Yes, Monthend Roundup or whatever it’s called is being posted a day early. That’s because there’s a HUGE article coming out tomorrow, and it’s very important to me that it goes live on Canada Day. So that’s that. Why am I explaining this? You don’t care.
~ Game Over ~
Mega Man 8 (Switch) – I was never a huge fan of this one, and replaying it in 2018 only serves to remind me of how it just doesn’t measure up to the rest of the series.
Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon (Switch) – A truly immaculate homage to Castlevania 3. Maybe a little on the easy side, but at least it never feels impossibly difficult, like its inspiration.
Mega Man 5 (Switch) – Now this one, this game is way too easy. The one NES Mega Man that I can burn through without even considering a save state. But it’s still very charming and creative!
Mega Man (Switch) – I don’t especially like Mega Man One. Why are his feet so slippery? Why do those big stompy guys hurt so much? How do you beat Yellow Devil without cheating?
Shaq-Fu: A Legend Reborn (Switch) – I’ll just say this: I’m glad I got this for free.
~ Now Playing ~
Pokémon Quest (Switch) – It’s a grind. A never-ending and wholly unsatisfying grind. Luckily, you can just set it to auto and let it grind itself. I still wouldn’t recommend it. Grind.
Tales of Berseria (PS4) – I have no idea why Berseria isn’t jiving with me the way other Tales games have. Whenever I play, I get a strong urge to do anything else after about 10 minutes.
MGSV: The Phantom Pain (PC) – I have become obsessed with this game, and now whenever I see a cargo container, I instinctively want to attach a Fulton balloon to it to steal it away.
Fallout Shelter (Switch) – It reminds me a lot of Middle Manager of Justice, only more post-apocalyptic. I don’t know that I have room in my life for another “waiting” game, though.
Fran Bow (PC) – A horror-themed point-and-click adventure game about a sick little girl who abuses pills to hallucinate solutions to puzzles. Also she may or may not have killed her parents.
I Am Setsuna (Switch) – Picked this back up because I want to finish it before Octopath Traveler next month. Unfortunately, I was saved right before a ridiculously hard boss…
This is it: the big collection of video game commercials that I’d been aching for since March. Okay, yeah, with that qualification, it’s obvious that I was 90% in it just for the Smash. But hey, there were other neat things, too! Let’s take a look at the sentence or two that I had to say about them!
Daemon X Machina – OOH ANIME MECHS. I LIKE. It’s like the best parts of Xenoblade X but made by Platinum and Suda51. (Except not. It’s actually Marvelous making it.)
Xenoblade 2 DLC – Speaking of Xenoblade… Hey it’s that promised story expansion DLC for the game that I’ve still only seen like 50% of. It’s a prequel with a new titan, I guess? I don’t know, the narration was Japanese and my phone was sitting on a stand that obscured the subtitles. Obviously I’m going in on it, because Xenoblade 2 is freakin’ sweet and yeah I’ll take any more of it that they’re willing to give me.
Pokémon Let’s Go – No new information here. Just Reggie pimping the lame Pokéball Plus accessory. But it does give you a free Mew, so…
Super Mario Party – I don’t have friends, so I don’t care. And even if I did, I’m sure they’d just dump all over it instead of playing with me. Dig the logo, though.
Fire Emblem: Three Houses – It’s Fire Emblem on Switch, which is so cool, which I’m down with. But I have played exactly one Fire Emblem game ever, and I have my doubts that I’ll be adding this one to the list any time soon.
Fortnite – Nope. Don’t care. I do like how not-gritty it is, though. And cool that it’s out NOW.
Overcooked 2 – I’ve heard many times that Overcooked is great, but again, with the lack of friends and all.
Killer Queen Black – Like, seriously. No friends. Okay, one friend. But that’s still not really enough to care about multiplayer party games.
Hollow Knight – Ah! A single-player game! There we go! But I’ve played it already, so… oh, what? It’s available today? And only $17? Hey, I mean, it’s not like I paid money to play it the first time…
Octopath Traveler – New demo with carry-over data… but I really don’t have time to fit that in at the moment. I don’t even know that I’ll be able to make time for the full game come July.
