Messages

1

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Nintendo Switch 2025 Year in Review (now with December!)

« on: February 05, 2026, 03:33:53 PM »

^Not many games I s'pose, but spent some quality time with them!



^I guess it was the year of partying for me.



^All over the place



^Top 21 for all-time.

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

« on: February 05, 2026, 03:13:15 PM »

Do Bethesda games count as a "Microsoft IP"? I mean, they own them now, so technically...

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General Gaming / Re: Community Event: Forum February 2026

« on: February 05, 2026, 03:11:24 PM »

What will we do if the spambots win this contest?

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TalkBack / Re: Labo VR Kit To Also Serve As A Play Option For Nintendo Classics Virtual Boy Library

« on: February 05, 2026, 03:08:35 PM »

If they're still gonna make things compatible with the Labo VR kit, then they should re-issue it, those cowards!

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TalkBack / Re: Other News From The February 5 Partner Showcase

« on: February 05, 2026, 03:04:42 PM »

While it doesn't look like it has any ties to the N64 games, I can't help but be curious about the new Turok. I'll probably take a look at it.

...on Xbox.

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TalkBack / Re: Game Boy Nintendo Classics Library Adds Balloon Fight Sequel, Game Freak Developed Puzzle Game

« on: February 05, 2026, 03:02:55 PM »

Balloon Kid! I almost bought that when the 3DS eShop was closing down, but then I had the thought, "Eh, it'll probably be on NSO."

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TalkBack / Re: Capcom Brings Amiibo, Demo's and more in Nintendo Direct Partner Showcase

« on: February 05, 2026, 03:00:32 PM »

Although they didn't really show any more of substance for MHStories 3, I'm just glad they're still continuing the series and am looking forward to trying it out.

...on Xbox.

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TalkBack / Re: Orbitals, Tokyo Scramble To Offer Unique GameShare Functions This Year

« on: February 05, 2026, 02:58:30 PM »

It's interesting to see another game attempting the vertical-split co-op genre. That's enough to make me curious to try it out at some point.

...on Xbox.

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

« on: February 02, 2026, 04:04:31 PM »

The second year of a system is always interesting. You just never know what kind of wacky stuff may show up in this era situated between the launch lineup and the next big hitters.

...Or do we? Let's find out!

-Pokémon Gen 10 will be announced, and releases in November.
I don't expect that they'll push this back for more than a year, plus it's the 30th anniversary of Pokémon so this will be ample time for a new Gen. This is probably my safest bet prediction here.
"Safe bet" is an oxymoron

-There will also be Switch 1 versions of the next Pokémon games.
I think this is big enough to separate this as its own prediction, so that my previous won't get dinged as a halfsie. The Switch userbase is huge, I can't see them wanting to give that up just yet by making these exclusive to Switch 2. Now, there may be more differences between the two than the typical "Switch 2 Edition" nonsense, hard to say.
The only nonsense here is you

New Monster Hunter game announced for the Switch 2 that is not a port of Wilds
Nintendo seem to get their own series of MH games, so I don't see Wilds being ported. It's been long enough since the last one on Switch that I could see this happening soon. If it does end up being a port, then I'd bet it's World instead since that was on PS4.
Just mix them all together, Rise of the Wild World Ultimate

-New game revealed from Next Level Games
It may not end up releasing this year, but I think they're due for something soon. I don't think they used many resources on the LM2 port, if they even had involvement in it. It will probably be Luigi's Mansion 4, since none of their other projects seemed to sell well, but I am hoping to see something new from them.
That's about as likely as us seeing something new from you

At least two more "Nintendo Switch 2 Editions" announced.
I'll be bolder than saying just one, but I won't try to pick specific ones because I have no idea what they might choose. The ones they've done so far have felt a little random.
Now that's a bold-faced lie

-Smash Ultimate Deluxe to be announced.
I'm doubling down on this one from last year. Smash has been a second-year title for the past three consoles. They're gonna want Smash of some kind on this thang, and they probably feel there's no way to top the last one. So my guess is they're just gonna do some sort of deluxe version with an awful title that retains all of the characters plus the DLC in one package. Though even this could be tough to do because of licencing.
When are we gonna get New Super Mop it up Deluxe?

