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Eliwood8

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Everything posted by Eliwood8

  1. There's always GameFly. It's far from perfect but I've gotten a lot of use out of it.
  2. I'm still not totally sold on re-buying Radiant Historia, even though it is one of my favorite DS games, but I'm glad it's getting released stateside.
  3. I haven't played it either but it looks cool, and I've heard people say they like it better than Dead by Daylight. I like the look of its asymmetric multiplayer and the cooperative nature of the survivors' side.
  4. All the people that I know personally that have bought a Switch also own a Wii U, but it's pretty clear that the Switch is a bigger part of the current pop culture zeitgeist than the Wii U was, possibly even at the height of its popularity. But more to the point of this thread: like other people have already said companies port their games forward to new systems all the time, especially if it's an easy way to pad out the early library for a new system. Personally I have no interest in rebuying games I've already bought on the Wii U, but I'm not shocked to see them rounding out the Switch's library for now.
  5. I didn't really expect anything huge from this Direct but still found it kind of dull. They've gotta have something Pokémon related release this year though, I suppose. And I agree that they should've released Gold and Silver on the VC today or next week or something. Giving a VC game a release date three months away seems weird. Pokkén Tournament: Koffing Edition would be great.
  6. Got some good time in with Twintelle. I did pretty well with her; I like the combo of a Chilla and Thunderbird arm. I don't think I took advantage of her unique skills very much, but just using her normally worked pretty well for me anyway. Plus it was fun to try out some of those other game modes that weren't available last Friday. The team battle against Headlok is really fun, it's nice to have a co-op mode for a quick change of pace. Skillshot is pretty good too, and Hoops isn't bad except for the fact that my opponent and I forgot the whole point of the mode and were just fighting each other until near the end when I scored the only basket in the match.
  7. The first game's campaign ended up being pretty good despite being fairly basic. With a few new bells and whistles in Splatoon 2 I'm excited to see if the campaign will be even better.
  8. The latest in the Art Academy franchise brings in iconic Disney characters for a little star power. Disney Art Academy teaches players all the basics of drawing and painting with over 80 Disney and Pixar characters as examples. It's not the most in-depth game but familiar Disney faces may reel in young players, while the art lessons are surprisingly useful for burgeoning artists. There are two game modes in Disney Art Academy: free paint and lessons. Completing lessons unlocks new character guides that can be used in free paint as well as increasingly more complex lessons in art design. For a game clearly aimed at young kids the lessons cover a good range of design basics, from color theory to using action lines to guide a character's pose. Each lesson uses a familiar Disney character as an example, which makes it easy for players to grasp the concepts imparted. As far as the "edutainment" genre is concerned Disney Art Academy does a great job of teaching useful ideas to young artists. The only real problem with the lessons is how slow they can be. Some lessons have a bad habit of belaboring their concept with excessive steps, which can make it a little difficult to remember what the main point was. On the upside though you can save mid-lesson and return later–perfect for kids who might not sit down to play for long stretches of time. Disney Art Academy isn't just a digital sketchpad, it actually provides numerous tools for you to play with. There are pens, markers, brushes, and spray paints to experiment with, three layers you can switch between so you can build a base image and add colors, and sliders that let you change the thickness of a line or the opacity of paint. The game provides a lot of freedom which can lead to some fairly complex creations, everything from Mickey and Goofy to more recent 3D characters. Free paint mode lets you use various Disney and Pixar characters as a guide while you paint or you can use any picture saved to your SD card. Combined with the 3DS's cameras you can make a recreation of literally any image you could want. Disney Art Academy also provides several options for sharing your creations. Obviously there is Miiverse for quickly uploading images, but you can also share your work through local wireless, and even through download play. That last part doesn't make much sense considering you could just hand someone your 3DS to look at it but it's nice to have the option. With its touch screen design the 3DS is well suited to painting in Disney Art Academy. While you work on the touch screen the top screen shows your reference image and will zoom in and move around as you do. The stylus on the 3DS may not be as perfectly precise as an actual pen in your hand but it works well here. The downside is the D-pad and ABXY button controls are a little clumsy since you'll always have one hand occupied by the stylus, but it's not like you're meant to be racing through this game anyway. There's not much else to say for Disney Art Academy. It's an art teaching tool with a friendly Disney face attached to it, and in that respect it accomplishes exactly what it sets out to do. The lessons contained within are well presented and varied, even if they do drag on at times, and the freedom of using any image in your SD card as a guide helps give the game some legs after you've experimented with painting all the Disney and Pixar characters included in the game. Disney Art Academy is a fun teaching tool if you're looking for something in the edutainment category. Rating: 7 out of 10 Mickeys My creations:
  9. Nah I'm kidding, it's a pretty terrible movie. It's only memorable for how ridiculous it was. But it's the kind of thing I'd watch on TV as a kid just because it was on, not because I thought it was worth watching.
