Messages

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TalkBack / Re: Kirby Goes To The World Beyond Next Spring

« on: Today at 02:53:27 AM »

Just how badly did Kirby beat King Dedede to be able to send him flying that long and far and still have enough force for him to blow a hole through that strongly reinforced wall?

R.I.P. Dedede. Pour one out for the king. Who will no doubt show up later somewhere in that world beyond now mind controlled by whatever forces were keeping in this cage.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Nintendo Direct Sept. 9, 2026 Thoughts

« on: Today at 02:46:49 AM »

Talk about out of sight, out of mind. How could I forget about Xenoblade:Genesis? 2027 really is shaping up to be one heck of a year. I can see Genesis being a middle of the year game being released around June/July.

I was talking about my missed predictions with Level-5 but even though I was wrong about Layton being delayed, I'm glad to see it is coming out. (It better not be digital only like Fantasy Life 2). World of Steam is the game I'm probably most hyped for in regards to 2026 releases still to come. I do wonder what the puzzles will be like without the touchscreen and stylus that the DS/3DS could allow for in design. Likewise, I assume the tapping around for hint coins and other points of interest will be changed or will they just have us move a curser around screens with the analog stick? I'm hoping it'll be designed differently from that.

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NWR Forums ID Verification / Re: What's the drunkest You have ever gotten?

« on: Yesterday at 05:14:28 PM »

I wouldn't worry about. I've posted strong thoughts and opinions in a lot of threads on games that I never played or experienced so I think you could do the same here.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: What will Nintendo release in 2026?

« on: Yesterday at 05:11:47 PM »

Argh. I had actually thought of making a Yokai Watch returns prediction but based on Fantasy Life 2 and Layton both having delays, I just didn't think Level-5 would be close to being able to add that to their development schedule. They've just seemed to struggle with getting games done so I decided to bet on Layton getting delayed a little bit more and save the Yokai Watch for next year. Based on what they showed, I have my doubts that Yokai Watch 2 will launch before 2029 but maybe I'm wrong if it's more of a remake than a new entry.

Also went with three Amiibo for Ocarina of Time because it seemed likely they'd do at least Link, Zelda and Ganondorf amiibos but its just Link and Zelda so far. *shakes fists at sky* Why must life be so difficult?

I also didn't think they'd release a 2D Metroid so soon. Based on Dread, I thought it might be a surprise they save for next year's February Direct and maybe release in the summer time. I guess I should have just gone with the generic "A Metroid game will be revealed" type prediction but I figured with the time Retro spent doing the remaster of Metroid Prime and making Prime 4 that it might be an easier and quicker lay-up for them to do a Metroid Prime 2 remaster and maybe have that as an early 2027 release. Perhaps the only MP2 we get will be its release on the GC Switch app.

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Nintendo Gaming / Nintendo Direct Sept. 9, 2026 Thoughts

« on: Yesterday at 05:00:14 PM »

Who needs 3D Mario? 3D Kirby is here!

Boy, 2027 has the potential to be one heck of a year for the Switch 2. I'm hyped up for Metroid Ravenous and Kirby and the World Beyond which are coming early. Pokemon Wind/Water will likely launch in the holiday season but could be sooner. Maybe Mario does get a new game in the back half. If so, that seems to me like 4 big games even if Metroid and Samus don't do the sales numbers Mario and Pokemon can.

On top of that, the third party support is there are as well. FFVII Revelation, Persona 6, and Tomb Raider plus other previously released games on XBox X/S and PS5 are being ported on over. Feels like the Switch 2 is just picking up more and more steam now and game overload is on its way.

One other thing thing, I'd never heard of Meccha Chameleon before but that game stood out to me as something I'd like to try. That was a neat spin on just the simple game of hide and seek.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: What will Nintendo release in 2026?

« on: September 08, 2026, 06:25:09 AM »

Some say the game is rigged. That the house always wins. One keeps fighting the power only for the power to keep coming up with ways to shift the goalposts and deny the player their points. Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result can only mean that it's time for....

Madness Khushrenada

1. Fortune Street gets a new release for the Switch 2.

2. Mass Effect Trilogy will be coming to the Switch 2.

3. The Xenosaga series of games will be coming to the Switch 2.

4. AI Somnium 3 will be announced for both Switch 1 and 2.

5. A new Animal Crossing spin-off. It will be a mash-up of AC and Style Savvy. You work with the Mabel Sisters in helping create fashion for villagers and become the best boutique in town. Summer of 2027.

6. Pushmo returns with a game announced for Switch 2.

7. Captain Falcon will be in a new game that is to be released in 2027.

Onwards to third parties!

8. Rhythm Thief returns from the dead with a sequel that will be digital only.

9. Persona 6 will be revealed as coming to Switch 2 on the same release date for the PS5/Xbox editions.

10. A Psychonauts collection will be announced as coming to Switch 2.

11. Everyone else’s predictions go to 10. Not Madness Khushrenada. His picks go to 11. He's just so eXtreme! Mother 3 actually releases in North America on the Switch GBA app with a full English translation.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: What will Nintendo release in 2026?

« on: September 08, 2026, 06:25:02 AM »

But if you really want to fight power, you can't do it by being safe in houses with your tame predictions. You need to rattle some cages. You need to be brave You need to be...

Bold Khushrenada

1. Duskbloods is delayed to early 2027.

2. A Zelda addition will be coming to the Super Nintendo World Theme Park.

3. Nintendo announces and reveals a new mobile phone game.

4. Nintendo reveals a new exercise game (a la Wii Fit, Ring Fit Adventure) and it comes with a special peripheral.

5. Metroid Prime 2 Remastered is announced with a release date.

6. Four Swords Adventures is released for the GC Switch 2 Library without the need for GBAs to play online multiplayer with.

7. Splatoon 4 will be confirmed as being in development.

Let's dive into the world of third party releases:

8. Starfield will be announced as being ported to Switch 2.

9. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 will be announced as getting a Switch 2 port for 2027.

