The Nintendo Switch

I would be okay with the metroid controls if i could work off the d-pad and not the stick.

^ yes. I never used stick on either Hades or Dead Cells, always D-pad, it's more precise

I allowed myself 30 minutes of Metroid over lunch and it turned into 60 minutes of trying and failing to get "that one nearly impossible shinespark missile in Ferenia". I guess it's only a series of nine precisely executed commands (boost run, jump, wall jump, slide, bomb, unslide, press-down-to-charge, return and slide, execute shinespark, eat your lunch) but I couldn't get it. I have a headache

looks like disco elysium is out on switch tomorrow

I relented and bought it a while back for the PS4 but haven't played yet. I heard that a lot of it is text driven so doesn't really benefit portable mode. Plus, even the PS4 apparently had lots of issues at first, and I figured the Switch is even more prone to that sort of stuff when it comes to ports. Curious how it's received, though.

Tell me about Disco Elysium. If I’m not into dialogue-only games like Kentucky route zero, is this a bad idea? It Looks like the gameplay is a bit more varied.

Yeah, I'm super intrigued. I've heard so many good things about it for so long, from the start, that I've mostly kept myself in the dark and bought it blind. The only thing I've heard is that there's a lot of text involved, but I don't think it's a text driven game, not as I understand it. (It also has its own thread iirc.)

i dont think it has gameplay other than point+click and choosing text options? theres no combat if thats what you're looking for

i finished metroid dread today. it's a fear-based game, and i learned that at the end of the day, the greatest fear of all is "how far is this game going to send me back after this 'game over' screen?"

incredible game. highly recommended even if you're not a huge metroid fan.

ive not finished it but i would agree that it is a very good and serious game

Yeah Dread rules and I'm trying to not just blow threw it.

Not that this guy is consequential, but I came across this and lol what a dumbass.

https://www.denofgeek.com/games/metroid-dread-david-jaffe-difficulty-rant-controversy-reactions/

I've found the puzzle/exploration in this to be fairly straightforward and well designed so far. I remember getting stuck in Super Metroid for hours at a time.

Dread's difficulty is very finely tuned wrt boss fights. My first (and only) win was maybe my 20th attempt at the fight, and I'd gone from "dying within the first twenty seconds" to "progressing through to the final stage of the battle without taking damage" very quickly

What is stunningly difficult in Dread is the shinespark stuff. I'm about seven collectibles away from 100% completion, but those seven collectibles are Herculean feats of timing and precision... the last such flagship title that I grudgingly abandoned before 100% because it was just too hard for me was Yoshi's Island

Also, what David Jaffe is citing as "bad design" is a long-standing feature of Metroid's style.

I mean...

https://www.nintendocastle.com/images/guides/metroid-nes_brinstar_energy-tank01.png

There is also a big pop-up on the bottom of the screen early on that literally says "if you come to a dead end, try shooting your surroundings"

Obv a David Jaffe problem and not a game design problem.

It's odd because as much as Metroid has come to mean "big unlockable map and upgrades," the series is absolutely also infamous for impenetrable secrets and such. A la:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksQA0vgKF_A

yeah i did not read the piece but i have some sympathy for the idea that weird randomly hidden stuff is "bad design" but its also a metroid trademark at this point which is cool

It was obviously the straw that broke the camels back regarding is frustration for current game design, so much so that he couldn’t see that this specific example was not as good as he thought it was to make that point.

His*

Secrets are essentially marked on the maps in this one too! Plus that ability later that scans the area for breakable blocks.

I think this has a well tuned level of difficulty so far. Occasionally challenging but hardly anything approaching maddening, unless you’re going for one of the more involved (totally optional) secrets. I haven’t gotten that one skill mentioned above though.

it's important to not take jaffe seriously, he aspires to be the ben shapiro of games

idk the 'bomb every unmarked wall randomly to figure out how to progress' design in older metroid games is pretty obnoxious. i played through fusion for the first time recently & it was pretty terrible about it. dread tones it down significantly, there's usually decent contextual clues & it happens nowhere near as much. i still had to look up which wall to shoot once or twice though but it was more "why didn't i think to check there" than the "why would i ever expect i would need to check there" of fusion.

