What are you playing, Nintendo edition.

CiDeRmAn

Thanks for that!

Looks great, love a twin stick shooter myself

mrcheez

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119547415#Comment_119547415

They really need gyro aiming in this game though...I find myself moving the console around by instinct having gotten so used to it in Quake and Wolfenstein 2

Mr E

Finished Islets (100%) over the weekend. Loved it. The islands magnet mechanic was very satisfying, it had memorable (but manageable) bosses and it was fun.

I abandoned Deaths Door about halfway through (over a year ago) because I got stuck on a fight in the Mushroom Dungeon. I'm back into that game now and got through that fight at long last.

xckjoo

Are you me? I just picked up Deaths Door again after being stuck on Mushroom Dungeon too! Getting through it smoothly enough now.

Good game but there's a bit too much tedious trekking around between respawn points and getting lost. Is there a map? I can't find one and it could really benefit from one

Mr E

Lack of a map is the one downside of this game. You've no idea how long I was walking in circles, trying to find the last soul in the mushroom dungeon last night.

Iron Crypticle again.

Huge one-more-go factor and the combo-chain collection system to obtain stat upgrades is a brilliant risk-reward balance.

Mr E

Finished Haiku the Robot over the last few days. Another brilliant Metroidvania. Along with Islets, it has been a great month for them.

Now playing something slightly different - Tinykin. I was a bit worried when I heard there were only 6 main levels in it, but they are absolutely bloody huge and stuffed with secrets and things to do. I'm still on the first level and not even close to finishing it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKCUQ38RZP0

skerry

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119641443#Comment_119641443

Started this a few weeks back myself. Great little game

SuperBowserWorld

Must give tinykin a go on Xbox GamePass

Playing New Super Mario Bros DS. Not anything much after having played the other New Mario games. Really the series was flogging a dead horse. But it's a bit like therapy for me.

Still waiting for a 2D Mario that shakes the series up again, like Rayman Legends or DKTF.

xckjoo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119579676#Comment_119579676

I've put this down again because I'm a bit stuck. I have the second Giant Soul and think I'm ready to get the third, but I don't have the first. Did I miss something?

In other news I picked up Return to Monkey Island yesterday and it's great!

Mr E

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119645062#Comment_119645062

Not sure! I jumped off Deaths Door when I got Islets, and I went from that to Haiku and Tinykin. I will get back to it eventually.

However, with Shovel Knight Dig, Tunic and Dorfromantik out before the end of the month (and Persona 5 Royal, Nier Automata, No Man Sky and Aeterna Noctis coming soon), it might be a while. 🙂

xckjoo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119645395#Comment_119645395

I'm in a similar boat. On Return to Monkey Island now so probably won't pick up Deaths Door again for a few months. At which time I'll have completely forgotten what's going on again 😁

SuperBowserWorld

On the last stage of the last boss on Deaths Door. And I can't seem to finish him off. It's just random boring drawn out crap.

CiDeRmAn

I was playing the Luigi's Mansion arcade game this evening, in an arcade here in Eindhoven.

It looks grand but played a bit janky. My son assured me it looks and plays very like a sequence in the 3DS game.

Also played the world's biggest Pacman and Galaga, which was a lot of fun

Fysh

I am back into Wandersong to try and finish it off (can't remember why I put it down to begin with). I also picked up Spiderheck on Switch, but am a bit disappointed to find that movement feels slower and less responsive than on PC. Hopefully that will get addressed soon.

SuperBowserWorld

Playing New Super Mario Bros DS on my 2DS XL.

It's like a big comfort blanket.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Super_Mario_Bros.

CiDeRmAn

That game is a complete gem.

To this day there is something very nice about playing it again on the DS Lite, colours just jumping off the screen.

Mr E

Yeah I'd love to play that again for the first time. Great game!

I have 2 more areas to do in Tinykin. Payday today, so I got some Brazilian credit and bought Shovel Knight Dig, Tunic and Dorfromantik. Just over 250 BRL (€50), but I had some gold coins.

Saved about €15 over the Irish prices.

SuperBowserWorld

I've a few more DS carts for my 2DS XL.

Bowser's inside story, Zelda phantom hourglass which came from France and looks like a dog was chewing on it, Zelda spirit tracks. And a few prof. Layton carts.

The flip the lid to play + the 2 screens are great. I like having the separate screen for maps, stats etc.

I also got a holder for the 2ds XL which makes it really comfortable to play.

CiDeRmAn

My DS collection is rather large at this stage, which makes it hard to pick one to play through properly.

Must have a look through it and get stuck in

pixelburp

Playing Haiku the Robot; very stylish looking Metroidvania with an 8bit esque style. Combat's tough but not impossible while the aesthetic is definitely of the Hollow Knight style of a moribund world, on the downslope.

Someone should make a Metroidvania in a world that's perfectly fine, and not falling apart or rotting from within. Would make a change of pace lol.

Mr E

Loved Haiku, fantastic game. Good size too.

I'm juggling two games.

Tunic (trying to beat first proper boss and he's hard as f***) 😊

Shovel Knight Dig. A bit more casual and good fun. Need to be careful though. If you're sloppy it can wipe out a run. Buying upgrades is key to getting further.

DeSelby83

Been playing a decent amount of overwatch (2) today and it runs far better than I was expecting. Playing on a switch lite

SuperBowserWorld

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119713457#Comment_119713457

Yeah, I was really enjoying that game on XBox GamePass and then wham the first boss ! Ridiculous. You can skip but then it saves and you can never try again. If the first boss is so hard, what are the rest like 🤔

Why do game devs produce a brilliant game and turn away most people like this. They are doing themselves no favours.

