dartmonkey

I'm surprised some wag hasn't posted this already. Don't worry, team, I'll be that guy, so you don't have to:

You mean the 3D 3D one? I've seen that secondhand in shops, relatively pricey. Hadn't heard anything about a download release. Seems an odd choice but i guess if the rom's just sitting there, why not? It can hardly confuse the version situation any more. I recently played through the 2D 3D one (if that makes sense). Thought it was fine, but there's a glut of quality indie platformers around right now - I think it would have had a greater impact on me 10 years ago.

A lot of the giantbomb criticism sounds like 'There's a timer?? Fuck this game!' and in theory I sympathise. Countdown timers in Sonic and Mario always puzzled me and I think they take away more than they add to those games. But I don't remember it being a massive problem in Majora's Mask. Granted, I haven't played it since it came out but it's not maddeningly imprinted on my brain. And I'm pri.teeee rubbish at games. Doesn't time slow down or stop in the dungeons? The 3-day cycle created interesting puzzle and narrative opportunities and I honestly don't recall getting irritated with it. Edit. Having said that, I also liked the sailing sections in Wind Waker that others found long and irksome. That were some good chill time. Nice scenery. Too fast, too slow - some people are never happy!

STEAM hasn't really piqued my interest. It may fall in the Advance Wars camp, a game I tried to like but it never clicked with me. The visuals I've seen look a bit DSy, which may not reflect much about the game itself but they're not doing anything to draw me in. As I understand it, it's a hybrid shooter-SRPG, right? Hypothetically speaking, if one were to be in the market for a Pokemon game, one's first since Yellow back in the day, would one be better served by X/Y or Ruby/Sapphire?

Yeah, hopefully it'll grow on me with time. It's beautiful but I'm irritated that I'm near the 'end' and I haven't enjoyed it half as much as revisiting Galaxy 2. I'm jonesing for some wall-jump long-jump spin-jump acrobatics. This feels like I'm trudging through soup, as if the limited movements of the level select map have infected the game proper. #Galaxy3

So then, Mario 3D World! I was very excited for it. Polished off both Sunshine and Galaxy 2 (what.a.game.) to make room for it. And it's... it's... It's frustrating me. The controls that worked so well in 3D Land feel restrictive on the big screen. I'm finding it really difficult to judge jumps and position myself, something I had no problem with on 3DS probably due to the stereoscopy. The camera won't go where I want it to. I'm not great at 2D Mario and my lack of skill transfers to this whereas I was a bloody gymnast in Galaxy. I know my Waggle Defense Force thread went down like a fart in a submarine but goddamn it I'm missing that waggly spin jump! And this thing saves every 5 seconds and makes me confirm for some reason. And the little yellow line that fills in after you complete a level is really slow. Should I be swapping characters? EVERYBODY loves this game. I'm on World-Castle and of course I'll complete it, but I bled 3D Land absolutely dry - everything with Mario and Luigi, all the flags, etc, 5 stars on the file - and right now I'm not even feeling like going back for all the stars!

I often find my leisure time soaked up with stuff to do with games rather than games themselves. I'll be perusing the web over breakfast, one thing leads to another and I realise I've spent 90 minutes noodling on amiibo availability info or scrolling through the eBay ending soonest list or reading reviews of games I've just completed to compare my thoughts. I enjoy it but it does eat in to other pursuits. I've got a half dozen unread books sitting on the bedside table, an unfinished painting that's sat there for 2 years. It takes great effort to break away and I'm always surprised how much I enjoy reading when I manage it. But Tetris and Threes are also pretty great!

Turtles are massive now, no? My experience with Battletoads is the Vs Double Dragon game. Good memories, but it's going to take more than that to make a comeback successful. Third person? 2D platformer? Difficult to summon enthusiasm. Killer Instinct is supposed to be pretty good, but Rare didn't do that.

Damn, if I knew for certain which 3DS I wanted I'd order that as a birthday present, but until I see the regular New 3DS in the flesh I don't know if I can stomach the downgrade in screen size from my XL. I swore I couldn't go back after going large but tiny coloured plastic buttons are making me reconsider.

