EarthboundBenjy

Croc was a childhood favourite game of mine. ...and the recent release of the Croc remaster reminded me that I never actually played Croc 2.

So with a Croc 2 original PlayStation disc, I played through it.

I have to say, it was quite fun, though it feels rather unpolished compared to its contemporaries such as Spyro or Banjo.

I did not like the lives system in the game, and some levels (especially Roger Red Ant) felt unnecessarily punishing due to the way lives work. I'm also not a fan of the need to grind crystals to buy jellies from the shop, it felt a bit unnecessary.

I got all the golden Gobbo statues and jigsaw pieces, and saw the extremely underwhelming secret ending. Literally upon grabbing the final collectible, the credits comes up with a message saying "congratulations you got 100% in Croc 2" and that's all that happens. ... bleh. At least the regular ending was fine.

Also I played Croc 2 on my PlayStation 2 Slim, which has a bizarre effect of messing up the sound effects on occasion. Gobbo voices sound like Dantini cackles, Croc makes door creaking or crystal sound effects when attacking, sometimes the shopkeeper's voice replaces the footsteps noise.... it was all very silly. Apparently this issue only occurs when playing on a PS2 Slim specifically - a PS2 fat, PS3, or PS1 plays the game just fine. Weird stuff.

Anyways. Croc 2 was good, so hopefully they remaster Croc 2 too! And then release them both in a bundle with the Game Boy Color games included too for good measure?

I know Bubsy isn't great, but I've never played any of them, and I am somewhat curious. I've seen gameplay of Bubsy 3D on youtube before when watching videos about game history and all that, so I know what to expect, but it might be interesting to try it out one of these days just for the heck of it.

"We will make a new third game". ...aren't there already four Ecco games?

I plan to get this from Play-Asia at some point, that's how I got Scarlet Grace and Emerald Beyond too. It's good that the physical versions with English support exist somewhere at least, and I'm glad that Play-Asia is allowing people to get these versions.

I'm waiting and hoping that there will exist proper Switch 2 physical games that can be gotten via Play-Asia too - I'm not buying Game Key Card versions at all.

I imagine that this may be the reason why there hasn't been a port for a while.

Honestly... I don't particularly want the game to be replaced by a remake. Especially not if they give it the "Pixel Remaster" treatment and ruin all the spritework.

And I'm not particularly keen on them doing a HD-2D version either.

I've been interested in this game since I am a fan of the original Necrodancer, but I think I will wait until all DLC has been released before I get it.

No sign of the Tingle Tuner working in this version yet, huh? Would be nice if they let us plug an actual GBA into the gamecube controller adapter to use Tingle in this version, but I don't have high hopes.

(btw her name is spelled Eirika, not Erika)

I think I prefer the twins centred in the image, with a dragon in the background for good measure. the map in the JP version is okay too. Both box arts are fine.

@GamingFan4Lyf
You can turn it to 0% when you can't be bothered to fight if you just want to run around and explore, and then turn encounters back on when you need to grind levels.

might as well just play it on 3DS. I still have the 3DS version, never finished it. Might start it again one of these days. Gonna just completely ignore this version.

on Switch 2, it's a Game Key Card version. No thank you.

@Solid_Python

We know the Puyo Tetris 2S upgrades from this trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21qmxYVqCp8

adding doubles mode and mouse mode.

Sega, Capcom, Konami, Square Enix - they're all doing the same thing with the Key Card nonsense, and of course there's no upgrade option. Why have all the big Japanese companies unanimously decided to take the same path of user unfriendliness?

I have a feeling the majority of my physical Switch 2 collection will be indies and non-Japanese games if this keeps up.

I just pre ordered the Zelda amiibo, but I am not a big enough Street Fighter fan to get the SF ones.

I'm not a fan of the higher price for the SF figures, and I don't even know any of the SF6 characters anyway. If there was a Chun Li or other more well-known characters, maybe I would have been more inclined.

@Sensible
It's not stupid to try and find official sources for answers to the many unanswered questions we have.

