Messages

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

« on: September 10, 2026, 12:07:35 PM »

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

So that's your secret to 20 games in Backlaugust!

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

« on: September 09, 2026, 12:01:00 PM »

Can we only read or respond to this post when inebriated?

If we can't, then I'll never be able to.

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

« on: September 09, 2026, 11:59:56 AM »

Don't blame me for my game count, blame Terra! I really did intend to stick with the two games I mentioned, but you know the old saying about best laid plans and yada yada yada.

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

« on: September 09, 2026, 11:56:44 AM »

I kept expecting this to turn into a trailer for Smash Bros. at any moment... but I'm glad it didn't! Looking forward to finding out more about Kirby Truman Show.

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TalkBack / Re: Star Fox Adventures Arrives on Switch 2

« on: September 09, 2026, 11:54:42 AM »

I thought that they might release Assault first, since it has more traditional Star Fox gameplay. Coincidentally I just played this a few months ago... oh well!

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TalkBack / Re: Pikmin 4 To Get Switch 2 Edition In November

« on: September 09, 2026, 11:51:48 AM »

Nice. I still haven't gotten around to Pikmin 4 yet, so I'll probably grab this when I do.

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TalkBack / Re: Ocarina Of Time Remake To Launch November 5

« on: September 09, 2026, 11:27:28 AM »

I guess Nintendo finally broke down and listened to the comments of those Unreal 5 fan videos to hire that man.

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

« on: September 02, 2026, 05:39:00 PM »

And another Backlaugust is in the history books! A big thanks to all who participated, and special thanks to broodwars for taking care of hosting duties.

I don't think I could attach numerical scores to the Game Gear Sonic games, but if I were to rank them amongst themselves, it would probably look something like this:

12. Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine
11. Sonic Drift 2
10. Sonic Spinball
9. Sonic the Hedgehog 2
8. Sonic Drift
7. Sonic Blast
6. Sonic the Hedgehog
5. Sonic Chaos
4. Sonic the Hedgehog Triple Trouble
3. Sonic Labyrinth
2. Tails Sky Patrol
1. Tails Adventure

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

« on: August 31, 2026, 01:41:16 PM »

Lastly, it's time for me to round out my Backlaugust journey with one final: Tails Adventure. Things heat up quickly in this one as the first stage is a forest fire! Darn those rascally robo-ducks! While it's level-based, it has a focus on exploration and finding abilities and upgrades, as well as secret exits to more stages on the map. It still has the problem of a bit of a reverse difficulty curve, as things tended to feel easier after the more health and flight upgrades I found. I appreciate that some of the items are just for fun, such as the radio which allows you to change the music in a stage. Er, well, should I say "RAIDO" as the game calls it, if you prefer. At least all of the letters are present for that one; I'm still scratching my head over "ROCKET BOOTER." It's probably not saying much, but this is easily the best of the Game Gear bunch.

I did sample the last three Game Gear games offered in the collection (Sonic Drift 2, Sonic Spinball, Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine), but I kind of hated them and refused to play them.

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

« on: August 30, 2026, 05:09:51 PM »

Sonic Labyrinth and Tails Sky Patrol are in the bag! Labyrinth was shorter than I was expecting, with only 4 acts of 3 stages each, less than a typical Sonic. It reminded me of Kirby's Dream Course, what with its isometric perspective and getting a ball character to the goal, though it features a time limit rather than a stroke limit. It seems the main challenge here would just be going for high scores. Sky Patrol is sort of like a shmup, except with less shooting and more navigating an environment without crashing into stuff. It's pretty short too with only 5 stages, though they're pretty lengthy. Fortunately it offers infinite continues, though using one means starting at the beginning of a stage, so it still takes some doing to get through a level. Maybe it's just because the gameplay was different than the usual Sonic fare but I quite liked this one.

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

« on: August 29, 2026, 07:57:53 PM »

I'm back by unpopular demand! Maybe I'm just getting used to how these games work, or maybe they're short, but I've trailed through two more Game Gear titles with Sonic the Hedgehog Triple Trouble and Sonic Blast. Not to be confused with Sonic 3D Blast, as I was. Finally getting to some games that were developed for Game Gear, surely these will have less of a screen-crunch issue, right? ...Right? Oh, how naive I can be at times. Sonic Blast in particular, has huge sprites, I can barely see a thing! I chose Knuckles for a change of pace, and I'm glad I did as his wall-climbing and gliding came in handy for the increased verticality of these mazes. Especially the one water maze level, which had a lot of paths that looped back on themselves if you fell. Triple Trouble also has a lot of springboards in it, so I guess it's a sequel to that other one. The first boss was probably the toughest one of the game, since it requires mastering the timing of ballin' in the air, a technique that wasn't present in the previous games. There's even an auto-runner stage here, back before it was cool! I s'pose this is a smarter way to handle an auto-scroll stage for Sonic.