10. A new Ace Attorney game is revealed and given a 2027 release window.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: What will Nintendo release in 2026?

« on: September 08, 2026, 06:24:45 AM »

Yeah I know I forgot to post before the cutoff but who cares, at least my predictions will be on the record now.

I'm with you! Fight the power! Why must predictions be done at the start of the year? Isn't it harder to do so when the year is almost up and there is less runway? Let's find out. Hit it, boys!

Safe Khushrenada

1. A new Mario game that is not a sports or party game will be announced.

2. Kirby will also get in on the act of having a new game revealed.

3. There will be at least 3 new Amiibo for the new Ocarina of Time Zelda game.

4. There will be a special edition Zelda themed Switch 2.
 
5. Nintendo will reveal another IP is being adapted to a non-gaming medium (i.e. Movie / TV series).

6. Pokemon Wind/Water will release in the first half of 2027.

7. Another Game Console’s (i.e. Game Boy, Game Gear, Neo Geo, etc) games are added to the Expansion + subscription.

8. Splatoon Raiders DLC is announced and shown.

Let's switch it up to third parties.

9. Square-Enix will unveil a new IP RPG for the Switch 2 to come out in 2027.

10. Professor Layton and the World of Steam will be pushed back to a 2027 release date.

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NWR Forums ID Verification / Re: Has anyone tried CRZ YOGA leggings

« on: September 08, 2026, 01:25:51 AM »

Greetings, I've been searching for some good leggings recently. Someone mentioned these high quality activewear yoga pants from CRZ Yoga, specifically their well-known Butterluxe tights lineup. I am checking how to find these CRZ YOGA butterluxe tights and sports bras online.

You know, this highlights a real problem I have with the internet. I've been saying for years now that there needs to be a better way to find things online. If only there was some kind of site that a person could type in a request and it would search the internet and come up with all sorts of results on that searched term to help you find where these items might be sold. This current method of having to check into every 25 year old forum you can find on the internet and hope someone in that community has the answer is just so much work.

In addition, does anyone know where to find these CRZ YOGA activewear pieces or whether their sizing holds up? I really liked their Butterluxe leggings design because the material feels super soft all day. If anyone knows who sells the best options with a fabric comparisons, I would appreciate the advice!

Well, buddy, did you ever come to the right place on the internet. Half of the posters here work in the sweatshops that help make the leggings! Quite a few of them have even smuggled themselves into a shipment of Butterluxe leggings in order to flee those horrible working conditions and find a better life in a different country. They can attest to the comfort these leggings provide as they felt that super soft feeling hold up all day of being hidden amongst them in the shipping crates. However, it has been noted that super soft feeling will begin to degrade the more they are exposed to human waste over a short period of time but, so far, analysis has been unable to find any other comparable fabric able to stay super comfortable in such a condition either. As for where you can find these leggings, just let us know which country you are in and perhaps it will be one of the countries a poster was able to escape to and then they can let you know which stores and parts of the country will carry the brand. If really lucky, they may be able to point out which places to avoid if you don't want the tights or bras that may have been exposed to human waste along with sweat and some other bodily functions.

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

« on: September 08, 2026, 01:07:30 AM »

Now that I've said what I want to about the stuff I played and my activity for the month, I want to turn my attention to some other things that were posted but I put off to keep putting more time into playing.

I have another one to add: Down in Bermuda

Picked this up on a sale for like $2 last month! Not bad, not bad…

Went through my Backloggery history and saw that it was in October 2021 that I played and beat this game also. I agree that it was a pleasant enough sort of point and click adventure. Nothing too complicated to solve or figure out but I enjoyed playing it. The hardest thing I remember about getting 100% was a slide puzzle in the last level that you have to finish in a certain number of moves to get the last sort of achievement. Had to replay through to do that again. Surprised I didn't play it during a Backlaugust but I don't think I knew how short it was. According to Deku Deals, I likely paid about $5.00 for it at the time which isn't that paid but if I'd waited a few more months, I could have bought it at half that which is how it is often priced every few weeks.

I'm not sure what drew you to the game besides the price. The reason I got it was that in April 2021, I played a game called Agent A: A Puzzle in Disguise which is also a point-and-click adventure. It wasn't the most challenging game I've played in that style. Something like Grim Fandango I found myself more stuck in. However, I enjoyed piecing things together and figuring out what to do to keep progressing and really enjoyed the experience. The game was put out by a publisher called YAK so when I checked on the eShop if they had made anything else that's when I learned about Down in Bermuda. I may have seen it before on the eShop from a sale or something but now that I knew it was the same team, I added it to my wishlist and then got it later when it was down to $5.00. Personally, I liked Agent A over Bermuda. Bermuda was a bit too simple. Searching for the orbs was a different way to interact with the environments a bit but none of the puzzles were really that tough. Agent A doesn't have any orb searching. Just picking up some items that will likely help aid you in solving a puzzle or being used in some way to open a door or make progress. You may want to check it out also as it also goes on sale at a low price quite regularly on the eShop. I always assumed both games were mobile games ported to the Switch based on the look and feel as though a phone's touchscreen was how they were originally designed but I could be wrong. I've never looked into it but based on what they want to charge for the games when not on sale are prices I just don't see mobile users paying considering the kerfuffle over Super Mario Run being priced at $10.

For a couple years, I'd keep checking in once in a while to see if YAK had anything new on the eShop but they've only got these two games to offer over 5 years later. It's a shame as I had hoped they would offer more puzzle type games like the two they'd released.

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

« on: September 08, 2026, 12:31:04 AM »

My argument against the whole "RPG Book Club" idea is that we basically already have that with the "What are you playing?" thread.

Death to mega-threads has been my motto for some time. I've liked being able to revisit past backlaugust threads and see what was being played at that time. It's an easier way to peruse play history. Good luck looking for past comments people made in that thread about a game you may have just played and would like to create some additional conversation on it. Just a dead end dumping zone for posts. I'd rather posters just created separate threads for a game title and let users look up that thread and add to it when they've played something.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Field notes: what Japanese amiibo actually cost in 2026

« on: September 07, 2026, 06:23:18 PM »

Is that… a spambot replying to your call out of the first spambot?

