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TotK swapped out all the main abilities and made Gary’s Mod the main focus with the battery power being a new primary stat meter, so it does feel quite different. Also you have a full party fighting with you and two new maps to explore using lots of crazy machines.
Mario Kart 8 introduced tracks that go upside down and underwater, and gave kart customization. Mario Kart World made every track part of an open world map and made open world challenges. Sure the main gameplay is very similar, but it’s definitely not just Mario Kart 64 again and again.
Compare with something like Star Fox, F-Zero, Punch-Out, or Pikmin where the series just languishes until they feel they have a new enough spin to give it. Those games could have much bigger franchises if they changed their philosophy a bit.
That’s genuinely not true. They’re actually infuriatingly devoted to only putting out games with new ideas. We don’t get regular sequels often because they wouldn’t deviate far enough from the previous one.
The spin for this new Star Fox is clearly the camera tie in, getting to basically be a vtuber in their chat system. It also utilizes mouse controls, a series first.
Yup. 5 is probably tied with 3 as my favorite in the series. Glad they consider 4 a good entry as well, because even if they messed with traversal, the sailing theme is bangin
Very sad news. I’ve loved everything Wreden and C418 have made. And the teaser for Engine Angel looks like a lot of fun. But Wanderstop was a little divisive. I really enjoyed it, but I can certainly see that it has a very narrow market.
I’ve had Era’s End on my playlist for years; such a fantastic album to use as focus music. After seeing this story, I’m going to pick up another album of his.
I guess it’s the combination of two industry gameplay types: “voice on the radio” like in Bioshock, and “branching dialogue trees” like in Mass Effect. You choose when to start a dialogue with your counterpart over the walkie-talkie after things you notice, or you can choose not to mention something.
A big factor with Palworld is building up your automation with good base design and Pal management. You assign them to build, sew seeds, water, harvest, transport, mine, chop trees, manufacure items, power generators, etc. As you progress, the systems you maintain get more complicated but provide better services/items/convenience. Exploring is a lot of fun, with Pals you can ride, traversal mechanics like the hookshot, and gliding. Plus all the usual open world mechanics like enemy bases to clear, warp points to unlock, powerful world bosses hanging around, dungeons, and resources to seek out. I’ve sunk probably 200 hours in it with friends.
Yeah I love Pokemon and everything, but this kind of Nintendo apologism is gross. They don’t have a copyright on dog monster or derpy dragon. These are all based on animals and yokai, so obviously there will be similarities. But the idea that there was plagiarism/re-used assets was complete fabrication from the start. If you want to see an ACTUAL ripoff, watch the trailer for Palworld then watch the Pickmon trailer. I’m certain this game indeed plagiarized Mammorest at least, and the game design is identical.
Kind of like saying Call of Duty is basically just shooting guns and if you don’t shoot the right things it sets you back. The fun of the game is getting good at the game.
Personally, I absolutely adore SDV. The music and sound effects are embedded in my soul. The characters are just charming. The pixel art is simple but endearing. Multiplayer is a ridiculous amount of fun. And with the continuous updates, I always feel that I can hop back in to discover more, so it feels like a living world that I visit.
Not just the controls, but the entire game design is utterly unique. It’s a breakneck 2d racing game where you can only see about 1/4 second ahead of you (or less). You navigate jumps and turns by reading the color of the track. It becomes surprisingly intuitive. It’s such a fun game that I wish could be on NSO to see some wider popularity.
It honestly has a decent lineup. Mario Kart World, Donkey Kong Bananza, and Metroid Prime 4 are all solid. I’ve really been enjoying Hyrule Warriors Age of Imprisonment, the co-op has MUCH better performance than the first game. Plus many other Switch games just have better performance on Switch 2, like Pokémon Scarlet/Violet.
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For first party support, Tomodachi Life did just come out, and sales data shows that around half of the sales were for Switch 1. Switch 2’s launch year was certainly lean compared to the excellent 2017 Switch lineup, but there were a lot of heavy hitters from their top IPs and that wheelchair basketball game. With how similar the consoles are, I’d imagine we’ll still get a handful of first party Switch 1 titles like Rhythm Heaven and cross-gen games like Metroid and Pokemon Z-A.
The Switch was fairly underpowered when it launched in 2017, so the fact that we’re even getting new games for it more than a year after Switch 2 is pretty nice. And it’ll get third party/indie support for many more years–Switch 1 install base is the second biggest for a console ever so it’s throwing money away not to continue support.