Jonnas

That makes, now what, 7 distinct racing games on the N64 NSO? Surprising amount of variety in this console alone. (Even more, if you count the minigames in Mario Party & Pokemon Stadium)

I watched it with my girlfriend over the weekend. Quite disturbing, which goes to show how well made it is. We were definitely asking ourselves how much of it was true to Richard Gadd's personal experience. There was so much to unpack there.

Finally tried out the demo: it's pretty fun! Only did Level 1-1 and half of 1-2 (I originally intended to stop at the end of 1-1, so there's some proof of fun) The controls need some time to adjusted to (as with most 3D platformers, admittedly), but it's definitely aiming for that sort of platforming that's fast and pleasant. Like, it feels like it scratches that "Super Mario 64" itch, but with moves that have nothing to do with SM64. Penny's grounded moves are a typical dash and a sonic-style spin-dash. Her aerial moves are a double-jump, an air-dash, and a weird swinging motion that serves as a longer-reaching double jump. She also has a regular attack and a spinning yo-yo attack to fend off penguins (and solve certain obstacles). Level design reminds me of Kirby & the Forgotten Land: very linear, no camera control, some set pieces here and there, but there's always space for occasional exploration and side-objectives. Feels like a fast-paced platformer in 3D, done right.

So, this Switch release kind of came and went without too much fanfare, huh? I hereby appeal that y'all give this game a chance, it's really fun. But there is something weird: the game doesn't save your button configurations. Every time I start it, I have to change them from the default (B to jump, Y to attack) to how I prefer them (A to jump, B to attack). It's bizarre, for such a modern game.

Should I take this as "Better than anything else", or "Nothing is worse than this"? I hope it's the first one, because I really like this film (rewatched it not too long ago, too).

Demo impressions: still rough around the edges. It feels good to play, and it mostly hits that fast-paced cartoony feel it's aiming for. But I see three issues already. Levels are way too big. Each level in the demo is roughly twice as long as your average Wario Land 4 level. One of the escape sequences is 5 literal minutes long, and if you die during it, you get sent back to the moment you turned the switch. It really highlights just how long these can get. There are secrets and collectibles scattered throughout the level that you have only one chance to try and get (sometimes it's because they're dependant on breakable, non-respawning blocks, but mostly it's because the levels are filled with points of no return): if you fail to get them for whatever reason, you need to open the menu and select "Restart from Checkpoint". And you better hope that checkpoint wasn't too long ago. The "springy ground-pound" and the "shoulder bash-run" are two distinct moves assigned to the same button. Might seem fine at first, but it becomes obnoxious for many a platform section. The first two seem tied to the game's design philosophy, but the third point can still be fixed before the full release. Overall, this feels like a game that was made for hardcore Wario Land 4 fans, specifically the ones that like to speedrun through levels. Hopefully the final game won't alienate the more casual folk. Demo impressions: This game looks and plays lovely, but I got some major ABZU vibes from it. Seems that the gameplay loop is just exploration, jumping and gliding. I do hope the final game has some puzzles to solve or something, because "exploration-only" gets old somewhat fast for me.

I didn't get a single prediction right! Little Kitty, Big City still looks lovely. Open-world cities are usually not my kind of game, but a cute realistic cat will win me over; YARS Rising looks like a cool Stealth Metroidvania. Caught my attention; Refind Self looks... intriguing. I'll wait to see how it's received; ANTONBLAST is one I had heard about a year or two ago, even before I heard of Pizza Tower. Imma try the demo. Meanwhile, Nintendo really should release Wario Land 4 on the NSO; Lorelei and the Laser Eyes still looks like a heck of a game. Looking forward to it; Europa looks decent, and more importantly, seems to have a Portuguese developer behind it... feel obligated to try that demo, now; TMNT: Splintered Fate is not my genre in the slightest; Cat Quest III looks super cute, but I'm not sold on it; stitch. looks lovely, and it's one to consider; Steamworld Heist II was not on my bingo card. I thought the first game was a solid 4-star game, so I'm hoping this one can bring us that extra oomph the series needs to achieve greatness. Didn't care much for the other games. Honestly, even though there weren't any big hitters, I thought this Direct was super solid. There were a lot of appealing games that caught my eye, way more than I expected.

I second the Silksong prediction. I think this is it. If we do see Silksong, I don't think we'll be seeing Mina the Hollower. These directs only need one "big" Indie to make a splash, and if Yacht Club isn't rushing to show it, I don't think Nintendo would insist (unless they were desperate). I think we'll see an official announcement of Penny's Big Breakaway demo. News on Shantae Advance would also make sense. The rest ought to be totally new. And that's fine, because after writing all that, I'm surprised at how many high-profile Indies are likely to appear already. ... I also think we won't see Freedom Planet 2 on the highlight reel, but we should Get that game on your Switches!