Yep. I wanted to see how far down this rabbit hole went. Would another spambot come in to defend the second? Would the second respond to my response? It doesn't seem like it is going to go any further at this point.

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NWR Forums ID Verification / Re: What's the drunkest You have ever gotten?

« on: September 07, 2026, 06:21:37 PM »

Drunk All The Time

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NWR Forums ID Verification / Re: What's the drunkest You have ever gotten?

« on: September 07, 2026, 06:20:26 PM »

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

« on: September 07, 2026, 06:12:49 PM »

I’ve really just come to the sobering conclusion that most of the games I purchase are either procedural hellscapes or “feature length experiences,” which for my preferred genre tastes (RPGs) is twenty hours on a good day. The exceptions are few and far between, and when I do get those exceptions, they tend to be the first part of my backlog that I fridge clean. This is worrisome, of course, considering I am very aware of at least ten RPGs in my backlog at the moment. At least ten.

I've been mulling over creating a separate forum event for RPGs in the future, but unfortunately the only month with a name that fits the topic is "ARPGust" (August), a month that is definitely already taken. "JRPG July?" Maybe we just go June -> August with "RPG Summer", since those are months where basically nothing comes out. I dunno. Open to ideas, because this is definitely the last Backlaugust where I'm going to be to shotgunning games like this. RPGs make up the vast majority of the backlog I care about as well, and they don't suit this format.

Edit: Been mulling it over, and what about "Rolevember"? Set it across November and December, traditionally dead months these days.

Rolevember has some charm! But I’d also consider a general “RPG book club” for folks, especially since their contents are rarely a neat fit in a single month. Since I play a lot I’d be willing to offer my hand and hot takes to those who come later.

Looking ahead, I think if we end up doing the RPG event in November (incidentally, I do plan to count Adventure games in that event), I think I'm going to forego the whole leaderboard thing unless people really want it. I don't seem to remember Shocktober using one. Seems to generate more stress than it does excitement, though it does look like we surpassed the views on 2024 and are making good progress on overtaking 2025's numbers.

In regards to this idea which was coming up during the event, a couple things I will mention. First is to just do it. Throw it out there. Pokepal148 just showed up here one day with the Backlaugust idea and here we are still doing it for the seventh time. I've pitched ideas for forum games in the Funhouse and people joined in or they didn't. M.K. Ultra started his 4 on 4 one day and he's been keeping at it since. Some topics / events / ideas just may take off and be more popular than others but you can only find out by just trying it and seeing how it develops.

Which comes to the second point. When Backlaugust first started, it was pitched as a competition between NWR and Negative World to see which site could have the most games finished/completed in the month. The only list being tabulated was the grand number of games that were reported finished by users. RABicle latched onto the event as motivation to start tackling a bunch of games and was doing so. I think it was around his 7th or 8th game completed that he made a comment about how the month isn't a competition but he was winning anyways. And like Michael Jordan, I took that personally.  >:(  ;) Well, not that personally but it did motivate to me look through my list of games and see what I had that I could play or start completing to see if I maybe I could catch up or even surpass his number. When I suddenly was able to start posting a bunch of games I finished while he was slowing down near the middle of the month, he made a comment about not liking this and seeing someone else now suddenly also finishing a bunch of games and that reaction was a win to me. But that also was what created the leaderboard race which wasn't there in the beginning and isn't always a big deal. The next year didn't really seem to generate much interest or competition for the top spot but then it did the year after, at least it seemed to, between me and Mop it up. Looking at the last couple years, Broodwars may have wanted the top spot but no one else really seemed to be playing to compete for that. It's not supposed to be the focus and it seems to have its ups and downs but that's just how it came to be. Maybe it's part of why Backlaugust is more popular than other events but I suspect the general open nature helps as well compared to Shocktober or even 4 on 4 which has a bit more limiting in how to succeed or particpate in it.

Evan_B's mention of an RPG Book Club and broadening out the event beyond just one month is interesting as I agree that trying to play RPGs in just one month is tough particularly depending on the game being played. I don't myself ever completing a Xenoblade game in one month, for example. As for the Book Club aspect, perhaps a poll ahead of time or posters listing some games they would consider playing during the event before it starts to see which game might have the most overlap and then making that game the theme for that years event could be an idea. Of course, if people want to still play other RPGs and post about them during the event then they can do so. In fact, it might be that those games outside of the theme generate interest to be the theme for next years event as a game people want to play. By broadening it out to perhaps two months, it would allow for me people to tackle the theme game or other things and contribute to the event. Or it might make the event feel slower. :P Again, one can only find out when trying. I'd also stress less about the right month to make some kind of wordplay on and just think about a time period that feels like a good for when you get manage it and that others may have the time to participate. Maybe that's December and January. Maybe it is July and August. That's my spitballing.

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

« on: September 07, 2026, 05:27:06 PM »

10 - Escapee Go! – In a way, the game is sort of like tag. Don’t get touched by an enemy or tagged. You just have to get from point A to point B in a sort of mazy area while avoiding being tagged. It’s simple enough but there’s fun and excitement to be had in the thrill of the chase. I enjoyed my time with it but its short nature also meant I’d kind of forgotten about it until now when reviewing what all I had played.

9 - King Dedede’s Drum Dash – Part of me wants to put this higher on the list. But the fact that there’s only about 7 songs with a normal and difficult mode holds it back. With the amount of music in the Kirby series, it’s disappointing that the selection is so limited. At the same time, maybe there’s only so much one can do with the gameplay of hopping along drums to a beat and avoiding some enemies along the way. Yet, it didn’t stop Guitar Hero or Rock Band from releasing so many tracks based on their note highway gameplay. It’s an activity I enjoyed doing and do want to return to in order to get some better scores.

