Messages

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General Gaming / Re: Backlaugust 2026 - (Splatoon) Raiding the Backlog

« on: August 16, 2026, 10:35:43 AM »

I also have a PS2 era game to report. Yesterday I beat Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando which I believe is the second game in the series. I was playing it as part of the Ratchet & Clank Collection on PS3. It appears I played the first game in 2021 and don't remember liking it as much as this one. I liked the added space shooter segments and the story seemed pretty interesting too. I remembered that you would hit story points where you would have to pay a chunk of bolts to proceed so I was sort of hoarding them. This meant I was not buying as many weapons and therefore not upgrading them. This did catch up to me towards the end of the game. I did luck upon a nice cheese for the final boss so that helped. The average play time is supposedly 13 hours but it took me 16 hours to finish. I was not going after any trophies and so only ended up with 6 of them. I should also mention I played the whole game in glorious stereoscopic 3D. With the month halfway done I am already pretty satisfied with my output here. Also I have not acquired a single new game this month!

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General Gaming / Re: Backlaugust 2026 - (Splatoon) Raiding the Backlog

« on: August 10, 2026, 08:06:14 PM »

Add one more to the pile for me. I wrapped things up with Rhythm Heaven Groove on Switch yesterday. The game has quite a lot going on with single player, multiplayer, and various side modes. I focused on the single player content which is comprised of 16 stages, each of which has 5 levels (4 regular and 1 remix). It is usually easy to clear a level with the "Okay" rating. If you do well enough you can get a medal for a higher "Superb" rating. Later, these superb levels open up opportunities for a perfect run which unlocks a new rhythm game. Of the 80 levels I got 47 medals. Overall this felt harder than Rhythm Heaven Fever on Wii where I got a medal on all but one level. I did try to self-monitor and if a game stopped being fun I stopped playing it.
The credits are shown after clearing stage 6, which is only about 3 hours in. I played for about 9 hours to clear stage 16. I would like to come back and try the multiplayer and some of the other side modes. Definitely recommended for fans of the series.

Sorry about the TV pic, I could not get the image sent to my smartphone from the switch.

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General Gaming / Re: Backlaugust 2026 - (Splatoon) Raiding the Backlog

« on: August 09, 2026, 02:17:26 PM »

2. Kill swarms of enemies under a strict time limit.

I was not a big fan of the time limits. I understand the need for them in Salmon Run, but they were too restricting here. I actually didn't upgrade my health at all until the very end and only really failed missions because of the time limits. I think the power ups could have been a little better too, they really didn't seem to make much of a difference. It was the classic, 5% increase in this area that you don't really notice.

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General Gaming / Re: Backlaugust 2026 - (Splatoon) Raiding the Backlog

« on: August 06, 2026, 03:16:22 PM »

Late to the party as usual, but I am ready to get put up on the leaderboards. I rolled credits on Splatoon Raiders on Switch 2 yesterday. I mostly just moved through the main campaign and it took me about 11 hours. For folks not aware of the game it is like the single player campaigns in the mainline Splatoon games with a few exceptions. One difference is the focus on the gameplay from the Salmon Run. The other is the way the multiplayer is handled. You get one member of Deep Cut as an NPC companion on your team and you can request help from others online. I got stuck on some of the final levels since I was a little under leveled and it actually worked great to have some randos come help me. You can of course volunteer to help others as well though I didn't try it. Overall the game was really fun and I liked it more than the single player modes in the 3 mainline games. There is still plenty to do and I will probably come back and complete it some day.

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General Gaming / Re: Backlaugust 2026 - (Splatoon) Raiding the Backlog

« on: July 31, 2026, 08:36:54 PM »

I am super excited for Backlaugust this year! I have mostly cleared the decks, though there is a game that will just cross the finish line tomorrow. I have been focusing on playing new releases as they come out instead of putting them at the back of the queue. To that end I am planning to play Rhythm Heaven Groove and Splatoon Raiders this month. I also got the switch 2 version of Xenoblade and as much as I want to play that now, it would really hurt my stats. Plenty of other games lined up that I will talk about as I get to them. Time to put Star Fox multiplayer on hold and just focus .

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Nintendo Switch 2

« on: July 26, 2026, 09:48:51 AM »

My Switch play time for Splatoon 3 has been stuck at 125 hours for a while. I am not sure the original cause, but I think it is the only game where it happened.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Nintendo Switch 2

« on: July 24, 2026, 01:03:54 PM »

That said, I know I'm going to be busy the first week of August doing anything but gaming due to the way things have worked out this year so if you want to take on the role of host again, M.K., then you are welcome to do it again. You did great with it last year as I once again flopped hard in doing any gaming or contributing much which wasn't my plan going in at the time. Just reply here if you want the job. Otherwise, I'll still get things rolling.

