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TalkBack / Panzer Dragoon II Zwei Remake Re-emerges For TGS
« on: September 09, 2025, 06:46:00 AM »Somehow, Panzer Dragoon II Zwei Remake returned.
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/news/72408/panzer-dragoon-ii-zwei-remake-re-emerges-for-tgs
After last being mentioned way back in 2021, Forever Entertainment's Panzer Dragon II Zwei Remake has made a surprise return for this year's Tokyo Game Show. A playable demo will be available at the event. This will be the first time this remake has been playable. Alongside the announcement came a selection of new screenshots which are the first official look we've had at this remake. We also now have a price set at $24.99.
Forever Entertainment previously published a remake of the original Panzer Dragoon on Nintendo Switch back in 2020 which we gave a 7.5/10 in our review.
Panzer Dragoon II Zwei Remake is set to release on Nintendo Switch, Steam, GOG, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S but no official release date has been announced at this time.
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TalkBack / Particle Hearts (Switch) Review
« on: September 09, 2025, 04:00:00 AM »A visually stunning adventure that holds up great on Switch.
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/review/72404/particle-hearts-switch-review
Note: Game was played across both Switch and Switch 2. Included screenshots were all captured from a Switch in docked mode
I’ll be honest, after being offered a review code for Particle Hearts I went and watched a trailer for the game to get a feel for it. My first thought upon seeing a screen filled with alpha transparencies on characters and foliage, all emitting dense clouds of particles was “There is no way this runs well on Switch.” So my technical curiosity demanded I take the review and find out. As it turns out, not only does Particle Hearts actually run great on both Switch 1 and via backwards compatibility on Switch 2, it's also an extremely impactful narrative adventure.
The game opens with very little context. You are seemingly alone in an ethereal world, but a voice guides you to collect wind chimes. The sound of these chimes gently guides you as you explore and slowly reveal your character’s history; I found the story immediately enthralling. I don’t want to dive too deep and get into spoilers, but it deals with themes of betrayal and forgiveness in a very real way. An early chime will instruct you to make your way to gleaming, white, gateway-like structures. These gateways lead to challenges that must be overcome through a combination of platforming and puzzle solving. Upon completing a challenge you’ll be given an object that can be fed to a massive red creature back in the overworld in order to gain entry to the next large area.
The gameplay loop starts simple, mechanically limited to running, jumping, and dashing. As you progress you’ll gain the ability to briefly scatter your particle-based form, allowing you to pass through certain types of objects. Later you’ll learn to absorb the elements of particles you encounter to take on the qualities of water or fire. Each of these is then excellently factored into the challenge stages, which get progressively more complex in their puzzle focus. I did find that while the worlds you explored developed visually over the course of the game, giving plenty of variety, the challenge stages largely look the same. You’ll spend a lot of time working your way through extremely similar looking purple areas. Even just swapping out the underlying color every few challenges would do a lot to make them feel more distinct.
The world of Particle Hearts is presented in an extremely abstract style. Your character and much of the environment is assembled from tiny particles of light. Trails of errant particles drift through the air and along your path as you move through the world. This is achieved via a combination of legitimate particles being rendered in real-time, and the clever use of animated textures on characters that give off the impression of being built from more of the particles. It generally works very well and the Switch handles it with seemingly no real issue. The one area where I was able to catch the smallest glimpse of the Switch limitations was in the textures used for the environment itself. These are noticeably low resolution and fall short of the otherwise sharp edged particles seen elsewhere in the game. That being said the visual concept is still excellently accomplished overall, and at a smooth framerate and good resolution.
Particle Hearts isn’t a deeply complex game, but it balances what complexity it has in gameplay with an impactful story. I found it easy to simply sink into. I was always equally as excited to reach the next challenge as I was to unfold a little more of the story. There are moments that very genuinely hit and caused me to simply pause for a moment and absorb the storytelling. The world it creates is enchanting and against all odds holds up almost flawlessly on Switch. This is the level of narrative adventure that even with a few blemishes, I can’t help but fall in love with.
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TalkBack / Star Wars Outlaws on Switch 2 has Ray-tracing
« on: September 04, 2025, 05:06:59 AM »This might be the Switch 2's most impressive game.
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/video/72344/star-wars-outlaws-on-switch-2-has-ray-tracing
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TalkBack / Space Adventure Cobra: The Awakening (Switch) Review
« on: August 25, 2025, 04:00:00 AM »An a game with plenty of Metroid inspiration based on an Anime that inspired Metroid.
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/review/72200/space-adventure-cobra-the-awakening-switch-review
Space Adventure Cobra: The Awakening is a 2D action platformer based on the manga Cobra from the late 70’s. Specifically its television anime adaptation Space Cobra. Confusingly it does not directly pull from the 1982 anime film adaptation Space Adventure Cobra despite sharing its name. You play as the titular Cobra, a space pirate who erased his own memory and altered his appearance in order to escape the pursuit of the Space Pirate Guild several years ago. After awakening to his identity, Cobra is quickly pulled into his old life of planet hopping and treasure hunting. But it doesn’t take long for the Space Pirate Guild to pick up his trail and reignite their old feud.
Space Adventure Cobra: The Awakening pulls its cutscenes directly from the anime series. Likewise levels are built to blend as seamlessly as possible with bookends provided by the anime. It is overall highly successful, though there is a somewhat unavoidable shock moving between the modern, real-time 3D rendered environments and the 80’s anime. But the way the game and the anime are so lovingly intertwined speaks to a true adoration for the source material.
Gameplay would be easy to initially mistake for a metroid-like, despite the game being a level-based, linear action-platformer. A lot of that comes from what are very clearly some strong influences from Mercury Steam’s Metroid Dread. Cobra’s basic move set and much of his animation feels directly lifted from Metroid Dread. I don’t mean that in a bad way. Cobra feels great to control. You run and aim with the left stick. By holding down the L button you can lock in place and freely aim in any direction. Cobra grabs ledges and smoothly mantles over low obstacles. By pressing A he can slide through small gaps or even between the legs of enemies. Y offers a melee attack though the otherwise close similarity to Metroid caused me to wish for a proper melee counter. The fact that this game takes such strong influence from modern 2D Metroid carries with it plenty of irony as Metroid itself was heavily inspired by Space Cobra as has been documented by historian Kate Willært. But that doesn’t mean that everything is pulled from Metroid. Cobra’s iconic psycho-gun is perhaps the game's most interesting and original mechanic. When fired, time freezes as you guide its firing path freely through the environment. This can be used to take out multiple enemies in a chain of destruction, or curve around corners to hit otherwise unreachable targets.
Levels themselves are nicely varied both aesthetically and in terms of actual gameplay. As you progress you unlock new weapons and abilities which are accompanied by new enemy types and challenges. And despite not being a Metroid-like, you can revisit old levels with these abilities to find hidden collectibles that were not accessible on your initial visit. I did notice that even on the standard difficulty, enemies tend to be extremely spongy. Even if you’re watching for gun upgrades, you’ll be sinking quite a few shots into some enemies. This leads to a somewhat inflated sense of difficulty that usually stems from simply spawning a whole bunch of enemies that all take a few too many hits to kill. Luckily the game's checkpoint system is extremely generous and there is no arbitrary lives system so if you die, you simply try again usually from directly before that encounter.