As to why Zelda might not have cloud save functionality? Because many Nintendo Switch 1 games have arbitrarily no cloud save support, and we can't make guesses based on previous releases. Splatoon 3 supports cloud saves, but Splatoon 2 doesn't. And even some completely offline games like New Super Lucky's Tale don't have cloud save support, and who knows why?

We can only go by what has been said. And so that's why we look at what is being said on official platforms. You cannot make assumptions about these things if you want to know how it will work.

@Galaxy2IsTheGOAT

Fire Emblem 7, the GBA one that is just titled "Fire Emblem", also known as The Blazing Blade, has a great series of tutorialised chapters at the start which are designed for newcomers. I recommend this one.

@romanista

Yes, Sacred Stones is Fire Emblem 8.

Fire Emblems 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 12 remain Japanese-only.

And the English edition of Fire Emblem 1 was inexplicably de-listed after only four months of availability.

The Game Boy Advance had Fire Emblem 6, 7, and 8.

The first Fire Emblem game to be translated into English was FE7. So many fans outside of Japan think of the GBA lineup as just 7 and 8, since 6 was not released worldwide. But I am a fan of all three GBA games, including the Japanese FE6. So I still hope that FE6 will also arrive eventually too. Either in Japanese (like how Densetsu no Starfy is on GBA NSO in Japanese), or in English, like how FE1 was released as its own app.

This is a good game. Kind of wish they would bring over the Japanese FE6 as well so we can have the full GBA trilogy. ... And also, un-delist the English version of FE1 while you're at it, yeah Nintendo? Still annoyed about that.

Thank you for featuring my prattling about remakes.

Yeah. ...No matter what, it's not possible for younger players to experience older games within their original context, since time marches on and expectations always change and evolve... so even if they do play the original, it's not going to have the same kind of impact as it did back then anyway.

I wonder how interesting older games are to most kids these days anyway...? I honestly have no idea, haha.

After hearing that Soul Calibur II was going to be included on NSO, I decided to get out my old GameCube disc of Soul Calibur II and give it a whirl.

I will say, I don't really have much experience with this series - I've never played any of the later games at all, and I don't even know what they look like.

I didn't have any save data for Soul Calibur II on any of my memory cards unfortunately. So my main goal for this playthrough was to unlock Lizardman.

The way to unlock characters in this game is to play the singleplayer missions. And for Lizardman, you need to complete every single mission, both the regular versions and the Extra versions that get unlocked later.

I have to say. ...A lot of it was quite a slog. Mostly those annoying "dungeon" missions where you have to play many inconsequentially easy matches in a row as you "navigate" through a "dungeon", which in reality is just a menu of squares, with a fight on each one. Some of the later ones can even be 20 fights long! It's not hard, it just takes forever. ...so this was the perfect game to play while listening to YouTube in the background - I got to listen through lots of "Nintendo Switch 2 Direct thoughts and reactions!!!" videos whilst playing this game.

Aside from the annoying dungeon missions, I also found myself having difficulty when missions required beating 5+ opponents in a row on just one life bar. Turns out I don't actually know how to play Soul Calibur II... at all! I don't know the movesets of the characters, nor what the special inputs are. I kinda just try things, find a move that seems to work, and then keep using it. Hahah.... 😅

I mostly stuck with Mitsurugi as my main character, since he seemed to feel simple enough to get the hang of... though I did switch to Link when I needed to cheese some ring-out victories. If you haven't tried it before: play as Link, stand near an edge, and just do a regular grab with A+Guard. Link just chucks 'em off stage. It's great.

Unlocking Lizardman took me around 20 hours of playtime overall. Dang, that's certainly a character who requires some commitment to get! And he's not even usable in most modes lol. But I'm glad to have him now regardless. He's kinda cute.

...Despite having spent this kind of time with the game, I still know pretty much nothing about how to play it. I literally don't even know what "Soul Charge" does. Or how to do a "Guard Break". If I were to actually play against another person, I'd first need a crash course.
...but yeah, that's fighting games for ya. You need to dedicate your life to studying them in order to get even a baseline level of competence with them...