8 – New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe – I’ll admit that this may be the hardest game for me to sort on this list. The first HD Mario platformer didn’t really impress me when I first played it on the Wii U that one and only time. Yet, I realize now that there were quite a few levels that had stuck in my mind. When replaying it, I could remember this element or that element of some of the levels as they came up on the map. Still remembered which had secret exits even if I couldn’t always find them. It’s one of the bigger games for content out of most that I played this month and its definitely more polished and well designed. Somehow, it felt a bit more challenging than last time and the castle gimmicks also seemed a bit more appealing this time around. On the other hand, the squirrel suit feels like one of the weakest power-ups ever especially compared to things like the cape/feather, leaf/raccoon or p-wing for flying and it doesn’t seem to have any attack capability. I’d often seem to struggle with getting Mario to pick up the frozen enemy blocks from the Ice Flower, constantly mashing Y and R to pick them up before they broke free. Yoshi shows up but is stuck in the level he appears in. And there is the feeling of been here done that when replaying a game compared to all these other fresh new experiences this month. Should it be higher on my list or lower? I don’t know. Maybe it’s still not getting a fair shake. I’ll probably end up playing through it properly now to 100% because I’ve been thinking about replaying a few Mario games anyways and that wasn’t something I expected to do when I acquired this game so perhaps I’m warming up to it more.

7 - Onion Assault – Seems wrong to put this over Mario considering the content level between the two yet I can’t deny I probably was enjoying this a bit more while playing it than Mario U. I enjoyed its jaunty main tune which has kind of been playing in my head a bit since last Monday when I played this game and I do want to play more of it to get those special onion coins. In fact, I wish there was more content to the game. Wanting a game to be longer seems like it should be a positive. Hopefully there will be a sequel to this like there was Gunman Clive.

6 – Catan – Another game harder to figure out where it should go on the list. It’s a pretty basic game. You’ve basically got the same looking map of Catan just with different tile placements that are randomized with each game. The map graphics look about on par with Civilization 4’s map elements. Nonetheless, if you enjoy playing the board game Catan then you will pretty much get that same experience here. It’s a little different without people in the room for chatter and the dynamics that can bring. There’s no different difficulty settings one can select but the game feels pretty close to playing with real people. The trading isn’t broken with CPU’s ganging up to help one stop the human player nor can you seem to exploit any kind of dumb CPU into bad trades. It feels like you are all playing to win and making the necessary moves for that. With that potential to keep replaying this over and over whenever one wants to get a Catan session in, I have to put this higher up. It also allows for couch multiplayer. You can connect your phones to the game so that a players cards will be on their hand meaning others can’t see on the TV screen what you have which is a smart touch and something I didn’t mention when talking about the game before.

5 – ElecHead – Another game that I wish was longer and had more to do. One of the few games I took the time to 100% complete during this month. It was able to do so much just from a small amount of moves. Feels like the developer could have added more and more to get some really complex puzzles happening later but short and sweet it is. That shortness is the biggest knock as despite really enjoying my time with it, I’d kind of forgotten about it after playing another 15 games after it. Definitely recommend it.

4 - A Short Hike – I described this as a sort of encapsulation of my ideal of what I picture when I think of a video game. You’d think it would be number one then but here we are. The game does a good job of making one feel like you might when going for a walk in the woods or in the outdoors. It has a breeziness to it. Ultimately, when looking back now, what holds it back some is that it doesn’t take too long or too much work to make your main character pretty overpowered in collecting feathers to be able to easily traverse all over the world. There’s also plenty of money and treasure chests to find but you soon run out of stuff to buy. Even some of the sidequests you can do, like collecting 15 seashells, don’t really lead to anything special or do much. Although having some of these other objectives like catching all the different fish around the island can give you a bit more reason to keep playing, once you’ve done the main objective of climbing to the top, there just isn’t really a lot of incentive to keep playing. I still really like the game and do recommend it. I just also recognize that it will be limited in its small size to keep one occupied for a long time.

3 – TOEM – There’s a bit of overlap in my comments about a Short Hike with TOEM. Both sort of have a main objective of getting to the top of a tall mountain and they are short games. TOEM, however, has you stop at some different locales on your way and so you have some new spaces to explore even if they aren’t all that big. TOEM is also a lot more about the sidequests as you need to complete some in order to move on to the next town. There’s a compendium you can fill in by taking the necessary pictures of the items mentioned in its list. Likewise, each locale has a checklist of sidequests that you often first have to discover and then work on completing. Perhaps I just prefer having that tangible record of what I’ve accomplished and have to do compared to A Short Hike leaving it up to the player with no list of what other objectives there are. Also, A Short Hike plays it pretty straight with a pretty grounded and close to life setting of a more outdoors area while TOEM is willing to have fantastical elements and odd sights to see within its world. I’m giving it the edge which I wouldn’t have expected before this month.

2 - WarioWare: Move It! – I wonder if Nintendo could ever do anything with the WarioWare cast besides these games. One of the few games that made me laugh a few times while playing it and just smiling thinking about what the development of this game must be like or the testing of it. I’ve played it during the best part when these microgames are fresh and you’re figuring out what to do from one game to the next. As I play through it to complete it and play some of these things over and over, its possible this game would be further down this list in a future ranking but right now it comes close to the top. It’s nice to be reminded of what can be done with those expensive joy-cons once in awhile.
 
1 – Super Monkey Ball 3D – Maybe it was playing a game in 3D after a year or two of not really using my 3DS. Maybe it was playing a Monkey Ball game after perhaps a decade since last doing so. Maybe it was the right game at the right time coming after a week in which most of the games I played where ranked near the bottom of this list. Whatever the reason, Super Monkey Ball 3D just seemed to stand out when I started playing it and it hasn’t really left my mind yet. I went back to it again now to replay a couple levels to get a few collectibles and I’m still really digging this game. Even when I was getting a bit irked at times with some levels with the bumper poles knocking me off or a bad bounce, I just always wanted to keep going and keep playing and keep getting all those bananas on the way to the goal. I wanted more which is a sign of it doing something right. As I was making this, I kept asking which game would I want to go back to and play some more and it just kept winning against everything else.