Borrowing heavily from the source anime, Space Adventure Cobra: The Awakening also inherits its soundtrack. When mixed with remixed and original music the auditory vibes are outstanding. The anime sequences also feature a new dub in order to match their audio quality and voicework to that of the in game dialogue. It's overall very good. Though I spotted a few times where subtitles were mislabeled. It wasn’t a huge issue but there were some instances where I was playing handheld with the sound off and got briefly confused.
Switch and Switch 2 performance is good in terms of frame rate, though handheld mode leaves something to be desired in terms of image quality. Docked the games looks quite serviceable both on Switch and running in backwards compatibility on Switch 2. But in handheld mode the clean cell shade anime aesthetic is dulled somewhat by a very low resolution. It doesn’t affect actual playability but it certainly hurts the art design.
In a world where seemingly the vast majority of classic anime adaptations boil down to arena brawler after arena brawler, it has been wonderful to see Cobra get a more in-depth approach. What results is an enjoyable game that conveys the anime’s story not only in its cutscenes but throughout its level design as well. It is clearly a game made by a team with legitimate admiration for their source material. It has some small issues with enemy balance and a few minor presentational blunders, but it's hard to ignore the charm and passion that exudes from Space Adventure Cobra: The Awakening.
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TalkBack / Herdling (Switch) Review
« on: August 21, 2025, 05:00:00 AM »It may not be the GOAT but there are several goats.
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/review/72113/herdling-switch-review
I’ve played a lot of games that in theory should be similar to Herdling. I’ve played plenty of narrative adventure games built around atmosphere and environmental storytelling. I’ve played games where I’ve managed multiple characters at once. But somehow Herdling still winds up feeling very unique. Because while it has elements of games like Abzu, Rime, or even Lemmings, ultimately Herdling is a shepherding-sim.
You play as a young boy who comes across a wandering Calicorn. Calicorn are furry goat-like creatures that come in a variety of sizes. Using a stick you find lying on the ground, you quickly learn to shepherd the lonely Calicorn. As you begin wandering alongside it, you’ll come upon another Calicorn and soon your duo will become a herd. The story and motivation for what you’re doing is borderline non-existent, and you find yourself guiding the Calicorns forward largely because this is a video game and that's what you do. Herdling has no dialogue so you’re relying entirely on environmental storytelling and natural moments to form attachments to its world and characters. Over time you’ll get a general sense for where you’re going but never any real reason why or a deeper understanding of the world itself. Now and then the music will swell and you’ll get a nice setpiece moment, but with no attachment to the herd of similar looking Calicorns, it is tough to be too invested in their progress or safety. That being said, it's a very compelling world to be in. It's an odd combination of ancient and more modern decay. It would be nice to learn more about either of those elements.
Your control over your herd is straightforward. At any point you can press ZR to send the herd moving directly away from you. They’ll always move as a unit so you don’t need to worry about scattering them if you’re not quite standing in the right spot. Holding ZR in open areas allows you to charge up a stampede that can be quite satisfying after navigating treacherous terrain. You can also hold A to slow down your herd or double tap it to call for a quick stop. Most of the time you’ll just be moving through the world, but now and then you’ll also need to carefully navigate hazards. Though, the danger is generally just limited to your Calicorns losing the energy they need for the stampede charge. I should also mention that the camera is a little awkward; it seems to hesitate between being totally free and heavily scripted and can wind up in some awkward positions now and then.
The music, sound design, and overall presentation are quite good. I played primarily on a Switch 2 where performance was smooth for the most part. The original Switch can stutter a bit more, but of the sections I tested it was never too bad. Distant landscapes are noticeably low-poly but the immediate environment, your character, and the Calicorns all look good. The music is extremely restrained, but when it does come in it's always a highlight. I noticed that during some big moments the music even intelligently lowers the volume of other sounds giving the score more room to shine. This is definitely a soundtrack I’d happily listen to independent of the game itself.
Herdling has most of the pieces of a strong and unique narrative adventure, but comes up a little short where it matters. It rarely gives you moments to form any specific attachments to its characters. The world certainly has some cool setpieces accompanied by a soaring soundtrack, but at the end of the day I struggled to care. There is still a well crafted world and some interesting mechanics at play, but the storytelling causes it to fall short of the genre greats.
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TalkBack / Kirby Air Riders Now Twice as Complicated with Addition of Second Button
« on: August 19, 2025, 06:08:51 AM »A move the game's creator describes as "unfortunate".
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/news/72106/kirby-air-riders-now-twice-as-complicated-with-addition-of-second-button
In a Nintendo Direct focused purely on the upcoming Kirby Air Riders for Nintendo Switch 2, creator Masahiro Sakurai revealed that the sequel to the Gamecube original would feature a second button function. In addition to the B button which is used for the game's drift mechanic (similarly to A in the original Kirby Air Ride), Y now allows you to use a new charge ability.
The original Kirby Air Ride, released in 2003, famously only made use of a single button. The player vehicle would move forward automatically while A could be used to brake and drift. During the direct Masahiro Sakurai jokingly stated, "We've added a second button, unfortunately".
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TalkBack / Heretic + Hexen (Switch) Review
« on: August 11, 2025, 05:02:00 AM »And how does it hold up against the N64 port?
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/review/72016/heretic--hexen-switch-review
After three decades, Heretic has made its debut on consoles alongside its sequel Hexen which hasn’t seen a home console release since its original launch. The last time Hexen was playable on home consoles it was on Playstation, Saturn, and Nintendo 64. This re-released, dubbed Heretic + Hexen makes its way to Switch from Nightdive studios, who’s experience updating games of this era is hard not to be familiar with at this point. There is a lot to unpack in this release with both original games, Hexen’s Deathkings of the Dark Citadel expansion, a brand new expansion for both Heretic and Hexen, and a good amount of bonus content.
Heretic, the first game in the series, is a fairly straightforward follow-up to the Doom formula but in a swords and sorcery setting. And I don’t mean that to be demeaning. Heretic, though saddled with a lot of the same technical limitations as the first two Doom titles, exhibits an overall more impressive use of the engine in its level layouts. That being said, it's also very easy to draw 1:1 comparisons between Heretic’s weapons and enemies and counterparts in Doom.
But if Heretic is more or less medieval Doom, Hexen is a complete reinvention of how these early first-person shooters could work. Hexen asks the player to choose between three different classes, each of which have different weapons, abilities, and stats. Mix this with level design that is significantly more non-linear and focuses more on exploration and puzzle solving, and Hexen at times has as much in common with a Zelda or a Metroid as it does with Doom.