I don't really feel the need to do that here - I just wanted to play for a bit and have fun before the game comes to Switch 2, and unlocking Lizardman seemed like a good goal to strive for.
If I decide to play the NSO version later on, Maybe I'll try to learn some more gameplay mechanics. But for the moment, I don't feel the need to play any more just yet.

regarding the prehistoric bonus stage - I recently played the N64 version of Glover, and it was pretty much impossible to complete this bonus stage for me there too. I played the PAL version, and I believe the NTSC version has slightly different hitboxes that make it actually doable there?
Regardless, I was forced to settle for 98% game completion because the collectibles were just.... not possible to get no matter how many times I tried.

It seems like the problem with this level was the same as what's seen on PAL N64. But now they have actually updated the level to be possible. That's my understanding.

So while I can't speak for any of the other problems introduced in this port, I will at least point out that this particular issue was not a porting issue, but a problem the original release had too.

...What's the point in creating a brand new next generation console cycle if you're not even going to attempt to fix these kinds of problems from the previous generation?

I've been having to go out of the house to help with family a lot recently, so I didn't want to start a big new RPG for the moment. ... Instead I was looking for something small I could play while on public transport.

I played Ufouria The Saga 2, and........ it was ok but not great. It was very short, and the randomised nature of the level design made exploring feel very repetitive and unsatisfying. In order to collect all the cans, you have to play through a level, collect 2 cans, go back to the hub, select the same level, find 2 more cans, go back to the hub, etc etc etc. Because the layouts are randomly selected, so you can't actually reach all the can locations until the game cycles through all the possible layouts. It's not great tbh. I kinda just wish they made a proper persistent world with normal hiding places.
I think the original Ufouria on NES was so much better. Very unfortunate since I was expecting it to be so much more.

After finishing Ufouria, I began New Super Lucky's Tale. This one's okay. It has rather slow-feeling movement, and your moveset is pretty basic. It kinda reminds me of older early 3D games like Croc where running, jumping, and stomping are pretty much all you need. But that's fine - it's not trying to be anything particularly revolutionary, it's just a decent kid's platformer. Which is pretty much what I was looking for anyway. So it's all good.

but...platformers these days all really seem to want to have clothing as the main unlockables, don't they? Super Lucky's Tale, Rayman Legends, Mario Odyssey, and even Gimmick 2, which I also played recently, all have a big emphasis on unlocking clothes for some reason. ...Am I the only one who wants the main character of a mascot platforming game to actually look like their character design??
Clothing options are just so uninteresting to me.

The only SaGa game I played was the recent Revenge of the Seven, so this update isn't so meaningful to me at the moment. I do plan on playing the whole series at some point though! I always appreciate when care and attention is given to the lesser-known niche series. It's nice to see it, even though I still need to get myself up to speed with the source material.

I am a physical collector, so I absolutely won't be getting "game key" versions if I can help it. Any time I see one, I'll definitely be heading on over to Play-Asia to see if there'll be a proper version too.
Square Enix has been releasing their "digital only" games on physical carts in Asian territories. I have almost every SaGa game on switch physically thanks to Play-Asia. As well as the version of FFX/X-2 that actually comes with X-2 on the cart.

So if there is a version of Bravely Default available on Play-Asia that's actually a proper physical version, I'll go for that one. Otherwise.... Nah. If I'm gonna have to waste my SD card space, might as well just use the eShop.

I'm trying to find the moment where Reggie actually talks about Welcome Tour? That video is from 2 years ago, and that Reddit link does not mention Reggie.

Where does this article get the idea that Reggie has an opinion about Welcome Tour at all? Because he worked on the Wii launch in the past? It may be a new Nintendo launch, but I don't think you can assume what Reggie's stance is if he hasn't said anything?

It would make sense if they released the Wii U HD Zeda games for Switch 1, since GCN NSO will only be on Switch 2. As a way to keep a few low-effort Switch 1 games coming out to keep fans who haven't upgraded yet happy.

Zelda canon is such a meaningless concept at this point, it's obvious that Nintendo kind of just makes up whatever sounds good at the time and leaves it at that. There's definitely no overarching story unfolding here, that's for sure.

