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TalkBack / 3rd Party 64: Army Men - In Collaboration with The Video Game History Foundation
« on: December 20, 2024, 05:45:00 AM »Sarge's Heroes, Air Combat, and Sarge's Heroes 2
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/video/69492/3rd-party-64-army-men-in-collaboration-with-the-video-game-history-foundation
About a year ago I began writing 3rd Party 64 episodes for the various Army Men games that released on the Nintendo 64. Around that same time The Video Game History Foundation posted a Christmas themed commercial for Army Men: Sarge's Heroes, one of the games I was writing about.
This led to a discussion with VGHF director, Frank Cifaldi about a collection they had recently received from developer Michael Mendheim, the creative director of the Sarge's Heroes series. By the end of that meeting, I had a bunch of documentation surrounding the development of the Army Men series sitting in my inbox, and the scope of my project had expanded somewhat. In late summer 2024 Frank invited me to join him on an upcoming episode of The Video Game History Hour to chat with Mendheim about his games, thus granting even more insight.
This episode of 3rd Party 64 contains both clips from that interview, as well as research gleaned from the documents provided by The Video Game History Foundation. It would not have been possible to cover these games to this degree without the extremely important work that they do.
But wait, there's more!
It quickly became obvious that I was learning far more about Army Men: Sarge's Heroes in particular than would be viable to include in the above video. So we spun off a second video to share what I felt were the nine most interesting, previously undocumented facts to come out of this research. This video can be seen on The Video Game History Foundation's YouTube channel.
If you'd like to support the work of The Video Game History Foundation, consider donating here.
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TalkBack / IronFall: Invasion (Switch) Review
« on: December 03, 2024, 04:13:22 AM »The 3DS's best Gears of War-like comes to Switch.
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/review/69358/ironfall-invasion-switch-review
IronFall: Invasion originally released on Nintendo 3DS back in 2015. I reviewed it for the now defunct eShop site 8-Worlds News and was absolutely blown away by it on a technical level. It brought Gears of War-inspired gameplay to the 3DS with visuals that still stand as some of the best on the platform. Nearly ten years later, this remaster has arrived on Switch. While now and then you’re reminded of the limitations of its launch platform, I can’t help but enjoy IronFall: Invasion even with plenty of flaws.
The game plays out as a third-person cover shooter, with obvious similarities to Xbox’s Gears of War franchise. Approaching a piece of cover and pressing B will cause your character to snap to it. From here you can slide along it, and hold ZL to lean out and fire. This is a very by-the-numbers shooter and even uses a similar reload mechanic to the Gears of War series in that timing your reload to an on screen prompt will grant you a bonus. While it isn’t the most original, it generally plays well. IronFall: Invasion didn’t set a particularly high bar in terms of gameplay innovation back on 3DS and that hasn’t really changed here. That being said, having a proper dual analogue setup rather than the circle pad pro or New 3DS C-nub makes a massive difference. As a result the moment to moment traversal and gunplay feels significantly better on Switch than it did on 3DS. On the other side of the coin are the various touch screen-based puzzle segments. On 3DS, these were built to be interacted with via the touch screen and all worked very well. On Switch button controls have obviously been added for playing docked, but inexplicably touch controls are not available when playing handheld. Most of these are so obviously built with a touch screen in mind that interacting with them via a standard controller feels downright awkward.
Like the original, game modes are split up into campaign and multiplayer options. The campaign sees you playing as both Jim Woper, a giant battle armor-wearing marine straight out of the early 2000s, and Sam Finch, your tech support with a pistol. The story, while not particularly gripping, focuses on an alien invasion and some suspicious scientific research. The majority of the campaign focuses on Jim, but occasionally you’ll swap over to Sam. While Jim’s stages play out as repetitive–though reasonably well structured–corridor shooter levels, Sam feels as though her levels were supposed to be stealth stages but they never added a stealth mechanic. So instead you’re just retreading very similar corridors but with less armor and only a pistol. Occasionally you’ll also get some one off setpiece moments like a turret shooter or some sniper focused segments, which in my experience played great and make a nice change of pace.
Multiplayer unfortunately seems pretty unpopulated at the moment. I was never able to successfully find players or an existing game. You can however hop into the survival mode which challenges you to take on waves of enemies and see how many you can take out in a given time limit. Back on 3DS there was a limited multiplayer demo that no doubt helped populate the servers; it would be interesting if a similar move here could help make the multiplayer modes more active.
Visually IronFall: Invasion looked remarkable on 3DS and it has been nicely updated for Switch. Developer VD-Dev has always had a knack for getting incredible visual performance out of any platform they work with so it's no surprise that we get a full 1080p docked, 720p handheld, and 60fps when playing on Switch. You can actually choose in the options between rendering the game at 90% or 100% resolution. I wound up sticking with 100% and was only rarely able to drop the frame rate slightly. The 90% option ought to give you a very stable level of performance. Environments themselves absolutely hold up on a big screen. VD-Dev has done an excellent job of going in by hand and updating every single texture to modern HD standards. The game winds up having a similar look and technical suite to VD-Dev’s other Switch release, Rise: Race the Future. While the visuals aren’t quite as mind blowing on Switch as they were on 3DS, this is still a very good looking game outside of some stiff character animations.
IronFall: Invasion was a perfectly solid third-person shooter wrapped in an incredibly technically accomplished shell back on 3DS. I would list it as one of the most technically impressive 3DS games ever made, up there with Resident Evil Revelations, Star Fox 64 3D, and Nano Assault. Without the context of the 3DS, IronFall: Invasion on Switch sorta just winds up being a perfectly acceptable third-person shooter. It is still technically excellent, but it isn’t as remarkable now as it was back in 2015. Still if you want a cheesy Gears of War-like game developed by a small talented indie studio, IronFall: Invasion is worth checking out.
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TalkBack / Broken Reality (Switch) Review
« on: November 29, 2024, 04:04:15 AM »I mean, if nobody else is going to use the phrase "internet explorer"
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/review/69294/broken-reality-switch-review
Broken Reality is one of the most bizarre yet immediately captivating adventure games I have ever played. For those the right age to remember some of the weird early days of the internet, you may get a strange sense of nostalgia. For everyone else, the otherworldly vaporwave environments that Broken Reality presents will simply be a joy to take in.
At its core Broken Reality is an adventure game played in the first person. It owes much of its design philosophy to classic point and click adventures while also borrowing some progression elements from the Metroidvania genre. The entire game takes place within an abstract representation of the internet. The first major area will ease you into all of your basic abilities: A sword to cut through pop-ups, a pointer that allows you to follow hyperlinks (grapple points), a camera, and more. To get each of these abilities, you’ll explore the opening island, talking to its denizens and solving puzzles. It took me about an hour to finish the opening area and by the time I did I felt like I had already experienced a full game. To some degree it reminded me of the Great Plateau in the intro to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild–a perfect tutorial that serves as a miniaturized version of the rest of the game.
Throughout the opening you’ll begin picking up on the underlying narrative behind Broken Reality. The plot, while not being too overt, deals with real-world themes of the open internet. Given the generally goofy tone the game presents, I wasn’t expecting to be as immediately invested in the plot as I was. It isn’t heavy handed, and for those just playing for the fun of exploring these worlds, the story largely stays out of your way. But if you dig a little deeper, characters are genuinely funny, often-times subversive, and the underlying narrative thread is pretty engaging.
Upon completing the opening area you’ll move into a central hub zone. From here you’ll have access to an assortment of other worlds, with world access predicated on the number of likes you’ve received. Likes can be obtained in a variety of ways: some are strewn out as collectibles across the various worlds, but the majority are obtained by completing quests. These generally all flow into a larger underlying quest for that particular world. For example, in one world I needed to restore power to a central structure by solving a series of puzzles in outlying temples. Some were based on using a new ability to see invisible platforms and objects. Another required me to solve math problems using values hidden throughout the environment.
In general, you’ll find yourself completing most objectives in one world before moving onto the next, simply in order to have enough likes to gain access. That being said, each world also enhances one or more of your abilities, and returning to previous worlds with new abilities generally yields new rewards.
