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TalkBack / Re: Kirby Air Riders 2 Getting Direct August 19
« Last post by Mop it up 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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TalkBack / Re: Kirby Air Riders 2 Getting Direct August 19
« Last post by Ian Sane on August 18, 2025, 11:59:19 AM »I figured we would get a Direct after Drag x Drive came out. Somehow the running gag of not revealing Metroid Prime 4's release date continues.
45 minutes seems really long for one game. That long would be hell for a game I'm not interested in and for a game I am I feel like that would spoil too much. I guess I would have thought it was awesome when I was 10 years old and didn't care about spoilers.
I only know the original Kirby Air Ride as that Gamecube game where you press one button and it virtually plays itself. It came across as barely a game. And in general Kirby games are usually pretty good but never something I'm really excited about. If I'm going to skip a first party release, Kirby tends to get the cut more times than not. So I'm not going to check out the 45 minute Direct, maybe a shorter trailer if they have one.
I am curious as to when the release date will be. This might be an indication of how Nintendo wants to reveal information now. They seem to want to do one game at a time. So is Kirby coming out a month from now? Two months? We can probably assume that the lead time from this Direct to the release date will be similar for other future game-specific Directs and that will apply to the other first party releases that are supposedly coming out this year.
Still I don't understand why Nintendo wants to drip feed us this info. Having a new console with a barren release schedule doesn't give people confidence in your product so why have it appear that way when there actually are releases coming soon?
45 minutes seems really long for one game. That long would be hell for a game I'm not interested in and for a game I am I feel like that would spoil too much. I guess I would have thought it was awesome when I was 10 years old and didn't care about spoilers.
I only know the original Kirby Air Ride as that Gamecube game where you press one button and it virtually plays itself. It came across as barely a game. And in general Kirby games are usually pretty good but never something I'm really excited about. If I'm going to skip a first party release, Kirby tends to get the cut more times than not. So I'm not going to check out the 45 minute Direct, maybe a shorter trailer if they have one.
I am curious as to when the release date will be. This might be an indication of how Nintendo wants to reveal information now. They seem to want to do one game at a time. So is Kirby coming out a month from now? Two months? We can probably assume that the lead time from this Direct to the release date will be similar for other future game-specific Directs and that will apply to the other first party releases that are supposedly coming out this year.
Still I don't understand why Nintendo wants to drip feed us this info. Having a new console with a barren release schedule doesn't give people confidence in your product so why have it appear that way when there actually are releases coming soon?
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Podcast Discussion / Re: Episode 938: Hey. How's it Poppin'?
« Last post by Lemonade on August 18, 2025, 11:07:31 AM »I listened to the old spoilercast and then this new one. They are both great. They make a nice double episode.
Im surprised John didn't want to play it again on Switch. He liked it on Wii U. It is a big time commitment though, so I guess thats why.
Im surprised John didn't want to play it again on Switch. He liked it on Wii U. It is a big time commitment though, so I guess thats why.
84
General Gaming / Re: Backlaugust 2025 - Nintendo Switch 2 Edition
« Last post by broodwars on August 17, 2025, 09:16:46 PM »Well. I wasn't expecting to add this one to the list.
Blue Prince - Yeah, it's this year's Indie Darling. After picking away at this game for a month or so and restarting it several times after I'd realized I'd inadvertently screwed myself due to not understanding how some of the game's mechanics worked...yeah, I finally managed a successful run, reaching Room 46 and triggering the Credits.
Felt like pure dumb luck that I managed to get a run where the RNG didn't screw me over and I got the rooms I needed with a protection against the negative effects of the room I REALLY needed.
Overall, I like the game, but I feel like the Roguelike elements clash badly with the puzzle box design of this game. I don't think it's fair to have a run fail in a Roguelike due to elements beyond the player's control. I feel like the player should always have some sort of fighting chance, and that's certainly not not the case here. While the player has a choice of what rooms get drafted next, you can randomly get fucked out of the materials you need to progress, and that's assuming you even noticed those materials as you went along. This is a game with very intricate puzzles that you do need to be keeping notes to complete, and yet it's also a timed game with heavy RNG elements and some important mechanics that the game will never explain and you're just expected to pull up a Wiki.
Blue Prince - Yeah, it's this year's Indie Darling. After picking away at this game for a month or so and restarting it several times after I'd realized I'd inadvertently screwed myself due to not understanding how some of the game's mechanics worked...yeah, I finally managed a successful run, reaching Room 46 and triggering the Credits.
Felt like pure dumb luck that I managed to get a run where the RNG didn't screw me over and I got the rooms I needed with a protection against the negative effects of the room I REALLY needed.
Overall, I like the game, but I feel like the Roguelike elements clash badly with the puzzle box design of this game. I don't think it's fair to have a run fail in a Roguelike due to elements beyond the player's control. I feel like the player should always have some sort of fighting chance, and that's certainly not not the case here. While the player has a choice of what rooms get drafted next, you can randomly get fucked out of the materials you need to progress, and that's assuming you even noticed those materials as you went along. This is a game with very intricate puzzles that you do need to be keeping notes to complete, and yet it's also a timed game with heavy RNG elements and some important mechanics that the game will never explain and you're just expected to pull up a Wiki.