Beyond the two base games are three expansions. One for Heretic and two for Hexen. The first of Hexen’s expansions was originally released in 1996 while its second, along with the expansion for Heretic, are brand new to this release. The new Heretic expansion, Faith Renewed, is very well done and pushes the engine even further than the original game. Both Hexen expansions are solid, and I actually think I prefer the new Vestiges and Grandeur over the 1996 Deathkings of the Dark Citadel, but I don’t think either quite capture the magic of the original game. Still, they’re both very good.
The only actual hurdle I faced as I jumped between what essentially operate as five unique games, is that all five for some reason share the same save system. Worse, they all share a single quicksave slot. At multiple times I’d forget that I was using the quicksave slot for Hexen, only to then use it in Heretic and have to fall back to an earlier save in Hexen. Even just finding the correct save to load up becomes a hassle when you’re sorting through saves for every game. Keep in mind that this is after you’ve already booted a specific game, your saves are not filtered for that game.
As for visual options, Nightdive has played it pretty straight on this one. By default, the game runs in high definition (keep in mind this is a Switch release not Switch 2, so resolution is capped at 1080p). From the options menu you can drop it to its “original” resolution or several scaling factors in between. You can also toggle between 16:9 and 4:3 aspect ratios, choose from a couple different HUD options, customize your crosshair, and pick from remastered or original soundtrack options. I did notice when using the full screen HUD option (which aligns with the Nintendo 64 version of Hexen I have nostalgia for) that the sky boxes don’t scale quite right. Meaning that if you look all the way up you can actually see them tile back to the bottom. Given that the N64 version makes use of this same HUD setup I was curious to see if the same happened there, but the issue is not present in that version. I don’t have the original PC release so I’m honestly not sure if this was an existing issue or if it is unique to this re-release.
But speaking of the Nintendo 64 version, that port was generally considered the best home console version of Hexen up to this point. It was based on the original floppy disc version of Hexen so it lacks the pre-rendered cutscenes, but is otherwise significantly better than the Playstation and Saturn versions in terms of accuracy and performance. Playing these back-to-back, I’m impressed by how spot on the Nintendo 64 version truly was. But I have to admit, it did make me wish I could filter the textures on this updated version. I think the sprites themselves definitely look better unfiltered, but in HD the raw unfiltered textures really create a lot of visual noise. Probably an unpopular take but let me filter those or add a CRT filter.
Heretic + Hexen is a fantastic collection of one very good game and one absolutely incredible game. The added content both new and old only serves to strengthen these two titles. That being said the clumsy save system and somewhat limited options for how these games are presented on a modern TV do lightly mar the experience. Even a CRT filter would do wonders for translating the visuals at a higher definition. But given that the previous best way to play this on a home console was to dig out a Nintendo 64 or put up with compromised versions on Playstation or Saturn, this is still certainly an improvement overall. Hopefully down the road we can get the rest of the Heretic/Hexen series as well.
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TalkBack / Toree Saturn (Switch) Review
« on: August 07, 2025, 06:07:20 AM »It's a great well but the water is getting a littl low.
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/reviewmini/71995/toree-saturn-switch-review
Toree is a long running series of inexpensive micro platformers. Small 3D platforming challenges jammed into a bitesized adventure. Toree Saturn continues this trend, but as the fourth release, the Toree formula is getting a little stale.
You play as a small yellow bird named Toree in a series of levels that feel strongly reminiscent of early 3D Sonic the Hedgehog titles. Much of this ties into a new homing move which allows you to zip to certain targets within the environment. Levels are short, linear, fast paced, and each feature a few hard to reach collectibles which add some replay value. It is a game heavily structured around the concept of doing levels as quickly as possible while collecting as much as possible. Toree himself still feels excellent to control. While the game isn’t particularly rich in content, what is there is well designed. The entire game can easily be completed in under an hour. However if you quit midway through, you’ll need to start over from the beginning before you can proceed. You can replay levels you’ve already completed but there is no continue option.
The game looks and runs great on both Switch 1 and Switch 2. That being said, I did encounter some oddly long loading screens at one point. I was not able to recreate these later so it may have been a one off bug. The clean late 90’s art style lends itself well to being able to quickly read levels and spot collectibles in the midst of chaos. Likewise the soundtrack is quite catchy and fits the overall aesthetic nicely.
Like its predecessors, Toree Saturn plays great. But at this point I’m ready for more from this little bird. It's clear that the developer skill is there to do more with these games but they seem to be stuck retreading the same ground. It is well executed, but if you’ve played other games in the series, you know exactly what you’re getting here.
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TalkBack / Tales of the Shire (Switch) Review
« on: July 29, 2025, 08:19:42 AM »Won't exactly fill your stomach.
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/review/71879/tales-of-the-shire-switch-review
Few things in existing fiction personify the modern cozy genre quite like Tolkien's iconic Hobbits. A fantasy species built around keeping a clean home, warm community, and a good meal, Hobbits are coziness incarnate. Tales of the Shire: A Lord of the Rings Game is, despite its awkward mouthful of a title, starting from a strong position. Unfortunately while the recipe may be delicious in theory, the end result comes out more than a little undercooked.
Tales of the Shire takes place in the years between the events of The Hobbit, and The Lord of the Rings. While the game opens with a brief encounter with Gandalf, Tolkien fans will spot other things here and there that reference back to the books. You play as your own custom hobbit who has freshly arrived in the small settlement of Bywater. After briefly settling into a recently vacated hobbit hole you’ll quickly become caught up in the local effort to get Bywater formally recognized as an official village of Hobbiton. To do this you’ll engage in quests for different hobbits that generally amount to running around Bywater talking to highlighted characters until inevitably someone asks you to cook something for them. Bywater isn’t huge but it is quite labyrinthian and you’ll be going back and forth across it constantly. That being said, I did generally remain compelled to finish a quest once started, as the writing is overall quite charming.
A huge focus of Tales of the Shire is in its cooking mechanics. From growing things in your garden to foraging for wild plants, it all comes back to cooking. I actually really like this as the focus for a game about hobbits. It does mean however that general gameplay variety is somewhat limited. Every questline will eventually funnel into inviting specific characters over for a meal, making something that aligns with their tastes, and then watching the same cutscene play out as they react excitedly to their food. There is nothing wrong with the mechanic, it just doesn’t have enough depth to carry the game the way it needs to. The whole game suffers from this general lack of depth, as there just isn’t much to it. While you’ll be cooking a lot, your character doesn’t actually ever get hungry which is distinctly un-hobbit-like. On the other hand, even for a theoretically laid back genre, you can make the argument that Tales of the Shire is among the most laid back games of its kind. Nothing ever goes wrong or asks particularly much of the player.
The game operates on a day system, similar to plenty of other farming life sims. You’ll have a certain amount of time each day to cook, farm, fish, forage, shop, and talk to other characters. Each of these characters have their own schedule and several of them run shops that are open during certain parts of the day. Once it is late enough you’ll be able to go to bed. If you stay up too late, you’ll wake up a little later the next day, but there is no other real punishment for doing so. I did find, especially early on, that I would often run out of things to do before the day was over and couldn’t find any way to fast forward. So I’d wind up aimlessly fishing just waiting for the day to end.