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

« on: September 07, 2026, 05:25:32 PM »

 Now, I'll take a page from Mop it up and try to do a quick ranking of all the games I played. I've gotta say... that based on how I'm feeling right now this is the order I'm going with and I'll try to give them a quick summation.

20 - Tokyo Crash Mobs - I think with the basic gameplay element of a sort of match 3 puzzle game which is done by throwing people into other people could have had a lot of humor and fun to it but the "story" instead deflates that by being too bewildering and ambiguous with no real goals. The scoring system and how to rank well is obtuse and the gameplay mainly falls into two patterns that repeat back and forth with myself personally preferring one over the other. Wore out its welcome fast and was the game I most had to push myself through and might not have done so if the leaderboard race hadn't been so competitive. Big disappointment.

19 - What Remains of Edith Finch - Again, I feel like calling it a videogame is stretching the definition of game. It's clearly meant to be have a melancholy feel from the story it wants to tell and the environments certainly add to that heavy feel but it just became an unpleasant experience to me and there were a lot of elements that just didn't work for me. Besides all of that, I think what I found myself disliking the most is, and I guess this will be a bit of spoiler territory, often when there is gameplay elements or something different beyond just walking and looking at items of interest from the main character is when you see the death of a family member. It stood out to me on the second death you encounter when you have to control a swing that a child is on to whip around and send him to his doom. It's just such a reversal as usually death in games is something you want to avoid happening to the character you are controlling. Frankly, I don't want to suddenly control these people and take them to their doom. I'd like to control them and find a way to prevent that but that is not what this game will allows. I came to really hate that mechanic and that is where most of the gameplay was. There was one case, it might have been Sam but it was the military father, where the death made me laugh. I don't think that was the intention but I could be wrong. Usually, they were rather unpleasant. The last death with the cannery really stands out as I could sense right away where it might be headed and I was not happy to see it went in that direction. If it wasn't for Tokyo Crash Mobs, I'd put this at the bottom but I do give it some credit for creating something that will stick in your mind and it seems the developers accomplished what they wanted for this story even if I didn't enjoy it.

18 - Mega Man III (Game Boy) - Now it's starting to get tougher to order these games. An improvement from the first two GB Mega Man games and one that I had more fun playing than those games but is still held back but that early style of game design and not something I see myself revisiting. It's possible I might on the Switch GB Online app years from now if I was playing through all those GB games and needed to play them to complete them all but that could be a very long time from now.

17 - Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? - Pretty basic simulation of the game show. There's some lame repeated dialogue by the generic host and the generic player character you may choose that you'll want to try and skip through as fast as possible. Ultimately, it's just a test for yourself to see if you can answer some trivia questions and go all the way. The lifelines are wonky as they try to still include an Ask the Audience and Phone a Friend but the answers you get from those lifelines could be wrong. Had one question asking about who Justin Timberlake collaborated with for a song in the Trolls 2 movie so I asked the audience as I thought it might be between two answers. The audience's number 1 choice was a name I'd never heard of or recognized, the second choice was one of the names I was debating between. I decided to go with the number 1 choice of the audience and found out it was wrong. The right answer wasn't the number 2 choice either. It was the lowest and least picked choice and the other name I had been debating as possible. Some of the categories of questions are also things that just don't interest me but the developers seem to have chosen thinking there would be popular appeal to having. Give me history, geography and better movie questions than that.

16 - Mega Man IV (Game Boy) - Feelings are pretty close to what I said about Mega Man III but I did find I was enjoying this one quite a bit all the ways up to the second Ballade battle and then it began to frustrate and wear out its welcome. Still, that first 2/3rds I'd say give it a step up over the Millionaire game.

15 - Aero Porter - I was debating if this should be 16th instead but give it a slight edge to 15th. There is something about the simple gameplay element of trying to sort this baggage on different conveyers that has some appeal that I see myself coming back to this for another attempt here and there. There are times when playing some games that I will imagine that I am in charge of a game development company and ask myself how could my company take this game and compete with it or make it better. With Aero Porter, I'd want to buy the rights for this game and then do some redesign with a few of the elements because I feel there is something here that could be pretty darn successful (perhaps more in the mobile gaming market). For a pretty basic game in look and design, it felt to me like it was just coming close to something special and falling short in different ways. The biggest key to seeing success in it was when the game gave the advice to not worry about being perfect. I began to realize that if there were flights with just one or two of the correct baggage on it (even if it had other wrong baggage) then that was good enough because at least the flight wouldn't be cancelled deducting money. Letting go of trying to get everything perfectly sorted worked although it was against my desire to do that. I'd want to make some tweaks in that regard. Ultimately I'm still on the positive side even with its tough balance for this game which gives much insight into why so much luggage seems to get lost at the airport.

14 - Pikuniku - The thing about beating 20 games in about 20 days is that you can quickly forget about games you played. This was about the second game I played this month and if I hadn't recorded it I'm not sure I'd have been able to remember it if I was asked to name everything I played before making this post. Recognizing the potential of people likely forgetting about having played this game after awhile is why I'm slotting it lower. I had a pleasant time playing it and, as mentioned, I'm considering getting the upcoming sequel which will be 3D unlike this first one being in 2D. Still, the game is rather simple and doesn't take that long to complete which is going to contribute to it fading from memory. I've got nothing against it and, while I know there is debate on what a game is worth, I think one would find it worth a play if they were to spend $5 or less to pick it up.

13 - Kirby Fighter Deluxe - A small game with a pretty set pattern of how things will unfold over 10 set and random stages. A sort of glimpse at making a Smash Bros. game out of just the Kirby series. I found some abilities easier or harder than others and still would like to take a crack at the Hard and Very Hard difficulty at some point. Nonetheless, there's no denying that it's a game that is pretty light for content and variety and won't have much lasting appeal. Perhaps the multiplayer aspect could wring more appeal and fun from this title but with the eShop closed I don't see myself finding out anytime soon on that part of it. Still, it was short enough that I never quite tired of it even with the repetition of the campaign and it's stayed in my mind although that could be because of the unfinished business I feel for the harder modes so I give it this higher placement.