Broken Reality’s roots are on PC, and now and then that shows through on Switch in less than flattering ways. For example on-screen prompts and menus are navigated with a cursor. This makes clicking through text boxes or navigating through your map and quest log a chore. To the game’s credit, it does allow you to interact with all of these things via the touch screen, but at the end of the day proper button mapping for these elements would be much preferred. In addition to touch controls for interacting with prompts, Broken Reality also offers support for motion based aiming which can be toggled via the minus button. While there isn’t really any fast paced combat you’ll need to worry about, I did find this handy for a later camera upgrade that requires you to target multiple (occasionally small) objects in sequence.
Switch performance overall is largely good. Now and then a more complex area can cause momentary frame drops, but most of the time the game runs at a stable frame-rate. I did notice what was likely some sort of memory leak, where after I had left the game running for multiple days the frame rate seemed to get significantly worse. A quick reset and performance was back up where it should be. I will note that the solo developer has told me he is already working on a post launch patch. Given the excellent performance of his other Switch release, Astrodogs, which I reviewed back in 2022, I feel confident that these minor performance issues will be addressed.
Broken Reality is one of those somewhat hard to categorize games. While I can pick out individual pieces and compare them to other things, as a whole it is a very unique experience. At multiple points I simply stopped to take it in, or say aloud “that’s really cool”. But it does all this while never taking itself too seriously. The Switch version comes with a few minor hiccups, but not enough to sour the experience. What you’re left with is an incredible adventure full of beautiful worlds, fun puzzles, and witty writing. Broken Reality is one of those games that is just fun to spend time in.
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TalkBack / Stray (Switch) Technical Performance Review
« on: November 18, 2024, 07:00:00 AM »Now you can take the game guarenteed to trigger your cats with you wherever you go!
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/video/69172/stray-switch-technical-performance-review
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TalkBack / Sonic X Shadow Generations (Switch) Review
« on: November 03, 2024, 06:47:17 AM »Bow your heads low, all hail Shadow.
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/review/69005/sonic-x-shadow-generations-switch-review
Note: Game content reviewed by Melanie Zawodniak based on Playstation 5 version. Switch port technical details written by John Rairdin.
I think I need to establish a baseline right here at the start: Sonic X Shadow Generations is a game made specifically for me. Sonic Adventure 2 was my childhood favorite game, and 2005’s Shadow the Hedgehog released when I was twelve years old—meaning I was old enough to know it was considered a bad game, but young enough that I’ve never actually disliked it. Shadow is one of my favorite video game characters and I could not be happier to see him headlining a brand new game again. Of course, I understand how unhinged I sound. Shadow hasn’t had a starring role in a well-regarded game since his very first appearance, and even then Sonic Adventure 2 has only grown more divisive with age. But despite my obvious bias I think there’s still good reason to give Sonic X Shadow Generations a try since it also happens to be one of the most polished and confident games Sonic has had in decades.
Before we get to Shadow, how does the original Sonic Generations hold up thirteen years later? I’ve long believed that this is the best 3D Sonic game—an opinion that I had reaffirmed by regularly going back to it plenty of times over the years. Sonic Generations is split down the middle between Classic Sonic gameplay that faithfully recreates how Sonic felt back in his Genesis adventures and Modern Sonic gameplay that follows up on the behind-the-back boost-style gameplay that was codified in Sonic Colors. Generations is the game that originally got me interested in speedrunning, and I have fond memories of sitting in my freshman dorm replaying Chemical Plant Zone Act 2 over and over for hours on end grinding out the fastest time I could possibly get. This core gameplay is exactly as good as I remember it, and I was able to immediately fall back on my muscle memory to get something close to my old best time (currently 1 minute and 48 seconds, if you’re curious).
Unfortunately, being forced to play a fresh save file where I needed to first unlock all of those stages has revealed a harsh truth: for as much as I love playing through Generations’ stages, I kind of hate every minute of this game that you’re not doing that. Right off the bat the story is pretty bad. The plot is paper thin with cutscenes that take a long time to say very little—literally, since dialogue is paced awfully with long pauses between lines. The script has been punched up a bit by the longtime writer of Sonic’s popular comic book tie-in, Ian Flynn, but since the cutscenes have not been reanimated at all there was only so much he could do.
In addition to the story, gameplay is also slowed down by underbaked side missions and frustrating boss fights that must be completed in order to progress through the game. I think that Sonic Generations is still a stellar experience for dedicated players who understand the appeal of replaying stages over and over to beat their best times, but anyone looking for a longer and more consistent adventure in this style would probably be better served with either this game’s predecessor Sonic Colors or its edgier cousin that happens to live on the same cartridge.
Shadow Generations is presented as an alternate game mode attached to a remaster of Sonic Generations, but in reality it’s much more than that. It’s immediately clear as soon as the game begins that this is not running the same gameplay engine as Sonic’s half of the package. It’d be more accurate to say that Shadow Generations is a brand new sequel to Sonic Generations with a remaster of the original packed in. As a sequel much of the game’s concept and structure is the same—a mix of behind-the-back and side-scrolling gameplay taking place in recreations of beloved stages from past games—but this is far from a reskin with a few new levels. Shadow brings a collection of new abilities with him to add more depth to what has become a tried-and-true formula for 3D Sonic.
The most obvious change is the addition of Shadow’s Chaos Control which allows him to stop time and teleport between opponents in lieu of a homing attack (do not correct me in the comments, the lore is not consistent on whether Shadow’s teleportation is Chaos Control), but the real spotlight goes to the Doom Powers granted by his connection to the villainous Black Arms. Shadow’s Doom Powers allow him to launch enemies across the map, glide through the air on demonic wings, and even transform into a gooey blob that swings around like Spider-Man. These powers add a lot of variety to the challenges that you’ll face throughout the game, and the glide ability can make such a substantial difference to platforming that each level has separate speedrun rankings for whether it was enabled or not.
In addition to these new abilities, Shadow Generations also greatly improves on Sonic Generations’ weakest aspects. The hub world in between stages has been significantly expanded to be a full gameplay stage in its own right. This part of the game shares a lot of DNA with Sonic Frontiers, and Sonic Team has managed to sand down that game’s rough edges. Frontiers’ reliance on button mashing combat has been significantly reduced, and the more grounded architecture placed around a smaller map makes traversal more intuitive where it’s always clear exactly where a grind rail is going to lead. Frontiers’ world could be a chore to traverse, but I keep going back to Shadow’s overworld to complete platforming challenges and find hidden collectibles all over.
The story—this time penned from the ground up by Ian Flynn—is substantially better than Sonic’s side, diving into Shadow’s past with Maria and Gerald Robotnik as well as his origins with the evil Black Doom. Your mileage will probably vary here depending on how interested you already are in Shadow; if you think Shadow is as cool as I’ve always known he is then this very well may be the best story that a Sonic game has ever told. If you’re normal and see Shadow for the underdeveloped edgelord he is then it probably won’t mean as much to you, but the confidence evident in the story’s production values is undeniably a big step up from pretty much any past 3D Sonic game.
Ultimately the biggest thing holding Shadow Generations back is the way it’s been pigeonholed into the structural trappings of Sonic Generations. Every Shadow stage is also split between a modern and “classic” act, and while the classic-style stages aren’t bad I don’t think Sonic Team has really figured out how to make use of Shadow’s strengths in strictly 2D level design. The mandatory side missions also continue to be pace breakers, but on the bright side they’re much better this time around by way of getting more focused development resources. Instead of 60 mediocre challenges that you do any three of to unlock a boss there are now ten challenges that you play all of. Neither the classic-style stages or the mandatory missions are ideal, but they are a huge step up from the lowest points of Sonic’s side of the adventure.
