KoolK

So I messed around with the game for about 10 hours and wanted to give you my impressions. I won't include any spoilers or anything that might impact your enjoyment of the game. I just wanted to give you all a quick rundown of how I feel about the game so far - without going into specifics. I have the collectors edition coming on the 12th so I'm going to wait to play more, because I don't want to have to replay half the game when my copy finally arrives. As such these are pretty much the final impressions I'll have until then. That said, I won't overly mind replaying these initial hours, because the opening sections of this game are more interesting and flexible than they were in BOTW. Being as early as I am my opinion could of course change, but this is how I feel about it so far. As a preface let me say that I did not love Breath of the Wild as much as I thought I would. I was on an overseas vacation when it came out and still spent an entire day going store to store to find a console and copy (yeah I know I should have pre-ordered) . I failed and had to pay scalper prices when I got back home instead. So yeah, I love Zelda, but I didn't quite love BOTW. I felt like it was a beautiful home with bare bones furniture - a proof of concept of what could be an incredible Zelda game, but missing a lot of the things that made Zelda, well, Zelda to me. I liked it, but I also don't hold it in the highest regard as a Zelda title. As an open world game I feel that it's a notch below RDR2 and Elden Ring (to me), although it undoubtedly does some things better than those games did, such as the sense of exploration, variety of locations, controls and fluidity of gameplay. TOTK put the furniture in that home, and then some. To me, it feels like the jump between the original Zelda on NES and A Link to the Past. It massively fleshes out every aspect of the game. The characters, places, and gameplay mechanics are much deeper than in BOTW, making it a far denser experience. I'm barely into the game and it's already thrown more things for me to think about than BOTW did during my 120 hours with it. It feels like a blend of old-school Zelda, BOTW and something entirely new. If you're someone that wanted Zelda to marry the incredible open exploration of BOTW with a bigger helping of classic Zelda flavor you're going to be happy to see that done here. It's a Zelda game made for two audiences - new players who might have experienced Zelda for the first time with BOTW, and those of us in our 30s and older who love the classic games. I'm usually not a fan of games that try to appeal to everyone, but I feel they mostly did a great job pulling it off here (with some exceptions). I did not feel that way about BOTW. It also reminds me of the transition from Ocarina of Time to Majora's Mask in terms of feel. It's familiar, yet the experience is all new. It's darker, more brooding and kind of eclectic but traditional at the same time. It's not just a DLC, it's a fully realized sequel. It mixes familiarity with a completely new experience like MM did. I will also say that I was not a big fan of the minimalist soundtrack of BOTW. To me the soundtrack of these games is incredibly important and the soundtrack of BOTW was severely lacking. The music in TOTK is much better. I'll leave it at that. This is my favorite soundtrack of the post Majoras mask games. Ultimately, if I had to boil my impressions down into two words it's density and balance. It's much denser, and it balances old Zelda with new far more successfully than BOTW ever did. Personally I advise against playing the game floating around out there. It has some annoying resolution/aliasing issues that I don't think you'll see in the official release. The fact I enjoyed it as much as I did despite those issues should be a testimonial to the quality of the core game.

Yeah, the game does seem to do some rigging for whoever the predicted winner is. Doesnt always work, but I've noticed whoever gets predicted ends up getting not only the bonus that comes with it, but awesome dice throws and bonus stars in the end too.

Yeah, it could use more boards. Hopefully they add some as DLC. Also bummed about toad not being a playable character. The gae could use more characters in general. I wasnt a big fan of super Mario party either. The biggest problem I had with it was how damn slow it was. 120 minutes for 20 turns, vs 90 minutes for 30 turns here. It made SMP unplayable for me. What do you personally find improved compared to SMP though?

Hey man, it's been a few decades! I heard whispers that you've been spotted lurking around in these parts, but I had to see for myself. Once the original Nsider went belly up I kind of lost interest - there were so many casualties that the few of us that made it out and survived kind of dispersed into the ethos. I hate to admit it, but I think all the negativity that I may or may not have been a part of might have played a part in them going under. Your eternal optimism (sometimes, maybe, fanboyism, but I dont judge!) really carried that place though. I'd say I'm a lot less negative when it comes to Nintendo (and I guess life in general) than back then. I still have my personal pet peeves with the big N, but ultimately I've learned to just enjoy the things they do that I do in fact like. You had me beat by 20 years there I guess. A man ahead of your time. I did skip a Nintendo console for the first time in my life in that span though - The Wii U. It just didn't jive with me. But I'm back on this train now. I'm really liking the switch. I got two - one for, lets just call it 'homebrew' and another for online games, special editions or just games I want physical copies of. I hope they continue this hybrid approach going forward. Lot has happened since we last spoke. I have a beard, my balls dropped and I have a few grey hairs now. I did enjoy those Goldeneye sessions we had on the Wii though. The proximity mine spam was real. What games you play now? I'm a slave to Rocket League, easily the most played game I've ever had. Really love the 5 minute bursts between bouts of work, and playing it with friends. You ever play it? My partner cant handle 3D games though due to motion sickness - but Mario Party with its isometric look poses no problem, so that's been our jam. So how you been? PS: You went from a Sage to a member, what is this BS? You need to tell the higher ups you wont stand for this kind of disrespect.

Yeah, I think thats a risk with games that require such a chunk of sit-down time like Mario party does. On the other hand, games have been surprisingly close in all the ones I've played so far. I play mainly against my partner and two CPU's, and despite me crushing the individual minigames, the various board mechanics add so much unpredictability to the game that I've only won two games, by only 1 star each, and lost the others by a star each. In each game final results were in the 2-4 star range for the winner, which means that end game bonus stars often swung the pendulum. This could be a bit of a bummer if you would prefer your performance on the mini games to dictate the results of the overall game, but I've found the unpredictability of the boards themselves to be fair, and they ultimately elevate each game instead of creating boring blowouts. Hopefully that will also decrease the number of rage quitters, since you're never really out of the game. I'm fine with the game switching CPU's in for the real players, since I would still have my partner on the board. However, if I was playing solo I could see being left with nothing but CPU players being boring.

It's coming out on Friday, but rom dumps are already online for a few days now. I plan on buying it in the end for the online functionality. The game is really good.

I've been playing it the past few days, and the game is excellent. The best Mario Party package in the franchise. Been a fan of the series for a long time now, despite some of its recent disappointing releases (Super mario party was not my thing). I love the ability to speed up CPU turns and text. It makes a BIG difference. The boards are excellent. The mini games are the best collection in any MP game - and the system does an awesome job of cycling unique games in every session - I have not had a duplicate game in multiple 30 turn sessions. There are no real duds and many standouts. This is the best Mario Party game - and by some distance.