe).

Considering how small of a 2016 they had, it seems like it would've made more sense to put on Excitebike, Star Fox, F-Zero X, and Snap during the past summer and fall.

@Ralizah — On the dock pricing, Radio Free Nintendo had a Switch indie developer on, and she alluded that there's more going on in the dock than what Nintendo has let on.

She said that it wasn't just as simple as an HDMI pass-through and charging stand. She said that NYKO or Hori couldn't make a 3rd party version for cheaper.

She didn't/couldn't say what was in the dock, but my guess is that extra processing is happening in the dock. Probably helping with making the games 1080p, when the handheld itself does 720p.

$90 is still steep.

@invictus4000 I was also thinking that the port at the bottom was weird placement, but made sense for the dock.

Then I remembered the Wii U gamepad's charge port is at the top, but it also charges from the charge cradle at the bottom. So that must not be a problem (other than cost of having two places where the system can charge from).

It really seems like an odd oversight, to not be able to easily charge while in tabletop mode.

Rethinking it - From a design standpoint, you can't have the charge port on the sides, because that's where the JoyCons plug in, and that port would be hidden in handheld mode. I don't think they want a bunch of ports on the top, because it'd look ugly in docked mode. So, I guess bottom makes the most sense.

I always felt like it was a missed opportunity to not put on a portable, and just leave it on PS4/Steam. I always prefer turn-based RPGs on handhelds.

I'm glad to see that this game will get a second life on the Switch.

I haven't played many Musou/Dynasty Warriors games, but I did play a fair amount of Hyrule Warriors DQ Heroes 1.

They play similarly, but I liked Dragon Quest more. The enemies were more diverse. The playable characters had more interesting spells. I like the art style more. And I liked DQ's mission structures more (I wasn't a huge fan of how Hyrule Warriors was so focused on taking keeps by killing a bunch of guys in each room until a boss showed up).

I liked both. They're dumb, button-mashy, repetitive games.

Side note: I wasn't sure if I should get the PS4 or Vita version of DQH2...now I don't have to decide.

Hyrule Warriors and Dragon Quest Heroes were surprisingly pleasant games for me. Just simple switch off and your brain and button-mash games in an IP that I enjoy.

Awesome. I've been wanting a portable device to play my old GB/GBC/GBA carts with a better screen & size than my SP.

I'd love it if it was super pretty like the Rose-Colored Gaming devices.

Yeah. The registration process is convoluted. It should be one button in the game. Or something automatic.

Also, they haven't done a good job of communicating why you'd want to participate. Festival coins? I'm on the 3rd island and I have no idea what festival coins are and why I'd want them. So I'm not going to jump through the registration hoops for something I don't understand. If it was, "Everybody work together and you all get (insert rare Pokémon here)," there'd be a better turnout.

It's literally a Super Nintendo with a screen & a battery. Think Sega Nomad, but for Super Nintendo.

There's no operating system for patches or adjusting settings. There's nothing for save states.

I don't have a SupaBoy, but I've had two RGPs, which are basically the same thing. I love them. They're great for playing your old carts on the couch. And you can plug it to your TV and put controllers in the ports, and play with your friends.

You can also get one of those portable Super Nintendos (SupaBoy or RGP) and then use a Super Game Boy 2 (for GB) or Super Retro Advance (for GBA) in the portable Super Nintendo.

I have no idea if the system is that "perfect", but it works reasonably well for me. (Although a more reasonable person would tell me to hack a PSP or get a Raspberry Pi and load it with ROMs).

I've put a ton of hours into Mario Golf (and real golf) over the years so this could be cool. Looking forward to a review.

Sweet! Demon's Crest! I was just playing Gargoyle's Quest 2 this week and wondering if I could ever have the full trilogy on my 3DS.

I know you called out the quibblers in the beginning of the article, but the real last 2D Mario before NSMB was Super Mario Land 2: Six Golden Coins.

Not sure why that's forgotten. It doesn't undermine the point that Nintendo stopped making 2D Mario from 1992-2006.

Given that their discounts often pale compared to Steam/PSN/Xbox and the fact that I already owns most games up for sale (because I'm hardcore, devoted, crazy), I don't anticipate I'll get any games this go-around.