  10. Horrible? Would a horrible movie have given us gifs like this?
  11. $20 per year is tolerable. I fully expect the free game library to be littered with games I've bought/gotten for free through other Nintendo reward programs for at least the first year though.
  12. I'd be fine with digital only entries if Nintendo didn't want to go all out, just release more Advance Wars! I'm not really expecting anything more to come from the franchise though.
  13. Indivisible is a Platformer/RPG hybrid currently in development for PS4, Xbox One, and Steam, and today they just announced it will also release on the Nintendo Switch alongside all other versions in early 2018. The game is developed by Lab Zero Games, the studio behind the Skullgirls fighting game, and published by 505 Games. In Indivisible you play as Anja, a good-natured tomboy whose home is attacked, sparking a mysterious power within her. Anja will explore a vast 2D world via side-scrolling platformer gameplay, and she can summon incarnations of other warriors to fight alongside her in RPG style battles. Indivisible boasts hand-drawn 2D animation and a soundtrack from legendary Japanese game composer Hiroki Kikuta. Indivisible will also have a collector's edition release featuring a custom tin, art manual, and physical edition of the game. You can pre-order at their website http://www.indivisiblegame.com/ and check out more information on the game there. ****************************************** I hadn't heard of this game before now but it looks beautiful. I'm definitely going to keep an eye on its release now.
  14. Should've updated this before going on vacation. These are from the past couple of weeks. - The Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth+ (Switch) Pretty engaging rogue-like game. If I had bought a copy I'd probably be compelled to keep playing a lot more of it. [image] - Breath of Fire (SNES - Wii U) I had to double check that this was an SNES game, 'cause parts of it feel way more dated and old fashioned than RPGs like FFIV, FFVI, and Chrono Trigger. Overall it was okay, but between objectives being poorly explained and battles being best run on auto it was hard to get really invested in the game. [image] - Mirror's Edge Catalyst (PS4) I had forgotten that this was a reboot so I was really confused by the story at first. Anyway the core parkour gameplay is still pretty entertaining but the open-world format was a mistake. Running through the same areas over and over got to be so boring. [image] - Transistor (PSN - PS4) Apparently it was recently the 3 year anniversary of the game's release so I thought I'd replay it. It was a lot shorter than I remembered, though I'd also forgotten how complex the function stuff can be which is pretty fun to experiment with. [image] - Puyo Puyo Tetris (Switch) Two solid puzzle games in one. I kind of suck at Puyo Puyo but swap and fusion are pretty fun anyway. [image] C: 39 H: 11 P: 0 M: 0 O: 50 Challenges: 24 points
  15. I still haven't gotten around to I Am Setsuna yet either but I'm excited to see a new RPG for the Switch. The trailer is pretty impressive!
  16. I admit I don't follow competitive gaming well enough to recognize any of the names here, either players or announcers, but these tournaments should be fun to watch!
  17. Just using your smartphone for voice chat doesn't seem too ridiculous to me. Needing to tether your phone to your switch to your headphones seems pretty ridiculous to me.
  18. I can't help but be distracted by Shion's hair; it looks like he's gone Super Saiyan.
  19. As nice as it would be to have representation from every Fire Emblem game, I don't really mind focusing on a few if they manage to make the roster diverse and interesting. In Hyrule Warriors Agitha seemed like a really weird choice but after playing the game I kind of appreciated the variety of characters. Besides, there's definitely going to be a ton of DLC for this game, and then probably an "ultimate" version with everything collected plus another couple of bonus characters. Glad I'm not the only one that immediately thought of that.