The Switch port itself is reasonable if not outstanding. Essentially we’re looking at two entirely independent games here, and each port has been handled differently. Sonic Generations fairs quite well in image quality but has some odd quirks around performance. Here we see a full 1080p docked resolution and 720p handheld. Neither of these show any signs of being dynamic so even in the most visually dense stages you are locked to the Switch’s highest supported resolution. There is no anti-aliasing to speak of but given the general speed of the game you really only notice in the rare moments where the action comes to a stop, or during cutscenes. The biggest issue for Sonic Generations is an issue with the 30 frames-per-second frame rate cap. Obviously after Sonic Superstars, it would have been nice to keep 60fps on Switch but alas we’re back down to 30. That itself wouldn’t be so bad but unfortunately there is a frame pacing instability issue. It's relatively minor but it's definitely there, causing movement to feel like it is uneven, despite a full 30fps being delivered.
Over on Shadow Generations, no such issue exists and the 30fps cap is maintained. Here that cap itself also feels more reasonable given the significantly higher demands of Shadow Generations versus the original game. It seems like Shadow is making use of some of the same underlying tech as Sonic Frontiers. It is a much more modern game in comparison to Sonic Generations with full support for ambient occlusion, screen space reflections, and more open 3D exploration. It is a more visually demanding package than its predecessor. For Switch however that does mean that more compromises are needed. Resolution is now dynamic, adjusting based on the scene. Resolutions are generally at their lowest in the large open hub world. When playing docked you’ll see the resolution range from 720p down to 540p depending on whats on screen. Meanwhile handheld mode, while also capable of maxing out at 720p in extremely simple situations, can drop all the way to 360p. Both of these are treated with something like FSR 2.0 which cleans up some of the edges but at lower resolutions aliasing is still quite obvious.
I found both experiences perfectly playable and within the expectation of what we’ve seen from Sonic thus far on the platform. I would hope that a patch could correct the frame pacing on Sonic Generations. Were that to happen I’d really have no complaints about that port. And once again the compromises for Shadow Generations are much more understandable given the content in question. Some of the level transitions and visual tricks Shadow Generations pulls off seamlessly on Switch are pretty impressive to behold, with entire levels swapping out with different ones right before your eyes.
It’s difficult for me to come up with a conclusion for Sonic X Shadow Generations as a package given how different an experience each half the game is from the other. As a remaster Sonic Generations is a rough reminder of just how uneven the original game could be. The game’s best moments make it my favorite game in the franchise while its worst moments make it difficult to recommend to all but Sonic’s most dedicated fans. Meanwhile Shadow Generations is a fantastic step forward for the Sonic franchise, taking the blueprints of its predecessors to the next level with a clear focus on being the most polished experience Sonic’s name has been on for the better part of a decade.
Whether or not the combined offering of Sonic Generations and Shadow Generations is worth it will depend heavily on what your expectations for each half of the game are. For my part, I see this as a brand new game starring Shadow the Hedgehog with a remaster of an old game packed in, and by that metric I think it is a stellar package. Sonic X Shadow Generations may spend a lot of time looking at the franchise’s past, but it represents the best I’ve felt about its future in a very long time.
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TalkBack / Xenoblade Chronicles X - Technical Deep Dive
« on: October 30, 2024, 05:58:10 AM »Resolution, Framerate, Graphics Comparisons, and More!
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/video/68990/xenoblade-chronicles-x-technical-deep-dive
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TalkBack / Xenoblade Chronicles X - Wii U VS Switch Comparison
« on: October 29, 2024, 07:46:11 AM »9
TalkBack / US Copyright Office Denies Petition for Remote Library Access for Video Game Research
« on: October 25, 2024, 11:06:31 AM »To avoid the potential of piracy, you'll be given no other option than piracy.
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/news/68933/us-copyright-office-denies-petition-for-remote-library-access-for-video-game-research
After a hearing earlier this year for a petition three years in the making, the US Copyright Office announced today that they would not grant a new exemption in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) in support of video game preservation. The exemption which was brought forward by the Software Preservation Network with support from The Video Game History Foundation would have allowed libraries to provide remote access to out-of-print video games for the purpose of scholarly research. The proposal was supported by a comprehensive study by the Video Game History Foundation proving that only 13% of games released in the United States before 2010 are actively in print in any form. The petition was also supported by multiple companies within the reissue market who felt that it would not only do no market harm to their business but would ultimately increase interest in classic games.
Opponents such as the Entertainment Software Association claimed that the exemption would hurt the marketability of reissuing old games (despite statements from Limited Run Games and Antstream Arcade to the contrary). They also claimed that the 87% of games noted as unavailable in the study conducted by the Video Game History Foundation were due to intentional windowing and business strategy. (The study found these games were more often unavailable due to complicated licensing and rights issues that were unique to the video game industry and ultimately unlikely to be resolved.)
It is worth noting that these limitations do not exist for other forms of media including software that is not video games. Though there is currently no clear definition of what constitutes a video game in this context.
You can read a full statement by the Video Game History Foundation regarding the results of this ruling here..
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TalkBack / S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Legends of the Zone Trilogy Coming to Switch this Month
« on: October 09, 2024, 05:00:00 PM »Just in time for Halloween.
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/news/68763/stalker-legends-of-the-zone-trilogy-coming-to-switch-this-month
The original S.T.A.L.K.E.R. trilogy is coming to Nintendo Switch later this month on October 31. The collection previously released on Xbox and Playstation platforms earlier this year. The original trilogy includes S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chornobyl (2007), S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky (2008), and S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Prypiat (2009). The Switch version will feature newly added Gyro and touch screen support for aiming and UI navigation respectively.
The games will be sold digitally for 19.99 USD/19.99 EUR/15.99 GBP each and for 39.99 USD/39.99 EUR/32.99 GBP as a bundle.
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TalkBack / Ys X: Nordics (Switch) Review
« on: October 14, 2024, 05:00:00 AM »Adol seems to be over his goth phase.
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/review/68828/ys-x-nordics-switch-review
Back in 2018 when Ys VIII: Lacramosa of Dana released on Nintendo Switch, I picked it up on a whim. I had some passing experience with the series but none of them had ever really clicked until Ys VIII. The story was enthralling, the world was diverse and full of mystery, and the combat was fast paced and fluid. When Ys IX came west in 2021 I picked it up on PS4. But while its story was still moderately engaging, the world itself lacked the innate charm that Ys VIII had exuded. It was visually dull, exceedingly linear, and just didn’t capture my imagination the same way that its predecessor had. That being said, as someone who had only really found an interest in the series a few years earlier, I was willing to accept that perhaps I didn’t actually like modern Ys, but rather just Ys VIII specifically. When Ys X: Nordics was revealed I tried to keep my excitement at bay given my disappointment with Ys IX. But a focus on exploration, bright colorful environments, and fun charming characters quickly won me over. And I’m happy to say that if you missed the fun high fantasy vibes absent from Ys IX, there will definitely be something here for you.
Ys X: Nordics is set very early in the overall timeline of the Ys series, taking place just after Ys I and II. Series protagonist Adol is still very young at this point. In fact the early chapters of the game are oddly focused on reminding you that he is only seventeen years old. That being said, aside from some offhand references to Adol being known for the events of those first two titles, it won’t factor heavily into the grander story. You can absolutely go into this having never touched another game in the series. But if you’re coming from Ys VIII and wondering why Adol is suddenly so infatuated with the existence of the ocean, it's because he hasn’t been stranded on a deserted island just yet.
Early on in the adventure Adol will become magically bound to the viking like Norman princess Karja by a force called mana. The two of them quickly realize that these mana abilities allow them to fight off monsters called Griegrs that normal humans would stand no chance against. Together, he and Karja will form a crew and sail the Obelia Gulf, fighting the Griegr and unraveling the mystery of their strange new powers. The story takes a moment to get going, but the slowly developing friendship between Adol, Karja, and the rest of their crew is very well developed over the 30-40 hour story. That time will of course vary greatly depending on how much optional content you pursue. That being said, the story doesn’t really kick into high gear until the final few chapters, where some fresh twists took it in directions I definitely hadn’t expected. Up until that point I felt it generally lacked some of the complexity and drive of other recent entries.