Ow! Hope everything goes okay! Though, for SCIENCE, surely the most crucial piece of missing equipment at your bedside is a Wii connected up to a monitor so you can play the rolling ball thing in the lava world, no?

I very rarely walk into a film blind, but I blind-bought tickets to Whiplash last October at a film festival. I had absolutely no idea who was in it or what it was about, other than it was supposed to be good. I was expecting some kind of auto-horror. It was a wonderful surprise.

But is it irrelevant? Surely it's important, especially to this game? It's like reading a review of The Artist that says it's black and white like old films from the seventies and the characters didn't talk and the screen was all square like an old TV. Is it not a reviewer's job to provide some context for design decisions before judging their merit? 'Not caring' just isn't cricket. Edit. It appears the writer's in his mid-30s and writes for the New Yorker and Guardian, etc, which makes this review stand out as a bit sloppy. I dunno. Nothing to get mad about, it just jumped out at me.

Must be about 75% through by now. Really enjoying it. I came across the eurogamer review for it the other day which got me to thinking about what we expect from game reviewers. The writer made no reference to any of the influences beyond 'retro 16-bit games' and made a couple of errors in the text. My instant reaction was 'where did they find this monkey to write for them' but then I realise he was probably just a kid. Then I thought 'hang on, miscategorising 8-bit as 16-bit probably means he's not familiar with 16-bit either which means he may be one of the Playstation generation, or even the PS2 generation! Poor mite'. Then I got sad. Then I thought 'no, he's a reviewer and even if his first console was a 360 he should have an appreciation and broad knowledge of the medium's history and seminal games, especially with the internet providing access to so much info'. Then I had a cup of tea. Is it too much to expect of a reviewer that they have this knowledge? Is it wrong to think the guy shouldn't be writing because he doesn't have what I consider a foundation level grasp of 8-bit video games? I assume he's just young, but is that an excuse? It wouldn't fly in film reviews - certainly not in a dedicated publication. Basically, am I an arsehole for getting rankled by it? http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-06-26-shovel-knight-review

Possibly. There's a little foil sticker inside under the figure that prevents doing it through the bottom but perhaps you could zap it from the side if the pack was thinner. I got Little Mac and Wii Fit trainer this morning, taking me to five.

Ah, but I grin every time I see those colourful boxes on my desk. Without them the little figures will get sat on and dusty and thrown in a drawer somewhere. If they're boxed, I'll have to display them somewhere which will up my grin quota per day. This is the first 'thing' I've ever fancied keeping in the box. Must be getting old. It's a little strange how big the boxes are - most of them could be half the size. With retail space at a premium you'd think they'd reduce the packaging as much as possible.

I couldn't find a boxart thread and the Super Mario 3D World box makes me so damn happy I thought we needed one. Rules: Post a pic or two with the text (superlative) adjective + boxart. For example: Best boxart It needn't be best or worst, it could be anything. For example: Beefcake boxart It needn't alliterate either. Add some commentary if you like. For example, I miss the simplicity and synergy of the Master System and Mega Drive boxes, like old books that shared jacket designs and felt like part of a collection. Also, I'm not sure what's going on with the dwarf's right leg there.

I'm suddenly having dreams of an entire wall devoted to mint in box amiibo. Somebody stop me. Has anyone got any tips for removing sticky gunk from packaging? It's the really nasty stuff from those security patch stickers that's now kind of hardened.

I challenge you sir, to a duel sir. Banjoiest boxart

Ergh. I'm sitting at my desk with a Fox and a Pit in a horrible funky quandary. My brain is telling me to buy the more obscure characters and sit on them for a while because they're sure to be discontinued. My heart is telling me I'm a horrible calculating profiteer. Bah, I'm off to buy a Captain Falcon and a Little Mac!

I just stole it from Reyturner

Random thought: I don't want to buy another 360, but I would pay £39.99 for a Windows 8/Xbox Live client or plugin that gave me access to my 360 Live library and let me play 360 games off disc on my PC. This should happen.