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

« on: August 28, 2026, 12:14:31 PM »

Against my better judgment, I next tried out Sonic Drift for the Game Gear. I played and won all three of the GPs which rolled credits, so I s'pose that's a completion for this title. Why is Sonic in a car? Wouldn't he be faster without it? I guess he needs to make it fair for everyone else. Surprisingly enough, this doesn't appear to have any rubberbanding as was common in 90s racers, so all I needed to do was get by the wide-load CPUs and it doesn't take much to keep a lead. With its wonky controls and bouncy visuals that are hard to look at, I probably wouldn't have bothered playing this if it weren't so easy. Personally, I've always felt that racing games were never really worthwhile until the advent of 3D and analogue sticks.

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

« on: August 26, 2026, 12:37:41 PM »

Up next is Sonic Chaos for Game Gear, not to be confused with the Chaos from Sonic Adventure and later stuff, apparently. This is the final port of a Master System game, so hopefully that means the next one won't have such bad screen crunch... I'm not sure where the "Chaos" comes in as it still seems like pretty standard Sonic fare, so there's not much to say about it. I did notice it has an oddly high amount of springboards in its stages, so maybe that's it. Fortunately it's a lot easier than the previous title, so it wasn't much trouble getting through it. I recognized the second boss from Mania, I hadn't realized it pulled from the Game Gear games. For some reason they thought it was a good idea to bring back the pipe maze during one of the final stages, but at least it was less trollish this time!

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

« on: August 25, 2026, 01:02:51 PM »

Back again now with Sonic the Hedgehog 2 for Game Gear, which I believe is also a port of the Master System version. And I've gotta... puke! This is easily the most difficult Sonic game I've tried, and not in any way that a sane person would dream up; they must have really been worried about people beating this one as a rental! I appreciate that they needed some gimmicks to make this stand out from Genesis Sonic 2, but the janky minecarts and hang gliders were not the play. One of the final levels is a stretch of pick-a-pipe which often have spike pits waiting at the end of incorrect choices, long before Mario Maker made it cool. Full disclosure, I had to abuse the mop outta save states to make it through this one, I don't think there's any way I could beat it legitimately. I'll leave it up to the panel of judges here if it should count. Also, I'm preeeeeetty sure that the devs mistook Tails for being a girl...

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

« on: August 24, 2026, 11:49:47 AM »

I had taken a brief break from going fast to blaze through Wolfenstein 3D since it was newly-added to Game Pass. I've only ever played the SNES version of it, so I'd been curious about the original and it was interesting to view this history lesson. I didn't realise the SNES one actually offered enhancements, as the flamethrower and rocket launcher are not present here in the original. That's fine, but what's sorely missing is the lack of a mini-map to help with navigating the game's samey, mazey levels. While it's an important steppingstone for the FPS genre, I think it's a little too simplistic to hold up compared to what soon followed.

Currently in the midst of playing a collection of really fucking bad games, so took a bit of a break to catch up on the PS5 version of a game I've previously enjoyed: Carrion

I remember playing that years ago on the 'Pass. I thought it would be a little more puzzley than it was, but it was still fun to play the other side of a game like this. Looking back, I didn't realise it was so soon after it released:

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

« on: August 22, 2026, 01:36:38 PM »

I actually have the "plus" version of Sonic Origins, which includes the 12 Game Gear Sonic games as a bonus. Unlike the main attraction, they're just straight emulated ROMs with no enhancements. I don't even think I knew the Game Gear existed until long after it was dead, I've never seen one in person and never played any of its games before this. I started with the Game Gear Sonic the Hedgehog which claims it's a port of the Genesis version, but what I think they actually meant was the Master System version (another system I never heard about until the Wii Virtual Console). And I gotta say...

...and I thought the screen space felt small in the main games! Sonic was never meant to be held in hand, and the 8-bit graphics look just enough off that this feels more like playing a bootleg Flash version of Sonic. The devs may have realised this too, as the stages are a lot smaller with usually just one path through as opposed to the multiple routes often found in console Sonic. To my surprise, the second zone also features... an auto-scrolling level! How am I supposed to go fast if the screen won't let me?! The game isn't difficult until the last couple stages, which feature a maze I'm still confused about, and a sky stage with lightning everywhere: I guess this is the part where they tried to prevent rentals from beating it. One weird thing about the way checkpoints work in this game is that when you respawn at one, you have to hit it again if you want to respawn there next time, otherwise you start at the beginning! Rude!

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

« on: August 21, 2026, 06:56:55 PM »

I s'pose that the Sonic & Knuckles lock-on cartridge could still be played by itself without a Sonic 3 cartridge, so that can count as its own game. Sonic CD and Sonic & Knuckles are the two games I hadn't played / completed before this (as well as Sonic Origins itself of course).

Well nertz, I do have the Atari 50 collection! I guess I'll stop opening this and put it back on the shelf...

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

« on: August 21, 2026, 12:36:37 PM »

Like it or not I'm back again, now with Sonic Origins completed for the Switch! And I've gotta... go fast!

I've played Sonic 1, 2, and 3 before, but not CD and the "& Knuckles" add-on to 3, so this seemed like a good form for those two. I went through the "story mode" of the game that strings together all of the titles as one continuous experience, which still includes any opening and ending scenes the games might have had, plus a few new shorts to connect everything together in a way that attempts but fails to help make things more comprehensible.