Mr E

I've given up on metroidvanias because of hard bosses (Ender Lilles and Deaths Gambit as examples) and the only boss I found difficult in Haiku was the last one!

pixelburp

My main complaint with Haiku hasn't been the bosses, but the slightly garbage mechanics tutorial. Maybe it was tired but I completely missed the "stamina" gauge and how that worked til I twigged how things worked. Other bits and bobs felt annoyingly under-explained. Obviously once I figured it out it was in my rearview but at the start I had some "huh?" Moments.

Also, I really hate Metroidvania games that don't put save points near boss fights. Just seems criminally unfair to die, then navigate a portion endlessly til you win. Especially if that section has dangers . Maybe that's part of the recipe but I've never liked it.

Mr E

Yeah they kinda followed the Hollow Knight formula in a few ways, including figuring things out for yourself. 🙂

Mr E

On a whim, I got Nier Automata over the weekend.

They should have put a warning at the start like-

"You can't save for the first 40 minutes and the first boss is a 15-minute battle against a prick who will probably kill you if you start on normal difficulty. Make sure you start on easy. You can change your difficulty later".

Yes, I had to start the game twice.

Fantastic game otherwise, though (despite that horrible design decision).

CastorTroy

It's one of the few soundtracks I listened to after finishing the game. So good.

mrcheez

Completed Bioshock there a few days ago... hard as nails, but I got through it somehow. Harvested the hell out of them lil' Sisters though as I needed as much Adam as I could get!

CiDeRmAn

Playing No Man's Sky again on Switch, so far so good, though it is still a bit of a slog through the earliest sections.

Mr E

Just got ending A on Nier Automata. Fantastic game, love it. Started into the 9S playthrough straight away.

Tom Mann Centuria

Played Songbird Symphony for a while, first little bit was fine, nice little game but my rhythm isn't even close to good enough and the second even vaguely challenging bit is beyond me. Shame because I quite liked it.

So I've started Firewatch.

pixelburp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119717153#Comment_119717153

I'm very much undecided if I hate or tolerate that approach; with Hollow Knight it took a while before I realised you had to buy the worldmap. Was very close to Nope'ing out on that game early doors. And while it's entirely possible to be caused by Player Idiocy, I didn't realise for a lonnnnnng time that the shop/train robot in Haiku could be moved another station. Yes, that's right: I had been slowly schlepping across the map myself, a frustration constantly growing that there wasn't a fast-travel system. Of course, there was - the game just (apparently) chose not to outline or advertise this.

It is a good Metroidvania though in the sense that it has that moment; those couple of important items so that when you get them suddenly, maps open up so much you traverse them exponentially quicker by previously unreachable means. Usually items like double-jump, or a grapple that lets you zip-line horizontally. It's a fantastically empowering moment that's quite unique to the genre.

But, then to loop it back to Hollow Knight 'cos if its aggressively underwritten narrative: I'm just at the final boss and I'm like, does this have some True Ending bullshít? Ooooooh me no likey that (looking at you as well, Bloodstained)

Mr E

If you're at The Hollow Knight himself, then sorry - there is more after that.

It is straight after that, though (assuming you have a particular weapon)

pixelburp

Picked up Tunic, once I realised it had some easy settings. What a beautiful game. Good Zelda clone with Souls style combat.

Just the mechanic of picking up the instruction booklet, which you then manually explore to figure out the game mechanics and secrets, is itself ingenious.

The Nal

Should get to finishing Inside today

eggy81

Got call of Juarez there in the sale for 1.99. Always meant to play it but never got around to it. Good craic.

DeSelby83

Played some of the factorio demo last night. Pretty fun, controls do take a bit of getting used to but I can see the appeal to it

nedd

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119814636#Comment_119814636

I tried this a few weeks ago and put it down in frustration. Difficulty jumped very quickly in first few hours. What are these easy settings you speak of?

pixelburp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119853271#Comment_119853271

I'd have to go check but if you go into Options => Accessibility, you can adjust the difficulty. There's a full "No Fail" god mode, but IIRC thre's also a slider to adjust the damage you take.

Mr E

Look in the settings. There are lots of things to change - you can make yourself invincible if you want.

Doodah7

Just started Golf Story last night as it is again half-off in the eShop. What a charming game! I see that a sequel was announced in the Indie Direct during the week also.

CiDeRmAn

Yep, me too.

I've not played it since a couple of hours after it was released.

I played it last night and really enjoyed it

the_covey

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119860779#Comment_119860779

I ordered the physical copy of this so I'm glad to hear that it's worth it. I've been playing Harvestella in the meantime. Odd combo of JRPG and farming sim. Wouldn't have thought that combo could be worth playing but for the exceptional Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin so when I saw the promo for Harvestella, I decided to take a punt on it. So far, (20+ hours in) so good, haven't scratched the surface of the story yet but the game is truly beautiful.

nedd

I have put a couple of hours into Sonic Frontiers. It's fun. Enjoying it so far. Nothing earth shattering.

Mr E

I just finished both Ori games, back to back. Unbelievable games, I loved them both.

I think I slightly preferred the first one!

Started Ghost Song - much different pace. 🙂

pixelburp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119881410#Comment_119881410

Out of curiousity: did you play them on the TV or handheld? I tried playing them but 99.9% play handheld, found the screen too small relative to the zoomed-out view of the overall gameplay.

Mr E

98% handheld.

I had to switch to a proper controller and TV for some of the escapes and boss battles. The joycons were giving me hand cramp.

mrcheez

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119881539#Comment_119881539

yeah I too wanted to get Ori, and tried the demo on my Switch Lite but almost went blind with the small sprites :(