Messages

51

TalkBack / Re: First Nintendo Direct Of 2023 To Air February 8

« on: February 07, 2023, 03:49:32 PM »

I wonder if they will show much of Zelda in this Direct, or if they will instead schedule a separate Direct for the game which they may announce here.

52

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Has anyone played....?

« on: February 07, 2023, 03:46:37 PM »

The only one I can comment on is Monster Hunter Stories 2.

The game is pretty similar to its predecessor and features a largely new cast of characters including a new protag, and in different locations, so the story has little relation to the original. Your character still has Navirou as a helper, the same helper from the first game, and he's mainly the one who references those events. Some nods may go over your head but there's not really anything you need to know pertinent to the story so you shouldn't have any trouble jumping straight into 2.

I would say that the game is better but also feels pretty samey to the original so it's a little disappointing as a sequel. If you never played the original though then this won't matter to you. There are a few improvements here and there, a couple more wrinkles to battles to mix things up and building monsters is a little less convoluted, and a few other odds and ends. Overall the flow of exploration, combat, and monster collecting is very similar to the first game. Unless you think you'd really like this game and would want as much of it as you could possibly get, there's little reason to play the first over its sequel.

While playing the regular Monster Hunter games is certainly no requirement, you may not appreciate the game as much as someone familiar with the franchise and monsters.

53

Nintendo Gaming / Re: What's Next For The N64 Expansion Pack?

« on: February 07, 2023, 03:31:08 PM »

Yeah, I'm not sure what's going on with the schedule. Releasing both Mario Party 1 and 2 in November made up for the lack of a game in September to bring the average back to one a month, but then there wasn't one in December for some odd reason so I'm not sure what's going on. I wouldn't be surprised if they put out Pokémon Stadium 1 and 2 at the same time as well, maybe even this month for the Pokémon Day event. That would even it out again to one a month.

Tip for Mario Party: On the final turn, set all CPU players to humans and then you get to keep any coins and stars they collected at the end of the game.

54

Nintendo Gaming / Re: What will Nintendo release in 2023?

« on: February 07, 2023, 03:26:24 PM »

Yikes! It feels like every year, I say that I'm not gonna wait until the last minute to get these in, and yet here we are...!

-The new Zelda will release this year.
This may no longer be a bold prediction, but it's gonna happen this year I can feel it...

-No new hardware will be released or announced.
No revisions, no successors. I think I'll go ahead and double down on this one.

-A new 3D Mario game will be the big holiday title.
There are some rumours that it will be 2D instead, hopefully I'll still get a half point if that occurs...

-A new 2D platformer from Good Feel will be announced, and it will not be another Yoshi game.
It's been a few years since they last put out a game, so they seem due. I think it won't be Yoshi again, but not sure what it might be. Maybe Wario Land?

-A new Mario Baseball game will release in the spring or summer.
Every previous sport has been covered so far, I believe, so now we're due for this.

-Advance Wars 1+2 will release this year and its date will be announced in tomorrow's Direct.
I decided to be recklessly bold with that specific add-on.

-DLC expansion for Pokémon Scarlet and Violet will be announced, will release in two packs a few months apart.
I'm simply guessing the DLC will follow a similar pattern to Sword 'n Shield.
.
-Game Boy announced for NSO+.
I don't actually think this will happen, but am struggling to think of things I think may happen.

-Another Rare game gets announced for NSO N64, my money's on Diddy Kong Racing.
I phrased it this way in the hopes that I'll still get a half point if a different Rare game happens instead, such as Banjo-Tooie.

-At least one more port or remaster of a Wii or Wii U game.
I haven't thought of any more specific guesses, so I'll add this more vague one just to reach ten.

55

Nintendo Gaming / Re: What will Nintendo release in 2023?

« on: January 01, 2023, 01:57:01 PM »

I haven't yet thought about what could possibly release this year, so I'll have to do some research to figure out some probabilities. Last time, six of my guesses were right in some way, which is definitely the best I've done for something like this! I've a feeling I'll be back to tanking for this one though...

56

Nintendo Gaming / Re: What will Nintendo release in 2022?

« on: January 01, 2023, 01:38:49 PM »

I s'pose I gotta stop putting in so many conditionals with this strict scoring system, as vague seems to be the way to go! But I won't try to argue with the tally, hee hee.