Sizzle reel – Mostly things shown at other presentations, or that are already out, or are getting DLC soon. Nothing that made me shriek with joy. Dark Souls still doesn’t have a release date, and Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate made an appearance. Hi, 5 seconds of Mega Man 11!
Super Smash Bros Ultimate – There was a lot to process here, so rather than trying to clean it up, here’s my stream-of-consciousness notes, hastily typed as I was watching: Oh Sakurai, you joker. Link has new moves! Zelda is Link Between Worlds style!! (<3) Ice Climbers are back! Pokémon trainer! Lucas! Ryu! Ganondorf looks better than ever! Cloud! SNAKE IS BACK! Pichu! Toon Link AND Young Link! Wolf! MEGAMAN! Every fighter ever is back! This is amazing news! BIG BLUUUUE! Daisy?? (Aw, dangit.) Inkling seems awesome, and I love the Squid Sisters assist trophy. But where’s Off The Hook? Bomberman assist trophy? Nice! Ooh and a deadly Fake Smash Ball! GOOD LORD RIDLEY MURDERED MARIO AND MEGA MAN.
Verdict: Super Smash Bros Ultimate is out on December 7 and that’s all that matters. Everything else was gravy at best, or I just didn’t care. Smash is all I wanted from this presentation. It’s all I wanted from this E3. And by God, they delivered!
Only two more weeks, and then I can go back to not feeling bad that I’m spending far less time studying than I should be.
~ Game Over ~
MGSV: Ground Zeroes (PC) – Completed the mission and… that’s only seven percent of the game!? Oh boy, it looks as if there’s much more to this than it first seemed!
Agatha Knife (Switch) – I thought there was going to be a stronger element of horror than there actually was. Turned out to be mostly comedic in tone. Still a fun adventure game.
Horizon: Zero Dawn (PS4) – Even though I liked it overall, I’m mostly just glad that it’s over. Could have used a lot more dinosaur-based robots. Too many modern herbivores.
MGSV: Ground Zeroes (360) – Played through again for a better rank, and was awarded an A. Then I did it again and again in a vain attempt to get an S rank. Didn’t happen 🙁
Mega Man 4 (Switch) – I bought both Mega Man Legacy Collections on Switch and this was naturally my starting point. Playing it without the slowdown or sprite flicker is a revelation.
Mega Man 10 (Switch) – Maybe it’s because I’m less familiar with it than the original sexology, but I’m not digging this as much as I did when it was new.
On Tuesday night, The Pokémon Company released a tidal wave of information on new Pokémon games. I’d been waiting for this eagerly since some rumours had leaked earlier in the month, and I have to say that I am even more hyped than expected!
Starting small, the Alolan form of Exeggutor has been added into Pokémon GO. This is somewhat surprising, as a week prior, Alolan forms were announced to be coming, but I didn’t expect them to be dropped in one at a time. Plus Exeggutor won’t answer my burning question of whether or not the candies I’ve stocked up for Kanto forms will work on Alolan forms. Guess we’ll just have to keep waiting to see how it all rolls out.
Next up is the new freemium spin-off, Pokémon Quest for Switch (coming soon to your smartphone). It’s a game with delightful voxelly graphics where you let your Pokémon run around and beat up other Pokémon while gathering ingredients for cooking and crystals for powering up. It’s reminiscent of the Pokémon Rumble series, but a little more hands-off. I’ve already put in about an hour of play, and I can’t say whether it will hold me for long, but at least it doesn’t seem too bad about microtransations (yet). But I will take this opportunity to mention that I still play Pokémon Shuffle every single day, and I haven’t spend a single cent on it.
The big news is that the first major Pokémon game for Switch is coming this November, and it’s the heavily rumoured Pokémon Let’s Go Pikachu and Eevee. I didn’t have a lot of confidence in it, based on some of the rumours that it would integrate elements of Pokémon GO, but now that I’ve watched the trailer about seventeen times, I cannot wait for it.