I am also busy in August so why don't you take the reigns this year!

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Star Fox (Switch 2)

« on: July 24, 2026, 01:01:26 PM »

Okay, I think I get the friends multiplayer now.

The achievements I was referring to come up as "awards" after the match where you earn them but are really just unlocks for the banner and medals. When you go to edit your banner you can see the requirement for ones you have yet to unlock. Once they are unlocked you can't see that anymore, but the order/organization of them allows you to usually figure it out.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Nintendo Switch 2

« on: July 23, 2026, 10:55:44 AM »

I, like many it seems, had Splatoon Raiders set to arrive tomorrow, but Amazon delayed the order until next Wednesday. Guess that makes it a Backlaugust game, then.

Mine is coming from Walmart and supposed to arrive today but we will see. I am saving it for Backlaugust anyway as I have company at the moment.

@Khushrenada - are you planning to host that this year?

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Star Fox (Switch 2)

« on: July 23, 2026, 10:53:54 AM »

It sounds like I will have to really try and get takedowns with the decoy, at least you only need 5. I still haven't gotten the mine one yet either  I wish I could see overall stats a little better, I know I have between 20 and 50 wins but not sure exactly.
I wasn't sure how the friend invites work so I sent one and then didn't wait. Then I went in some matchmaking and didn't get your invites until I closed the game out. I checked the settings and I am supposed to get those notifications in game so I am not sure what happened. I will keep trying if I see you online.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Star Fox (Switch 2)

« on: July 22, 2026, 12:52:05 PM »

Good to know. I have a couple other questions.
I am working through the battle mode achievements and there are some for getting takedowns with the various power ups. How do you take someone down with the decoy power up?
Also, I heard on a podcast there is a way to make your ship go faster but I can't find that in the settings?

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Star Fox (Switch 2)

« on: July 21, 2026, 04:12:23 PM »

You can't earn the medals in the Challenge Mode, only through the campaign. Though doing the challenges set you up for epically successful campaign missions.

I'm not sure if we are friends online yet but if you are playing Star Fox online lets be pals! I am hooked on and have gotten pretty darn good if I do say so myself! Should we ever invite one another we will always be on teams. I'm Romancedawn everywhere else online.

I suspected as much. Well at least you have the option to keep replaying a level during the campaign so I suppose I will use that to get medals. So would you recommend completing the challenges first, then playing the level for the medal?

Just got your friend request, hopefully I will see you out there.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Star Fox (Switch 2)

« on: July 20, 2026, 05:51:06 PM »

I have been really enjoying the game. I completed the campaign 3 times and have unlocked all levels and seen the good ending. I like that I can now directly jump to any level to work on the challenges. Can you earn the medals while playing levels in challenge mode? The multiplayer was a little rough my first time but now I am really into it and holding my own. I want to try and get all the multiplayer related achievements and then maybe come back to chip away at the challenges.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Star Fox (Switch 2)

« on: June 29, 2026, 05:17:31 PM »

My physical copy from the Nintendo store did arrive on release day. The game was packed in a rather large cardboard box, but in better shape than some of the games that come shipped in bubble mailers. Still need to finish Yoshi before starting it up but should be flying around in July.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Star Fox (Switch 2)

« on: June 23, 2026, 07:02:00 AM »

I have the game pre-ordered, though this is the first time ordering physical from the Nintendo store so I am not sure when it will arrive. I did not play the first release but did enjoy the 3DS version. I am actually most looking forward to the online multiplayer for the game.

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TalkBack / Re: Xenoblade Series Blowing Up On Switch 2 With New Game, Switch 2 Editions Of Original Trilogy

« on: June 10, 2026, 03:39:41 PM »

This was my favorite announcement of the direct. I have been wanting to play all of these and was waiting for switch 2 versions. I will be picking up physical versions of each and probably keeping my unopened switch 1 copies as collectibles.

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TalkBack / Re: Donkey Kong 64 Cursing Nintendo Classics N64 Library Next Week

« on: June 03, 2026, 07:55:07 AM »

I played this on Wii U VC and quite liked it. I did luck out on the minigames that were bugged but I could see how that would be frustrating going for completion.

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General Gaming / Re: 6th Annual NWR Four on Four

« on: May 19, 2026, 08:56:25 PM »

Thanks for reporting back Khushrenada. I saw some of your activity on Backloggery and was hoping you would share.  What did you think of Ed Wood?