While Tales of the Shire is releasing for the Nintendo Switch, it is of course also compatible with the Switch 2. I played fairly equally across both Switch 1 and 2. Image quality holds up reasonably on both platforms, though the graphics themselves I don’t find particularly appealing. The world itself looks fine, if uninspired, but there is something quite offputting about the designs of the hobbit characters. Though they do get credit for having a fully bearded dwarf woman. Frame rate has some real issues on Switch 1 and surprisingly the Switch 2 doesn’t completely iron them out. They appear to be tied to asset streaming, as running across the world incurs regular prolonged dips on Switch 1. On Switch 2 these are less aggressive though still noticeable as a brief lurch. I did also encounter one bug while playing on Switch 2 in which the entire sky became red for a few minutes. I wasn’t able to recreate this bug on Switch 1 so it's possible this is a compatibility issue, but I can’t be sure. But the biggest issue here comes in stability. On average I’d say Tales of the Shire crashed every 20 minutes or so. The crashes happened equally between both the Switch 1 and Switch 2, to the point that I started manually saving before and after any significant action. I was constantly battling not to lose progress and in multiple instances I put the game down for the night after a crash set me back to the start of a quest.
Tales of the Shire is a really solid idea. It should work. There are great ideas here and some solid writing. This feels like the early access version of what could eventually be a very good game. But right now, it isn’t. Instead it is a shallow glimpse at what could be. When you factor in significant performance issues that even the Switch 2 can’t seem to brute force, and constant stability problems, it becomes very hard to recommend this game. I really want to like Tales of the Shire. I think there is a reality in which it could potentially get better in time, but it just isn’t there yet.
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TalkBack / Donkey Kong Bananza (Switch 2) Review
« on: July 24, 2025, 05:12:37 AM »We only ever said "oh banana" and never "why banana?"
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/review/71796/donkey-kong-bananza-switch-2-review
It is an odd feeling, playing through Donkey Kong Bananza. On the one hand it is a very direct followup to what this same team achieved in Super Mario Odyssey. It embraces the feel and elements of the structure from that game, while attempting to address some weak points. On the other hand, it is also clear that Nintendo isn't starting fresh with Donkey Kong. In fact Donkey Kong Bananza is perhaps more aware of its own gameplay and narrative lineage than most titles within the greater Marioverse.
When an evil banana stealing conglomerate (Konglomerate?) called VoidCo steals all of the giant banandium gems from the mines where Donkey Kong is working, destruction sends DK tumbling into the dark below. Here he’ll encounter a mysterious young girl named Pauline who seems to have some role to play in VoidCo’s plot. Together they set off to reach the core of the world, where legend tells of a power that can grant their greatest wishes, be it infinite bananas or simply returning home.
Donkey Kong Bananza plays out as a mostly linear series of levels. There is one point at which you’ll be able to choose which order in which to play through a couple areas, but it's an oddly one off scenario and then it's back to a single course. While each level constitutes a layer of the planet’s crust, the scale of each layer varies wildly. Some are short one off environments while others contain multiple sublayers and biomes. This does at times feed into an uneven feeling in the game’s pacing. You may spend hours in one layer only to plow through the next one in ten minutes. It almost felt like the team had a large list of level ideas, but was only permitted time to invest fully in half of them. That being said, each layer generally presents its own unique gameplay and hazards.
Uniting each layer is DK’s ability to punch his way through almost everything. Layers are made up of unique materials that all have specific qualities in terms of how they interact with DK and each other. For example, concrete is particularly difficult to destroy, often requiring some extra force from a more explosive material. While sand or dirt may actually stick to other surfaces allowing you to create structures with it. There are of course some metal surfaces that can’t be destroyed. But most surfaces you’ll encounter can be dug through, smashed, or picked up and hurled across the level. DK’s moveset in general has a fantastic feeling of momentum to it. He can attack forward, up, or down, in addition to climbing, ripping material out of the ground or wall, jumping, rolling, swimming, and even surfing on chunks of the environment. It is something this team achieved extremely well in Super Mario Odyssey and they have clearly brought that fluid and chainable movement system to Donkey Kong Bananza.
Adding to DK’s moveset are the slowly unlocked Bananza transformations. These are earned from the larger layers by helping the various animal elders. Each one has specific traits. For example the first one, a larger guerilla form, gives DK a super powered punch that can blast through all but the absolute toughest material. A little later you’ll get one that will allow you to glide, or one that lets you move faster. These forms have to be charged up by collecting gold but gold is so plentiful I generally had a charge ready to go by the time one ran out.
Exploring layers yields banandium gems (Interchangeably just called bananas). These can be found lying around, earned by helping NPCs, or won in challenge stages. Challenge stages are presented as hidden ruin chambers and constitute both the best and worst of what Donkey Kong Bananza has to offer. Sometimes you’ll enter a ruin and be presented with a fun and original platforming challenge or puzzle to solve. Often-times this will test your mastery of understanding how the different materials within the ground interact with each other. A few even recreate environments from prior Donkey Kong titles offering some 2D nostalgia alongside the challenge. Unfortunately, just as often you’ll simply be asked to fight a few enemies. Enemy variety gets better as the game goes, but at no point is it a strength, so you’ll fight the same club wielding rock monsters a lot. These areas remind me of the shrines in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and its sequel Tears of the Kingdom. Like in those titles, the challenges built around using your knowledge of the game are excellent, but those that simply ask you to fight the same enemy repeatedly are a disappointment every time they pop up.
Bananas earned gradually feed into skill points. Skill points are then used to upgrade DK’s abilities. It is worth highlighting that unlike 3D Mario or even Donkey Kong’s previous 3D platforming excursion in Donkey Kong 64, these primary collectibles do not gate progression. In fact by the late game as I had my skill tree largely filled out, my desire to delve into challenge stages to earn extra bananas started to wane and by the end I was knowingly walking past them. To be honest, the skill tree system feels like a justification for having giant bananas to collect, rather than a natural and necessary game mechanic. Nothing would be lost by simply allowing DK to get stronger via progression through the game other than the absence of an opportunity to say “Oh Banana!” every few minutes to prove that we all remember Donkey Kong 64.
Beyond bananas you’ll also earn banandium chips (small chunks of banana), gold, and fossils (of three rarities, each of which is unique to every layer). The chips can be combined into a single banana, fossils unlock outfits for DK and Pauline that have various boons, and gold unlocks things like rest points and barrel cannons. With the exception of fossils which are legitimately hidden throughout each level, you will have more gold and chips then you know what to do with within an hour of starting the game. The fact that chips in particular can be traded in for bananas further obfuscates the drive to collect bananas. It feels like two or more of these currencies could have been combined to increase demand on them and thus make them a more legitimate progress gate. As is, by the first time I was asked for 100 gold, I had already accrued more than 10,000 of it. Now, those nitpicks aside, did I joyously wander through piles of dirt looking for bananas? Yes I did. Because while the actual collectible system can be critiqued at a game design level, the simple joy of engaging with it is hard to ignore. Even in the few areas where it awkwardly stumbles, this is an incredibly endearing game.