Is it Vyse they're ripping off? On a more serious note, I'm loving these impressions, @Julius. The game looks gorgeous, too, in a way that's distinct from other 2D-HD games.

As if chess wasn't complex enough...

Sprigatito's line looks cute and stylish. Good theming with grass too. I like her a lot. I was hoping the evolutions would resemble the Iberian Lynx a bit more, but "Harlequin cat" is a good theme as well. Fuecoco's line looks cute and goofy, in all the best ways. After the very anthropomorphic starters we've had for the last few generations, it's nice to see one that just looks like a very cool animal again. And yeah, it's very Mexican-themed. The Iberian peninsula has hats that resemble sombreros, but the skull-face on Skeledirge is very Dia de los Muertos. I do not like Quaquaval. They had such a good thing going with that handsome Donald duckling, and then he just turns into a peacock? Bah. The tail does turn into a stereotypical Rio Carnaval parade costume, and the dancing... it has the right idea, but he needs some work to improve: (Disclaimer: I am not Brazillian, I have never participated in Rio's Carnival, nor have I grown up with the culture. But even I can see those hips aren't shaking enough) Anyway, the theme here is clearly "festivities". Meowscarada represents European Carnival, Quaquaval represents Brazillian Carnival, Skeledirge represents the Dia de los Muertos. Seems straightforward to me.

Yeah, that game got announced and released on the same day I posted that update! That was some shmupping good timing.