Unlike some prior entries, Ys X only has two party members, Adol and Karja. While you will find additional crew for your ship, your actual on foot party will never exceed these two characters. This places a great focus on how you choose to develop Adol and Karja in relation to each other. In general I found Adol was most effective for fast paced one on one fighting, while Karja could be used for large area of effect attacks. You can switch between characters at any time during combat. You’ll need to do this a lot, as while the computer controlled character will still engage in combat, they won’t make use of their special skill attacks. By holding down the right trigger you can control both characters at the same time, allowing for more powerful team attacks and another unique set of skills. These skills are all unlocked via an upgrade system. While the skills themselves are largely unlocked linearly, you have the option to focus on different stats as you upgrade each character.
Completely new to this title is your ship, the Sandras. You’ll gain access to it reasonably early on and it will allow you to freely navigate the seas and engage in naval combat. Rescuing characters captured by the Griegr can cause them to join your crew, which will increase the ships stats and grant special buffs when liberating enemy controlled islands. Additional crew members can also grant you access to new shops and sidequests. Your ship can also be upgraded by spending resources to improve its stats or unlock additional weapon types. There is an option to make naval combat significantly easier, but personally I never had trouble keeping my ship well ahead of anything I encountered. Still the option is there for those who want to focus exclusively on a more traditional experience.
While sailing you’ll encounter plenty of explorable islands. Many of these are not critical to your primary quest line, but can result in finding optional crew members, side stories, or just some good loot. Exploration makes use of various mana abilities you’ll unlock over the course of the game. This includes a surf board to grind on mana rails and a grapple hook that can be used to swing from specific points and zip to enemies. It is a nice expansion of the movement options introduced in Ys IX. To be clear, however, this is not a fully open world game. Rather the ocean is separated into several different loading zones, which will unlock as you proceed through the main story. I found this worked well as it was never too daunting to fully explore one area before moving on with the story and unlocking the next. But for those who are less interested in exploration, the vast majority of this content can be skipped entirely, though I wouldn’t recommend it.
Ys X makes use of a new engine for the series. The Nintendo Switch was a lead platform for the title this time around, rather than being a separately developed port as had been the case for the prior two entries. This makes a massive difference, and Ys X looks great on Switch. Outside of some issues with detail pop-in in some of the more densely populated urban environments, the game holds up well both in terms of resolution and performance. Some of the more extreme set piece moments can cause momentary dips to frame rate, but these are an exception to the norm. The one area in which Ys X still feels quite dated is in its highly segmented world. Outside of very small islands, the vast majority of landmasses in Ys X consist of multiple loading zones. Even your relatively small ship is split into three different loading zones. While the loading times are not long, this is one area that I’d hoped an updated engine would alleviate. The loading in the overworld is significantly less of an issue as these zones are comparatively massive and you’ll almost never find yourself sailing through multiple zones in a row–especially given that you can quickly fast travel to any island or merchant ship you’ve discovered on the map at any time. The same goes for islands which are dotted with checkpoints, making return visits for side quests very fast.
As expected for the series, the soundtrack is excellent. It swaps effortlessly between more quiet introspective pieces straight to wailing guitars as you fight your way across an enemy infested island. The voice acting is also generally quite good. Karja, who is by far the character with the most lines, is well performed. Adol speaks inconsistently to a somewhat distracting degree. It is as if the game cannot decide if it wants his lines delivered aloud or not. He’ll go for multiple chapters with his dialogue simply being paraphrased by a text box, only to suddenly deliver a random fully voiced line of no particular importance in the next cutscene. It is almost like a jump scare anytime Adol actually talks.
While I wouldn’t say that Ys X quite hits the highs of Ys VIII, it tends to lean much more in that direction than Ys IX did, all while amping up the openness of exploration and expanding on the movement options from the prior entry. While the general tone and style moves back into the high fantasy setting, it doesn’t completely abandon what worked about Ys IX either. The new sailing mechanics add a genuinely unique spin to this entry and a focus on building up just two party members creates more intentional combat encounters. While elements of the technical design still feel rooted a few generations in the past, an updated engine and attention to the Switch version in particular make this the most technically accomplished game in the series. Perhaps most of all Ys X: Nordics presents a fun world to exist in and a charming cast of characters that I became genuinely invested in. It is somewhat reassuring to know that despite my earlier fears, there may in fact be hope that I like this series as a whole, and not simply one game.
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TalkBack / Rogue Flight (Switch) Review
« on: October 22, 2024, 06:00:00 AM »Barrel-roll, meet Tail-whip.
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/review/68839/rogue-flight-switch-review
It’s rare that I see a game set out its goals so clearly, and then execute on them as well as Rogue Flight does. This is a rail shooter with gameplay inspired by Sega sprite scalers and Star Fox, and a visual style that pulls from classic 80’s and 90’s anime. From the Japanese opening theme song to the high speed gameplay, Rogue Flight knows exactly what it wants to be.
The story revolves around a fight against a sentient AI that has driven humanity to the verge of extinction. After the discovery of a prototype fighter, you are sent on an impossible mission to strike back against the core of this AI swarm and secure a future for the human race. Depending on what route you choose, a variety of different endings will play out. Do you attack the enemy supply lines? Go straight for their fleet? Or intentionally run yourself dry on fuel to do both? The more you do in Rogue Flight, the more opportunities will open up for you. For example, the new game plus option doesn’t just make the game harder; it reimagines the levels and essentially feels like a mostly new game on its own.
Gameplay blends the barrel-roll focused piloting of the Star Fox series with the more multi-lock missile style of Galaxy Force or After Burner. Most of your obstacles are enemy ships rather than the environment itself, but this varies somewhat by level. There is also an upgradable weapon system that feels like something more commonly seen in 2D scrolling shoot-em-ups. These allow you to pick up new, more powerful weapons, as well as orbiting turrets to add to your firepower. Overall, it strikes a nice balance that can appeal equally to the various subsets of rail-shooter fans. But shooting weapons isn’t the only way to take out enemies in Rogue Flight. One of my favorite features is a tail whip attack that allows you to spray enemies with your ship’s jetstream. This can be used to wipe out entire groups of enemies at once if you can line it up correctly. Pulling it off and clearing a screen in a single attack is immensely satisfying. You also have access to both a boost and brake. The brake has the secondary function of drawing in power ups while making you more vulnerable to attack.
As you play you’ll unlock upgrade modules for your ship. There are only two slots, so you’ll need to be picky which ones you use, but effectively upgrading your ship can make a huge difference. By the time you finish all the primary routes on normal difficulty, it is likely you’ll feel like an untouchable god. I found that most of the time, my upgrades outpaced the difficulty curve when playing on normal difficulty. However, the unlockable new game plus will knock you right back down. Rogue Flight does a great job of offering you customization, but never making it required. At the end of the day, your own skill is what will see you through, and it is possible to clear every route with a perfectly vanilla ship if you’re up for the challenge.
The Switch version runs well during actual gameplay. In fact, the vast majority of the time this is a 60 frames-per-second game. Cutscenes can be a little jittery, and some of the texture work is very low resolution on Switch. Levels themselves, though, play out smoothly and resolution holds up well for the most part. I did notice that the resolution drops noticeably when using the tail whip attack, but not to a degree that I felt impacted my gameplay. I should also note that while the soundtrack and voice acting are both excellent, your main character’s internal monologue is mixed very low, making it difficult to understand without subtitles.
Rogue Flight is deceptively packed with content. From alternate routes and remixed stages, to a hardcore one life mode and tons of ship customization. It handles excellently, generally runs well on Switch, and offers plenty of options to adjust the difficulty to your desired level of challenge. You may find that the difficulty curve isn’t quite harsh enough on normal difficulty but with five different difficulty levels this is easily adjusted for. Modes unlocked later in the game will also give you a run for your money. This is a remarkable rail-shooter with a deep understanding of its inspiration, while also offering a fresh experience. If you enjoy Star Fox, Galaxy Force, Space Harrier, or After Burner, you will find something to love in Rogue Flight.
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TalkBack / The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom (Switch) Review
« on: October 16, 2024, 05:45:24 AM »Simultaneously the most traditional and weirdest Zelda we've gotten in a decade.