-Re-release of a previous Zelda game.
I know it's kind of lame how much I'm just copying over from last year, but isn't this year the 40th anniversary of Zelda? I can't see them having a new one ready yet, so I guess that they'll do yet another re-release of something.
I think you're just copying spambot posts now

-A Microsoft IP will show up on Switch 2.
Now I'm copying someone else with this one, but I dunno what else to predict and I like this bold guess. And I don't mean a Rare IP, I mean something along the lines of Halo or Gears.
That really grinds my gears

-StarTropics is finally revived.
Your bologna has a last name, and it's Up
Quiet you! It's gonna happen!

-A special edition Switch 2 console will release sometime this year.
There are a lot of anniversaries happening this year, so I predict at least one will get a special system for it. There are too many to guess which one.
Take a drink every time she says "predict" or "prediction."

BONUS PREDICTION (Not part of the above 10)
Khushrenada will procrastinate too long and submit his lists an hour after the first Direct.
No excuses now, mate.
If Khushrenada is so great, then why is there no Khushrenada 2?

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: What will Nintendo release in 2025?

« on: February 02, 2026, 02:59:40 PM »

And of course the one time I remember to predict Pokémon, they go and break from the 3-year cycle!

As always, thanks for hosting this Order.RSS!

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General Gaming / Re: Backlaugust 2025 - Nintendo Switch 2 Edition

« on: September 04, 2025, 04:52:40 PM »

I'm posting late because I was sick, but I did finish two more games before August had ended.

Hexen
Rounding out the other half of the straightforwardly named Heretic + Hexen re-release, we have the title I was looking forward to revisiting. We had Hexen for the Nintendo 64 back in the day so I have some nostalgia here, and I've also never played the PC version before so I was curious if anything were different. The main multiplayer I had played in the game was deathmatch, since kids don't wanna play co-op, so it was fun to finally have a proper co-op romp through the campaign. For better or worse, I think the different progression style and theming help this game still stand out more. The only downside is how there is no saving during co-op, something that feels like a rather strange oversight in an otherwise thoughtful package.

This pack also includes the original expansion and a new episode, offering some extra content to try as well. The old expansion is kind of awful, mainly because it feels like their thought process was "You know what would make this game better? Enemy spam!" Which is something that the weapons and items here weren't designed to contend with, not to mention how it gets in the way of the exploration focus. The new episode, on the other hand, was better than I expected, regaining focus on the better aspects of Hexen. While it's one hub with a similar number of levels in it as a hub in the main game, they're much larger in scope, and manages to bring together every item from the regular game into one massive puzzle chain.

I still have a few cheevos to go for true 100%, but for now, it's finished.

Minami Lane
I randomly stumbled upon this game when I saw it described as a bite-sized cosy game that can be completed in 2-4 hours. I like the idea of cosy games but they have a tendency to be very grindy or endless, causing them to quickly wear thin for me, so the idea of a short one was intriguing. This one involves building and managing a single street, and has a mission-based structure where a couple new elements are introduced in each one. Unfortunately there are only five missions so it's indeed rather short; I do feel like it could have gone to at least ten. Still, I like what's going on here, I could go for more cosys in this style.



I s'pose that's a wrap for another Backlaugust! 4 games ain't too shabby. Thanks for hosting, M.K.Ultra!

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General Gaming / Re: Backlaugust 2025 - Nintendo Switch 2 Edition

« on: August 21, 2025, 05:33:19 PM »

They finally released the Heretic + Hexen double pack on the Xbox, so I've been playing those in co-op. We started with and have finished Heretic so far, since it's chronologically first. With how many DooM mods there are these days and even officially supported on consoles, there's not really anything about Heretic that makes it stand out anymore like there may have been back in 1994. That said, DooM's general gameplay is always fun, especially in co-op, and the different set of weapons, enemies, and items still put it above the average DooM mod.

