Topic: Nintendo Switch --OT--

@Kidfried Agree to disagree. The original always looked sort of hideous to me. The art-style didn't work well for the characters, which is a big reason I never bothered playing it.

The remake is, honestly, pretty gorgeous. It looks surprisingly high-budget for a remake of an old SNES game.

@Kidfried I'm not always thrilled with Mario RPGs (found the M&L games I've played to be sort of dull), so I'm hoping I end up liking it.

So far, those Mario + Rabbids games are the high water mark of this particular type of game for me.

The first Etrian Odyssey has been pretty good so far but the handling of the second screen on Switch is naturally odd. Taking things slow for now and going after the FOEs when I can. Just glad I got the trilogy for free, the price is eye-watering for DS games.

Limited Run Games with unironically one of the better events of the summer. Gex, Clock Tower, Tomba are great but actually reviving Shantae Advance with WayForward and putting it on a real GBA cart? Brilliant. El Shaddai too! A real cult classic!

@nessisonett Ah, that does explain the glut of retro games announcements on the front page of Push Square! I thought I somehow managed to click on Time Extension! 😂

Played through the latest Mario Kart 8 Deluxe DLC yesterday with some mates. It's honestly one of my favourite waves thus far! I love the summer theme the pack has, it's really fitting for this time of the year. The Tour tracks are also rather cool compared to most of the previous ones, which felt rather generic. Athens is probably my favourite given all the cool places you race through. I also love that they've added two more Wii tracks and while Moonview Highway isn't a favourite of mine, I still like it a lot. Koopa Cape is definitely the highlight of this pack for me, I love that track! Daisy Cruiser from Double Dash is also a nice addition. The GBA track is pretty cool as well.

Can't forget to mention the three new characters as well: Kamek, Wiggler and Petey Piranha. First of all, it's crazy to see Petey in Mario Kart after so many years of being absent. Definitely the coolest addition. I wasn't that interested in Wiggler but I genuinely love how it gets mad and changes to the colour red whenever it gets hit. Kamek feels very fitting for Mario Kart as well. At the very least we're getting more interesting Mario characters and not a bunch of koopalings or Pink Gold Peach crap lol.

Overall, I really like this wave and it's always nice to get more MK tracks. It's crazy though that we're nearing the end of the DLCs. Hopefully the last one will be a great one. I hope it will be Donkey Kong themed as we're still missing Diddy Kong and Funky Kong as playable characters. Not to mention that we still don't have DK Mountain from Double Dash and DK's Jungle Parkway from N64 in the game, which are such great tracks.

I'm not quite sure what to make of this, but it sure did put a huge grin on my face.

Saw the credits in TOTK last night. 150 hours - I wasn't bored for a moment. What a game, strong contender for my favourite game of all time. I still have plenty to do and can't wait to keep playing.

I feel bad I never saw TOTK through to the end. I was enjoying it, but got dragged away from TOTK to play other new games (I know, it is a bad habit). I ended in a bit of an awkward place, feels a little daunting going back as I don’t remember how many things worked, but I am also far enough in that going back to the start doesn’t sound very fun either.

@Pizzamorg I am in exactly the same position with TOTK.... 2 temples down and a few side quests.
Objectively I can appreciate it is a phenomenal game, but it just isn't grabbing me as much as I thought and hoped it would.
Also, and this is a personal take, it just seems like such a lot of 'game'.... and I likely would have preferred a shorter/tighter experience vs open world (again). I departed from TOTK to play Blasphemous (beat it and loved it), and now moved on to Disco Elysium. Then hoping to hit Hollow Knight before next month's releases of Vampire Survivors and Blasphemous 2.

@kyleforrester87 That's some pretty high praise. I've been distracted pretty hard from gaming for a while now, so I haven't touched it past the 80 hour mark (or anything else), but I have the feeling I'll be playing it long into the future. I'm in no rush to beat it.

With that said, given how thoroughly it expanded on BotW, I do wonder where they could possibly go next with the series.

@nessisonett How's it going with EO? I absolutely love the series. 3 and 4 are two of the best DRPGs ever made.