Good guess It is the anniversary month. But I didn't mean a game from the pledge, I meant another April release... ...But before I ever explain whatever that means: A Jonnas NSO Update Watching Sakurai's channel has been a treat, he's got a lot of insight into a myriad of details. One thing I noticed is that he seems to be a big Shmup* fan, having referenced quite a few titles from this genre throughout his videos. I was never really into the genre, so I did feel a tad alienated whenever he made any such reference. With the NSO carrying quite a few titles from this genre, I figured it would be a good idea to delve a bit deeper into it, try to find something to connect with. *(For the record, "Shmup" is short for "Shoot'em Up". I insist on using this abbreviation, because... we western gamers have somehow called two distinct genres the same thing: "Shoot'em Up" refers both to the genre with auto-scrolling ships (like Gradius) AND the genre with run&gun marines (like Contra). Thankfully, they both have alternative, distinct names, so "Shmup" it is!) The 8-bit Shmups I knew I wanted to start with Xevious. It's the oldest one, and often mentioned as a reference in the genre. I didn't actually like it much, though. I did think that the bombing mechanic was interesting, but between the endless level, the boss with a time limit (and also a difficulty spike), and the generally slow pace, I got bored quickly. I will give its due as an impressive game for 1982, but that's it. On the brighter side, I finally know what was that Bacura thing in Tales of Symphonia. Next, it was Star Soldier. Sakurai explicitly mentioned this one as a good title in the genre. It's faster and feels more fun, but... what is up with this level design? There's so much metal all over the place, and it blocks your bullets, but your ship can run through just fine? If it wasn't for these weirdly artificial barriers, I'd like it a lot more, but as it stands, it just feels like my shots disappear no good reason. I moved on to Gradius. This is a particularly famous title, almost synonymous with the genre. A bit slow, but plenty fun. There's an element of strategy, with the player having some control on which power-ups to unlock, pretty creative stuff. Sadly, the game got really dang hard from Stage 3-ish onwards: those Moai heads just fill the screen with bullets, and if you die, your power-ups reset entirely, and now the bullet hell is unbeatable. Shame, the game was doing pretty well up until that point. And then there was Twinbee. All I knew about it is that it's a lighter and softer take on the genre. Hated it. There's a power-up system that doesn't seem to function properly, it has the same bombing mechanic as Xevious (but not the slower pace that makes it work, nor the precision that made it fun in the first place), and the game is just too damn hard for what was supposed to be a "lighter" title. I'd say my ranking of these goes Gradius > Star Soldier > Xevious > Twinbee. Can't say I was hooked on any of them (though Gradius came the closest). Probably because they all feature a ship that dies in one hit. The 16-bit Shmups For some reason, my instinct decided to start with Super Earth Defense Force. Might've been the generic look and title, made it a good base starting point. Right off the bat, I'm actually having a lot of fun with it! Music is good, graphics look impressive, it feels super pleasant to simply move and fire shots, and the selectable weapon system made me try a bunch of playstyles. Then I carried on with the game, and found out that the Homing weapon ought to be the default for 80% of the game, because goddamn, so many tiny enemies surrounding you all of the time! But there's a couple of bosses that render Homing useless, which was cool, forced me to adapt my gameplay. Ended up depending on Photon to deal with the final level. I've seen this game get criticised for being too difficult, and I can see why: even though your ship can take 3 hits before dying, you only get 3 lives/credits total for a whole playthrough (no extra lives whatsoever). Plus, despite a sensible difficulty curve, the game gets pretty hard in the later half. Thankfully, if I use the NSO to create save states only at the weapon selection between levels, I can effectively make this game have infinite lives, while still making the challenge count. This ended up being the first NSO shmup I've beaten. 3 stars Looking at the other titles, I really wanted to go for MUSHA. This one really, truly clicked with me, right off the gate. Game looks hectic, game-feel is super fast, but still smooth as butter, and the aesthetic direction of this game (sci-fi with a lot of traditional Japanese iconography) is impressive. I played for several levels without understanding what the heck was going on, or how the power-up system worked, but I was having a blast. I eventually figured some parts of it out, restarted the game, and went on to beat it in full. The last level/boss was a bullshit difficulty spike, but other than that, it was a fantastic experience. 4 stars. I might play it in Hard Mode in the future. Then I went for Thunder Force II. What a downgrade. You command a ship in overview perspective and you go around shooting other stuff. I had no idea when the level was supposed to end, I just... flew around for a long time, blowing up ships and bases, until I got literally too bored to try to dodge anything. I would later learn that this game has more typical side-scrolling sections, but it's not winning me back. How are you gentlemen !! Someone set up us the bomb. What you say? Get signal, all your base are belong to Zero Wing. I was really happy to see this classic 20+ years old meme show up in the NSO, for great justice Legendary opening aside, the game itself felt pretty rote, and overly slow as well. As soon as you get some fully upgrade homing shots, I just kept my finger on the firing button all the time, while waiting for those interminable slow levels to end (Is this what CATS meant by "Make your time"?). I just stopped at some point, looked up the final level, and... I'm sorry, you don't even fight CATS!? Zero Wing, you have no chance to survive on your way to destruction! After the NES disappointment, I kept delaying this one, but I needed to tackle Pop'n Twinbee. Thankfully, it is considerably more fun than the NES game. The colourful aesthetics work a lot better here, the power-up system works properly now, and it is very fun to control and play. I still dropped it quickly though, as the game is insanely hectic. The bombing mechanic is still here, but it doesn't fit the fast pace of the game, and grounded enemies generate an oppressive bullet hell. Meanwhile, you're juggling colourful bells, while still doing the usual loop of shooting airborne enemies and dodging bullets. I actually breathed a sigh of relief when I reached the first boss (a simple, single enemy to deal with, huzzah!), but then the next level was more of this crazy game, so I stopped. I can see this being a hit with hardcore shmup fans, but not me, clearly. What is it with "cutesy" games that fail at being simple and/or easy? (At this point, I was convinced that MUSHA totally spoiled my expectations for the genre, as I wasn't enjoying any of the other 16-bit titles) Finally, another Sakurai recommendation, and one I've seen from time to time: Super Fantasy Zone. I wanted to finish on this one, because it looked to be the most unique and interesting. And in many ways, it really was. One of the few titles to not be an auto-scroller, you just command the ship in a looping corridor (and you can turn left and right!), your mission being to destroy 10 specific objects while tiny enemies respawn infinitely. After that, you face a boss in a more traditional fashion. There's also a cool upgrade system where you collect coins to buy power-ups and weapons, it's really cool (except for the part where new guns have a time limit to be used, that's silly). Overall, a really creative and fun game. Sadly, it's not one I could finish, because... the ship dies in one hit. The enemy bullets are really tiny in this game, and though you can buy extra lives, they get expensive. At one point, I reached a level that was just too difficult for me, and I dropped it. A shame. My ranking goes MUSHA > Super EDF > Super Fantasy Zone > Pop'n Twinbee > Zero Wing > Thunder Force 2 ------------------- This is not the end of my Shmup journey, but it is a good place to pause. I still don't think the genre is a good fit for me, but there are a few occasional aspects here and there that do end up resonating with me. Like being able to survive more than a single hit

Huh, that's curious. I distinctly remember arcade cabinets displaying Puzzle Bobble, both in Portugal and Spain. There was that cute opening where the dinos turn a bunch of spheres into the title screen, hence why it's so vivid. Could it be that European arcades kept the JP name, but home console releases went with the US name? Makes sense. Arena fighters, in their early days, depended a lot on projectiles to even function (another such example is Destrega, for the PS1). Melee attacks are virtually useless when you move that fast, and the target is so small. Developers would only figure out lock-on targeting systems (the one way to do melee combat in Arena fighters) during the following generation. (If you count Wrestling games as Arena fighters, then they do Melee combat by having really small arenas, relatively slow movement, and thought-out grapple systems)

I'm surprised to hear that. I know you love grinding, so I thought this game would click with you right away But grinding isn't my style at all, unfortunately. Starting with MM1 is tough! Easily the hardest one. I usually recommend people start with MM2. While some complain about the slipperiness, I personally think that Megaman feels excessively stiff in MM3. To the point that it's hard to turn around. But only in that game, as he feels fine in the ones following that.