12 - Carto - Like Pikuniku, I find this game already fading from my memory. I enjoyed it enough to complete 100% (although it isn't that hard or long to do) as I played it which isn't something I always felt I had the time for this month. The map rearranging mechanic helped it stand out a bit more and created a bit more challenge with at least one tricky spot that I can still remember when thinking about this game again. Nevertheless, I wouldn't call this game a must play and just give it a mild recommendation if you are looking for a short game experience that is an agreeable and low stakes way to pass the time.

11 - Banjo-Kazooie - Definitely the biggest and longest game I played. Started this back in June and was playing it off and on into July before dropping off completely in the last half of that month. Finally picked it up to get through the last world and face off against Grunty. It's tough for me to rank this because at first I was quite enjoying the game even if it wasn't quite up to the appeal I have for DK64 and hoping to find something similar after completing that when it arrived on the N64 app. Eventually, it just hit a point where I started to get bored with it and it just seemed to keep going on and on. It's tougher for me to remember the enjoyment I had while playing through the first 5 or 6 worlds compared to the end and having to back track around Grunty's lair a bunch. As I said in my earlier talk of the game, I'm glad I had the save states to use to get me through the game at the end. When I think of the two in my head, I'd say I had a better overall time with Yooka-Laylee compared to the original. And why did Kazooie always have to be such a jerk to most of the characters you meet? Poor Banjo always getting stuck in the middle and having to play mediator. Also, the game has a poor objective as I didn't really care about Tooty and would rather hang out with hot Grunty based on that Game Over screen. ;)

18

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

« on: September 06, 2026, 09:46:51 PM »

Broodwars suckered me in good when he told Mop it up that there were like 16 Sonic Game Gear games and he wouldn’t be able to match that total. Yet, now he had found a way to hit 22.

In my defense, when I said that I meant it. I did the mental math and saw that Mop was going to hit 18 games if she cleared all the games in the collection. I think at the time I was still around 9-10 and I wasn't seeing how I was going to top that and still play stuff I wanted to play like those games I listed as honorable mentions.

It's all good. I made mention before about Mop it up posting that she was going to play Peach and Zelda games and suddenly pivoted to all these Sonic games and needling her about that change. So, you are allowed to change your plans too. It was just something that was playing in my thoughts when I was making my plans and calculations to go for 20 after reaching 10 and thinking that would seal the deal based on what people had posted so I included it here in my thoughts.

Considering I was playing crap like Elea and the Jurassic Park collection after that just to try to catch up to where I thought Mop and you would end up, I would say I rather suckered myself. And I had to heavily de-tox from gaming with anime binging for several days when it was all over.  :P

Heh. Yeah, it's sort of been the same for me. Tuesday night I went and saw Coyote Vs Acme and have just watched some TV shows and movies the next few nights after along with doing some posts here. Only game I've been playing since Monday is Pokemon TCG Pocket and that hasn't been much. Today is the first day I got back into playing something more significant and that was going back to TOEM to complete that game. Turns out there was also some bonus content added and a whole new area to explore as a sort of free DLC so got the 100% from the original base game and am now completing this bonus area. Probably going to keep doing some finishing up on a few of these other games I played as I finally feel ready to tackle them some more at a slower pace.

As for your 2 last games, I have no issues counting them, though I'm surprised you only cleared Super Mario Bros. U when you had New Super Luigi U right there as well. I would have counted that game as well since it's individually select-able in that collection. 75 completed games is a nice round number for something like this.

Heck yeah! 75 is a great number. The diamond anniversary. We reached diamond rank. Just watch Insanolord show up now with a soccer game to make it 76 and ruin it all. As for Luigi U, I would also count it as a separate second game and I realized I need to add it to my Backloggery account of games as I only put in NSMBUD as a single game. However, while Luigi U is a shorter game that wants you go through levels quickly, I was still unsure if it would be short enough to do in time before the month ended particularly since NSMBUD took me longer than I was thinking to get from 1-1 to Bowser even with shortcuts. Luigi U uses the same map. I also wanted to save the game as I remember liking it a whole lot more than NSMBU and didn't want to play and cover a bunch of its content before finishing up the Mario U version. Based on what the Gunman Clive games were like, I banked on Onion Assault being a shorter experience than Luigi U. Perhaps if I save Luigi U for next year, I'll know if I was right or not but I do think I made the right choice there.

19

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

« on: September 06, 2026, 07:20:02 PM »

And that’s how my 2026 Backlaugust turned out. After two years of not finishing anything or hardly even playing anything during the event, it has been a bit of a wild ride this time and I’m pretty happy with what I was able to accomplish especially with just two thirds of the month to do it in. It seems to me, though, based on how all these events have gone is that for a person to top the leaderboard they pretty much have to start strong at the beginning. Once you have a lead, you can keep countering more easily with anyone that is starting to catch up because you potentially have more time to play more things to increase that lead while others then have to add more games in that narrowing window to do so. I thought this year might be the first time where a person might overtake the leader despite starting late but it was not to be. Of course, one could just not say how much they have played or beat and wait until the end to possible show up with the most games finished (like Mop it up in the 2021 event). Still, I think it is better when people keep a running update like happened this year as it does create a bit more excitement and motivation to keep playing stuff when there is that added element/challenge. Looking back, it seems that Mop it up topped the leaderboard in 2021 and 2022. I did it in 2023 and Broodwars had done it in 2024 and 2025. Perhaps it isn’t that surprising that the three of us would be putting up such an effort this year and we may not see a battle like this again in a future event. Although, who knows? I wasn’t expecting this year to set a new record in the total games beat after the last couple years and what forum participation is at. Maybe there will be more surprises if this keeps on going. 