How'd you get em for free, btw?

@Ralizah I beat the first Etrian Odyssey and really enjoyed it, definitely early stuff compared to EO4 but still good. Got it for free due to a friend importing it and absolutely hating the first game 😂

@nessisonett Bizarre. Did they try the other games? Or even research the series at all?

Well, I guess it worked out, you lucky bug.

I actually never played the original of EO2. I do have the 3DS remake, though. Own 1 and 3 on DS.

@Ralizah They liked Persona Q but weren’t into how old school and structured Etrian Odyssey was without the story. I guess they could always play the Unbound games? I never did get round to the rest of the 3DS games to be honest.

@Ralizah wondered how you were getting on with it as you were very hype initially then I didn’t hear anymore. My process was loving it initially, kinda got overwhelmed, the temples became a drag, had a week off, went back a little fresh and loved it more than ever! I didn’t really feel like I HAD to ever finish the story but I enjoyed it enough to make it happen, and I thought it got quite interesting after having done the temples.

I can’t imagine there not being DLC to be honest, but I would hope it isn’t just challenge type stuff (if that makes sense).

Who can say where they go next with Zelda. BOTW sat pretty in the charts for years and TOTK is poised to do the same but Nintendo are Nintendo 🤷‍♂️ whatever they do, I am glad we got these two great Zelda titles.

@kyleforrester87 I think I got a little too hype for it. Went full no life mode with it for a couple of weeks, tripped a breaker in my brain, and completely zapped my interest in gaming since late May. Like, almost nothing. Just some co-op gameplay with my nephew.

Burn-out isn't uncommon for me, but it's pretty extreme this time lol. I've chosen to use this period to focus on self-betterment. We actually have a home gym now!

@nessisonett Yeah, the Untold remakes sound more their speed. Lots of story/character interaction/etc. Not as much my thing, tbh, as I think the sense of mystery, isolation, and self-determined progression is critical to the unique atmosphere of these games, but they're pretty good. Particularly the remake of the second one.

EO5 is really good as well... probably the best of the classic-style games (the first two, specifically, which don't have overworlds). It also has this fun little feature which adds bits of emergent narrative to the dungeon exploration, in the vein of a tabletop RPG.

Nexus... eh. It's skippable, IMO.

@Ralizah haha I understand. Getting over those initial feelings, even though they were super positive, and having that short break really helped me enjoy the game more overall.

I realised I contradicted myself when I said I wasn’t bored then that the temples were a drag, I suppose I blanked those out, it’s been a couple of months since I did the first ones. For some reason on reflection I didn’t enjoy the wind and water temples much. The fire and lightning temples, and everything after were much better.

@kyleforrester87 having not bought the game, but come close a couple of times, I would have thought the biggest drag is that they used the same map as BOTW. I know it’s Nintendo, so they’ll do clever things to turn that into positive, but still… I mean, I played through BOTW twice, I really don’t feel like going back to the same map. Isn’t it dragged back by lack of originality, or have I missed something?

@Wesker good to hear from you, hope life is treating you well. I hear the concern - I would say that I played BOTW 6 years ago, and while I remember the gist of it there’s no way I can recall full detail of layout, green hills are just green hills… maybe I’m a bit simple, but I haven’t found it repetitive, especially factoring in all the new stuff. I’d love to say you’d have the same experience I’ve had but who knows, it really could be a deal breaker for you. I think if you enjoyed BOTW enough to play through it twice it’s worth the money and time investment though, you might end up really loving it.

@kyleforrester87 yes thanks. I hope that you and yours are in good health and enjoying life. I just got obsessed with FIFA for a while, and before that was Ellen Ring, so I haven’t really been nosying around new games for a while. I think you’ve helped to convince me to give TOTK a whirl though! I was looking for a more personal recommendation so cheers for that. Hopefully it will live alongside my pantheon of Zelda greats like OOT, Twilight Princess and BOTW. And not get cast aside like Majoras Mask, the one on the GC with the boat, or Skyward Sword.