They're definitely not the worst thing, or a negative at all - sorry if it sounded like I was suggesting so. However, when so many games are X meets Y in Z, it's surprising when you can't do that. Bayonetta is...well, Bayonetta. There are obviously streaks of DMC and Sega in its DNA but I like that its identity doesn't rely on intertextual references. It's refreshingly unpretentious in a climate of knowing nods and winks and irony and zombies. Long-term value and usefulness depends on definitions. The 'use' of a Mario game probably isn't to provoke profound thought on the human condition, though they do bring people together in community to share experiences and time. That sounds pretty useful. Journey does that in a less explicit manner, but is Journey more culturally significant or important than Mario? *fart noise* Ha, I don't know. It's interesting to think about how media interact and how cultural cachet travels in very strict routes. Novels can become great films (eg. The Godfather), but not the other way round. Historically films have made very poor games, though this is slowly changing. Print art (is that a term?) is plundered my films and games alike. Games and films have fed very well into sculpture and on canvas, though 'high' art shuns pretty much everything else. Anyway, my audience expansion game would be Rock Band. My cultural ambassador game would probably be Portal. And my subjective best game is still Banjo-Kazooie.

I've been thinking about 'video gamey' video games recently in the context of why I enjoy Bayonetta 2 so much. Despite the cutscenes and the ludicrous comic book angles, it's only interested in being a game. It's not an interactive Escher sketch or digital choose-your-own-adventure storybook or a horror film or a simulator. Most of its features reference video games rather than other media. It's the same with Mario. I really need to play Minecraft. And Spelunky.

I've just finished up Mario Galaxy 2 and it reminded me of criticisms I heard around the time the first game was released. To paraphrase, 'the motion controls add nothing - if they mapped the spin attack to a shoulder button, it'd be an identical game - the star bits are pointless', etc. Many games received variously similar criticisms, and god knows companies tripped over themselves in a race to shoehorn waggle into everything. Much of it was thoughtlessly implemented, but I've also had some really great, unique experiences with motion controls and I thought a thread to note these down would be a good idea. Granted, you could map the spin to a button and remove the pointer mechanics in the Galaxy games. But playing the sequel again, it struck me just how much it is asking you to do at once and how it repays you in a way that feels physically cathartic, if that makes sense. I've experienced few things as satisfying (and relieving) as a last, desperate long jump towards a distant star launcher as a Bullet Bill homes in, brushing the star's orbit and frantically shaking the controller to activate the launcher before blasting away from danger. That flick simultaneously relieves tension and gives you an outlet for expressing your victory, like they've incorporated an air-punch into the game itself. It adds so much to the moment. The few seconds pause that follow obviously serve to fully load the next area but also give you time to breathe, smile and prepare yourself. I also noted how using the pointer to hoover up star bits (essential if you want the requisite 9999 bits to access the 242nd star) really splits your attention, asking the player to watch the whole screen, not only their immediate surroundings. Combining the tasks as you improve is a bit like rubbing your belly and tapping your head as you hoover up the bits while platforming and shaking the remote to spin. It's pulling you into the world. Removing the motion controls would strip this dimension from the game and I hadn't appreciated just how integral that was to the experience until I played through again. So then, waggle. We've all done it, we've all got over it, but it's also given us some nuggets of real brilliance. Let's share some of those!

After finishing Link Between Worlds I'm going to expand this a little bit to include 3D. It's a similarly gimmicky addition to games that can be tacked on to anything, but requires some real thought and clever design to use well. So then, A Link Between Worlds! The top down view lends itself to 3D and the game plays with verticality to make use of it. The touchscreen is a godsend for quickly checking the floors above and below on the map. I played the entire game with 3D switched on, which is a first. Everything looks crisper. Another game I thought used it really well was Fire Emblem Awakening. It made the map easier to read, again, from a top-down perspective. And back on waggle - Sportsfriends! I have been steadily acquiring Move controllers (and friends) over the past few months and have had a couple of amazing sessions playing it. With some low lighting that's some quality waggle! I don't think I'll ever get tired of whipping the controller out from behind my back while firing it up like a lightsaber. Edit: Bah, trying to edit the topic title but can't find the topic edit thingy. Where's it gone? Edit Edit: Found it.