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TalkBack / Re: Kirby Air Riders 2 Getting Direct August 19

« on: August 18, 2025, 03:16:43 PM »

A Direct for just this game, and it's 45 minutes? Wow, makes me wonder if this thing is gonna be huge!

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General Gaming / Re: Backlaugust 2025 - Nintendo Switch 2 Edition

« on: August 14, 2025, 02:45:53 PM »

I won't be able to go whole-hog like I used to, but I should still be able to get a couple of completions on the board.

First up, I've got Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time for Xbox Series X. Since I recently wrapped up playing the Crash trilogy remake, I figured that I might as well get to this one while the series is still fresh enough in mind. It seems like a pretty faithful sequel for the fans, sticking with similar level designs and concepts for better or worse. I do appreciate the modern conveniences of removing the life system and having a persistent shadow underneath Crash at all times. I've rolled the credits and I don't think I'll be going back for the mirror stages nor other extras and cheevos, so I'm calling it finished here.

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TalkBack / Re: Nintendo Airing Switch 1 Dedicated Direct Tomorrow

« on: March 26, 2025, 12:02:14 PM »

Oh, never change, Nintendo. Never change.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: What will Nintendo release in 2025?

« on: February 14, 2025, 05:30:26 PM »

Whoof, a year with a new system launch is always a real wild card! Y'know, even moreso than usual. A launch opens up a lot more possibilities that a middle year wouldn't have. I have no clue what to even guess, but might as well just toss stuff out and see what sticks!

-A new 3D Mario will be announced this year.
It may not release this year, that'll depend on when the Switch 2 itself will be launched. The team seems due for a new game and having a new 3D Mario during the first year of a system is always a good way to build hype. Perhaps they'll go even bigger this time with a 4D Mario...!

-Re-release of a previous Zelda game.
I saw someone else predict this and yeah, I'll go with it. They're not gonna have a new one ready, so if they want Zelda content for the first year, something like HD Wind Waker or Twilight Princess is the best bet. And who knows maybe we'll get Tingle's Rupee Land 99...

-A new Fire Emblem announced.
Iunno, feels like it's been a while. Plus the Smash port will need some more anime swordsman DLC.

-The next generation of Pokémon games will be announced.
And everyone will be ticked that they're for Switch 1 and not 2.

-Another new sort of Pokémon app announced.
Pokémon Bathroom Break, anyone?

-A new IP of some sort will be introduced.
Something in the same vein as first-year Switch releases like 1-2-Switch, Snipperclips, or ARMS.

-A new Kirby game will be announced.
Might be a bit of a wild card here, but it feels long enough from the last one, and it seemed to perform well.

-Smash Ultimate Deluxe to be announced.
They're gonna want Smash of some kind on this thang, and they probably feel there's no way to top the last one. So my guess is they're just gonna do some sort of deluxe version with an awful title that retains all of the characters plus the DLC in one package. Though even this could be tough to do because of licencing.

-Another HD Wii Port
What it will be? No clue! But it feels like they're running out of Wii U stuff...

-Khushrenada will earn the most points in this.
What? That guy knows things! This is a safe bet, don't worry.

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General Gaming / Re: BacklAugust 2024! (Forums Are Dead Edition)

« on: August 31, 2024, 12:48:12 PM »

The Splatoon 3 DLC is baffling to me. The setup would be perfect for co-op, so why is it only single-player? There are already several games with a similar premise which have co-op, so I have no idea why they keep making single-player-only DLC for a multiplayer-focused game.