  20. True, they easily could have gone further with it to make it more consistent, but I just saw it as kind of a funny easter egg since I don't think that's happened in any Fire Emblem game before, at least not that I can recall right now.
  21. Kind of wish there was a reminder of how to change your target lock right before starting a 3+ player match, especially since that was the first one I was thrown into. After a couple of those I had to back out to check the controls. Otherwise that was pretty fun. I mostly played in standard controls instead of motion controls though, because moving with motion controls never quite felt as smooth as I wanted it to be. It was better with a normal control stick, though it's also just an aspect of the game that you don't move super fast. Tethered team matches are pretty chaotic with a random teammate. In one I felt like I was constantly fighting with my partner. I think we just had different play styles and were tripping each other up. If it was best-of-three instead of one match we might've had time to acclimate. It is neat to have a lobby where you can see how other players' matches are progressing, though maybe it should be more than eight players. It wasn't that long but there were still times where I was just waiting for someone to finish. Volleyball is more fun than I thought it would be. Since you have such reach and there's no limit on how many times you can hit the ball it's actually easy to recover. And spiking the ball by reaching over the net is pretty sweet. I'm gonna be on vacation starting tomorrow but I'll try to play more next weekend. I'm still not totally sold on the game but I'm warming up to it.
  22. It's basically MHX Ultimate. Notably there are two new hunting styles, Prowler gets some new options, a couple of new flagship monsters, and G-rank quests.
  23. Puyo Puyo is a well-known franchise in Japan, but here in the US there have only been a couple of localized Puyo games, with some of the earliest released under different names, such as Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine. The core concept of Puyo Puyo is fairly similar to Tetris, though: in both games you either play alone for a high score or go head to head with an opponent to clear out Puyos or Tetriminoes and pile up garbage Puyos or blocks on your opponent's side. Anyone that has played Tetris knows it is fiendishly addictive, and Puyo Puyo is much the same. Their combo in Puyo Puyo Tetris yields one of the best multiplayer games in the Switch's early line-up, whether you like Puyo Puyo, Tetris, or the chaotic combination of both on one screen. Before we dive into the multiplayer aspects of Puyo Puyo Tetris, I should mention the game does feature a single-player adventure mode, which may be a helpful introduction to players unfamiliar with either puzzle franchise. Worlds collide when the characters of the Puyo Puyo universe–from games not released outside of Japan–find their hometown inundated by strange blocks falling from the sky. Similarly, the inhabitants of the spaceship SS Tetra–characters named after Tetriminoes, i.e. Tee, Jay, Ess...you get the idea–find their ship plagued with Puyos. The two groups team up to clear out the respective infestations and find the source of the trouble. It's a totally goofy story, but then how could anyone take a puzzle game mash-up story seriously anyway? The writing is somewhere on the level of a Saturday morning cartoon, so don't expect much hard-hitting drama. It's charming for what it is, but just as easily skipped, especially since players outside of Japan won't recognize the Puyo Puyo cast anyway. Individually Tetris and Puyo Puyo are great puzzle games. Most people know Tetris so I'll spare the explanation there, but Puyo Puyo has elements of both Tetris and Puzzle League (or Panel de Pon). Puyos drop in from the top of the screen and you need to decide where to place them, but rather than just clearing Puyos your ultimate goal is to build combos by chaining Puyo clears. It's a little trickier than Tetris, but arguably more satisfying when a plan comes together. Regardless, both puzzle games are ridiculously addictive, and Puyo Puyo Tetris even includes handy lessons to teach new players some of the finer points of playing both games. Things get really interesting when Puyo Puyo Tetris combines its two game modes. There are several modes for playing the two separately–standard stuff like score or time attack–and when playing against another player both of you can choose which game mode to play, but there are also Swap and Fusion modes. Swap has you playing both games at once. At set intervals the screen swaps–or switches, eh?