While at a glance, Donkey Kong Bananza presents a similar looking set of worlds to Super Mario Odyssey, the technical feature-set on offer is indeed a generational leap ahead. The fact that this was ever even considered as a Switch 1 title is remarkable given the scale of what they’re doing. I have seen other games build destructible environments out of voxels, but never with the density, flexibility, variability, and material diversity of Donkey Kong Bananza. While the game does occasionally drop from its target of 60 frames per second, I could always clearly see why. Particularly in the late game the level of absolute chaos during some boss fights is unlike anything I’ve seen before. I do wonder if a lower resolution mode or a 120hz 40 frames-per-second mode could alleviate some of these bottlenecks.
As a follow up to Super Mario Odyssey, Donkey Kong Bananza is a fascinating experiment. It attempts to solve that game’s progression issues by making the primary collectible unrelated to actual progression. It arguably creates new issues in the process but is, if nothing else, an acknowledgement that there is room to improve the formula. And all of that so quickly falls aside as you flow through these richly crafted worlds. On the other hand if we take as a basis for comparison Donkey Kong 64, then Donkey Kong Bananza is a monumental improvement. The relationship between DK and Pauline develops into something pretty heartwarming by the end, and the story goes places I wouldn’t have dreamed. I don’t want to spoil anything here, but the phrase “oh hell yes” was shouted multiple times by me during the final hours before rolling credits. Donkey Kong Bananza tries a lot of new ideas, and the vast majority of them not only work, but revolutionize the idea of a 3D platformer. There are definitely problems along the way, and it is a long way from perfect, but I can’t argue with how much pure fun there is to be had in playing Donkey Kong Bananza.
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TalkBack / System Shock 2: 25th Anniversary Remaster (Switch) Review
« on: July 10, 2025, 04:00:00 AM »A dated but ambitious first-person classic.
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/reviewmini/71674/system-shock-2-25th-anniversary-remaster-switch-review
Reviewing a title like System Shock 2 is always difficult. The original game, as released on PC in 1999 is extremely influential. It would serve as a gameplay predecessor to designer Ken Levine’s followup, Bioshock in 2007. All that being said, it is also an extremely ambitious first-person survival horror meets role-playing game from 1999, and plenty about it has aged. It is also a game that definitely wasn’t designed with controllers in mind. But with Nightdive studios at the helm, I was excited to give this remaster a go.
System Shock 2 technically follows up the original System Shock, though it is largely designed to be a self contained experience. You’ll start the game by going through basic training, and then making a series of character choices that will affect your starting stats. This includes what branch of the military you choose to join, and what assignments you take on in your first few years with them. After this brief tutorial, you awaken on a ship that has clearly been through some sort of disaster. Strange zombie-like creatures roam the halls, bodies litter the floor, and damage is evident everywhere. By picking up audio logs and exploring the ship, you’ll slowly piece together exactly what happened. There is a degree of freedom in how you explore and deal with enemies. A lot can change based on how you develop your character in terms of what abilities you have and what actions you’ll have access to.
This is a very complex game, featuring mechanics smashed together from a variety of genres. It was of course originally intended to be played with a mouse and keyboard. Mapping it to a controller for this remaster is an ambitious goal. Anytime you interact with something or access your inventory, an overlay appears on screen for you to interact with. This then removes your ability to look around, but not necessarily to move. Navigating these often-times multilayered menus is handled via an analogue stick and the d-pad. They’re awkward, clunky, and the game continues unpaused in the background. With a mouse this interface is quick and simple but with a controller it just doesn’t work particularly well.
The remaster itself comes off as relatively light touch, especially compared to the all out remake of the original System Shock. Texture resolution has been improved, some models have improved polygon counts, and on Switch you’ll have the option of activating ambient occlusion which has a mild but pleasant effect on lighting. You also get optional gyro controls. It all runs very well, especially if you’re playing on Switch 2. Like the original game this remaster does not feature any autosave feature. Unfortunately it also doesn’t have a way to map a quicksave to the controller, making saving regularly a tedious trudge through menus.
This is a very straightforward HD release of System Shock 2. This remaster does little to modernize actual gameplay, and playing with a controller is simply not ideal. On a technical level it does exactly what it sets out to do and does it very well. The game itself remains an important release that would lead directly into iconic titles like Bioshock and thus makes for a fascinating historical curiosity. But it is important that you approach System Shock 2 from the right perspective, keeping in mind its ambition at the time of its original release.
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TalkBack / Misc. A Tiny Tale (Switch & Switch 2) Review
« on: July 15, 2025, 05:02:29 AM »A delightfully chibi platformer.
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/review/71730/misc-a-tiny-tale-switch-n-switch-2-review
Misc. A Tiny Tale has been consistently pitched as a Chibi-Robo-like. It isn’t hard to spot that inspiration. You play as a tiny robot who goes around cleaning up trash and helping the characters he meets. But if we’re going to put Misc up against Chibi-Robo, I find myself compelled to say that if Chibi-Robo had been as consistently charming, fun, and well designed as Misc, we’d probably still be playing Chibi-Robo games.
You play as Buddy, who sets off on an adventure with his friend Bag Boy (another little robot) to investigate an explosion that sent Golden Cogs flying all over their world. Along the way you’ll make friends, solve problems, and do a whole lot of cleaning. The game is broken up into distinct levels that fuse Chibi-Robo’s cleaning gameplay with that of a traditional 3D platformer/collectathon. Progression is built on collecting Golden Cogs to unlock a door that leads to the next stage. Within each stage there are ten Golden Cogs to find and plenty of trash to clean up. While cleaning trash doesn’t directly get you Golden Cogs, the trash you collect can be traded in for currency that may be required to purchase quest items. You also have a quest log to keep track of the needs of the various characters inhabiting each stage. While you don’t need to do everything before you move on to the next level, I found myself compelled to find and do everything I could. I ultimately wound up somewhat unintentionally 100%ing the game simply because I was having a good time. I should also note (since it's somewhat expected given the comparisons to Chibi-Robo) that Misc doesn’t have any sort of time limit mechanic, so you’re free to leisurely explore each area.
Levels are varied, and all have some narrative hook or gameplay mechanic that makes them unique. For example, one level had a strong focus on gardening and required things such as finding seeds to plant and cutting down weeds. Now and then a couple stages seemed a bit too large for their own good, but for the most part each one was excellently constructed. Each stage also has a hidden platforming challenge. These are separated from the main stage and present the hardest gameplay challenges Misc has to offer. They do, however, also draw out one of my few complaints, which is the handling of Buddy's jumps. His jump itself is extremely floaty making it hard to get used to. But the real issue is in telling where you’re going to land. When you jump a simple circular shadow is projected on the ground below you, but because Buddy emits a bit of light, the shadow fades out as you approach a surface. This makes lining up precise landings in some of the later challenges more awkward than likely intended.