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/review/68832/the-legend-of-zelda-echoes-of-wisdom-switch-review
Depending on who you ask, when The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild released in 2017 it was either a bold new direction for Zelda (for better or worse) or a return to what had made the very first Zelda game great. In reality both of these statements are true to some degree. The same is arguably true in the case of The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom in relation to the Zelda formula set forth by The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. Echoes of Wisdom is simultaneously a return to something closer to that iconic Zelda formula following the shakeup of Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, while also being one of the biggest reinventions the series has ever seen. The end result is that for some Echoes of Wisdom will feel like a warm blanket of Zelda nostalgia, while others will struggle to reconcile it as a Zelda game at all.
Echoes of Wisdom revels in its ability to play on your nostalgia, and your awareness of the series, while ultimately being something entirely new. The game opens with regular series protagonist Link at the end of a Zelda game we didn’t play. He’s already powered up, and he is ready to take on Ganon while Zelda looks on, trapped within a crystal. It is a scene that calls to mind several different endings throughout the history of the franchise. But just as Link is about to claim victory he is consumed by a strange dimensional rift and as Zelda we are left to pick up the pieces of a game already in progress. She emerges into a Hyrule inspired by A Link to the Past but not a 1:1 replica of it. Rather it is just close enough to your memory to play on your expectations.
Early on you encounter a character named Tri (a small yellow ghost-like creature), who grants Zelda the ability to create echoes. This allows Zelda to replicate any enemy or object she has previously learned. Each of these echoes has an associated cost, represented as a series of triangles. At the start of the game Zelda only has access to three of these triangles, meaning that at most she’ll be able to summon three weak monsters, or perhaps one stronger one. You won’t be able to swarm enemies with an army but rather you’ll need to be intentional about what echo will best fit the situation. This takes the combat from the traditional direct approach of other Zelda games to a more strategic style instead. As the game proceeds and the number and type of monsters you can create expands, gameplay becomes almost akin to a real-time-strategy game. It was an experience that lit up the Age of Empires II section of my brain. Pikmin might be a more Nintendo appropriate comparison. But unlike either of those titles, what Echoes of Wisdom lacks is a good way to order your minions around.
For the first time in 2D Zelda, you have access to the Z-targeting feature originally introduced in Ocarina of Time. However unlike Ocarina of Time where positioning an enemy in frame was usually enough to intuitively communicate to the game what you wanted to target, Echoes of Wisdom’s top-down perspective makes this more difficult. I’d often fight the controls for several seconds to get it to target my desired enemy. Once targeted your echoes prioritize that target in combat. It works well for alerting echoes that may not have even noticed an enemy, or for getting them to flip a switch. But in the heat of battle echoes largely tend to do whatever they want and place little emphasis on what you’ve targeted. This occasionally resulted in echoes throwing themselves at enemies they would immediately die against, rather than focusing on the enemy that they’d have an advantage on. A proper command system allowing you to tell your echoes to focus, attack at will, or defend Zelda, would hugely improve this system.
On some level it feels as if the developers were concerned about the echo system in terms of large scale combat. The swordsman ability (which temporarily turns Zelda into a more Link-like form) comes off as a fallback option. It can only be recharged by defeating specific enemies, but recharges are generally plentiful during boss fights. I found that boss fights were significantly more interesting and enjoyable if I didn’t allow myself to use it, but I couldn’t help but find it odd that the developers seemed scared to fully commit to making me exclusively use echoes. Or perhaps this was a higher level decision that was scared of the game straying too far from traditional Zelda gameplay. It is a shame, because it ultimately undermines the design. My recommendation is to treat it a bit like the invincible tanooki suit in Super Mario 3D Land. It is there if you need help.
As you explore Hyrule, you’ll find that the world is littered with rifts. By reaching specific points, Tri can open an entrance into these rifts. Once inside Zelda can help Tri to close the rift by rescuing all of Tri’s friends trapped inside. Rift interiors consist of broken up pieces of the area they’re covering in the overworld. There is a surprising focus on platforming throughout many of these segments. Like Link’s most recent outings, Zelda has a proper jump button this time around. That being said, the top-down perspective can make depth perception a little difficult, but falling isn’t particularly punishing, you’ll simply need to try again without any loss of health. It is also worth noting that most platforming can also be solved by building bridges from echoes. Thus removing the need for careful jumping.
Within some of these larger rifts are the game’s dungeons. These are an incredible return to form following the Divine Beasts of Breath of the Wild and the better but still not ideal dungeons of Tears of the Kingdom. Despite the deeply rooted changes to underlying game mechanics, these are Zelda dungeons in the purest sense of the word. Each one includes one or more unique elements, many of which involve echoes that can be learned and made use of to overcome the dungeon’s challenges. Essentially think of the unique echoes in each dungeon a bit like dungeon items in older Zelda titles. What is interesting is how often dungeon puzzles allow you to solve things multiple ways. Occasionally I’d find an echo that felt like it could circumvent any challenge the game threw at me, only for the next room to render it useless and force me to come up with new solutions. In many ways the basic philosophy behind these dungeons are such that I hope to see them translated to modern 3D Zelda as well.
One of the most interesting things about the way in which Echoes of Wisdom presents its world, is that it feels like a Zelda game happened before you got there. As you explore you’ll meet characters who reference the things Link did for them. You can find Link’s starting town where one might imagine he got his first sword and shield. The people there all know him and will tell you about him setting off on his adventure. You’ll catch snippets of Link’s exploits helping the various races of Hyrule on his way to rescue Zelda. Despite not being overtly cutscene heavy, there is a high degree of care placed upon how Echoes of Wisdom tells its story. This carries into its lore and relation to the wider series anthology as well. New elements are added but clear effort is taken not to conflict or step on what has already been established. In an interview published around launch, series producer Eiji Aonuma commented on holding a focused story bootcamp to work everything out. I think this is evident in the final product to a degree that was not necessarily the case in some other recent entries.
A more traditional soundtrack also makes a return this time around, after Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom opted for a more atmospheric soundscape. The new soundtrack is excellent with predominantly new music that occasionally works in motifs from elsewhere in the series. Classic locations like Kakariko will briefly allude to their musical past without simply being a new arrangement of an original song. The main theme used for the overworld opens with Zelda’s lullaby before going into a brand new piece that has been stuck in my head since first starting the game. Another favorite is the entirely new theme for Link’s hometown, Suthorn Village. It calls to mind the peaceful starting village themes from Zeldas past. The audio presentation as a whole is fantastic.
The same cannot be said for some other elements of the presentation. The user interface, which borrows heavily from Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom doesn’t always line up well mechanically with Echoes of Wisdom. Your echoes are limited to a simple list that gets unbearably long very quickly as you expand your collection. They can be sorted in a few different ways, but there is no way to properly favorite an echo meaning that you’ll often wind up digging for what you need. Technical performance is also a sore spot. The game targets 60 frames-per-second but realistically only hits that while Zelda is standing still or in an interior location. The moment you start walking in the overworld the double-buffered v-sync forces the game all the way down to 30 frames-per-second. I’ve never seen it drop below that 30 frames-per-second mark indicating that it has decent headroom. This was an issue in the Link’s Awakening Remake as well, and why the frame rate simply wasn’t capped to 30 like many other modern Zelda games is beyond me.
The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is in many ways a return to the Link to the Past formula but in other ways presents something unlike any other Zelda game. For this reason it is likely to be one of the more divisive titles in the series. For myself it was an incredible and unique take on Zelda. The echo system shifts the perspective on combat and puzzle solving creating a fresh take on both. That being said it feels slightly afraid of fully committing and some additional control over your echoes would greatly enhance the depth of gameplay. Dungeons return to a quality we haven’t seen in more than ten years and the musical presentation is excellent. Performance while consistently hitting 30 frames-per-second strains fruitlessly for 60. But ultimately Echoes of Wisdom excellently weaves itself into the grand tapestry of Zelda with surprising originality while being careful never to trample on what has come before.
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TalkBack / Box Art for Lost SNES Game Found on Auction Site
« on: October 11, 2024, 08:07:00 AM »Okay so if we all pool our cash...