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General Gaming / Re: Backlaugust 2025 - Nintendo Switch 2 Edition
« Last post by broodwars on August 17, 2025, 12:55:30 AM »After 4 months I'm finally done with Xenoblade X: Definitive Edition...
Now there's one I'm going to inevitably have to reactivate into my backlog at some point. I only ever got an hour or so into the Wii U version, and after my external HDD failed I basically lost all interest in continuing play since I'd have to restart. Got to get through the other non-1 Xenos before I can get to X again.
At the moment, Xenoblade 3 is currently in my backlog but also Xenoblade 2, which is the game currently occupying my Switch 2 now that DK Bananza is done. That game's been something of my backlog's White Whale, as it's the game I just can't get myself to push through and finish. Last time I played it years ago, I got about halfway through Chapter 4. I'm whittling away at it (using that previous save), but I don't expect to finish it in time for the end of this game. Not sure I'd want to try, anyway, considering I'm nearing 40 hours in and I only just reached Chapter 5 (of 10).
By all rights, I should like this game better than I do, but it's just full of so many stupid little design decisions taht piss me off, from the Gatcha system on the Blades to the glacial pace of combat to the absolutely labyrinthine UI. I swear, picking the game up all these years later, I had to spend days figuring out how to play it again because Xenoblade 2 does not have a consistent Quest log. There are times when you just don't HAVE a main quest so you can remind yourself what you were even doing the last time you played (and which was the case when I picked the game back up. Fun). And so many high level enemies populating story areas low-level parties are meant to get through, seemingly turning environmental progression into whack-a-mole.
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General Gaming / Re: Backlaugust 2025 - Nintendo Switch 2 Edition
« Last post by broodwars on August 17, 2025, 12:47:02 AM »Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice - I played this game back when it launched on PS4, but Microsoft recently released a free upgrade for the PS5 version so I figured I'd give the game another playthrough. It's a pretty short game and very straightforward. Overall, I still like the game, but playing it now I can't help but get the whiff of "Oscar Bait" off of it. Yes, the performance capture and voice acting are still incredible, but the gameplay is not especially good (combat in particular could use more nuance and variety); some parts of the game feel like they were never play-tested (the section where you have to run around scanning runes while an insta-kill fire demon chases you while ALSO slowing you comes to mind); and the way the game ends just...doesn't make a whole lot of sense however you look at it. Yes, the subtext of the game is as subtle as a brick to the face, but it's really not clear what actually happened by the end.
I didn't play the sequel and I don't plan to (I never though this game particularly needed one), but the original is an enjoyable enough experience.
Pumpkin Jack - Picked this one up a few months back after Austin Eruption highlighted it as an Indie spiritual successor to MediEvil, and at the time it was on sale for like...$5. Played through it in 1 sitting, and yeah...it's OK. This same team made Akimbot, a Ratchet & Clank knockoff I found rather frustrating a year or so ago, but I much prefer this one. I suppose I see the MediEvil resemblance, but IMO MediEvil (the remake, anyway) had more variety in its environments and combat encounters. This feels at times more like a spiritual successor to Gauntlet with all the enemy generators, crossed with the Nightmare Before Christmas (the main character being a walking corpse with a Jack O' Lantern head doesn't help).
The platforming is solid, but not particularly special. The combat's pretty terrible, with enemies feeling like they take way too many hits to down considering how many of them get spawned at once in the late game. I also could have done without both all the on-rails segments and especially the public domain Classical Music that plays during most of them. No, you're not allowed to just throw Flight of the Valkyries and the William Tell Overture during random Minecart and Chase Sequences. I don't care how much you jazz them up. Those songs are just way too recognizable to just throw into a game like this without expecting them to massively distract.
I did complete 1 other game...sorta...but I'm going to hold onto that one for a while. It's a live service game with a fixed story progression, so I may or may not consider it "cleared from my backlog" until I've gotten the Platinum in it.
I didn't play the sequel and I don't plan to (I never though this game particularly needed one), but the original is an enjoyable enough experience.
Pumpkin Jack - Picked this one up a few months back after Austin Eruption highlighted it as an Indie spiritual successor to MediEvil, and at the time it was on sale for like...$5. Played through it in 1 sitting, and yeah...it's OK. This same team made Akimbot, a Ratchet & Clank knockoff I found rather frustrating a year or so ago, but I much prefer this one. I suppose I see the MediEvil resemblance, but IMO MediEvil (the remake, anyway) had more variety in its environments and combat encounters. This feels at times more like a spiritual successor to Gauntlet with all the enemy generators, crossed with the Nightmare Before Christmas (the main character being a walking corpse with a Jack O' Lantern head doesn't help).