Sonic 1 posed less trouble that I remember, or maybe I'm just used to it by now. Sonic CD is slotted next for some reason even though it released later, and I'm not exactly sure what this game was going for. With past, present, and future versions of each stage, it often becomes a big maze with an unclear path of progression, but at least it isn't difficult. The bosses are hilarious however. Sonic 2 is the one I'm most familiar with since it's the one we had, though I'm used to playing it in two-player which makes the bosses and bonus stages easier. I had played Sonic 3 just once before so didn't remember much about it, and the "& Knuckles" stages were new to me. It's a good thing this mode offers infinite lives as these games have a nasty tendency to feature an end-game boss gauntlet with no rings available.

And may I just say, the bonus stages in Sonic games have always been terrible.

I may not say it?

Oops.

How exactly should all this be counted, anyway? Does this count as a Sonic CD completion, or would I need to play that as a separate entity to include it? Is "Sonic & Knuckles" its own game, or part of Sonic 3? Eesh, Sonic really is such a mess!

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

« on: August 19, 2026, 02:44:50 PM »

I'm probably gonna go for quality over quantity this time.

Sounds like someone has forgotten what Backlaugust is all about! Ain't gonna climb no leaderboards with that attitude. 

Maybe, but it seems I'm already straying from that mindset anyway with these Sonic games.

So much for the quality over quantity mission statement. ZING!

Ha, yeah, I was gonna say... Welp, I s'pose there's no reason for me to be commenting anymore.

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

« on: August 17, 2026, 06:03:38 PM »

If you liked Secret Rings then you may get some enjoyment out of Black Knight. It's been so long since I played Secret Rings that I can't really offer a comparison, though. I just have a general memory that it was... okay. Not bad, but not for me. I have Generations for Xbox, I think it was a freebie back when they did Games with Gold, but I probably won't be getting to that one this month.

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

« on: August 17, 2026, 03:31:49 PM »

This is going to seem a little random, and it is, but I might as well toss this one onto the finished pile: Sonic and the Black Knight for the Wii.

Just to preface this a little bit: my mate Terra has been wanting me to play more Sonic games for a while, so it's something I've been doing on and off this year. I bought Black Knight a long time ago from the Wii bargain bin and never opened it, so this was my first time cracking open the sealing on this bad boy. This one is... a bit of a headscratcher, I guess they really didn't know what to do with Sonic for a while. I did like the presentation, such as the medieval setting and the storybook-style cutscenes, and it's a Sonic game so of course it's got some good music. However, the gameplay systems struggle to complement each other: swinging the sword brings Sonic to a stop, and there's a meter that builds up from defeating enemies which charges up a "bullet-time" like power that slows things to an even further crawl. The extra characters that unlock towards the end of the game all feel slower and clunkier than Sonic, so they just make the game harder. It was enough for me to roll credits (the second time, or "true ending" if you prefer), there are some bonus missions and of course rankings for each level, but I'm not interested.

Don't be surprised if I end up reporting back with some more Sonic games before the month is through...

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

« on: August 12, 2026, 04:17:12 PM »

I've now rolled credits on Pokopia, so I can start focusing on new games soon. Since I finished this during August then I'm still gonna count it. For some reason, I was expecting this to be a lot more akin to Dragon Quest Builders than it actually is, which is disappointing to me, personally. I'm not so sure that I'm going to back to finish building the habitats for the rest of the Monz; I wanted more areas to explore.

Hey all, long-time lurker, first-time (in ages) poster. Can I get in on this? I'm making an attempt to complete OG Hollow Knight. I played it long ago but never quite finished it. I'd like to get through all of it including the DLC if possible.

It's nice to see that my number-one fan has finally returned!

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

« on: August 06, 2026, 07:03:55 PM »

I'm probably gonna go for quality over quantity this time. Two Nintendo titles I've been curious about for a while are The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom and Princess Peach Showtime!, neither of which seem like particularly lengthy games so they should be good for an event like this.

That is, if I can pry meself away from my current Pokopia addiction. Though, perhaps if I finish that in August, I can count it too...

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Nintendo Switch 2

« on: July 24, 2026, 05:42:26 PM »

You know what’s odd about my Smash hours? It stopped counting several years ago when I updated to the OLED. So much of my data just didn’t work properly.

When you got the OLED Switch, did you perform a full system transfer over to it? Or did you simply log into the new system with your user and go from there?

One thing I've observed is how the playtime data works in strange ways. The server doesn't combine time played on different systems, it just takes the highest number and displays that one. So for example, if you play a game for 100 hours on one system, then play it for 50 hours on another system, the time will still display 100 hours. Though, sometimes it does think a game is "newly played" and will reset the hours to 0, but it will restore the old playtime if you go and play the game on the original system. I don't know what causes that to happen.

While I don't know the specific details, I know that Animal Crossing has its own form of transferring saves. They can't be shared across systems with the cloud saves like most other games.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Nintendo Switch 2

« on: July 23, 2026, 07:10:47 PM »

Mine was delivered today, but my friends aren't quite ready to dive in, so I may not try it out for a bit.