What shocked me most about Misc was the direction it took its story. I’m not going to spoil anything here but what I expected to be straightforward and cozy, wound up being much more impactful and at times, dark. The story is handled excellently but be warned it may get a little heavier than you’re expecting. By the end I was deeply attached to the main cast and couldn’t put it down for the last few levels.
While I primarily played via a Switch 2, the Switch version of Misc performs fairly well. Textures take a moment to load on occasion and the dynamic resolution can take a dip now and then, but it is ultimately a solid version of the game. While there is no official Switch 2 patch for Misc at this point, the game benefits significantly from the inherent boost in horsepower. The pop-in seen on Switch 1 is entirely cleared up and the game now runs at a perfect 60 frames-per-second. Resolution also maxes out the dynamic resolution scale and winds up looking pretty good both docked and handheld. It would be neat to see a formal Switch 2 patch down the road but the Switch version avails itself quite well of the Switch 2’s power.
I thought I knew what I was getting into with Misc when it was pitched to me as a Chibi-Robo-like. In reality that deeply undersells what the game has to offer. The focus on shifting that design to something that more closely resembles a Mario 64-style 3D platformer is a match made in heaven. The constantly changing level variety and natural drive to 100% each area had me absolutely hooked. Now and then the platforming or level design would slow things down, but never enough to prevent me from pushing through to see what was next. Misc. A Tiny Tale is an easy early pick for my personal indie of the year lineup.
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TalkBack / Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 + 4 - Switch VS Switch 2
« on: July 09, 2025, 05:02:00 AM »cross-generational showdown!
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/video/71670/tony-hawks-pro-skater-3--4-switch-vs-switch-2
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 has a long history of cross-generational releases on Nintendo consoles dating all the way back to Nintendo 64 and Gamecube. Let's take a look at the cross-generation differences and see how Switch holds up against Switch 2 in Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 + 4.
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TalkBack / Do You Actually Own Your Switch 2 Game Key Cards?
« on: June 30, 2025, 05:00:00 AM »What is ownership anyway?
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/video/71604/do-you-actually-own-your-switch-2-game-key-cards
Switch 2 Game Key Cards are a complicated issue when it comes to game ownership.
Additional notes:
1. Game Key Cards are not tied to a specific system or account. So they can be bought and sold used like normal physical games.
2. Normal Switch 2 and Switch 2 edition titles are on the cart, this issue only relates to Key Card Games.
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TalkBack / Against the Storm (Switch) Review
« on: June 23, 2025, 06:00:00 AM »A game about deforestation and how it will eventually probably kill you.
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/review/71504/against-the-storm-switch-review
Against the Storm is a fascinating blend of roguelite and city-builder. It was released back in 2023 on PC and is now making its way to consoles including the Nintendo Switch. But with a lot of complexity, depths, and more resource variants than I’ve ever seen, Against the Storm is up against a lot when played on a controller.
I won’t go into an incredible amount of depth on the inner workings of Against the Storm, as it feels like we’d need a few days to cover it all. The basic premise is that you’ll construct multiple cities across a large map as you explore and gather resources for your ruler, the Scorched Queen. Cities are built around pyres which must be constantly fed resources to stay lit. The warmth of these pyres is crucial to the survival of your populace as they hold off against the storms that ravage this world. To keep the pyre lit you’ll need to gather wood and other resources but cutting into the surrounding forests brings with it unique dangers and rewards.
As you grow your town and expand deeper into the forest you’ll stumble into open glades. Some of these are safe, and will contain beneficial boons such as a cache of supplies in addition to more resources to be gathered. Others may be larger and present you with greater rewards, but will carry with them a substantial risk. These risks come in the forms of events that must be completed within a set amount of time to avoid a severe negative effect. Completing these tasks will require you to have specific resources available to you, but you won’t know what those are until you enter the glade. It is a fun risk reward system to engage with as you carefully plot out what trees you’ll cut down and where your city will expand.
In order to keep your city running you’ll need to meet the needs of its various denizens. You’ll be traveling with multiple species who each have their own wants and needs. This can include things like certain forms of shelter, kinds of food, recreation, jobs, and clothing. Let satisfaction drop too low and your populace may begin leaving. In certain scenarios it may even lead to hostility and violence. As such your city will be built around not only expanding, fueling its pyre, and accomplishing set objectives, but on producing the goods needed by the people living there.
This is where Against the Storm starts to get complicated. I don’t think I’ve ever played a city builder or any other kind of strategy game with as many different resources as against the storm. Every basic resource (anything you can harvest from the land) can be processed into multiple other resources, many times the production of one resource will generate a byproduct that is itself another resource. Keeping track of the entire production line necessary to make everything you want to make can be tedious, especially since the menu system can be a little awkward to navigate with a controller. The good news is that you can freely adjust game speed on the fly, and I’d regularly pause to go fumbling my way through menus to find the recipe for whatever it was I needed my city to produce.
The ultimate goal of each city in Against the Storm is to complete enough of the orders sent out by the queen before she grows too impatient with you. This is illustrated by dueling progress bars at the bottom of the screen. Orders may require you to maintain a certain level of satisfaction from your populace for a set amount of time, or deliver a specific resource. For every goal completed the queen’s impatience goes down and your reputation rises. Completing the aforementioned glade events can also contribute to one or both of these progress bars. Upon completing an expedition (successfully or not) you can purchase permanent upgrades to carry with you into the next.
I primarily played Against the Storm on a Switch 2, where it ran extremely smoothly both docked and in handheld mode. Switch 1 performance is also solid though perhaps not quite as snappy. Either way this is a solid port from a technical standpoint. The greatest struggle it faces is in converting a complex mouse and keyboard title to a controller. While I got used to the overlapping combos of button presses to access various screens, navigating tabs with the d-pad remained unruly for the entirety of my time with the game. I had a lot of trouble just selecting the option I wanted and regularly felt like the selection cursor wasn’t moving where I expected it to. If ever there were a Switch 1 game that could use a Switch 2 upgrade purely to add mouse support, Against the Storm would be it.
Against the Storm is enthralling and balances its difficulty with its rewards very well. That being said, if you’re not the type of person to find joy in managing an ever expanding deluge of resource types, you’ll likely be overwhelmed. The learning curve, even with a reasonably well handled tutorial, can be steep. This is only exacerbated by often-times awkward controls, though other elements of this port are very well done. This isn’t going to be a game for everyone, and it's almost certainly better played on a PC, but if you’re looking for a city builder that you can sink endless hours into on your Switch or Switch 2, Against the Storm is among the best options out there.
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TalkBack / The Xenoblade Series on Switch 2 Tested
« on: July 06, 2025, 05:00:00 AM »Can Backwards Compatibility Fix the Resolution?