–to the other puzzle. It's pretty seamless and it requires you to be at least basically fluent with both since the garbage can pile up before you know it. Fusion takes it to another level and has you play both puzzles on a single screen. Tetriminoes and Puyos filling up one screen, cats and dogs living together, mass hysteria in the streets–well maybe not that far, but Fusion is crazy–in a good way. What's interesting is that Tetriminoes are "heavier" than Puyos so they always fill the bottom of the screen. This can lead to some advanced strategies, like "pushing" Puyos up in order to set off combos. Plus Tetriminoes can destroy garbage Puyos by squishing them which can be a lifesaver move. For anyone that has played Tetris for years this is a fun new way to play, plus it might help new players understand Puyo combos a little better. The other unique game modes in Puyo Puyo Tetris are a bit less exciting. Party mode includes items which are set off by clearing a line or combo next to them. It's simple enough for Puyo Puyo but in Tetris it can be tricky since items are square 2x2 blocks and clearing only half of one will leave a hole in your board. More importantly the items can feel a little too powerful at times, and since they are randomly selected it makes a game that is focused on skill feel a little too chaotic. Still, Party mode is okay as a quirky break, it's just a little obnoxious in adventure mode when it is required to progress. There is also Big Bang mode which is basically a test of speed: clear as many boards as you can in the time limit, and whoever earns more points from this will damage the opponent's health bar. It sounds like a fun idea but in practice it's more like the equivalent of puzzle game button mashing, especially in Tetris. And when a match goes on for a while it can be fatiguing. Big Bang probably would work better in short bursts rather than an entire game mode. Multiplayer, naturally, is a lot more fun than trading Tetriminoes with the CPU, and Puyo Puyo Tetris has a few different ways to let other people in on the action. First there's local 4-player multiplayer, which also allows for teams which is perfect if one or two players is a Tetris savant and the others are more casual. The game also features multiple customization options such as handicaps to help even the playing field. Multiplayer includes all of the major game modes aside from single-player challenges so there is a ton of potential for replay value. There is also local wifi if you have another Switch console and just really want a screen to yourself. Finally there is online multiplayer, which includes free play and ranked matches. As of the posting of this review free play seems to be mostly a ghost town unfortunately, so you're best off coordinating with friends, but you may be able to find players in ranked. Like a lot of games the real value of ranked is to add stakes to the match to keep you coming back for more. This is one place where Party and Big Bang feel like true nuisances but thankfully there's an option to avoid playing those modes. For the most part the online connection feels fine, though even a bit of button lag feels problematic when you're used to playing Tetris as quickly as possible. Thankfully there's an option to search for other players with a strong internet connection as well, though that may limit your pool of potential players even further. For most people the Tetris controls should feel like second nature, and the Puyo Puyo controls aren't too different so it's easy to jump right into the game. Surprisingly the game offers several control options, including a one-handed mode, so if you need to you can customize the controls to your liking. On the presentation side of things Puyo Puyo Tetris is just as cute and bubbly as the adventure mode's writing, complete with cuddly side-kicks too. There's not a ton of variety to the visuals but what more could you really want out of a puzzle game. There are options for changing the look of Puyos and Tetriminoes, and even that feels like going above and beyond. The music isn't particularly noteworthy; it's fine, and it includes the recognizable Tetris theme in a fresh remix, but the music tends to be overshadowed by the voice acting. Again the voices are bubbly and cartoonish and just a tiny bit obnoxious when they spout out catchphrase after catchphrase, but the good thing about puzzle games is that you can completely ignore them with pretty much no repercussions. Adventure mode only lasts around six hours or so, depending upon how good you are and how much you need to retry levels. That's not bad for a game that is focused on multiplayer, though. Plus you can try to earn three stars on each level, which will definitely take some time, and there are bonus levels after you complete the story. Even if you are playing strictly in single-player Puyo Puyo Tetris has a good amount of content. Of course, in multiplayer the game is endlessly playable, especially since you can easily play online. The game also has a neat feature: you can save replays of your matches, so if you have a particularly satisfying victory you can keep it for posterity, or maybe even reference smart strategies. Puyo Puyo Tetris is two great games in one, and the point where they meet is surprisingly fun as well. The combination feels almost shockingly natural, and provides a great twist for players that are used to Tetris but may not be familiar with Puyo Puyo. Puyo Puyo Tetris is a great pick-up-and-play title for puzzle experts, multiplayer enthusiasts, and most importantly the point where they meet. Rating: 8 out of 10 Puyos
  24. Glad to see Monster Hunter is going to be back on the big screen (although I guess it's also a small screen in handheld mode...). I would rather have MH5 but who am I kidding, I'm definitely buying this if it releases stateside.
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