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/news/68769/box-art-for-lost-snes-game-found-on-auction-site
As initially spotted by WCnews.com, the full original painting that was to be used as the cover art for the Super Nintendo version of Wing Commander 2 has appeared on an auction site. As of writing the painting is currently mislabeled as the art for Wing Commander 3. The listing itself is still a preview but bidding will begin in November.
Wing Commander 2 was famously ported to the Super Nintendo but never actually released. However the port was so close to launching that review copies were sent out and full reviews were published. It is actually from these reviews that we've had a low resolution glimpse at this box art in the past. Currently no copies of the port have ever been found.
If you'd like to learn more about the history of Wing Commander and Nintendo, I produced a video on the topic which can be found below:
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TalkBack / Did Echoes of Wisdom Just Add a New Goron Language?
« on: October 02, 2024, 09:34:27 AM »16
TalkBack / Epic Mickey Rebrushed (Switch) Review
« on: September 23, 2024, 05:00:00 AM »Did you know Neal Ronaghan spent the day at Disney World with Warren Spector one time?
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/review/68641/epic-mickey-rebrushed-switch-review
The original Epic Mickey was odd for a few reasons. Firstly it was a Wii exclusive at a time where it was pretty much universally agreed that third party exclusives weren’t going to do great on Wii. Secondly, it was a 3D platformer during arguably their least popular period. It was helmed by Warren Spector, generally credited as the creator of the immersive sim genre whose background includes titles like Wing Commander, Ultima, and Deus Ex. This odd convergence has resulted in Epic Mickey becoming something of a cult classic for Nintendo fans of the era and I’m no exception. Revisiting Epic Mickey nearly fifteen years later from a post 3D platformer revival perspective, Epic Mickey shows plenty of flaws, but the inherent and weird charm is as present as ever.
You play Disney’s iconic Mickey Mouse, who has inadvertently doomed a forgotten world of abandoned characters from the past by filling it with paint thinner. This has resulted in monsters called blots being set free across this world to destroy it and generally wreak havoc. Here Mickey will also encounter Oswald the Lucky Rabbit who holds a grudge against Mickey for stealing his role as one of Disney’s early animated stars. The two will need to learn to work together to save the world and stop the blots.
Epic Mickey combines traditional collectathon 3D platformer elements with some RPG and immersive sim elements influenced by Warren Spector’s previous work. One way in which these elements play out is in the paint and thinner system. Across the world you’ll find objects that can be filled in with paint or destroyed with thinner. Enemy blots can also be affected by this. They can be killed with thinner or befriended with paint. Befriended enemies will even help you fight. This also applies to boss fights, where your choices will feed into a morality system alongside how you complete quests.
You’ll have access to a full quest log with both primary and secondary quests. Like combat, many of these have multiple solutions which will alter character’s perceptions of Mickey and may influence interactions you have available to you down the road. Completing quests will generally reward you with sparks, which serve as the prime mcguffin in Epic Mickey. Sparks allow you to fix projector screens which allow Mickey to hop between different areas of the world. The quest system will often require you to travel across multiple worlds, but the game doesn’t have a fast travel system and levels tend to be linear gauntlets rather than sandboxes. This makes returning to areas often clunky and time consuming. I’d wind up waiting to build up a list of quests that needed to be turned in at a specific location before taking the time to actually go complete them all. It feeds into what I’d say is Epic Mickey’s greatest weakness, in its extremely uneven pacing. The game feels like it grinds to a halt waiting for you to turn in quests so that you can access new areas which often require you to trudge across the entire world.
When you do escape the doldrum of grinding out quests, the moment to moment 3D platforming still feels quite good. I did initially have some concerns centered around the paintbrush controls, given that the first Epic Mickey was built specifically around the Wii remote and nunchuck. Here the controls have been adapted to have both the camera and reticle for the paintbrush be controlled by the right stick. While actively spraying paint or thinner gyro controls also become active. While it doesn’t quite offer the precision of the original controls it is largely functional and there were only a few times where I struggled to shoot paint through an oddly placed opening. It is comparable to the dual analogue controls found in Epic Mickey 2, though significantly better performance overall makes them feel much better.
The remastering effort itself generally impressed me. This is the same team behind the remaster of Spongebob Squarepants Battle for Bikini Bottom. While they’re clearly not afraid to make significant visual upgrades, they do a good job of keeping it feeling consistent with the original art. In Epic Mickey Rebrushed that generally comes down to updated materials with a full modern suite of normal and specular maps. While the original game did make use of some more complex pixel shaders (a rarity on Wii) this remaster expands it out to most materials in the game. That being said, the often subdued lighting and grim environments don’t always show off these materials, so there are areas where you may not immediately notice them. While it’s subtle, there were many areas where it felt like the remaster was delivering visually exactly what the original had intended to but was limited by the hardware. The one area where I feel the remaster lets down visually, is in the level of detail pop-in for characters. At the original resolution these were fairly hard to notice, but in HD it's quite obvious. These LODs also persist in photo mode even if you move the camera right up to them.
As for performance specifically on the Switch, the majority of the time things run smoothly. I’d say it is generally an improvement over the original release. That being said, things aren’t perfect. Hectic combat can cause some minor, though extended frame rate drops. And every now and then when moving into a new area I would see the game stutter for a moment. These are the exception not the rule, but they can be impactful nonetheless. On the bright side, image quality is quite good in both configurations, once again highlighting the excellent art in a way the original release never really could.
At the end of the day I’m delighted to see Epic Mickey getting a second shot at life, and escaping exclusivity after all these years. This isn’t some landmark 3D platformer, but it’s a game with an incredible amount of heart put into it. While I would have loved to see this remaster do a bit more to smooth over the rough edges in game design, its respectful approach to updating the visuals is excellently done. Performance unfortunately isn’t perfect on the Switch, though it isn’t game breaking either. This is and always has been a game that will appeal to a very specific combo of 3D platforming and Disney fans, but for that audience it remains a flawed but charming trip into the forgotten past.
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TalkBack / Caravan SandWitch (Switch) Review
« on: September 12, 2024, 01:00:00 AM »Get cozy on a dying world.
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/review/68510/caravan-sandwitch-switch-review
Caravan SandWitch is an odd game. It combines themes of returning home to loving friends and family, with a somewhat melancholy feeling of impending doom as the world around you struggles to survive. It is cozy, so long as you don’t look too deep. As such I was enthralled by the world Caravan SandWitch created. However the biggest challenge you’ll face isn’t a dying world, but rather an aging Nintendo Switch.
You play as a young woman named Sauge who receives a distress call from her sister who had long been missing. This prompts Sauge to return to her home planet of Cigalo, which had been largely abandoned after a major corporation pulled out and took all the work with it. Here she’ll reunite with what remains of her old friends and family. Much of Caravan SandWitch is built around helping the small community of people still on Cigalo as you search for signs of your sister.
This is all done through a social network that serves as an appealing take on a quest log. Quests are split into threads with the various characters involved occasionally posting messages as you make progress. Of course you have your primary quest, but alongside that are a constant feed of optional side quests. I found myself doing pretty much all of these as they’re an easy way to gather resources you’ll need to progress in the primary quest line. The underlying goal is to upgrade a van that you’re gifted early on. By gathering resources to add new tools to the van you’ll be able to explore more of the open world around you. Explore more and you’ll find more resources to make new upgrades and access new places. The van itself makes exploring a breeze, and prevents regular trips to and from the central town from becoming grating. It's a smoothly implemented loop and the side quest design naturally pushes you out into the world to explore.
The characters and world of Caravan SandWitch are extremely endearing. Engaging with the people of the town and the various characters that wander the world around it is always worth it. I do wish that some of the human characters had a bit more variety in personality. Almost all of them are just effortlessly kind and happy to see you. As a result several of them tend to blend together, lacking many of their own unique traits. That being said, the various non-human species you’ll encounter, such as the native frog-like inhabitants, are much more interestingly written.