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General Gaming / Re: BacklAugust 2024! (Forums Are Dead Edition)

« on: August 30, 2024, 02:20:00 PM »

For my final completion of the month, I've finished Death's Door (Xbox X|S). I first heard about it when seeing a lot of people compare it to Tunic, and the two do have some things in common such as their Zelda inspirations and drab, plain art style. The combat is a little more involved and flows better, but still feels tedious at times with the large amount of hits that enemies and bosses take to defeat. The game is more linear than I was expecting, but there's still a little bit of exploration in each area, which I like. Some of the wacky characters belie the serious and dark tone, though the game does seem to treat the subject of death with a certain brand of irreverence. Overall, Tunic has the more interesting premise, but Death's Door has the better gameplay, making them tough to compare. I'd probably rate the game Breadcrumbs out of Feeding Birds.

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General Gaming / Re: BacklAugust 2024! (Forums Are Dead Edition)

« on: August 28, 2024, 01:37:20 PM »

I recently wrapped up SteamWorld Build (Xbox X|S) for another completion. For some reason I was under the impression that it was a tower defense game, and while it has a very light element of that, it's largely a simulation/resource management type game. As things progress, it constantly throws in one more resource to monitor on top of all the existing ones, like a juggler who keeps getting handed one more bowling pin. The interesting gameplay was digging around in the mines; personally I would have preferred a game that scrapped all the city stuff and instead focused on being an RTS-digger. Overall, I don't think there's anything wrong with SteamWorld Build, it just isn't for me. I would probably give it a rating of trail-mix-with-too-many-raisins out of snacks.

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General Gaming / Re: BacklAugust 2024! (Forums Are Dead Edition)

« on: August 28, 2024, 01:36:21 PM »

I remember seeing some footage of a pixel art mode where the characters where all SNES/Mega Drive sprites. Did you come across that?

Yeah, that's the premise of the story mode. Mario and Sonic both get trapped in a portable game system, which is an 8-bit version of the Tokyo 1964 Olympic Games, and they have to win gold medals to escape. Meanwhile, Luigi and Tails are left in the regular world and team up to try to help them from the outside however they can. So the chapters swap back and forth between playing the 8-bit games and the regular events.

If you are playing solo as I was then after stage 99 you have a cool final boss fight and get the bad ending. If you have two players you can find a secret exit in stage 99 and get about 20 more levels and then fight the boss and get the good ending. I have a save at stage 99 in case I get the opportunity to have someone help with that coop only part of the game.

That seems like an odd way of locking the true ending, especially for the time period!

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General Gaming / Re: BacklAugust 2024! (Forums Are Dead Edition)

« on: August 21, 2024, 04:12:23 PM »

I've been kinda busy so I'm checking in late I know, but I had gotten around to a game earlier this month. It was a little later than the closing ceremonies of the real Olympics I s'pose, but I've wrapped up Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020. I had seen that it contains a story mode so I figured I could play through that to consider the game completed. And I've gotta say...

...I probably shoulda just watched the Olympics instead. The story mode contains way too much blabbering for how little interesting it has to say. I get that I should know what I'm getting myself into with a "story mode" of a game, but the ratio of cutscenes-to-gameplay here is extremely out of whack. It probably averages 15-20 minutes of inane dialogue just to be thrown into an event that typically lasts 1-2 minutes. It sort of feels like playing a visual novel that gets interrupted by a random minigame now and then.

This is probably because it was developed by Sega, but I felt like there was a bit of a disparity in how the story treated the two main protagonists of Luigi and Tails. Tails gets to do the fun stuff like scale Tokyo Tower; snipe Eggbots with a bow; punch Shy Guys in the face; etc., while Luigi is getting absolutely bodied in events like Karate, Boxing, Rugby, etc. Poor guy can just never catch a break...

The game doesn't have much else to offer either, as the only other option is to just play single events individually. No competition modes or anything to tie stuff together, and no extras like a shop. This series has always been a little questionable, but I don't think this one matches up to even previous entries in the series.