What I will mention, however, is that there was a new Wii port announced: Kirby's Return to Dream Land Deluxe! It didn't release in 2022 though, so not full credit, but I think I should get a half point for it being announced in 2022.

As always, thanks for hosting this and putting everything together, it's always fun. Looking forward to next year's.

-Call of Duty finally comes to Switch in some form or another. "Heh heh, heh heh, you said doody, heh heh."

Funnily enough, this one was kinda almost sorta true. Though the announcement was so ill-defined that I wouldn't want to count this prediction even if it were one of my "official" ones, ha ha.

57

TalkBack / Re: Pokemon Scarlet And Violet (Switch) Review

« on: November 29, 2022, 12:49:58 PM »

Oof, I wasn't expecting the score to be quite this low around here, though the review itself still has a number of positive things to say. For me, the co-op adventure alone is enough to propel this up to being the most enjoyable Pokémon game.

58

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet

« on: November 27, 2022, 01:56:58 PM »

The performance is unfortunate, but the co-op adventure alone is already making this the most enjoyable Pokémon game, and in a number of ways it feels like what Sword and Shield should have been.

I've mainly been playing the game with my significant other, but through the launch weekend we also had two friends join us; it was a lot of fun to goof around in the early game as we figured out how everything works. We're taking our time playing through this one and focusing on exploring each area as we come to it, so we have only two total badges so far, the Bug gym and the first titan. We've filled out a lot of the PokéDex though, catching as many of the Monz as we can locate. We like how there's also lots of items scattered around the land to find.

When the four of us were playing, we tried making sandwiches together, which is a pretty funny minigame of sorts! Here's the first one we made, which definitely looks like something a group of kids would concoct:

59

Nintendo Gaming / Re: What's Next For The N64 Expansion Pack?

« on: November 01, 2022, 03:22:56 PM »

I guess they didn't want to release the first Mario Party game on its own because of the stick-spinning stuff. I'm guessing Goldeneye 007 will be in December then.

I'm already in my own family plan so can't help you there Khushrenada, but I'd be interested in playing these games with your group, if our schedules can match up.

Dr. Mario 64 was indeed a budget title that was released only in NA in 2001, MSRP $30 USD. Its main claim to fame is that it's still the only Dr. Mario game with a four-player mode. Pretty crazy I know, but it's true! Or at least, in terms of regular gameplay. The WiiWare game has some four-player side mode where everyone cooperates to drop pills in the same bottle, but that was it.

60

General Gaming / Re: Shocktober III: Season of the Witch

« on: October 29, 2022, 02:02:31 PM »

If it counts, I played through Kid Dracula on the Castlevania Anniversary Collection. A curious little oddity that released only in Japan before this, I guess this is a sort of prequel / origin story for Castlevania? It's fairly short with nine levels, and not particularly difficult until the final stage. The general gameplay reminded me more of Mega Man, with a similar stiff jump and "firing" three shots at a time, though at least Kid Dracula can aim *gasp* upwards! It starts out in a typical Castlevania-style stage, but diverges from there with other locales like a city, sky, temple, ship, etc. Hearing an upbeat version of the classic Castlevania theme is a bit surreal.

61

NWR Mafia Games / Re: Mafia XC: Xenoblade Chronicles 1 - Definitive Mafia Edition. Sign-up Thread.

« on: October 29, 2022, 01:45:01 PM »

Time to begin Operation Mafiafall! Let's end this Mafia drought!

62

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Bayonetta 3 - Obligatory "Nintendo's Witch" Subject Edit

« on: October 29, 2022, 01:43:30 PM »

Wait, the person who voiced Bayonetta was named Hellena? What a funny coincidence!

63

General Gaming / Re: Shocktober III: Season of the Witch

« on: October 20, 2022, 12:35:54 PM »

So I guess in the case of Ritual of the Night, I probably should have grinded, since all the people who loved the game seem to be using all these crazy abilities the RNG never blessed me with.

Yeah, I think that's another problem I have is the rare drops, though I s'pose that can still fall under the "grindiness" umbrella. I was okay with this concept in Symphony of the Night since, far as I could tell, any rare drop was just an armor or weapon, so none of it was something that enhanced gameplay in some way and didn't feel necessary to collect.