Pokémon Let’s Go is a sort of reimagining of Pokémon Yellow Version, which is already a huge win in my book. An HD remake of Kanto? Sing me up! But the gameplay is significantly different, sort of a halfway point between Pokémon GO and the traditional style. Most noticeably, random encounters are gone, and wild Pokémon battles aren’t battles at all: you just chuck balls at the Pokémon you run into and hope to capture them. But then trainer battles seem to boast the same battle system as usual, so that’s cool. I wasn’t sure how I felt about this at first, but in the end I think it’s a great change. Random encounters are annoying, and wild Pokémon battles are mostly just there for grinding, so I’m okay with them being trimmed down.
The other massive part of this game is that it supports a ridiculous new peripheral: the Pokéball Plus. Not only does this thing somehow function as a controller, but you can also transfer a Pokémon into it and take it on a walk to earn experience, much like the Pokéwalker that came with Pokémon Heart Gold and Soul Silver. Unlike the Pokéwalker, this thing is a separate $60 purchase with a battery life of only three hours. I honestly love how goofy the Pokéball Plus is, but it’s way too expensive and inefficient/pointless for me to ever consider actually buying.
So the end of the story is that we’re getting a full Pokémon game on Switch this year, even though it’s a little different than what most fans expected. I, personally, am 100% on board with it for now, at least until I hear about something that could be an actual deal-breaker. Besides, there was also a confirmation that a “real” Pokémon game for Switch is also in the works, and that it’ll be released next year. So even if Pokémon Let’s Go turns out to be a dud, at least we know that a more traditional Generation 8 is right around the corner.
Remember a couple years ago when Pokémon GO came out and the world went absolutely bonkers over it for like two months and then you never heard about it again?
Would you believe me if I told you that there are still tons of people playing it?
Yeah, maybe it’s not in the news any more, but Pokémon GO has definitely still got a very respectable player base. I’ve been back into it over the last couple months, and have even participated in the two most recent Community Day events, which is where I learned that people are still playing this weird little phone game.
Community Day is a bit of a misnomer. It’s really Community Three Hours, and the event is always based around a different Pokémon. During the event period, this Pokémon appears very frequently, has a higher chance of being shiny (a very rare palette swap), and probably gets a special move for battles. Going out on Community Days was an eye-opener, as while visiting popular spots around the city, I was shocked to see droves of people walking around poking at their phones like crazy. Some were wearing team colours, many had cords attached their phones that disappeared into their jackets or pants, and some just looked like normal people (like me). But they were all there to get their Pokémon on.
The greatest thing about these Community Days and all the people they bring is that I’ve finally been able to play in a few legendary raids. I mean, you can do them on your own, but you will never win, so it’s really a waste to even try. I’m not going to start associating with these people online through Discord groups or anything, but if they show up for four minutes and help me catch a rare thing, then sure, I’ll play nice for a bit.
Anyhow, that’s my two cents for the day. If I were more social, I’d be even more excited about all this, but that’s not me. It’s just fun to see other people enjoying a dumb thing that I also like.
Apparently I played all the video games in April. Despite going back to school. I think that should be a wake-up call that my study habits are not quite where they should be.
~ Game Over ~
Yoshi’s Island (SNES) – Man, that final battle is cool. Aiming’s a little finicky, but still really cool.
Shantae: 1/2 Genie Hero: Pirate Queen’s Quest (WiiU) – I am bowled away at how much I enjoyed this remixed DLC mode. It’s almost as good as Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse!
The Count Lucanor (Switch) – The great thing about my Switch is that my backlog of unplayed games was sitting at just one, and now I’ve played and finished it. And wrote about it at length.
Into the Breach (PC) – Failed right at the end, so I knocked it down to easy mode for the next run and completely steamrolled the game because easy mode removes nearly all of the challenge.
Part-Time UFO (iOS) – I guess I shouldn’t have been, but I was caught off guard when this cute physics game about stacking objects trotted out a giant boss fight and a crazy-hard final level.
