Topic: Episode 998: Monolith Soft's Thumb Wrestling

[Crimm]

A 200 hour quest to destroy God...'s thumb.

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/rfn/77831/episode-998-monolith-softs-thumb-wrestling

We are so very close to Episode 1000. Our plans are available here. The short version is that we'll be live in the NWR Discord on Saturday, November 14 at 10 PM UTC. More details in the previous link.

This week we have an abundance of New Business. Jon kicks the show off with Final Fantasy Resonance, a game that he believes is his first HD-2D experience. Neal raved about this 90s-style Final Fantasy game. One question needing an answer is "which 90s-style Final Fantasy game." It's the SNES-style.

Nintendo Switch Sports Resort came out the same day we recorded, so Guillaume only got a short time with the game pre-recording. Nintendo continues to ignore Canadian Thanksgiving when they release games for the entire family. That said, it was an instantly nostalgic experience for this, the fifth game in this series. Yes, there are five. You forgot Wii Sports Club.

James starts his New Business with a reminder that there is a Halloween-themed Pokopia event going on now. In the last week he also crushed Ace Combat 8, and is surprised that the game had a lot more to say than [makes jet plane noises and explosion sounds with his mouth]. It was a great break between routes of Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave. Speaking of, James has moved onto his second route of Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave. He is surprised how many ways the game tries to pick up the pace on subsequent paths.

Greg closes out New Business a purchasing update on Castlevania: Belmont's Curse and a rundown of the new release for NSO's Game Boy lineup.

After a break we dig into some Listener Mail. There seems to be a little confusion on the phrase "just let me play the game," but you see it is all very clear. We also are asked how to not buy games when there's no time to play them all. The answer is don't buy them. We're not always very helpful, but you can try.

• (00:07:28) New Business - Final Fantasy Resonance.
• (00:26:49) Nintendo Switch Sports Resort.
• (00:42:03) Pokopia event. Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve.
• (01:02:52) Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave.
• (01:05:19) A Castlevania purchase is made. NSO October 2026 update.
• (01:13:02) Listener Mail - Isn't the content of the game, the game?
• (01:32:28) Convo FOMO, no dino.

[Evan_B]

I’ve been trying to find the right way to bring up a strange and grateful feeling I’ve had about both models of the Nintendo Switch for some time, so the discussion of FOMO gives me an appropriate opportunity to raise it:

The amount of games that never reached Nintendo consoles in the previous decade (or more) that have come around again on the Switch and the Switch 2 has been a nice way to experience a number of titles that were in the zeitgeist previously with some distance from the vitriol that is games discourse. I know that isn’t necessarily a solution to Reg McFly’s comment- these games often release at standard or close to standard retail price points- but it is a reminder that what goes around, comes around.

I feel very fortunate to have the chance to form my own opinions of games like Dragon’s Dogma, Red Faction: Guerrilla,  and the Middle Earth duology, as well as more obscure titles like Risen thanks to the efforts of publishers. It’s even shocking and nice to see some of my old favorites like Croc 2 re-emerge from the swamp. I believe it was the good Doctor Metts who once said the best time to be a fan of video games is “now,” with an incredible backlog of impressive titles hidden out there or being ported to modern hardware, as well as the newest and strangest iterations of the medium hitting the market.