I would probably rate this game a Big Oof out of 10.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: What will Nintendo release in 2024?

« on: February 20, 2024, 09:39:36 PM »

I have no rightly idea what could happen this year, it feels like so many things are possible! I think I'll just take a look at what other people here have been predicting and choose ones that seem more probable, or at least fun.

-The Switch successor will release this year, probably in November. That's right, I'm going back to that classic release time.
-The Switch successor will have backwards compatibility with games and accounts, but probably not controllers and accessories. It might work with Labo VR though.
-A new 3D Mario will be announced this year, to release within the launch window of the new system. Another classic launch style returns!
-A new Donkey Kong game of some sort will be announced. Dunnn dun dun dunnnn dunnnnnnn dunnnnnnn
-A new spin-off Pokémon game will be announced, one that's part of an existing series. C'mon PokéPark 3!
-Metroid Prime 4 finally sees a trailer this year... with some footage of actual gameplay to boot! Most likely accompanied by another apology, but don't count that as part of this prediction please.
-At least one more remaster or remake of a GCN / Wii game will be announced. I've learned my lesson in being too specific.
-I'm gonna be bold and say no more new amiibo. Don't @ me if this happens.
-Another Rare N64 game will be announced for NSO, my guess this time will be, I dunno... Banjo-Tooie. If it's DKR this time I will be livid.
-Mop it up will make more posts than Nintendo releases games. Yeah yeah, fat chance of that I know, but sometimes ya gotta be daring!

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: What will Nintendo release in 2023?

« on: February 20, 2024, 07:57:56 PM »

Wow how did I do so well?! This doesn't feel right!

As always, thanks for putting this together, these are always to see!

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: NSO November 2023! (AKA Not Another Forum Event!)

« on: November 14, 2023, 01:15:45 PM »

I'm always up for some online games! When I have the time at least... matching up my schedule with someone else's could be tricky, especially several someone else's.

I have the expanded NSO catalogue so I'd be down for any of it. I've played N64 the most, but would still be willing to join any group for that since it's full of fun multiplayer titles. I've already played through Kirby & The Amazing Mirror with my friends, but it's a fun enough game that I'd join an NWR outing. I've played a lot of the games from the other system apps as well, but would still be willing to jump in and give someone a hand with a game.

I should probably try to be a presence on the NWR Discord but I dunno... things just move so quickly there, I can't keep up! It kind of feels like the people there just sit in there 24/7, which isn't something I would want to do even if I had the time. It's very easy to miss something and have something get buried before I'd even see it.

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General Gaming / Re: Shocktober 4: The Final Chapter

« on: October 24, 2023, 04:07:37 PM »

I did actually complete DooM Eternal last week, just haven't sat down to write about it. Though, reviewing what I said earlier, I'm not sure if there's much else to say about it, as my earlier impressions seemed to cover most aspects of the game.

I did encounter a few glitches, though they were minor and not stuff that impedes progress. A few times, an enemy got stuck walking in place. Sometimes the map rotation noise would get stuck in a loop upon closing the map screen, but could be fixed by opening it again and spinning the map.

What's up with the weird platforming segments and moments of "spot the climbable wall"? What does this game think it is, Metroid Prime?

Whereas I rated DooM 2016 an 8/10, I don't think I can give this followup any more than a 7/10. It does have some interesting ideas in it, but I never felt like I reached a point where things meshed together very well, and it also made a couple of weird missteps that the original seemed to consciously avoid. This is probably splitting hairs, but I also feel like, even moreso than the first one, Eternal feels much more like something out of the Quake series than DooM. I s'pose that Quake became far more known for multiplayer than anything, which is why they stuck with DooM for these. Not that a franchise can't try new ideas and I've enjoyed plenty of games that strayed from an original formula, but I don't particularly feel like this pair of games contain the quintessential elements I enjoy from the classics.

Are you playing this on XBox or Switch?

Oops, sorry! Xbox (Series X)