Recent Posts

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

« Last post by M.K.Ultra on Yesterday at 01:39:59 PM »

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

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

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

« Last post by broodwars on Yesterday at 01:13:30 PM »

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

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

The game's final tonic, which makes the duo Gold.

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

« Last post by M.K.Ultra on Yesterday at 01:04:31 PM »

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

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

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

« Last post by broodwars on April 16, 2026, 08:51:48 PM »

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

Still quite like that game, though I feel like it starts running out of ideas for areas about 3/4 of the way through. I definitely enjoyed the earlier levels more. And the lair itself is as miserable as I remembered.

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General Chat / Re: In the dreamtime

« Last post by ThePerm on April 16, 2026, 04:53:48 AM »

I had a blast reading about my old dreams, many of which I don't remember. Many of you had some great dreams too. I really haven't had a weird dream in a while. But I also don't take nyquil every night like I did in the early 2010s.

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

« Last post by broodwars on April 16, 2026, 02:08:38 AM »

OK, finally had my 1st 2 successful runs through the Rogue Prince of Persia, as well as moved the story forward by rescuing my next family member.

Wow, that final boss was surprisingly easy, even as a 2-phase fight.

You unlock permanent items that make the game harder if you wish to use them (with the trade-off being that you acquire more upgrade currency), but I don't think I'll ever use them. I never see the point in these masochist challenge Debuffs in Roguelikes. TMNT: Splintered Fate has these, too, and they only made the game way less enjoyable.

Gonna stick with this game through at least the end of the story, which requires at least 1 more story quest completed first.

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

« Last post by broodwars on April 15, 2026, 07:16:21 PM »

Onto greener pastures. I know this goes against the 4 on 4 code, but I decided to go back to Oceanhorn 2 while I wait for Pragmata to drop. Of all the 3D Zelda-a-likes that have ever 3D Zelda-a-liked, this one is definitely the most.

I am also awaiting Pragmata, as well as Saros to close out the month.

Thankfully, new releases get way less interesting after April.

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

« Last post by Evan_B on April 15, 2026, 10:51:32 AM »

Man, I wanted to like Haste. The numerous crashes in the latter half of the game have been really killing my vibe, though. Mind you, I was able to stomach the massive framerate dips, which occur even on Switch 2, if only because I thought the core gameplay concept was nice enough. I am regrettably adding this one to my spreadsheet as a DNF, though it starting losing steam before the bugs popped up. There’s just not enough variety in world design or the roguelike item pool to feel that runs are varied or fairly balanced. You either get items that might be helpful if you can survive, or you get health items that vastly increase your survival and can be further exploited via all those other highly circumstantial items way more useful. It’s synergy-based, but anything outside of gaining health is also incredibly risky because they mostly increase your running speed, which means you can run into (and lose health from) obstacles even faster. It doesn’t help that the games narrative is trickled out through dialogue sequences at campfire/healing zones that are long, plodding, and nauseatingly whimsical. I had higher hopes for this game, especially because of the developer’s pedigree.

Onto greener pastures. I know this goes against the 4 on 4 code, but I decided to go back to Oceanhorn 2 while I wait for Pragmata to drop. Of all the 3D Zelda-a-likes that have ever 3D Zelda-a-liked, this one is definitely the most.

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

« Last post by broodwars on April 14, 2026, 10:57:30 PM »

Well, it's time now for one of the games I had always planned on playing this month, because I've been putting a fair amount of time into the Rogue Prince of Persia (PS5) now that it's out on physical media.

This game is made by the Dead Cells team, the same team making the upcoming Castlevania: Belmont's Revenge, and it is excellent. Dead Cells is one of the few Roguelikes I've ever enjoyed, as character movement is extremely snappy and progression just has a sublime flow to it. I'm happy to say that Prince of Persia made the transition over to the Dead Cells format excellently, with an added emphasis on wall running and wall climbing that wasn't really a thing in Dead Cells. People praised that Lost Crown Metroid PoP game a few years ago (and if the game hadn't bugged out on me I'd agree with the praise), but THIS just nails the speed and ease of the Prince of Persia traversal flow in a way that game just didn't.

If there's a wall in front of you or a wall in your immediate background, you can climb it for a few seconds with the press of a shoulder button, just like the Sands of Time trilogy.

In terms of design, you can tell the devs learned a lot from Hades, as there's a fair amount of story in here and it's broken up in an interesting way. While you can try to soldier through an arcade ladder-esque string of biomes to face the final boss, if you take the time to explore you'll find NPCs and little clues scattered around that point you to quests spanning the various locations, as well as clues alerting you to the existence of new locations (which adds them to future runs). Across your runs, if you string these investigations correctly, you'll unlock a major NPC and story content back in your home base. It's an interesting idea, and does some serious heavy lifting keeping new runs feeling fresh by giving the player something to work towards besides a successful run.

I don't love the combat, which basically is just Dead Cells with a fancier dodge. In a strange way, though, that feels kind of...fitting...for a Prince of Persia game. I can probably name only 1-2 games in the entire franchise where the combat was particularly amazing.

Overall, so far I'm quite enjoying this, despite not being particularly good at it. I still haven't managed to survive more than about halfway through a run.

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

« Last post by broodwars on April 14, 2026, 04:59:50 PM »

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

Well, that and people online aren't treating this movie with kid gloves like they did the first (mediocre) Illumination Mario movie. This is generally considered worse than the last movie, and far more blatant a commercial.