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General Gaming / Re: 6th Annual NWR Four on Four

« on: May 01, 2026, 07:12:46 AM »

It looks like the Four on Four has officially come to an end, but feel free to continue posting about games played in April. I was able to play six games across six different devices:

• Cat Girl Without Salad: Amuse-Bouche - Switch
• Gunright - ZX Spectrum/Xbox One
• Alien Crush - TurboGrafx 16
• Chicken Wiggle - 3DS
• Tron: Evolution - PlayStation 3
• Mario Clash - Virtual Boy/Switch 2

Maybe I can get 7 on 7 next year 

I want to thank broodwars and Evan_B for joining the fun!

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General Gaming / Re: 6th Annual NWR Four on Four

« on: April 30, 2026, 04:42:47 PM »

Over the weekend I was able to beat all 99 levels of Mario Clash which I was playing on Switch 2 as part of the Virtual Boy - Nintendo Classics app. First off, a hot take, the Virtual Boy is not really virtual reality, it's just 3D. You can't change your perspective or interact with objects the way you can in VR. As for the game, it is a nice 3D version of Mario Bros. (the not super one), which is a game I really like. When playing this I wondered why I never tried to get to the end in the Arcade Archives version of Mario Bros  .  Anyway, I heard there were only 99 levels so I aimed to see them all. Most are really quick but a few of them took quit a while and I don't think I would be able to beat this without save states. I did only use save states between levels and I did not use rewind. When the score hits a milestone you get cool little graphic like the one shown below. The Princess/Fantastic one is the highest I got as my final score was 640,950. Turns out if you get to 1,000,000 you get a message indicated you have beat the game. If I ever replay this I will chase that score, but marking the game as beat for now.

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General Gaming / Re: 6th Annual NWR Four on Four

« on: April 24, 2026, 01:31:03 PM »

This week I beat Tron: Evolution on PlayStation 3. This was my first PS3 game making use of the Move controllers. While I have those from PSVR I did need to pick up a PlayStation Eye camera to make them compatible. These are pretty cheap online, even brand new. The game also includes stereoscopic 3D support which is decent for games from that platform. Not knowing much about the game, I was expecting to be throwing discs with my move controllers, but the motion controls are only for steering the light cycle (same as the Wii version). The game is mostly a beat 'em up with some 3D platforming connecting the battles. The story was decent and serves as a prequel to the second film. I was surprised to see Bruce Boxleitner and Olivia Wilde reprising their roles in the voice acting. The game only takes about 5-10 hours to beat, though without the online trophies the Platinum is no longer available.

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General Gaming / Re: 6th Annual NWR Four on Four

« on: April 24, 2026, 01:09:40 PM »

I've rolled credits on Astral Chain.

That final boss is fucking awful.

I mean...really? It has high health, high damage, high combo ability, the ability to teleport at will, and the ability to split into multiple copies & attack you from behind WHILE teleporting? Like the entire 2nd half of the game, it's just not fun to play.

Oh, and you have a heavy dose of the game's awful platforming before you even fight it.

It doesn't even look cool to fight, as it just looks like every other copied & pasted humanoid chimera in the game.

Good riddance to this game. Yes, I know there's a bunch of sidequests you can do in the epilogue post-game chapter. I don't care.

I was really hoping you were going to like Astral Chain. I don't remember the final boss being such a pain. I still have some of those epilogue quests to take care of.

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General Gaming / Re: 6th Annual NWR Four on Four

« on: April 17, 2026, 01:39:59 PM »

I hit an end to my time with Chicken Wiggle on 3DS. I was playing this via the atooi collection from Limited Run. As is well documented online, there is a game breaking bug on the second to last level (8-5). It prevents players from accessing the last two levels. I did 100% complete all levels before this. With no official patch and not wanting to mod my 3DS I am going to consider this completed.

I really enjoyed my time with this game (~5.5 hours). The controls are tight, the game looks great (especially the 3D  ), and the level design was strong. I sharing features are no longer available and I did not try using the level creation tool. It was nice to get back into using my 3DS. I had not played it since I wrapped up Etrian Odyssey last year. I am not a little more motivated to tackle that part of my backlog.

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General Gaming / Re: 6th Annual NWR Four on Four

« on: April 17, 2026, 01:04:31 PM »

Completed my time with the Switch version of Yooka-Laylee & the Impossible Lair, getting all the Coins, Tonics, and Bees you can get without clearing the lair hit-less.

That sounds like the level of completion I had. What do you get for clearing the impossible lair without getting hit?

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TalkBack / Re: Mario Galaxy Movie Has Nice Second Weekend, Takes In US$69m

« on: April 14, 2026, 03:33:44 PM »

I think economic conditions are also affecting these results. While it may not match the earnings from the first film it should be plenty profitable.