The platforming is solid, but not particularly special. The combat's pretty terrible, with enemies feeling like they take way too many hits to down considering how many of them get spawned at once in the late game. I also could have done without both all the on-rails segments and especially the public domain Classical Music that plays during most of them. No, you're not allowed to just throw Flight of the Valkyries and the William Tell Overture during random Minecart and Chase Sequences. I don't care how much you jazz them up. Those songs are just way too recognizable to just throw into a game like this without expecting them to massively distract.
I did complete 1 other game...sorta...but I'm going to hold onto that one for a while. It's a live service game with a fixed story progression, so I may or may not consider it "cleared from my backlog" until I've gotten the Platinum in it.
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General Gaming / Re: Backlaugust 2025 - Nintendo Switch 2 Edition
« Last post by broodwars on August 17, 2025, 12:29:04 AM »Oh, I hope y'all didn't have any notions of catching me anytime soon. 
Gonna break these up for the sake of readability.
Bendy & the Dark Revival - The sequel to Bendy & the Ink Machine, a 1920s cartoon-styled 1st person stealth game I kinda liked despite the fact that it ran like absolute garbage back on the PS4 and ran off the rails altogether about halfway through. Well, here we are with the sequel and it's...somehow even worse on the technical front. The framerate is all over the damn place, event triggers are randomly bugged in absolutely bizarre ways, the game's Insta-kill Ink Demon can kill you even if you successfully hide through his appearance (especially lovely if you're going for a no-death run), enemies will randomly lock into place and T-pose, collision detection is more of a suggestion than a rule, the game will randomly crash, and if you save in a place the game doesn't like your save will get corrupted. Yes, even on console.
I haven't seen a game this fundamentally broken since the last time I played a Bethesda Game Studios game. I see you only paid for the best porting teams, Rooster Teeth!
What's sad is that when the game WORKS, it's actually pretty decent, although infuriating on hard mode. It's basically Budget Bioshock with the focus on exploration and scavenging, the art is still as strong as ever, and the voice acting is excellent. The basic design of the game is FINE, albeit (again) infuriating on Hard Mode where every single goddamn room has 3-5 patrolling enemies who can kill you in 2-3 hits even at the End Game. I know fans of the first game despise the Ink Demon not being a patrolling enemy anymore, but I vastly prefer this new system where he'll just randomly appear with a countdown timer for you to find a hiding spot. That said, the fact that you can't USE anything other than a special designated hiding spot if you've been spotted beforehand is annoying.
They just announced another Bendy game, and I hope this one finally releases in something approaching a competent technical state, because this franchise has always had artistic promise and apparently we're not going to get a new Bioshock anytime soon.
Gonna break these up for the sake of readability.Bendy & the Dark Revival - The sequel to Bendy & the Ink Machine, a 1920s cartoon-styled 1st person stealth game I kinda liked despite the fact that it ran like absolute garbage back on the PS4 and ran off the rails altogether about halfway through. Well, here we are with the sequel and it's...somehow even worse on the technical front. The framerate is all over the damn place, event triggers are randomly bugged in absolutely bizarre ways, the game's Insta-kill Ink Demon can kill you even if you successfully hide through his appearance (especially lovely if you're going for a no-death run), enemies will randomly lock into place and T-pose, collision detection is more of a suggestion than a rule, the game will randomly crash, and if you save in a place the game doesn't like your save will get corrupted. Yes, even on console.
I haven't seen a game this fundamentally broken since the last time I played a Bethesda Game Studios game. I see you only paid for the best porting teams, Rooster Teeth!
What's sad is that when the game WORKS, it's actually pretty decent, although infuriating on hard mode. It's basically Budget Bioshock with the focus on exploration and scavenging, the art is still as strong as ever, and the voice acting is excellent. The basic design of the game is FINE, albeit (again) infuriating on Hard Mode where every single goddamn room has 3-5 patrolling enemies who can kill you in 2-3 hits even at the End Game. I know fans of the first game despise the Ink Demon not being a patrolling enemy anymore, but I vastly prefer this new system where he'll just randomly appear with a countdown timer for you to find a hiding spot. That said, the fact that you can't USE anything other than a special designated hiding spot if you've been spotted beforehand is annoying.
They just announced another Bendy game, and I hope this one finally releases in something approaching a competent technical state, because this franchise has always had artistic promise and apparently we're not going to get a new Bioshock anytime soon.
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I'M BACK / Re: This forum is a James Jones POWER zone.
« Last post by BeautifulShy on August 16, 2025, 03:47:38 PM »Apparently he is still locked out of the forums atm. The time for us to take over has come at last.
Yep he definitely isn't here. It's safe to come out.
I came out before it was fashionable to return.
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I'M BACK / Re: Can I make a quote monster on WAP?
« Last post by BeautifulShy on August 16, 2025, 03:44:25 PM »Okay everyone, That's a WAP.
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I'M BACK / Re: I'm ankle.
« Last post by BeautifulShy on August 16, 2025, 03:43:16 PM »How are you doing Back?I probably laughed more than I should have at this.
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