I was surprised by just how big Caravan SandWitch was. This is an open-world adventure with enough terrain to justify travel by van whenever possible. The Switch version holds up okay in the desert biomes of the map but struggles as you get closer to the center which is full of trees, foliage, and the primary hub town. The town itself is especially bad, dropping the dynamic resolution quite low and essentially never hitting a stable frame rate. More contained environments such as caves and buildings run significantly more smoothly but for the vast majority of the time you’ll be dealing with constant frame rate struggles. Now there is no combat or threat of death in Caravan SandWitch, so the frame rate rarely affects moment to moment gameplay, but it does severely impact what is otherwise an excellent presentation. I found myself pushing through regardless, but I’m also aware I have a higher tolerance for unstable frame rates than many others. This is really the one area where Caravan SandWitch struggles, but it is significant.
If you can get past the technical issues, Caravan SandWitch is an incredibly unique adventure game. It is simultaneously a very pleasant world to exist in, while not shying away from its inherent post apocalyptic themes. Driving around, exploring the world, and helping the characters you meet forms an excellent gameplay loop that can be surprisingly difficult to put down. This is an endlessly charming game, but one that comes with somewhat severe caveats if you choose to play on Switch.
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Podcast Discussion / Gamescom 2024 Special
« on: August 30, 2024, 05:00:00 AM »We interupt your normally scheduled Game Club for this important convention.
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/connectivity/68378/gamescom-2024-special
John is joined by Willem Hilhorst fresh off his trip to Gamescom 2024. Willem shares a bit about his work in games preservation and a brief summary of Gamescom as a convention, before diving into everything he did while he was there. As a special treat this episode is also available in video form on our Youtube.
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TalkBack / Argonaut Returns With New Croc Remaster
« on: August 28, 2024, 06:00:00 AM »Buck Bumble when?
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/news/68373/argonaut-returns-with-new-croc-remaster
Legendary developer Argonaut Games is making a surprise return after twenty years. The studio has today officially announced their first project as a remaster of their classic 3D platformer, Croc: Legend of Gobbos.
No platforms have been announced thus far beyond a blanket PC and consoles.
Argonaut is perhaps best known by Nintendo fans as the developers behind the Original Star Fox who would go on to work with Nintendo on both Star Fox 2 and Stunt Race FX. The studio was responsible for many early advances in 3D gaming including Starglider on Atari ST and Amiga, along with X on the Game Boy. Croc itself is generally viewed as one of the earliest conceived instances of a 3D platformer, having started life as a pitch for a 3D Yoshi game to Nintendo.
You can learn more about some of Argonaut's early work in our documentary on the making of Star Fox for the Super Nintendo.
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TalkBack / Gundam Breaker 4 (Switch) Review
« on: August 27, 2024, 04:51:23 AM »Customize a robo.
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/review/68336/gundam-breaker-4-switch-review
Gundam Breaker 4, technically the fifth Gundam Breaker game, is the first title in the series to come to a Nintendo system. In fact it's only the second title to not be exclusive to Playstation platforms, and to release in the west. So it's safe to say that for many, this will be their first introduction to this series. Gundam Breaker is a bit different from other Gundam games as it is built around the concept of Gundam model kits otherwise known as Gunpla. It is a game about collecting parts and kitbashing them together to make new mobile suits and then engage in arena combat. At a glance it isn’t far off from Nintendo’s own seemingly retired Custom Robo series. It is certainly closer to something like that than it is to other more traditional Gundam video games.
The entirety of Gundam Breaker 4 takes place within a somewhat fake MMORPG. I say “somewhat” because it can indeed be played online, allowing you to engage with other players, but the core storyline feels focused as a single player experience. Unlike previous entries there is no segment of the game that takes place in the “real” world. Your Gunpla are your avatars and which can result in occasionally comical moments of your conceptually giant robots acting out heartfelt scenes between two characters.
The story plays out as a linear series of missions, bookended by cutscenes between yourself and the other characters you meet within this virtual world. Most of the actual story takes place in the lobby that you’ll be sent to between missions. As a result the story scenes will get extremely repetitive, with most of them taking place in the exact same spot with voice acting playing over canned animations for your Gunpla. I found it difficult to connect with the story despite the voice cast doing a perfectly fine job.
The actual missions play out in wave-based arena combat. You and your party members will drop into an arena and take on several waves of enemies before moving to the next arena and doing it again. At the end of the waves you’ll generally fight some slightly more powerful enemies or a large boss. Now and then you’ll have a slightly different objective such as defending a certain unit but ultimately most missions wind up feeling very similar. You’ll fight a huge variety of enemies, but as they ultimately all have the same underlying moveset, no one encounter feels particularly different from any other. The exception to this is the large boss fights. These all have unique attacks and phases that have to be learned, and they’re the one instance in which I actually ever died. Getting hit by one of these bosses can occasionally just one shot you, especially if you’re running with a lower level build than you should. These encounters require you to more carefully watch your opponent rather than simply button mash, and find openings to attack weak points when they present themselves. I ultimately enjoyed the boss fights far more than any of the standard encounters which almost never presented any challenge or interesting gameplay.
By far the highlight of Gundam Breaker 4 is the actual mech customization. As you play through missions, enemies will drop parts that you’ll collect at the end of the stage. You can then freely swap these out on your Gunpla. Pieces are split into head, torso, left and right arms, legs, backpack, and both ranged and melee weapons for each hand. Each of these can then be scaled, moved, and rotated. You can individually adjust the paint color and type on various parts of each piece as well as applying custom decals pretty much wherever you want. I even realized you can give these decals emissive properties allowing them to function as lights. Finally you can also adjust various options for wear and tear to make your mech look brand new or like it's been fighting the Zeon since U.C. 0079. The amount of freedom you have is truly impressive. Want to make Samus from Metroid or one of the mechs from Metroid Prime: Federation Force? You absolutely can. Or maybe you want to recreate the exact look of the RGM-79 seen in 1999’s Gundam Side Story 0079: Rise from the Ashes for the Sega Dreamcast. Yup, you can do that too. You can also save and upload any of your custom builds and pose them in dioramas for a nice photo shoot. I can only imagine the crazy builds that will be available once the public servers come online.
The only real downside to the customization, is that at the end of the day, all of your designs will essentially handle the same way, and the base controls are a little clumsy. Most of this comes down to the way a couple key actions are implemented. First off, your block and dodge are on the same button. Block is triggered by holding the button while dodge is triggered with a quick press. But because of this setup, both actions will be limited by a small delay as the game waits to see if you’re going to keep holding down the button or not. Your jump and dash functions also share a button, but in this instance the action is dependent on whether you’re moving or not. You can only jump while standing still, while a dash will trigger if you’re in motion. Both of these make getting into position and dealing with enemy attacks awkward, and at times laggy. As a result I generally felt I was having more fun building than I was actually playing.
When it comes to playing specifically on Switch, this has proven to be a very solid port. The game looks sharp docked and only becomes noticeably soft occasionally in handheld mode. Oddly I found this was more common when in the lobby rather than in an actual mission, and usually only during cutscenes. I did see the frame rate drop now and then if combat got particularly intense but never for an extended period of time. I will note that loading screens can be just a hair lengthy, which can make moving from one arena to the next during missions a little less fluid than it should be. Still, overall this is clearly a game designed with the Switch’s hardware in mind, and the end result is a fairly attractive game in both docked and handheld modes.
I have very different opinions on Gundam Breaker 4 depending on what area of the game you ask me about. The story is bland but generally inoffensive. The standard combat is repetitive and unmemorable but the boss fights can be much more interesting. However the controls do leave something to be desired. The customization is fantastic and generally the highlight of the experience. And the Switch port itself is very well handled. At the end of the day I found Gundam Breaker 4 is at its best when you’re either building a unique Gunpla, or engaged in the more curated and intentionally designed one on one boss fights. I found myself having fun in these moments but wishing that they were more the focus of gameplay, and that the story was willing to commit to a bit more than stiff cutscenes that all take place in the same gray room. I couldn’t help but think of a game like Custom Robo and wish that Gundam Breaker was willing to commit to a more adventurous, almost Pokemon-like experience. A game where you actually explore a world, engaging in Gunpla battles as an RPG encounter mechanic, rather than selecting them from a list. Gundam Breaker 4 is good, but it feels like there is an obvious path to be something more.
