What are you playing on your Switch?

I finally got broadband internet sorted out in my apartment! I've finished the story on Pokémon Sword: The Isle of Armour and I don't really have another singleplayer game I want to get stuck into until Paper Mario: The Origami King, so I've been making the most of the ability to play some multiplayer stuff online.

Splatoon 2

This is still incredibly fun. I hopped back in and it was like I'd never left. The controls are smooth and fun, the music and visuals are gorgeous, and games are so quick that even when you're getting absolutely battered, you're in another game and winning before you can get upset. As well as turf war, I've had a little play of some Salmon Run too. It's a fantastic example of a horde mode, but sometimes it makes me use weapons that I'm crap with.

ARMS

I've had some cracking sessions on ARMS. Much like when I was playing it regularly pre-Japan, I have that feeling that there are good days and bad days on the ARMS. Some days, I'm absolutely battering folks and feel like king of the world, other times, I can barely get on my feet between receiving punches to the snozz. The best are when I find myself up against someone at exactly my level, going toe to toe and squeezing out wins or just barely losing. I will say, I haven't had any difficulty finding opponents!

Mario Kart 8

I hopped on for a few games, I've still got it.

Fortnite

This is unbelievably popular, even here in Japan. So many of my students are obsessed with this game. I kind of get it; there are times, at the end of a game when there are a few players left, that the tension and excitement is pretty powerful. Unfortunately, I don't care for the aesthetics, the controls, the combat or the building mechanic. I think the Battle Royale concept itself is pretty cool, but Fortnite isn't the one for me. I don't play a lot, I just hop in for one game a day so I can be aware of it, and I generally finish in the top 10 or even top 5.
Overall, though, this is getting played until Apex Legends and not a minute longer.

Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate

God, I fucking love Monster Hunter. I'm close to ticking off all the single-player hunts, and I don't know that I have Jas' skill to complete all the multiplayer stuff solo, but now that I'm online Matty and I have been regular sessions after work. I even played with some randos last night, just for shits and gigs. Currently I'm working on my Barroth armour set, which looks dope and will keep me going until I can get some endgame G-Rank stuff.


I haven't played any Pokkén Tournament or Tetris 99 yet, but those are options. I've never been super keen on Smash Bros. online but I'll give it a go, particularly if the GNamer are at it. I might also do a few raids on Sword/.

Offline, I'm playing a bit of Super Mario Bros 2 now and then, but it doesn't have the simple joy of the first one or the magic of what came after. I know there are a lot of reasons this feels like a black sheep, but it is a little bit of a slog.

I'm pleasantly surprised to hear that ARMS is still active online. I thought it had petered out in a big way since launch. Perhaps it's had a small resurgence of interest due to Smash?

Right after posting that, I had a morning in which I just got paired with the same dickhead over and over . . .

Buskalilly wrote:

God, I fucking love Monster Hunter. I'm close to ticking off all the single-player hunts, and I don't know that I have Jas' skill to complete all the multiplayer stuff solo, but now that I'm online Matty and I have been regular sessions after work. I even played with some randos last night, just for shits and gigs. Currently I'm working on my Barroth armour set, which looks dope and will keep me going until I can get some endgame G-Rank stuff.

It's definitely a decent challenge but it's not as hard as you think as long as you go in well prepared and have the time because the hunts can take you 15 to 30 mins, also Lagiacrus was by far the toughest fight but he's not actually a key quest so can be avoided if you don't need weapon upgrades from him.

I did solo a G Rank Barroth a couple of nights okay. It wasn't a disaster but it was pretty slow. Need to crank up my DPS I guess.

I tend to like the longer hunts a bit more anyway as you see more of the monsters move set & learn it a lot easier.

I don't want every hunt to be over in five-to-ten minutes, but I hate failing because of a time-out, so there are limits to my patience.

Last night, Matty and I were joined by someone called "The Poop Bandit" whose callouts were all stuff like "thanks for the poop", "poop levels low", "I'll set up a poop bomb" and "I'll check it for poop". To bantz.

The randoms you could get in the older MH games really were great sometimes, it's a real shame none of that transferred over to the lobbies in MH World.

Buskalilly wrote:

I don't want every hunt to be over in five-to-ten minutes, but I hate failing because of a time-out, so there are limits to my patience.

Last night, Matty and I were joined by someone called "The Poop Bandit" whose callouts were all stuff like "thanks for the poop", "poop levels low", "I'll set up a poop bomb" and "I'll check it for poop". To bantz.

Can you get them on the forum? It sounds like they'd fit right in



Oh - I've started playing Dragon's Dogma at long last. I don't have any free time at the moment, so I thought it would be good to start a complicated adventure game. I've done the prologue bit, which was basically my 3 computer team-mates going "ooh, what's over here?" and "I killed that guy!" and I'm lagging behind like your friend's mum's joining in.

I hope you stick with it; I love that game!