64

Nintendo Gaming / Re: The Top 10 DS Games (According to MetaCritic)

« on: October 20, 2022, 12:29:35 PM »

I have all of these except for GTA and Flipnote Studio. Overall, I think this list turned out better than the GameCube one, but still probably doesn't represent most of what people would consider the best games. Similar to Ian Sane, I have a 3DS and not a DS, so the two libraries kind of blend together for me. There are a lot of games I still haven't played yet, but right now my own personal top ten would probably look something like:

10. Pokémon HeartGold Version
9. The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks
8. Picross 3D
7. New Super Mario Bros.
6. Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride
5. Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story
4. Etrian Odyssey III: The Drowned City
3. Advance Wars Dual Strike
2. Rune Factory 3: A Fantasy Harvest Moon
1. Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky

Wasn’t Flipnote Studios the app pedophiles in Japan were using to contact children?

No. You're thinking of Swapnote for 3DS, which had online features.

65

General Gaming / Re: Shocktober III: Season of the Witch

« on: October 15, 2022, 11:09:55 AM »

Funnily enough, I tried out Bloodstained back when it was on Game Pass. And I've gotta say... I didn't like it, unfortunately! I think I'll be okay to stick with the "real" thing, although I know a lot of people think the Metroidvania series went downhill after Symphony. I guess I'll find out...!

What didn’t you like about it?

Mainly I didn't like how grindy it felt. There were probably a couple of other things but I don't remember at this point. I do remember a problem of Dawn of Sorrow being a bit of a grindfest as well, but I still liked it overall, though that was many years ago now. Symphony of the Night largely avoided this problem.

I'll download the Castlevania Advance Collection when it hits $5. I hope that they find a way to release a collection of the DS games as well, even though I actually have Portrait of Ruin. The one that I missed, Order of Ecclesia, had to go and become the most expensive one!

66

Nintendo Gaming / Re: The Top 10 GameCube Games (According to MetaCritic)

« on: October 14, 2022, 07:07:12 PM »

I've always thought of review sites being something only enthusiasts would read, so I wouldn't have expected sports games to be something that earns high scores. I guess this was one way sites were trying to expand their audience?

I was always curious about Viewtiful Joe, but for whatever reason I never got around to buying it. Here's hoping for a re-release I s'pose.

Should I run a similar poll for another console? Which one?

If you want. I'm not your mother. Or am I? (I'm not)

Considering that you said this completely unprompted, I'm beginning to think that you are!

67

General Gaming / Re: Shocktober III: Season of the Witch

« on: October 14, 2022, 06:59:29 PM »

I'm looking forward to trying out some more of this series.

Though it is not technically in the series, if you liked Symphony I would recommend Bloodstained. It feels more like symphony than any other game I have played and it is pretty recent so has some QoL improvements.

Funnily enough, I tried out Bloodstained back when it was on Game Pass. And I've gotta say... I didn't like it, unfortunately! I think I'll be okay to stick with the "real" thing, although I know a lot of people think the Metroidvania series went downhill after Symphony. I guess I'll find out...!

68

Nintendo Gaming / Re: The Top 10 GameCube Games (According to MetaCritic)

« on: October 12, 2022, 04:08:12 PM »

For once I agree with a number one, Metroid Prime is indeed the best GameCube game! Although, my own personal fave and most-played is Super Smash Bros. Melee, which I'm a little surprised isn't even on the list. Though I s'pose that series has never been much of a critical darling.

I have Resident Evil 4 for GameCube and Wii, but haven't played it yet. I have Zelda Twilight Princess for Wii not GameCube, I like it a lot as well. Wind Waker is disappointing but still good. I got the Zelda Collector's Edition from subscribing to Nintendo Power and it was the first time I played Majora's Mask. My bro got Eternal Darkness but I never played it meself. I don't have and never played the rest.

My own personal top ten GameCube would probably look something like:

10. TimeSplitters 2
9. Luigi's Mansion
8. Super Mario Sunshine
7. The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
6. TimeSplitters Future Perfect
5. Battalion Wars
4. Tales of Symphonia
3. Metroid Prime 2 Echoes
2. Metroid Prime
1. Super Smash Bros. Melee

69

General Gaming / Re: Backlaugust 2022: Round 3 so we can break our backlogs and be free.

