The Nintendo Switch

But it created the game genie market, which then converted the beautiful game hardware forms into a grotesque amd shameful monument to "winning".

you plug a cartridge into the genie, insert the hybrid mass into the mouth of your games machine, and now your basement is Moreau's Island

how exactly did the Game Genie work? my understanding is all it did was mess around with some commarea that held global variables, so for whoever was creating the Game Genie it was just a matter of figuring out which hex value got you to the hardcoded number of lives or timer speed or whatever

one thing I remember is the 'unofficial' Game Genie guides, which would include some very bizarre 'cheats'. you remember that dude in Mortal Kombat who would pop out of the corner and yell "Toasty"? you could actually play at that guy! well...sort of. your character would just be that animation, you could move around but I think as soon as you hit punch the game would freeze.

yeah it just messed with the memory, the codes were basically memory addresses

I’ve returned to Super Mario Wonder over my holiday break. I put some hours into it when it was first released, mostly just sprinting through levels, not spending much time soaking it in.

Taking more time with it now, replaying levels to catch stuff I’d missed, seeking out overlooked Wonder Flowers (maybe the best mechanic introduced into a Mario game imo).

Found the secret world (optional) with genuinely gnarly and difficult levels. Celeste-y. Beat a few by the skin of my teeth, saving the rest for after I clear the main game.

If you can play it on a proper TV and use a Pro controller, do it obv. Improved my experience immensely. It looks gorgeous and the joy cons just do not cut it for precise platforming.

Anyway. I think this is my favorite Mario game. More of this please.

It is great. We enjoyed 3D World and U, but this has been a new level of fun for us.

I bought Hori Split Pro controller add-on, the big one with a far more ergonomic feel, and it really does make this feel like a new console

I guess this is where the Mario chat is? My kids have been obsessed with Mario for the past year or so, we don't have a Switch yet but because I said 'we're not getting a Switch this Christmas' they think they're getting one next Christmas...hmmm

Anyway they have been playing old Wii games, New SMB (thought this was too difficult to start with but 9yo has gotten really good), and Super Paper Mario, which I played when it came out and have really enjoyed revisiting - it's made my kid a decent player. They're on SM Galaxy now. Have been watching player videos of SM Wonder which is giving them their fix for now too.

There's a pretty strong chance that an new, upgraded Switch console will be released in 2024 so holding out isn't the worst idea.

I hope so.

seems like it

how long after is comes out before you can get one tho! folks

Playing SM Wonder with the switch SNES controller is the only way to fly..

best in class D-pad and just enough buttons to control but nothing extra...

using joycons is like driving with boxing gloves on.

I generally like the pro controller but it doesn’t quite hit the sport for side scrolling or platformers. I should try the SNES one.

Wait, I have to have a Nintendo online membership to use it??

just buy a 3rd party snes style controller, 8bitdo makes them

i got my son the 8bitdo controller that is basically a souped up snes controller with all the pro buttons, it’s great

agree that the 8bitdo SN30 controller is great

at least for SNES games & games that use the d-pad for movement. the pro controller is probably better for games that use the left analog stick.

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2021/04/8bitdo-pro-2-gamepad-review-a-50-bargain-for-cool-features-killer-performance/

this is the one

the sn30 is flat like a snes controller htats the one i was thinking of but that looks good too

power went out last night so after the kids went to bed the only thing to do was play Mario Wonder. I know it's been said a lot ITT but holy hell is it a great game. I have always thought Mario at its best was kind of a psychedelic experience and this game is just nothing but that. so many clever things going on in each level. also kind of the perfect difficulty, I think Nintendo has figured out that games shouldn't be too difficult to beat but should offer legitimate challenges for those who want to see everything

every stage is touch fuzzy get dizzy

Reminds me a lot of the more psychedelic levels that people created on Mario Maker.

well we finally beat it. final boss battle was great. credits sequence somehow even cooler. there's just so much stuff in this game.

man beating these Special World levels really does bring back memories of the Tubular dimension in Super Mario World

my eldest just completed Super Mario Galaxy (Wii) and my youngest got upset all morning, crying inconsolably. had to check the end bit and it was because the lumas sacrificed themselves :-|

ha oh no