As for those that may see these large totals of games done and think reporting 1 or 2 games isn't much, well, that's not true. Every game helps for the grand total record and these numbers are not usual. Half of the events in the past have had smaller numbers. 2021 had Mop it up at top with 10 games and I was second with 7 games. As mentioned, Broodwars was at the top with 8 games the past couple years so double digits aren't always reached by participants. Once more, I didn't even beat or complete anything the past couple years so those 1 or 2 games are better than anything I did in the past two Backlaugusts combined. The leaderboard race ultimately favors smaller games and a large majority of games will often take more than 3 hours to beat. There were a couple games that I realized I still haven't finished that I had thought about doing in this event. One was Zack and Wiki for the Wii. I think there's around 6 levels I might still have to get through to finish getting all the bones. If this year had been slower, I'd have probably tackled that game as I'd like to revisit and complete it but I didn't want to end up stumped on something for awhile and be unsure how much time it could take to finish so I put it off to focus on games that felt I could more easily beat and keep up the forward momentum. If those 1 or 2 games were games you really wanted to play and finish then that should be a win. I had to put that off to focus on stuff I wasn't always so eager to play and, in some cases, would have walked away from but I'd already put in some time and wanted that time to pay off and count for this leaderboard race. It's all good.

20

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

« on: September 06, 2026, 07:07:09 PM »

It was 10:30 PM my time and I was now at 19 games done. One more game remained to hit the 20 mark. There was a game that had been on my mind when I was coming into the weekend as a possibility and it seemed to me my best chance now.

Onion Assault. Perhaps you may remember the Gunman Clive games back on the Wii U/3DS eShop. I had gotten both of them due to the positive reception they had back then. I’m not sure how much reviewers might care about those games had they just released for the first time, say, this year but back then on the eShop they were considered standouts albeit short and rather simple games. I got them for 3DS and may have even used one for an early Backlaugust. The games had a bit of charmed but they didn’t wow me or were something I ever bothered to return to after beating them. The next game that Horberg (the main person behind those games) made was Mechstermination Force. I’ve never picked that one up or tried it. From the description, it just felt like a Boss Rush mode and that didn’t seem too appealing. I didn’t even realize until just looking it up but he had another game between that and Onion Assault which is Super Punch Patrol. It was Onion Assault that stood out to me when it was released. I’d seen talk of how the game pulled from the idea of Super Mario Bros. 2 and being able to lift items from the ground to throw or enemies by standing on their heads plus some other surprises and that gameplay hook made me want to try it for myself. It’s not something that has been done or replicated much since SMB2 did it.

Now, this is only the third game I’ve played of the five that he and his production studio have made but out of those three I did feel this is his best work yet. Which is a little ironic considering MetaCritic shows this game as his most poorly reviewed/scored game to date. With this game, he played it more straight. Clive took some fanciful turns as the game went on. It felt like a bigger effort than those games and a maturing in the design and platforming elements. One other Mario element he seems to have borrowed for this game is the Star Coins in the NSMB series. There are 3 special Onion coins to be found in each level. Not sure if you get anything for unlocking them but they are the reason I’ll be going back to this game to complete it. Now perhaps you’ve read earlier that whenever I think of Backlaugust, I often think of games like this. How quickly could I blast through a 2D platformer to hit the credits? Here was my chance with a game that is just 16 levels long.

Again, maybe not as fast as I think. Once again, my completionist tendencies were starting to kick in at first about exploring levels to find the three special Onion coins and I had to tell myself to ignore those for now and just get through the level. At one point, I was hitting a failure loop around the 7th level in which I kept working my way to a certain section but was taking too much damage or repeatedly making mistakes on certain sections. I think this was the point where one had to jump across some narrow platforms while avoiding some falling icicles. I realized that I needed to better get a handle on how the character actually controlled as their movement was a bit different from Mario after playing NSMBUD and I kept hitting things like ZR to make him twirl like Mario did and the character did not have that ability. I got through the level and then I paused and stopped playing. I had put some food in the oven just before booting up this game and it was ready now. I also felt a break might be good as I was feeling a bit fatigued at this point.

Ate and watched a bit of TV and then I questioned if I wanted to keep going as it was right around midnight and decided I did. Got back into it and maybe around 1:30 AM I hit the credits. But wait you say, isn’t that past the deadline? Wasn’t it now September? Technically, that is true. However, in my mind, if I had realized that it was too late for the Bananza challenges then I wouldn’t have been playing DK Bananza first and would have completed both NSMBUD and Onion Assault before midnight my time. Also, time is a flexible thing. It would still be Aug. 31 in Hawaii, for instance. And it still felt like the night of Aug. 31 to me and waking up tomorrow morning would feel like September 1st then. In my heart, I feel I hit the 20 mark for this event but, as I’ve mentioned, we’ve always gone by the honor system so that is why I have mentioned this and will leave it up to this year’s host to decide if they will count it or not. Then we can all complain about whatever he chooses which is the real reason we all participate in this event, isn’t it?

21

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

« on: September 06, 2026, 07:02:41 PM »

So, now what? Well, since I couldn’t get the DK Challenges done in time and I couldn’t take the Backlaugust crown, I might as well try to at least accomplish the goal I’d set of 20 games done. We often talk about the leaderboard not being the important thing about Backlaugust and the goal is to just get through as many games as you can in your Backlog and use this as motivation to do so. 20 games would still be my own personal best and, in some ways, it would be kind of fitting with how these events have gone that I’d be the first person to hit the 20 games mark and still only get 2nd place with that amount.

First up, New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe. Just as I was about to start it, I got a text from my cousin who I’d been meaning to speak with to connect our Switch 2s and test the GameChat feature. And that’s what we did. I was trying to play the game while chatting and doing things but it was kind of hard to do both and I kept falling at the 8-1 level as, of course, I kept trying to collect a Star Coin along the way requiring a use of the Ice Flower power-up. Eventually I did and got to the Bowser fight. I think it was about 7 or 8 tries to finish that which I felt was 5 – 6 tries to many. Don’t recall it taking that long or that many tries the first and only time I did it back on the Wii U. At this point, we called it quits on the Gamechat.

22

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

« on: September 06, 2026, 07:02:07 PM »

Alright. Let’s wrap up this reminiscing that no one asked for. Monday. Dawn of the Final Day.