« on: October 12, 2022, 03:44:37 PM »

There was something else I was delayed in posting because I didn't want to double, and then I kind of forgot about it... It's probably way too late to matter now, but here it is anyway: my rating for each game I played!

Hades - 8.5 / 10
Pokkén Tournament DX - 8
Mega Man X2 - 7.5
Mega Man X4 - 7.5
Mega Man X3 - 7
Mega Man X - 7
Katamari Damacy Reroll - 7
Castlevania II: Simon's Quest - 7
Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse - 7
Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge - 6.5
Mega Man X7 - 6
Mega Man X8 - 6
Chex Quest HD - 5
Super Bomberman R - 5
Castlevania - 5
Mega Man X5 - 4
Castlevania: The Adventure - 3
Mega Man X6 - 2

70

General Gaming / Re: Shocktober III: Season of the Witch

« on: October 12, 2022, 03:40:04 PM »

I've been playing Castlevania: Symphony of the Night which I finished up last night. I've always heard of the game of course, but was never big on PlayStation even though we had one, so I've never gotten around to playing it. The Xbox 360 version was given out as a Gold game at one point, so that's what I played; I don't know if it has any differences over the original release. And I've gotta say...

...It's still pretty good! It certainly shows its age, but it's still playable. I like that there are plentiful tools and weapons, and how quite a few things aren't exactly required, but are fun to mess around with and provide more options for movement and combat. A few things are essentially nothing more than keys, but they can't all be winners. I discovered magic by accidentally inputting one of the combos, which is an interesting way of handling it, though I never came across anything in the game that listed a magic spell so I wonder if I missed it somewhere or if the only way to find a spell is to stumble upon using it. Many areas of the castle feel distinct with variety in both visuals and gameplay. While the music is good, the voices and sound effects are oddly low-quality, even for a PlayStation game. The wolf form was probably supposed to be cool, but it's just cute.

I've got mixed feelings on the sequence leading up to the end. On one hand, it's pretty clear the inverted castle was slapped in there because they ran out of time and/or budget. It isn't quite on the level of a Zelda-style second quest, and I s'pose it's debatable if it's "required" since you can get an ending without it, but it is a clever way to add extra content to the game without much effort. It at least has new enemies and bosses, and tested my memory and familiarity with the castle layout.

Overall, I can see why this game is highly-regarded, and while it may not technically be the first Metroidvania (that'd be Castlevania II, which I played for Backlaugust), this one is way better and moved the franchise in a (relatively) new direction. Aside from these two, the only other Metriodvania I've played is Dawn of Sorrow, so I'm looking forward to trying out some more of this series.

71

TalkBack / Re: Splatoon 3 Announces Pokemon Scarlet And Violet-Inspired Splatfest

« on: October 12, 2022, 03:06:56 PM »

Wait, so they're skipping October?! Lame! I hope they don't make a habit of this. I'd have much rather had another Halloween-themed fest than this one.

72

General Gaming / Re: So nobody likes GameStop?

« on: October 02, 2022, 11:17:55 AM »

I don't even remember making this thread.

I don't remember the last time I traded anything in. If you're wondering what the reason was, I pre-ordered this new Switch Controller strictly for the Hall Effect Sensing Joystick which will never drift. The Pro Controller I traded in didn't drift, but it was the one I bought at launch so it was only a matter of time.

Interesting. I'm curious how well this will end up working out and if it might introduce new problems. I s'pose it might be a couple of years before we start seeing.

73

NWR Mafia Games / Re: Mafia XC: Xenoblade Chronicles 1 - Definitive Mafia Edition. Sign-up Thread.

« on: October 02, 2022, 11:14:07 AM »

I sure hope Khushrenada is okay...

74

Nintendo Gaming / Re: What's Next For The N64 Expansion Pack?

« on: October 02, 2022, 11:12:55 AM »

Wait wait wait woah woah wait, was there no game released in September? What gives?!

75

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Official Sales Thread

« on: October 02, 2022, 11:09:51 AM »

How did Splatoon go from 3.4 million week one to 2.4 million week two after selling another 500k copies?

The 3.45m figure was total sales of physical plus digital, while Famitsu tracks only physical sales. So this current figure of 2.4m is physical sales only.