The Nintendo Switch

yeah there's nothing NES or SNES about Celeste to me, it's just pixel art

i'd even go as far as saying it's closer to ori and the blind forest in aesthetic than it is to an explicitly retro platformer like shovel knight

Octopath got me thinking about it yes. Their sprites seem to be straight out of Chrono Trigger and the worlds they are in are 3D models/not 16 bit. I'd have to look around for other specific examples.

I just feel like I keep seeing trailers featuring simplistic character sprites in front of intricate backdrops and that dichotomy seems designed to make geeks in their late 20s-30s drool.

the environments use the 16 bit textures but with modern lightning effects which works out to a kinda unique effect but yeah it's definitely going for nostalgia on some level.

First Steamworld Dig is out on Switch. Loved the sequel, do I want to original? Most consider the 2nd one an improvement. How about Night in the Woods? Do I want that?

haven't played the first dig but have been told that 2 basically obsoletes it i.e. it doesn't do anything that 2 doesn't also do but better. so I'm passing on it.

Night in the Woods is a well written but depressing story-based game with themes of mental illness and small town American decay and young people coming to terms with the fact that they've inherited a broken world.

Overcooked is really fun, if really stressful.

We've played Overcooked a few times, and I still can't tell if it's good or bad for our family.

It is the Sunday IKEA trip of video games.

Haha Overcooked is a major argument starter. Get out of the way!!! WHERE ARE THOSE BUNS I ASKED YOU FOR!!!

Indeed, I would not recommend weighting allowances and birthday/holiday gift budgets by Overcooked performance as I've done in my family.

Octopath has an early 2000s 2D-on-3D aesthetic, reminiscent of Golden Sun's battle scenes and the original Ragnarok Online. Don't think I really like it, tbh.

i think it looks way better than e.g. lost sphear which is made by squeenix's other retro studio and has the most generic look ever

I like that kind even less - the low-poly style early 3D look aping the PS1/N64 generation (and rehashed for so many DS/3DS-era/mobile ports), but point taken

https://www.engadget.com/2018/02/01/nintendo-labo-hands-on/

Is Golf Story any good? I see it's on sale, but as the owner of Stardew Valley (which in retrospect I can't imagine playing) and Thimbleweed Park (possibly ditto) ... I dunno. Thimbleweed ... I mean, I grew up playing King's Quest and Space Quest and Police Quest, but this didn't seem like that, the little I played.

Anyway: Golf Story?

thimbleweed is more like a lucasarts game than a sierra game

i liked golf story but i never figured out putting

Golf Story is a bunch of fun

golf story is alright, the golf itself isn't as tight as the game boy mario golf games that inspired it but it's still worthwhile

anybody getting dragon quest builders? i've had my eye on the ps4 version

owlboy's out next week

Labo looks like expensive cardboard

And makes me feel like there's always a moment every few years when Nintendo is no longer my friend and is trying to trick me

The early labo reviews and previews have been pretty positive. I mean, it's not for me, but if I were a kid or someone with younger kids that might be appealing.

Owlboy, I've been looking forward to that one, but I keep reading how it's all style and no substance, looks great and sounds great but the game itself is kind of so-so. True? I am more excited about Hollow Knight.

i will buy owlboy and hollow knight sad to say. still flailing at celeste

Thimbleweed Park is worth persevering with, it's really fun. The difference from when I was a kid is that, I just don't have time to play as consistently, so if I take a few weeks' (or months!) break, I always forget where I am in the story. I'm sensing this with Zelda a bit, too.

And makes me feel like there's always a moment every few years when Nintendo is no longer my friend and is trying to trick me

The issue I had with Thimbleweed was its repetitiveness. You have your person on the screen, and at the bottom you have things they can do or say. So you read all the things they can do or say and choose one, then the character says or does that thing, or both. Which feels redundant and takes forever. Tbf, I played it for maybe 10 minutes, but it felt a bit like watching paint dry. But at some point I'll give it another shot.

Still really like Thumper, when I play it, btw.

i got thimbleweed on steam and tried it for a few hours and found it dull

i thought the first half of thimbleweed park was good and then it went off the rails. so if you're already not into it at the start then i'd say bail

anybody getting dragon quest builders? i've had my eye on the ps4 version

i played the ps4 version when it came out. rentals aren't a thing anymore, i guess, but it would be the perfect rental. i was really into it for several hours, i built up my base, collected some key items, took down the first big boss...and then i never played again. part of it was confusion: the game vaguely told me that i should head "over the mountain" (or something like that) to access the next stage of the game, and after several journeys looking for the destination, i just gave up. but also, i knew that once you go to the next area, you essentially start over from the ground up, and i wasn't looking forward to that. i dunno, ymmv, but it was one of those games where it was really fun until suddenly it wasn't at all and i just left it behind.

i think the demo is up on switch for that?

Doom finally getting a patch on Switch to deal with all the problems people have reported since December. Meanwhile, Sexy Brutale, which had been dealing with apparently debilitating issues since its release in December, finally got the patch it was promised ... which not only failed to fix the problems but made the image quality worse, so the designers had to recall the patch! Now that's some incompetence for you.

Anyway, excited about Doom, finally, which means I can get excited about Wolfenstein later, too.

Intrigued about Owlboy and Fe, both of which could be great or all style and no substance. Totally not intrigued about Bayonetta, which fanboys seem to dig for 5 million punch and kick combos but which looks run of the mill to me.

i think bayonetta is great and i don't even like character action games in general. it's just one of the most ridiculous over the top experiences in gaming. haven't played the 2nd one but i certainly will grab it at some point

i bought the bayonetta two-pack for the wii u, played for a bit and enjoyed the mechanics of it but ended up getting seriously squicked out by the way the camera constantly leers at bayonetta :(

And there's a 3rd one coming, too, right?

I saw one review of 1&2 that basically said what makes the game sort of unique are the bazillion combos, but that most people just pick 2 or 3 that work and stick with them.

the fighting system is fun, but tbh that's not the draw - the hyper-schlock absurdity is
also, GOD HAND had a crazier fight system, where you chose your moves from a long list and strung them together in lots of ways

that's not the draw - the hyper-schlock absurdity is

yeah it's from Platinum. they made Metal Gear Rising. they are basically the spirit of Contra/Shinobi era videogame craziness taken to modern era

can confirm owlboy is boring and pretty

aw

What about Fe? Is that out now?

Fe looks boring and pretty on purpose.

Fe? more like

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

too bad the Secret of Mana remaster looks like hot garbage. they need to localize the Japanese Seiken Densetsu Collection stat

the music i've heard from the secret of mana remake sounds like an intentional sabotage of the original ost

the rest of the game looks that way, too.

that's pretty frustrating to hear. some indie needs to cash in on a spiritual sequel/remake for real. hell, kickstart it and get Hiroki Kikuta to do the score, you'll gain a million right there

Hey, look, they must have seen my occasional complaint on this thread and finally patched Doom! If I can find a copy for less than $50 I think I'll buy it.

just picked up Bayonetta, preordered Kirby & rebuying Dark Souls.

this machine........