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/video/71639/the-xenoblade-series-on-switch-2-tested
When Xenoblade went from Wii U to Switch, the resoultion took a massive hit (except for Xenoblade X which remains perfect). Now with Switch 2 we finally have the power to run these games as intended. But without an official patch, how far can backwards compatibility take us?
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TalkBack / Drag X Drive Gets Release Date and Price
« on: June 24, 2025, 05:09:00 AM »Roll out
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/news/71553/drag-x-drive-gets-release-date-and-price
Nintendo has confirmed via their Nintendo Today app that Drag X Drive will be released on August 14, 2025. For the moment Drag X Drive is only listed as a digital title. It was previously shown off during Nintendo's Switch 2 Direct. It is a wheelchair based basketball game controlled via the Switch 2's mouse mode.
[UPDATE]
Nintendo has now also confirmed pricing on Drag X Drive via their website. The game will be priced at $19.99.
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TalkBack / Donkey Kong Bananza Nintendo Direct Set for This Week
« on: June 16, 2025, 04:35:08 AM »Oh! Direct
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/news/71472/donkey-kong-bananza-nintendo-direct-set-for-this-week
Announced via the Nintendo Today! app, Donkey Kong Bananza will be getting its own Nintendo Direct this Wednesday, June 18. The presentation will be roughly 15 minutes long and will air at 6:00 a.m. Pacific Time. Donkey Kong Bananza itself is scheduled to release next month on July 17.
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TalkBack / Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition (Switch 2) Review
« on: June 15, 2025, 09:46:26 AM »A facinating generational middle ground.
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/review/71422/cyberpunk-2077-ultimate-edition-switch-2-review
Cyberpunk 2077 had a rough launch back on PS4 and Xbox One. I played the PS4 version at release and made it about a third of the way through the main story before I put it down. When I got my Xbox Series X I wound up trying it again and enjoyed it much more. I’ve since revisited it again when the proper Series X patch hit (prior to that it was simply running in backwards compatibility mode) and I’ve messed around with it on the Steam Deck as well. I think the context of the full spectrum of Cyberpunk 2077’s performance is important to have when gauging the Switch 2 version. This obviously isn’t going to match the Series X, PS5, or especially a high end PC, but I was curious to see how it would sit compared to last generation hardware and the Steam Deck.
But before we get to the Switch 2 specifics, let’s get the basics out of the way. Cyberpunk is an open-world, first-person, action RPG. The result is a game that lands somewhere in the middle between CD Projekt Red’s Witcher series, a Bethesda Game Studios title like Fallout or Elder Scrolls, and Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto. You play as V, a custom character of your own making. You’ll design your character, set some basic stats, and choose a story background from three possible options. Your background as either a wasteland nomad, an elite city corpo, or a street rat will influence how your story begins along with dialogue choices you’ll have access to throughout the adventure. Your stats can grant you even more dialogue options or actions when exploring the world.
What Cyberpunk does far better than any of the games I just compared it to, is give you, the player, absolute freedom in how you choose to build out your character. You of course have your classic RPG style scored stats (this game is based off of a tabletop RPG after all), but you will also unlock unique perks from a skill tree as well as modify your own cybernetic implants to further affect your strengths and abilities. In fact there are so many elements to upgrading your character that I’d often get so caught up in leveling my stats and unlocking skills, I’d entirely forget to swap out my cybernet implants. An argument can be made that some of the customization is perhaps a bit too convoluted, given that it's spread across so many different systems. But at the end of the day it is also hard to argue with the freedom it gives you to build the character you want to build. It is in this regard that you can clearly see the tabletop RPG roots that the game is pulling from.
The basic gameplay is fairly straightforward. Drive to a location, talk to some people, then sneak, hack, or fight your way through hostile territory. As you progress through the main story questline you’ll pick up plenty of optional sidequests and activities. I’m of the opinion that the actual story of Cyberpunk isn’t nearly as interesting as the characters tied up in it. As a result I find it much more fun to engage with the side content than I do the primary questline. If you’re the type of person who wants to be distracted and forget about the actual plot entirely, Cyberpunk is likely going to be your kind of game. There is a lot of depth to this world and characters and it is easy to get caught up in questlines that take you far outside the main city.
As for the Switch 2 version itself, I’ve been largely impressed while still very much aware of some key shortcomings. When playing docked the Switch 2 version holds up to high end hardware much better than I would have thought. You get a perceived 1080p resolution thanks to DLSS when docked and despite what raw underlying resolution metrics would tell you, the image is significantly cleaner than last generation hardware. This largely holds true for frame rate and texture detail as well. The more modern architecture of the Switch 2 is giving it a clear advantage. The same goes for handheld mode when compared to the Steam Deck. Frame rate, resolution, and texture detail all come out in favor of the Switch 2. The one advantage the Steam Deck does have is in loading times. These aren’t particularly bad on Switch 2 but it is the one area where Steam Deck can outperform it. I also found while playing handheld I could get about two hours of battery life out of the system which is roughly the same or better than the Steam Deck depending on your exact graphical settings.
All that being said, performance on Switch 2 is by no means perfect. General exploration holds up alright on foot, but driving a car through the heart of Night City can be a strain on the frame rate. Driving outside the city in the desert tends to hold up significantly better. But the biggest issue comes with combat. While smaller encounters or fights that take place indoors tend to do alright, triggering a big encounter outdoors can easily tank the frame rate down below 20fps. I actually used the built in cross save (which works great by the way) to pull a save from later in the game off of my Xbox so that I could stress the engine a bit more. I went to a heavily guarded area of the map within Night City and did my best to aggro every enemy I could. Here the frame rate had a legitimate effect on the playability of the game. Yes this is me intentionally creating a straining scenario for the engine, but it also isn’t a particularly unlikely scenario to encounter now and then in a playthrough depending on your playstyle. I should also note that this can be improved slightly by swapping over to performance mode in the graphics settings which lowers the resolution and targets 40fps. Though it should be noted that while this mode can always be accessed in handheld mode, you will need a 120hz television to use it when docked.
Cyberpunk has always been a very heavy game to run. To this day I still don’t think it hits a particularly acceptable level of performance on the systems it was originally released for. It is one of those games that is handy as a technical benchmark, specifically because of how demanding it is to run in all scenarios. The Switch 2 version has compromises, while simultaneously generally outperforming other versions of the game on comparably priced mobile hardware. Meanwhile the docked performance results in what feels like a midpoint between generations. If you want a handheld version of Cyberpunk this is the best version at this hardware pricepoint. The game itself remains a remarkably deep RPG with well written characters, even if the story itself doesn’t grab you right away. This is a largely successful version of the game with a few caveats but it is certainly one of the best ways to play Cyberpunk 2077 on the go.
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TalkBack / Fast Fusion (Switch 2) Review
« on: June 07, 2025, 03:33:06 PM »Back and better than ever!