Remember last time I did a write-up of a Nintendo Direct, and I wasn’t really interested in most of what they showed off? Well, there was another one yesterday afternoon and it was a whopper. This time, I found myself profoundly interested in nearly all of the titles shown. That said, let’s take a more detailed dive into the presentation.
The first slew of games are all for 3DS, pretty much confirming my theory that Nintendo intends to keep riding the 3DS train until the end of time.
Wario Ware Gold – Yeah, I’m very interested in this. I haven’t played a Wario Ware game for what seems like forever, and they’re always super fun. But I don’t think I’m actually going to buy it. Since my budget is a lot tighter these days, the fact that I already own all the Wario Ware games I need is reason enough to take a pass on this “greatest hits” version.
Monster Hunter World (PS4) – I’ll level with you, I didn’t actually beat this last month. I write up these entries beforehand based on assumptions and when the game turned out to be much longer than I anticipated, couldn’t be bothered to correct it. But it is beat for real now. Promise.
Super Mario RPG (SNES) – Initially, I thought that this was a game one could burn though in a couple quick sessions. That is not the case. It’s actually respectably long! And still a lot of fun!
Uncanny Valley (PS4) – A neat indie horror adventure, which I played to the least satisfying ending and then couldn’t make more time for because of my obsession with Monster Hunter.
RiME (PS4) – I was having a great time up until chapter 2. Then I was having an adequate time up until chapter 5. Then I just sat there and quietly wept for 20 minutes. (More words.)
Thimbleweed Park (Switch) – I thought it would be a brisk run, but it took me 15ish hours to solve this bad boy, and that’s having used the hint system very liberally. …I may just be really dumb.
Lords Mobile (iOS) – I downloaded and played a bit to get free hashcoins in Greasy Money, but the offer expired long before I reached the requirement T_T What a waste of a Sunday morning.
Mega Man X (SNES) – Much consideration went into the choice of what the first video game I played in 2018 would be. But it really couldn’t have gone any other way.
Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls (PS4) – A shooter spin-off of a visual novel mystery series. So for every 5 minutes of gameplay, there’s 20 minutes of dialogue. Still liked it.
Xenoblade Chronicles 2 (Switch) – I purposely waited until 2018 to finish it so I didn’t have to reorganize my “best games beaten in 2017” list. It would have been much too hard to place.
Rhythm Thief and the Emperor’s Treasure (3DS) – Dug this up to beat it so that I could delete it to make room on my SD card. It’s actually an excellent game. Reminds me of Space Channel 5.
Mr. Pumpkin Adventure (WiiU) – A highly surreal point-and-click adventure about helping a pumpkin-headed man with amnesia to remember who he is and why he’s an amnesiac.
Monster Hunter World (PS4) – Tore through the story quests, because the game doesn’t really begin until you gain access to the High Rank quests. Loving it, but longing for portability.
~ Now Playing ~
Resident Evil 7 (PS4) – Booted ‘er up for the first time in a long while to dive into all the DLC from the season pass that I bought with the game last year and subsequently ignored.
Pokémon Ultra Sun (3DS) – The adventure continues, at a rate of about half an hour a week.
Yooka-Laylee (Switch) – I don’t know how the game was when it initially launched, but I think that the current version is generally a very good homage to Banjo-Kazooie.
Volgarr the Viking (Switch) – Almost beat world 2, but man, the boss is really tough.
Horizon: Zero Dawn (PS4) – After a painfully slow start, it’s definitely getting its hooks into me. Except when I had to kill a bunch of people with a chain gun. That was really dumb.
Milkmaid of the Milky Way (iOS) – Retro-style adventure game about a rancher who must… rescue her cows from aliens? Fun, but the rhyming text often feels forced and gets annoying.
Super Mario RPG (SNES) – Played via emulator, which caused the game to crash quite often. Funny, I don’t have that problem when playing on an actual console…
Nintendo shadow dropped a little Nintendo Direct this morning. I mean, sort of. The date leaked online a while ago, and Nintendo had been making vague tweets in the days leading up to it, but it was never formally announced. So as a Nintendo-focused blogger, I feel like it’s my sworn duty to go over it and write up some thoughts.
