Thrik

And then we have this. What the fuck. It's incredible how generally disappointing that series as a whole has been since its spectacular debut — Yoshi's Island was so good.

OC Remix's latest album project covers the whole Super Mario 64 soundtrack, well worth a listen for fans. Like with any of the site's albums the styles vary dramatically, but I've really enjoyed some of it. It's been a really long time since I've heard any of M64's music — it's great! I'd say that my favourites after a first listen are So Long-eh, Bowser!, Find the Red Coin, The Strange Green Pipe, Devastation's Duel, and Do Piranha Plants Dream of Electric Italians?.

That video of the horse ride is great, it shows in a similar way to that 'Sonic takes a walk' video how fragile some games are if the player doesn't do what's expected. Like the guy is walking along with the horse really slowly, yet that asshole is constantly screaming in his ear. Then when they come across some enemies he starts whispering about how they must remain hidden — then immediately screams 'THIS IS THE WAY!!!!!' or some shit, which none of them react to.

FWIW, despite its goofy appearance the GamePad is a very comfortable controller that provides all the inputs of the Pro controller and more. I too figured I'd need one but in practice the GamePad is just fine — it's build quality is better than I was expecting too. I can't think of any games I'd need the Wiimote/Nunchuk for, but I have a few knocking around from my old Wii anyway. I guess I can use them for local MK8 multiplayer, although a Pro controller would fit the bill better.

agreed

I have no complaints about the karts. There are more karts than Double Dash if you count the bikes and ATVs, which kind of remains my gold standard for a Mario Kart game — although MK8 is looking like a contender now I'm halfway through all the cups and have been doing a whole stack of (Fun!) online play. The karts all look pretty individual IMO, and the Wario Car's (kind of) return delighted me. I definitely agree that the stat thing can be overwhelming at first, but I very quickly realised what suits my play style best. I like the fact that I can choose a weight class (usually heavy) and then fine-tune the handling at the expense of top speed.

Interesting albeit unsurprising to see your reaction to the game Zeus. It's completely reminded me why I found Escape pretty crappy back when it came out, which I guess over the years I kind of forgot and my mind just remembered the few (but existent) positive aspects.

That region definitely isn't Toronto, though.

With the original DKC composer returning to do the soundtrack for Tropical Freeze, I was pretty sure it was going to be great. There's just a touch of re-interpretation of old classics, but the majority is new and really gorgeous. More impressive is its implementation within levels, with all sorts of iMuse-ish fading used to transition between variations — including Banjo-Kazooie's trick of underwater music being a more delicate version of the main stage theme, often in the style of the DKC1 water music for extra fan service. Anyway, some of the all-new tracks I've enjoyed: ^ The one is really all about 2:20+

Rayman is just a Moomin with invisible body parts. Seems pretty weird to me to have such an extreme opinion of the design and refuse to play — especially when the game is otherwise beautiful beyond measure.

So yeah, Mario Kart 8 is great. The well-executed multiplayer adds so much value — it was excellent racing against 10 random bastards all as shit as me. Even better if I get to play with non-random bastards. I love how unbelievably familiar this series feels after years away. I've also been playing DKC: Tropical Freeze, and holy shit what an improvement over Returns. The controls feel great now there's no motion bullshit, the enemies somehow feel a lot more 'Rare' this time, and the music... god damn. Getting the original composer to do a new soundtrack was a master stroke, with hearing each new piece an incentive to play in itself. I'd say that Returns felt more like a lacking tribute act, whereas this feels like the real deal — a worthy successor that is remarkably close to being Rare had a hand in.

Don't be ridiculous.

RyanJW. Got Mario Kart.

That budget seems ridiculously low, like one dude's salary? I guess maybe the new thing is to aim low so that even if the Kickstarter isn't that popular they get at least some money — but surely not enough to make the game happen.

Christ, the Miiverse comments alone are worth the price of entry. https://www.dropbox.com/s/00m284jtfklgwi9/Photo%2024-06-2014%2023%2035%2030.jpg https://www.dropbox.com/s/9q47s7cvy6xqyqm/Photo%2024-06-2014%2023%2037%2024.jpg

Also it's interesting that you just changed your name to Roderick, Rodi — Matthew Broderick happens to be exactly one such actor I had in mind due to him killing two women through allegedly dangerous driving.

I love a bit of Tom Cruise. I've noticed that in general people either can or can't tolerate actors, artists, musicians, etc when their perception of the individual has been tainted. What's interesting is that in many cases we don't even know what kind of crazy-ass beliefs people we admire hold. For those who tend to find performances ruined by this kind of thing, imagine finding out that an actor you absolutely 100% love has some dodgy traits — like Christopher Lee being a bit racist. Could you not ever again enjoy his wonderful performances in countless classic films? I just can't imagine never watching or enjoying certain awesome films again because of some actors' personal life. There'd be too many!

Jesus CHRIST, finally got a Wii U after having to get a bus out of town to a super-large Argos. Tried every Game, Argos, HMV, and John Lewis branch in town and out of stock everywhere. Either there's been a sudden surge in popularity or shops aren't arsed about stocking it.

I enjoy the random hand of God telling you which girl you must work your charms on.

What the fuck. I went to buy a Wii U from Game today, and every single Mario Kart 8 and Mario Kart 8 bundle was sold out.

Yeah Looper is officially 'universally acclaimed' so that's weird.

After just watching the Pac-Man trailer I randomly remembered one of the weirdest god damn remixes I've ever heard from about 10 years ago: Pacman Eats Up All the Dots [Feat. Mario]

Including a Mii character basically just seems like 'design your own character' to me, pretty much as tegan says. It's a shame you can't go further with them than you can and design something a bit more outrageous, but it's better than nothing. It beats the Wii Fit Trainer. And of course, shitty Mario:

Far Cry 3 seemed to click with a lot of people, whereas I recall the player reception to Far Cry 2 being universally so-so. I don't think it would have even sold what it did if it weren't for the high expectations set by its predecessor, which it ended up being quite dissimilar to — unlike FC3 which returned to a similar setting. FC3 sold like twice as much as FC2 so I guess the numbers back up my entirely subjective experience.

More like eight-lettered!