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/review/71314/fast-fusion-switch-2-review
Since a quiet first appearance on WiiWare as Fast Racing League before making a name for itself on the Wii U eShop, the Fast series has become something of a beloved tradition for Nintendo faithful. After presenting one of the most visually impressive games on the Wii U in Fast Racing Neo, Shin’en’s futuristic racer became a popular launch title on the Switch in Fast RMX. Now carrying forward that launch day standard, we have Fast Fusion. And it is without a doubt, the best game in the series.
Fast Fusion, like the rest of the series, is a sci-fi racer that takes inspiration from classics like F-Zero and Wipeout. You’ll race your way around complex and harrowing courses, often with no barrier between you and the abyss below. Since its inception the key hook of the series has been swapping between two different color phases in order to activate boost pads and gain additional speed. You’ll also pick up small boost charges which fill a boost meter in the lower left corner of the screen which can be used at will. New to Fast Fusion is the addition of a jump button. This allows you to launch yourself off the track at will. It may be crucial for making a jump but it can also be used to access shortcuts or take risky jumps over obstacles to grab additional boost charges. It has a surprisingly significant effect on the feel of the game and provides you with a lot more freedom in how you tackle each course. These courses are, in turn, much more dynamically designed to take advantage of this, constantly tempting you to take a risk. I found this also helped a lot when it came to replaying courses. As I improved there was always some jump to be learned and mastered.
As you race around each course, picking up boost charges, each charge will also add a credit to your account. These credits can then be spent on purchasing additional tracks, vehicles, and (as the title suggests) fusions. Fusing vehicles allows you to combine the stats of multiple vehicles together to form an entirely new vehicle in both stats and appearance. To be clear, you aren’t averaging out the stats between the two, rather you are adding on. As a result there really are no bad fusions, and the ability to disassemble any fusion and try something else means that all you're risking is a few credits.
In addition to the main championship mode you also get the expected time trial and multiplayer modes. Multiplayer consists of splitscreen for up to four people and game share for two. There is no online multiplayer mode. Some prior games in the series have included online multiplayer, but in all fairness the servers were rarely populated enough to maintain viable online play longterm. Finally there is Superhero mode which ties the boost meter to your vehicle's health, in a similar manner to F-Zero. This mode can be played with any of the courses unlocked in championship mode.
The Fast series, and Shin’en in general, are known for presenting very technically impressive visuals, and Fast Fusion is no exception. What's interesting is just how many options Shin’en has provided when it comes to the presentation of Fast Fusion. When playing docked you can choose from four different graphics modes. These range from a performance mode, targeting lower resolution in exchange for a flawless 60fps, all the way up to a 30fps ultra quality mode that outputs in 4K. The modes in between, balanced and quality, both target 60fps and largely swap out differences in how shadows are rendered. I generally tended to play in these two modes, and the majority of the footage shown in this review is from the quality mode. In handheld mode you get two options, a 60fps performance mode and a 30fps quality mode. I will note that in every mode the game is making use of an upscaling solution to improve its perceived resolution. I found that, especially at high speeds, this upscaler had trouble resolving a perfectly clean image. It only really started to stand out at the lower resolution performance modes but even on the ultra quality mode when docked, it was still easy to spot artifacts of the upscaler in places. But that's really the only critique I can offer on the visual front.
Fast Fusion is the deepest and most mechanically interesting game in Shin’en’s Fast series, and one I’ll be going back to on a regular basis. The level design is the best it's ever been and when combined with the fusion system, makes for some great replayability. While I have some minor critiques of the image scaling implementation, the technical package overall is excellent. The Switch 2 has certainly come out of the gate as a racing powerhouse but don’t let Mario Kart World take all your attention. Fast Fusion is another great entry in this sci-fi racing series.
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TalkBack / Trident's Tale (Switch) Review Mini
« on: May 21, 2025, 06:00:00 AM »Might not be a tale worth hearing.
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/reviewmini/71150/tridents-tale-switch-review-mini
Trident's Tale is the sort of game I am generally excited to review. It is the type of game that feels like a throwback to the adventure-platforming-action games of the early 2000’s. It's the sort of game you might have found on Gamecube, Playstation 2, or Xbox. Unfortunately, I can also guarantee you that it would have never been allowed to release on those systems in the state it's in on Switch.
Trident's Tale combines some light 3D platforming and combat, with simple Zelda inspired dungeons, and naval combat reminiscent of Assassin’s Creed. On paper it is a pretty solid combination if admittedly a bit derivative. As you progress through your adventure you’ll also find materials that can be used to craft everything from health potions to new weapons and ship upgrades. You’ll also meet new companion characters which can be brought along to add unique powers to your arsenal.
While all that sounds good, the nicest thing I can say about the Switch version, is that it was significantly worse a couple weeks ago. But even with the multitude of patches that were released during the review period, Trident's Tale still just isn’t really in a playable state on Switch. The biggest issue here is the frame rate. I don’t think in my entire playtime I ever saw the frame rate reach what I assume must be its target of 30 frames-per-second. In fact on a very regular basis it struggled to reach 20. By the second major dungeon I began having trouble with combat against the most basic enemies. Timing my attacks and dodging incoming fire from enemies quickly became borderline impossible as the frame rate dipped into the teens for prolonged periods. Then after I’d make it through what was clearly supposed to be a very basic combat scenario, the game would crash, and I’d be back to where I started. I began saving after every enemy defeated simply in order to assure I could make progress. Now, to its credit, when I first got my review copy the entire game would randomly turn purple if I moved the camera the wrong way, so it is technically improving I suppose.
I’d love to talk more about Trident's Tale, but at least on Switch the game just isn’t done. It is possible there is a decent game on other platforms, but I would steer well clear of the Switch release.
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TalkBack / Nyxi Warrior Controller Review
« on: May 19, 2025, 05:00:00 AM »A Modern Alternative to the GameCube Controller?
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/video/71111/nyxi-warrior-controller-review
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TalkBack / No, Switch 2 Pre-Orders Weren't Rescheduled for May 8
« on: April 11, 2025, 04:55:55 AM »We have receipts
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/news/70714/no-switch-2-pre-orders-werent-rescheduled-for-may-8
Despite recent reporting from IGN, Nintendo has not officially rescheduled the pre-order date for Nintendo Switch 2 in North America. The reporting cites the FAQ on Nintendo's own pre-order page which highlights that the first round of invites to their pre-order program will go out May 8th. However, this date has been listed in the FAQ since the page first went public on April 2nd (two days prior to the delay). We have been able to confirm this via a Wayback Machine capture of the site from when it first launched.
Switch 2 pre-orders were initially delayed due to tariffs placed on multiple countries by President Donald Trump that would hugely impact shipment of Switch 2 systems to the United States. Most of these tariffs have now been significantly reduced following a 90 day hold but Nintendo has yet to clarify new pre-order plans for North America.
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TalkBack / Five Switch Games That Deserve Switch 2 Edition Upgrades
« on: April 02, 2025, 11:32:17 AM »Along with literally every multiplatform game.
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/video/70616/five-switch-games-that-deserve-switch-2-edition-upgrades
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