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TalkBack / Star Wars: Bounty Hunter (Switch) Review
« on: August 14, 2024, 10:22:52 AM »Listen, the old EU wasn't all bangers.
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/review/68186/star-wars-bounty-hunter-switch-review
Note: This review is being posted later than the original video version due to a backend site issue at original embargo. The content is the same as the original review.
Listen, at this point my metric for Aspyr’s Star Wars releases is pretty low. Battlefront really broke me, but there had been a long line of fascinating choices leading up to that point. So imagine my surprise when I start up the Switch version of Star Wars: Bounty Hunter and find a game that is running at 60fps with a maxed out resolution and some decent anti-aliasing. The cutscenes are all where they’re supposed to be. Graphical effects from the original releases aren’t just present but new ones have been added. Heck, even Jango Fett himself has a nicely updated model. Now there is one odd technical hiccup along the way but all in all, this is one of Aspyr’s better efforts.
Star Wars: Bounty Hunter originally released on PS2 and GameCube back in 2002. It serves as a direct prequel to Jango Fett’s role in Star Wars Episode II. The story follows Jango as he takes on a mission that will ultimately lead him to where we find him in Attack of the Clones. The game itself is generally remembered as a lesser, though not outright bad, entry in the Star Wars video game pantheon. My older sister got the GameCube version when we were kids and after playing it for a while, we ultimately wound up trading it out for Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast. So I went into this release having not touched Star Wars: Bounty Hunter in a little over two decades.
The game is separated into six chapters. Each of these chapters contains three levels, with the final level ending in a boss fight of some sort. Most levels amount to moving through a large, mostly linear environment and killing absolutely everything. Civilian in the way? No worries, the game doesn’t really care who you shoot as long as you’re shooting. In fact, if you play on a system other than the Switch, you’ll get an achievement for that. Now and then you’ll encounter some extremely light navigational puzzles. These amount to finding a switch for a door or bridge, or perhaps finding a grate to cut your way through. If you can restrain your craving for violence momentarily, each level also contains a set number of side bounties. By scanning enemies or other NPCs, you can check to see if there is an active bounty on them. Once scanned you can mark them and (hopefully) capture them alive. The only problem with this system is that Bounty Hunter doesn’t really have a stealth mechanic. Enemies seemingly detect you at random. Sometimes you can walk right up to an enemy and stand there for several seconds before they realize you are in fact famed bounty hunter Jango Fett. Others meanwhile will sense a disturbance in the force and start yelling threats at you from two rooms over. So getting a chance to scan a room for bounties can be easy or exceedingly difficult with seemingly no regard for how you’re actually playing.
Enemy AI in general is probably where this game has aged the worst. One level sees you breaking into a prison to find one of the prisoners. A riot eventually breaks out, which one would think might serve as a good cover. However, prisoners and guards alike seemingly have no interest in fighting each other, but rather have eyes only for Jango. It feels like a level that was set up for the guards and prisoners to fight each other, but then that part of the AI was never actually implemented.
All that being said, the actual moment to moment running and gunning feels pretty good for a 2002 action game. Jango’s blasters have a fairly generous auto aim and each one can target independently. You also have a lock on function, but it targets based on where Jango is looking, not where the camera is looking. This means you always have to turn directly into oncoming fire to get a lock. But the best mechanic by far is your jetpack. You unlock it halfway through the first chapter and it makes the combat, and level design so much more fun to engage with. Your control over Jango with the jetpack feels surprisingly agile for a third-person-shooter from 2002. Flying across elevated platforms all while dodging blaster fire and dishing out plenty of your own is still a lot of fun.
The Switch version itself looks to be built off of the GameCube version of Bounty Hunter, which featured improved model quality, textures, real-time shadows, and double the framerate compared to the PlayStation 2 version. That being said, all of these elements have been enhanced beyond their original versions as well. The in-game model for Jango Fett looks to have been completely remade and more closely matches the pre-rendered cutscenes. However, I didn’t notice similar changes anywhere else. Textures are all higher resolution and look quite sharp. A flashlight has been added which helps with some darker areas. From what I can tell, the Switch version gets all the updated graphics of the PC version of this remaster with the exception of ambient occlusion. This includes motion blur, which is pretty light and unobtrusive. Even if you’re someone who would rather not have the effect, it cannot currently be turned off.
But as I played I did have one nagging feeling looking at Jango Fett. Aren’t you a little short for a Bounty Hunter? A quick comparison with the original release proved my suspicion true. This new version of Bounty Hunter runs in 16:9 widescreen vs the 4:3 fullscreen of the original. However somewhere along the line the image got squashed and stretched slightly. Now, it isn’t the case that the 4:3 frame has simply been stretched to 16:9 as there is indeed more of the environment visible during gameplay on the left and right; lining up the two versions does reveal an inconsistency in aspect ratio. Most players likely won’t notice, but if you’re like me and are constantly aware of these things, it may stand out to you.
Star Wars: Bounty Hunter is simultaneously a fairly mediocre Star Wars game, while also being one of Aspyr’s best efforts. It still isn’t perfect, but it is largely an improvement on the original release, which I cannot always say for their ports and remasters. The Switch version specifically gets nearly all the new graphical features while maintaining 60 frames-per-second. While you may have forgotten just how repetitive Star Wars: Bounty Hunter is over the last twenty years, this is a pretty solid way to play it, so long as you can put up with a slightly shorter version of Jango Fett than you’re used to.
22
TalkBack / EXCLUSIVE: Gori: Cuddly Carnage - First Look at Switch Version
« on: August 08, 2024, 05:00:00 AM »And a deep dive with the developers!
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/video/68126/exclusive-gori-cuddly-carnage-first-look-at-switch-version
Gori: Cuddly Carnage is coming to Switch later this month on the 29th of August. A demo is also hitting the eShop today. But we've got your first look at the Switch version right here!
We also got to chat with John Kalderon about the development of the game, its insperations, and the challenges of porting to Switch. Check out both the trailer and the deep dive and if you're interested you can learn more about Gori: Cuddly Carnage right here.
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TalkBack / GIVEAWAY: Gori Cuddly Carnage Cat Carrier Backpack
« on: August 08, 2024, 07:38:36 AM »Enter to win!
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/sitenews/68127/giveaway-gori-cuddly-carnage-cat-carrier-backpack
GIVEAWAY ALERT: Want to win a cat carrier backpack AND a Switch copy of Gori: Cuddly Carnage? Follow and retweet this tweet to enter! And of course check out @GoriCarnage to learn more about the game!
— Nintendo World Report (@Nintendo_NWR) August 8, 2024
complete rules and details below. (orange cat and bearded fellow not included) pic.twitter.com/Syy1OBlVoN
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TalkBack / Harry Potter: Quidditch Champions Gets Gameplay Trailer and Physical Release on Switch
« on: July 29, 2024, 06:06:58 AM »The only sport that's taken longer to get a new game than college football.
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/news/68045/harry-potter-quidditch-champions-gets-gameplay-trailer-and-physical-release-on-switch
We've got our first gameplay trailer for Harry Potter: Quidditch Champions. The trailer shows of character creation in addition to single player and online multiplayer modes. Beyond that, the Switch version will also be getting a physical release sometime later this year. The Xbox Series X and Playstation 5 versions will see a physical release on Nov. 8, 2024. The Nintendo Switch edition will be released "this holiday season." Meanwhile the Digital Release is schedule for September 3, 2024.
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TalkBack / No Man's Sky Worlds Part 1 Update - Tested on Switch
« on: July 26, 2024, 05:22:50 AM »An ambitious visual overhaul.
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/video/67981/no-mans-sky-worlds-part-1-update-tested-on-switch
No Man's Sky - Worlds Part 1 is a massive update that serves as a visual overhaul on all platforms. But can the Switch actually keep up with all these new features? Let's take a look.
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