Still wish Fusion/Zero Mission were actually playable somewhere! Skipped those on release.

loved zero mission back in the day, basically another super metroid in style and quality. fusion was fine but i never finished it

I went back and 100%’d it. Oddly enough I figured out two much-easier ways to shine spark two of those last assets than any video demos describe! Had a “maybe I’ll start a Twitch channel” moment but that passed

It's odd because as much as Metroid has come to mean "big unlockable map and upgrades," the series is absolutely also infamous for impenetrable secrets and such. A la:

📹

Sorry I have to post his resident evil review. I haven’t laughed this hard in a while

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GduwxBZAxs4

*taps the 'do not encourage dunkey' sign*

Oh he has a bad rep?

nah i think everyones just tired of his stuff getting linked constantly. especially as some sort of referendum on the quality of a game when he's often specifically seeking out janky bits to make his vids funny

especially as some sort of referendum on the quality of a game when he's often specifically seeking out janky bits to make his vids funny

I have a suspicion he seeks out or emphasizes janky bits because ... yeah, it's funny! Certainly encouraged by the way people customize or hack so many games. And certainly no worse than not funny folks ripping on a game for, like, inconsistent frame rates. Besides, he can be just as funny playing with a game's built in mechanics, like his Dark Souls videos or Breath of the Wild, where esp. in the latter he's hilariously riffing on or reveling in the game's possibilities.

Regardless, I don't think he seriously offers "referendums" on anything, or if he does, it's infrequent. It's almost always with a wink.

I have a suspicion he seeks out or emphasizes janky bits because ... yeah, it's funny! Certainly encouraged by the way people customize or hack so many games. And certainly no worse than not funny folks ripping on a game for, like, inconsistent frame rates. Besides, he can be just as funny playing with a game's built in mechanics, like his Dark Souls videos or Breath of the Wild, where esp. in the latter he's hilariously riffing on or reveling in the game's possibilities.

Regardless, I don't think he seriously offers "referendums" on anything, or if he does, it's infrequent. It's almost always with a wink.

his dark souls vids are hilarious

i do like dunkey fwiw but he's been doing the same shtick for a long time now and i don't need or want to see every single one of his vids/takes

Yeah I dont take his actual "reviews" seriously, he definitely misrepresents the games for entertainment value same as his normal videos. They always come down to "here's another funny video where I go out of my way to make a game look silly and broken, but this time I'm gonna use my serious voice and act like you can expect the entire game to be like this and everyone on social media is gonna take my word for it"

And I only really value his opinions on platformers because that seems to be the only genre he actually likes

Guy has his own school of criticism huh

you should feel bad for liking him calstars

jk he's very popular here and i like his videos

Aw, as someone who tries hard to play games without interacting with gamer culture, I enjoy his stuff as it’s so freaking basic, and he doesn’t do that whole nihilist fake adult swim vibe that seems to be in most games “humour” videos

But I get that he could be too much of a so-so thing.

He's always in character to some extent so I know to not really take any of his criticisms too seriously.

The funniest thing I've seen involving him recently was when he was watching the last big direct and they announced the Mario Movie cast... it was as if the universe made its own Dunkey video without his involvement and then showed it to him for him to approve.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFdkZNVtS5Q

Omg I didn’t know about any of that casting outside of Chris Pratt. I kinda love it tbh.

Dunkey enunciates like he's delivering a monologue at the Stratford Festival but with a vape shop cashier's accent

He also has a video about "illogical" game pricing which JiC must love.

Heh, I think I posted it.

finally got one of these, primarily for BOTW. really slick, impressive piece of technology

congrats! worth it for BOTW alone tbh

the oled one looks even more slick but i dont think i can justify buying another, will hope the switch 2 has oled from day 1

since i went in cold, i thought i'd save 50 bucks and go for the medium tier one. now i am left wishing i had a bigger screen, but eh. i also don't think i felt like hunting around for the OLED (just let me think the supply chain has wrecked distribution for that model, thanks)

the base switch screen is still a good quality panel, they didn't cheap out there, oled is just very deluxe

I have purchased the expansion bc I am weak. Holiday travel with OoT impossible to resist. Must know if Starfox holds up.

Mapping the n64 c-buttons to the right analog stick feels...hostile

Starfox 64 is still magical, takes me right back to the Target demo. Just need some strangers to stand uncomfortably close behind me, waiting for their turn.