Still not all that happy about how Tears of the Kingdom completely disregards the existence of Divine Beasts and Guardians and how the majority of NPCs don't recognise Link.
If Nintendo wants me to overlook important details like this, then I'm not really gonna end up caring about any kind of Zelda lore.

I had the pre-order invitation opportunity yesterday. I saw the NSO GameCube controller in the list of items I could include, and decided not to get it, with the idea that I could use my adapter and existing GCN controllers. ....I didn't even consider that they might not even be compatible with Switch 2... if they weren't I'd've been seriously not impressed.

...My preorder was already extremely expensive enough as it was.

I tried to ask Nintendo Customer Support a question regarding primary console and secondary console, but did not receive a satisfying answer.

I asked whether it would be possible to use both Switch 1 and Switch 2 with the same Nintendo account without having the forced internet requirement for the secondary console. I feel this is important because of the compatibility issues - I want to play Harvestella on Switch 1 only for example because it is in the compatibility issue list.
They did not give me a real answer at all, they only said there was "nothing to announce". So irritating to receive a response like this.

I'm perfectly ready for Switch 2, I'm just not ready for all the publishers to start switching over to "Game Key Card" versions. It's not a matter of being satisfied with Switch 1, it's a matter of being dissatisfied with how Switch 2 is being handled.

The good thing about digital games is that smaller developers can get their game published without the need to manufacture cartridges, and that the games will always be present on your switch without the need to change carts.
The downside is that games will take up space on your SD card, and they won't be available to purchase in perpetuity after the end of the console's lifecycle.

The "game key" version literally has the worst of both worlds. It's not suitable for smaller devs since it still requires the game studio to be able to manufacture and distribute a cartridge in a plastic case and sell it in a shop... Yet it still requires the eShop to be up and running, and takes up space on the player's SD cart like a digital game? And doesn't even remain available to play when you take the cartridge out?

This situation only benefits publishers who want to save money on not actually putting the game data on the carts. There is no other party who benefits. Certainly not the end-user. This is what they call "anti-consumer", right?

I think this one may be subject to recency bias - we all love the Zelda covers, but the anticipation for the upcoming games might skew the results here.

I know this is a one-off piggybacking off of the Switch 2 hype, but I also think it's less interesting than the box art brawls that compare different artworks made for the same game.

easy easy easy easy easy easy easy

sorry. this was way too easy for a big Zelda fan like me.

(though to be fair, the multiple choice format did help.)

This is the upgrade that makes me question things the most.

Adding a new side adventure DLC is not the same thing as having better frame rate and performance.

The other upgrades make sense. This one kind of doesn't.

I don't like the idea that games that could function perfectly fine on Switch require Switch 2 just because Nintendo says it's time to buy a new console.

Bravely Default is another example of them forcing the new console for the sake of a game that would have no trouble running on Switch 1.

I'm not a fan of them using things like this as a way of enticing fans to get the Switch 2.

...I'm going to get it in the future, most likely, because I adore this Kirby game and want to play all of its content, but I am not really a fan of the way they're handling it.

Good for people who enjoy artificially covering up the entire game image with fake blurriness I guess.

Not interested in "game key" versions.
This could have easily been a regular Switch game.
No need to force it on Switch 2

Will wait to see what the Play-Asia situation with this game is.
If I can get a proper version, I will opt to do so.

So........... will it be on Nintendo Switch, or will I need to get a Switch 2 for this??

@NintendoWife

Live A Live is a lot shorter than Octopath, so if your free time is at a premium, I'd recommend Live A Live first. it also has the benefit of being broken up into distinct chunks, which can each tell a full miniature story within the span of one play session.

The situation is annoying, where companies rely on code-in-a-box versions for western releases. Square Enix does this with Chrono Cross, FF X / X-2, and Capcom did it with Monster Hunter Stories 1.

This is a bit silly to say, but... I'm glad that there still exist regions where stable internet is not a guarantee? ... because it means fully on-cart versions will continue to exist.

And I'm super thankful for Play-Asia to allow me to get ahold of these versions. Even if it is expensive.

Been playing Omori.

I completed one ending, and I restarted the game in order to see another ending.