As I thought about things at work, I reached an acceptance that while it would be great to still find a way to top the leaderboard or even just achieve a tie so that neither big effort by myself or Broodwars would be eclipsed, I felt I’d rather still keep some of the short games I had yet to play for a future Backlaugust. Broodwars suckered me in good when he told Mop it up that there were like 16 Sonic Game Gear games and he wouldn’t be able to match that total. Yet, now he had found a way to hit 22. And, when thinking about the games he played, he played a lot of harder games to hit the ending of. I had stuff like Catan and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Which didn’t require the most effort. Unlike the past couple years where he hit the top with little competition, it seemed like he really earned it this year so I was willing to take what was likely another 2nd place depending on what Mop it up finished with.

Plus, as mentioned, I had wanted to attempt to get through the Donkey Kong Bananza challenges before they ended. When I got home, I loaded up Bananza and played through the beginning for a bit until I progressed a bit into the second Lagoon area. I felt I likely had a good handle on how the controls worked so I went to the challenges. I was confused when trying to load the first one it took me back to the game’s main menu. I looked around for something in the menus that might have been added for these challenges but found nothing. Tried it again from the Challenge menu on the app and again got nowhere. Finally, loaded up the question mark that talked about the challenges and discovered that the challenges were completed as you played through the game. I thought it was like the classic side of the challenges where it would load up the necessary spot / moment needed and just have you play that bit to complete it. I now realized that there was no way I could complete these challenges as it would require me beating the whole game in a night which wasn’t going to happen. Now I felt like I was suffering double defeat. If I’d know that beating 18 games would still result in not finally topping the Backlaugust leaderboard for a 2nd time then I’d have just been playing DK Bananza. Now I won’t know what some of those challenges were like after Caterkiller had been talking them up. I guess I should have tried the challenges earlier to realize they worked differently than the classic side.

23

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

« on: September 04, 2026, 03:53:47 AM »

On Sunday, it was another case of getting up around half past noon after the late night playing session. Also, I knew there was a bunch of things I needed to get done after putting them off to do some of this gaming. Like a character in video game with their checklist of tasks to accomplish, I had written up a whole list of things I needed to do and started getting them done. It was probably around 6:00 that I actually got back to gaming.

First up was TOEM. Despite saying I would just get the necessary number of tasks done in a level to move on and get through things quickly, I ended up doing everything in that spot and then moved on to the next spot and got most of it done before just hitting up the last destination and triggering the credits. When the title screen reloaded, it said I was at 92% done at 5 hours and 30 minutes. I probably could have shaved off at least a good two hours had I just kept moving on but I just found it hard to leave things undone when I knew what I had to do or was close to figuring things out and would just keep plugging away.

With TOEM done, I then turned my attention back to WarioWare: Move It! and hit the credits pretty quickly in that one. Likely under an hour. Still have around 50-60 microgames to encounter/unlock. I do want to return to this game to do that but it might be awhile now.

I then turned my attention to New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe. Whenever I think of Backlaugust, I often think of games like this. How quickly could I blast through a 2D platformer to hit the credits? It seems not as fast as I think. I kept letting myself get side-tracked by those darn Star Coins. I ended up shortcutting from World 3 to World 6. In World 6, I was able to skip about half of it. In World 7, I was able to also skip a large portion and zoom ahead to the castle. I ended my play time at the start of World 8 figuring I could tackle Bowser on Monday and I wanted to move on to something else. NSMBUD was now feeling like a mistake. It was taking me longer than I expected and I was surprised at how much I kept dying. Sometimes it was because of trying to carefully search for possible hidden Star Cars or secret exits and sometimes it was stubbornness to keep trying to pull off a move to collect a Star Coin which was tricky without a power-up that could help.

At this point, it was getting to be late and I'd only beat 3 games and with one game very close to the finish line. I'll admit Broodwars number of 22 had deflated my enthusiasm. I had some options if I really wanted to push myself. I've still got some WarioWare games I haven't beat or even played yet. Same goes for Just Dance games. Some DSIWare and other eShop ephemera. If I did want to bump up that count I could probably do so. One game I had in mind for that was Onion Assault. In my mind, though, there was one game I had really wanted to play when I started going through a list of games to play for Backlaugust and that was The Starship Damrey. My understanding was that it was a short enough game and I'm pretty sure I remember RABicle either playing or finishing it off in the first Backlaugust. I'd also heard it commented on that the opening sort of puzzle of what to do was a favorite part of the game so I was always curious what it would be like. It's a game the developers even tell you they want to be as mysterious as possible so they won't provide you with any instruction about how to play, what buttons do or any kind of intro story. Honestly, I don't it took very long for me to reach the main action of the game. The opening / start of the game in a certain confined space seemed like it was pretty quick to me and not much struggle. As I began to move on to that point and explore more is when I started to feel that playing this game would be a mistake. It's not something I wanted to rush through and I was starting to encounter more back tracking as the world opened up more and more and I was trying to figure out where I might have to go next or what I might have to do. This felt more like a game to savour since, once you've played it, a lot of the surprises and puzzles will likely be diminished on any replay. It just didn't seem like this is something I'd have finished by the end of Monday. That is how I came to end my Sunday.

24

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Field notes: what Japanese amiibo actually cost in 2026

« on: September 04, 2026, 01:58:13 AM »

I can see why it looks that way, but the information is actually useful. The OneMall links are theirs, sure, but the pricing notes and Nintendo references seem legitimate. The real question is whether any of the figures or compatibility details are inaccurate.

You think the information is useful? In what way? Why do you think the pricing notes and Nintendo references are legitimate if the OneMall links aren't? To me, those are the real questions. I just don't see why the figure and compatibility details matter. If they are inaccurate, so what?

25

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

« on: September 03, 2026, 04:29:40 AM »

And speaking of 3:00 am, I better get to bed now before I reach that point again while reminiscing about this end to Backlaugust. I'll have to post more tomorrow for those that like reading rambling wall-of-text posts which was the style at the time.