I played it again! That's twice now. I've now made my PA, who I've named Muggins, as I assume she's basically going to be doing all the work while I stare at the screen all confused-like. I love the slightly-not-quite-real-life feeling, although it does suffer a bit so far from the time the original game was made; a bit brown and beige - when ol' Rook shouts "Goblin!" I can never ever see a goblin. But I'm still enjoying it, and I've seen some bunny rabbits, and I'm looking forward to having another go in September.

If you want to make things a bit easier, bin off Rook and borrow pawns from folks in your friend list- mine is bloody high levelled, and I think Shanks has a decent one. I used his and Joe Skrebels' for the whole game.

Well I may just do that! I will miss his helpful advice - "this shop sells things" etc. but why not

All the pawns spout the same nonsense, dont worry about that.

I got Ring Fit Adventure last week, oh boy is that effective, had 3 sessions on it so far and they've been fairly brief ones too but each time I've come away feeling sore but satisfied. I also must go out and buy some sort of toy to replicate the Ring-Con, my daughter has joined in with some of the workouts whenever I've played it and as freaking adorable as it is, it's a little difficult to do when she wants to use the Ring-Con herself.

When I'm in a better headspace (or hopefully as part of getting into a better headspace) I really ought to get properly stuck into Ring Fit Adventure. They're bloody tough work-outs, especially as a dangerously unfit soul like myself. Smurf has the added advantage of having his daughter to help him take down that swole dragon guy, but I should hopefully manage fine enough by myself.

I'd say she's closer to be one of Swole Dragon's minions than help for me.

Really ought to play Dragon's Dogma. When I'm less exhausted from JRPGs that's one for the list I think.

I got New Super Lucky's Tale as an early birthday gift yesterday, but I'm still having a whale of a time with Yooka-Laylee 2 so it's going to have to wait. YL2/YLatIL isn't imaginative, but it is class. It's got a level of polish that I'm just not used to from indie games. Strong recommend from me if you haven't dabbled in it yet.

Alongside Dragon's Dogma (I couldn't see any friend pawns, and all the guys in void were like "hey, I'm worth 7 million credits! How much do you have to spend? 24, eh? never mind kiddo", so I guess I'm stuck with this Rook fella for a bit) I've also finished Pikuniku and moved onto West of Loathing. Already (and actually like Pikuniku) both of these games have made me genuinely laugh out loud so far. WoL is the only acceptable form of turn-based RPG. *continues to play Breath of Fire out of spite*

I loved West of Loathing! I don't think I've played another game that has made me laugh out loud so much. Plus, I used to play Kingdom of Loathing years ago so it had the benefit of feeling nostalgic too.

(looks sideways at wishlist, wonders if it can take another game or whether the guilt will spiral out like something from Uzumaki)

I'm same boat as you Balla as I have got Switch games to play but I haven't played any of them for age or my Switch, till the recent indie showcase where I bought two games, added a few to wishlist and because I was on the Switch looked was coming that also looked interesting.

That I could easily see me buying Nexomon or something soon and playing that instead of whatever I've got on Switch.

I suppose we are in that respect!  Although I imagine the reasons behind us neglecting our Switch backlogs somewhat are kinda different.  (I presume for you it's because you have all the games on other systems, whereas I have too much non-gaming stuff to do.)


EDIT by way of repost: New Super Lucky's Tale is the game Buskalilly thinks A Hat in Time is, I'd reckon.  While it's a nice cheery game and there's definitely a place for that, it feels like it pushes the boundary from 'cheery' into 'twee', what with the constant 'you're my best buddy!' messages on the (long given the size of the levels) loading screens and the Saturday morning cartoon plot and the slightly too-much happiness of Lucky himself.  The 'hurble wurble durble' bumpkinning of the second world's worms is another faintly grating touch.

That aside it's inoffensive so far (just started world two).  Levels contain a decent mix of exploration and platforming, there's good variety in levels and objectives with few proving irritating, and while it's obviously meant not to be the hardest game in the world and there's no threat of a game over ever, it's still got a decent amount of challenge.  The aesthetics are good too, lots of colour and cheer without standing out in any way.  The loading times, unskippable opening cut-scenes, and inexplicable lack of a restart option on the pause screen making going back to try again much more of a pain that it should be, especially on the instant runner level(s?) where it's easy to miss objectives.  That, besides the game occasionally turning my stomach, is my only real complaint at this point.

It feels like it's going to be a low-to-mid 7/10 game.  An instant runner level per world could push that down a bit.

I should clarify because you've got this wrong both times; I have no beef with "twee" inherently, its specifically the top hat, posho, anglophile Britishness kind of twee. Goose Game comes close in places but it feels real enough and slightly parodying so its safe.

Aaaaaaaaah, okay. I think that misunderstanding happened because it could've been either in context IIRC, and AHiT seems much more easily interpreted as 'twee' to me (particularly obvious example) than 'anglophile'. Besides the villain having a British accent (hardly something unique to Britishy games) and the top hat and brolly combo of Hat Kid, there's not much that feels overly British in the game to me. If that's really what you object to then definitely don't let that stop you from giving AHiT a shot, although I guess I'd understand if you didn't think I was the best person to judge that.

Anyway: NLST is definitely twee-er than AHiT so far, seals or no seals.