The World Ends With You: Final Remix – I bought the original version on DS, and played it for roughly an hour before it got lost in the tide and I sold it due to lack of interest. I can tell you definitively that this port would suffer the exact same fate, so I’m surely just going to take a pass on this one.
Pokkén Tournament DX DLC – I didn’t buy Pokkén DX, because I have the original on Wii U. And while adding Blastoise is a very effective hook if you’re trying to get my money, it’s still just not enough to get me to buy this game a second time. I didn’t get into it as much as I hoped I would the first time around, I doubt the second time will be the charm.
Kirby Star Allies – Okay, now we’re talking. I love Kirby games, obvi. But to be honest, I was thinking about skipping over this one. I mean, I know that I’ll enjoy it, but Kirby side-scrollers are all pretty samey, so I was thinking maybe just play Planet Robobot again and save myself the $90. Can you believe that things have gotten so bad that new video games cost $90? (After tax, that is.) That’s just ridiculous. I need a cheaper hobby.
I’ll probably end up buying it anyway. It’s just to gosh-darn pretty!
Some demos – I have zero interest in Kirby Battle Royale, and I already have Dragon Quest Builders on PS4. Pass. Pass.
Hyrule Warriors Definitive Edition – I already own this game on Wii U and 3DS. I’ve purchased the DLC packs on both versions. I’ve spent approximately $185 on this game already. And yet, I can’t help but desperately yearn to buy it again on Switch. I’m going to do my best to ignore it, but don’t be surprised if one day I write a blog post about how I couldn’t afford food for two weeks because I bought friggin’ Hyrule Warriors a third time. I don’t mind buying a game a second time if there’s some added value, but when you get to a third or fourth purchase, that’s where I have to start drawing lines. This version adds nothing but Breath of the Wild costumes. Not exactly a major draw.
Mario Tennis Aces – I like that Camelot seems to be putting some heart into this one, after the last three or four Mario Tennis games were half-assed disappointments, but the fact of the matter is that I never really get into these Mario sports games. Likely because I have no friends to play them with.
Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana – I won’t lie, 90% of the appeal here is that Dana character and her excessively skimpy outfit. I don’t usually care for the terrible costumes that female characters get in JRPGs, but this one really clicks with me for some reason. Other than that… ehhhh. I don’t know enough about the Ys series to care, and my budget just doesn’t have room for something that I don’t get an immediate urge to purchase.
Super Mario Odyssey: Luigi’s Balloon World – It’s a free update for a game I already own. So yeah, I’ll probably give it a go. Don’t see much appeal, though.
SNK Heroines Tag Team Frenzy – Meh. I have a King of Fighters game on my Switch. I already never play that enough.
ACA NEO-GEO Art of Fighting 2 – What did I just say?
Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle DLC – I love this game and I love this trailer, but I don’t think I’ll be buying this DLC. I’ll give it an honest consideration if I ever get around to finishing the main game. But, that’s not looking too likely.
PAYDAY 2 – Don’t care.
Fe – Sorry, I stopped watching. What was this?
Celeste – I was only half paying attention while this game was on. I don’t know what it’s about, but the visuals certainly smack of something that I would dig.
DKC: Tropical Freeze – Oh hey look another Wii U port that I’m not going to buy. Don’t get me wrong, Tropical Freeze is a magnificent game in every regard, but I haven’t even finished it. And the Funky Kong mode looks like a good way to give players an “easy mode” without shaming them like Super Kong. Still. Unless it’s coming in at half-price, I can’t see it happening for me.
Dark Souls Remastered – UH HUH YES DAY ONE.
Praise the sun! To think that a port of a game released in 2012 is the thing that excited me most from this presentation. But, it’s Dark Souls. Dark Souls. In Japan it’s been confirmed that it won’t even be a full-price release, so woop woop here I go again to Lordran! Gonna be prepared to die on the bus! On my lunch break! On the toilet! Prepared to die everywhere!
Plus I never bought the DLC for my 360 copy, so there’s even some new-to-me content in there!