It's a good game. I really like the characters and interactions and everything. Combat is unique and simple, though maybe not as fleshed-out as it could have been. And I love exploring the environments and talking to all the silly NPCs.

And... there are moments that really stick with you.

Even though most of the game is spent in a colourful silly fantasy world, it truly is a dark story.
There are moments that hit you hard, and can completely recontextualise the entire game once you learn what's really going on.

It's a very sad story.

But it's really really good.

I never properly got into Gradius - my experience is always that I start playing, and I'm doing okay to begin with... but then I reach level 3 with the moai heads, die, and now my ship is useless without the upgrades, I can't deal with any of the obstacles, and I proceed to lose every single life in a row.

There's just no recovering from a single death in Gradius, to the extent that there may as well not be any lives to begin with. Might as well just game over me immediately.

...And the prospect of playing all the previous stuff again just to get up to the point I died is not very appealing either, because the autoscrolling nature of the game means it'll always take just as long as it did the first time.
...I dunno. I just find it to be a an extremely punishing slog. Am I in the minority? Is there something I'm missing that makes Gradius more appealing than I'm giving it credit for?

Best announcement of the Direct by far.

Rhythm Heaven is one of my favouritest things in existence, not even kidding.

I don't even care that it's 2026, I'm just happy they're doing it at all. I can wait. We've been waiting for so long anyway.

I don't particularly care about getting this game any time soon (maybe in the future when I've run out of other things to play), but I just wanted to say... I think it's good to see Pac-Man is back to using his classic look these days. If this is the version we see in cross-promotions like this, then that means Namco considers this the design with the most appeal for their brand.

...I'm thinking about that "Ghostly Adventures" redesign from the Wii U days, and how it took Super Smash Bros for 3DS to get the classic Pac back.

I have to wonder, had Sakurai not insisted on using the classic Pac-Man design for Smash Bros, would Namco have kept the Ghostly Adventures redesign going forward?
...Or would it be more like Sonic Boom, where the designs were primarily for the sake of the TV show and it was always going to go back to normal afterwards?
I'm not sure. The fact that the 2014 "Pac-Man Museum" release used the Ghostly Adventures design despite otherwise being completely unrelated to the show makes me wonder what Namco had in mind at the time.

@Duncanballs

That's because it being removed is actually a bigger deal than it being added, believe it or not.

After finishing Romancing SaGa 2, I played Gimmick! 2, and while I did enjoy it, it did not enamour me to nearly the same extent as the original Gimmick did. Was by no means a bad game though.

I decided to start Omori. I've always been a big EarthBound fan, and I enjoy Undertale and Deltarune and Yume Nikki, so this game seems like an important one to add to my repertoire. So far so good. The characters are full of personality and the colouring pencil art style mixed with pixel graphics is really good. Very curious to see where the story goes.

I've never played any of these Koei strategy games before. It looks like there'll be a learning curve, but I'll be willing to give them a try.
This is a very good update. Four games at once, all deep strategic games that never became mainstream popular. Gives them another chance to shine, and offers something that isn't on the service already. I hope to see more great updates in the future.
...Just so long as they don't get removed like Super Soccer.... and unfortunately that'll be the biggest concern I have regarding NSO from now on. :/

Nintendo has been absolutely horrible about including control customisation in their games, I hope this is a sign they're willing to take things more seriously going forward. And I hope they even go as far as to update their older games with more options too.

Metroid Dread for example requires you to hold R to charge the Omega Cannon, and press Y to fire it, while also holding L to aim. Three buttons to hold at once at opposite ends of the controller, with no controller remapping options, is simply just bad accessibility.

hmm.
This makes me feel like I should get back into making more of my own youtube shorts about videogame esoterica. I like this kinda stuff. ...I made a handful of shorts for my own amusement but didn't really continue.

I didn't know about this fun fact in particular, though I haven't really played enough Stadium to have much of it in my head anyway, so this was just mildly fun rather than mindblowing.

mmm... I've not played this game before, so it's a little disappointing to hear all the voices are being recast. I would have preferred being able to experience it as it was originally... It isn't too much to ask for "classic mode" to just keep in the classic voices too, is it? :/