That said, I did pick up Paper Jam in the summer for $20 on an eShop sale (surprising, since the game was only 6 months old at the time).

@khululy - As a lefty, how does Liberation Maiden hate lefties?

That was the shooter game, right?

I would like it if the XP for catching a Pokemon was tied to the CF. Like, if I'm catching a 300 CF Pidgey, it should be worth more to me than a 15 CF Pidgey, especially because I'm wasting more balls on him.

@Kutal - The product code number for Game Boy Color was CGB (Color Game Boy). Nintendo was often weird with their codes & acronyms. The GBA has AGB on its back (Advance Game Boy) and Gamecube was GCN (GameCube Nintendo).

@chiptoon @WhiteTrashGuy — My two-year-old loves Super Mario Maker. He gets to draw and every time you place something, it makes a funny noise.

SesameStreet.org has a ton of free Flash-level games that he’s into too. I don't know they're playable on mobile, but he has fun with them on my PC. If you remember the educational CD-ROM games from the mid-90s, like "Lion King Animated Storybook" or "Yoda's Stories", you get the idea. Not great quality, but engaging and free.

We haven't found anything with buttons for him, but he is getting consistent with catching Pokémon in Go, and I'm thinking about introducing him to Fruit Ninja and other games that don't require precision.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention that Sugiyama, while a great composer, has attempted historical revisionism and claims that many of Japan's atrocities committed during WW2 never happened (such as the Rape of Nanking).

He's created great work, but in this article celebrating the man, I don't think we should forget this frustrating aspect.

I played SF2 Turbo first, and remember being enamoured with the idea that Sagat's chest scar came from Ryu in the first game. (The idea of the previous game's main boss being a mid-level boss was such a cool idea to my younger self).

One burger joint in town had SF1, and I didn't really like it. It was slower, and the graphics were small, and you could only play as Ryu (or maybe Ken). I'm glad I played it, but it felt inessential compared to everything that came afterwards.

I loved the idea and the concept around Epic Mickey, but felt the actual game parts were incredibly dull and unimaginative.

I feel like, had this come out, I would have loved the aesthetic and idea of a Carl Barks Duck game, but would have been bored by the actual gameplay.

"Pokémon GO uses the rear-facing camera of your mobile phone to superimpose monsters on your immediate surroundings, and there are clearly fears within Volkswagen that an employee could gleefully screenshot their latest catch and inadvertently leak sensitive information."

...or take any photo with their camera. How is picture-taking of sensitive information unique to Pokémon Go? If that's legitimately their fear, then they should be banning all devices with cameras.

It seems more common that somebody might have a birthday party and take a picture of the cake and accidentally leak trade secrets.

At my office, we're encouraged to not take pictures at all, and if so, to make sure no computer monitors or papers are visible — so we don't leak sensitive information. Which makes sense.

So it feels like Pokémon Go is just a target, and an unfocused one at that.

My 2-year-old fell hard for Pokémon this last month while watching my wife and I play Go.

At first he liked watching us catch the Pokémon, do gym battles, and slide through our collection to rotate and make them roar.

So we moved into reading my old Player's Guides, so he could look at all the pictures. And he’s been watching the cartoons on Hulu. And now he's been doing a lot of playfights as Charizard and making me Rhydon, and then demanding I do a horn attack.

@rjejr @BarbieGurl777
Mass Attack is great. Really great.

I always describe it as a "Pikmin Platformer". Take the concept of Pikmin where you flick multiple Pikmin at a target, or coordinate Pikmin running from something, or navigate a maze, and change Pikmin to 10 Kirbys.

Really cool, really different game.

The PS2 version of Cel Damage is available on PS4 & Vita for cheap if you want to try it.

I bought it in a recent PSN sale, but haven't dug deep enough into it yet.

Word. The Ogre games started me paying attention to anything Atlus does.

I would honestly just recommend the PSP version, which is also downloadable on the Vita.

It's got a lot more modern niceties, and it's just much smoother while retaining all of the depth.

I also liked the GBA Tactics Ogre sequel a ton. But the PSP version is still better.