JayMoyles: Hello everybody, and welcome to a very late edition of Admintendo! I'm your intrepid host, JayMoyles, but this time round I'm sadly not joined by my admin-in-arms ZeroJones, which is why this edition is a little late. He's been off doing far less important things than writing this, such as getting married and exploring Japan. Honestly, to think some people would pass up the opportunity to appear on Admintendo!
I've also been very lax in getting this organised, but that's obviously a lesser reason.
Thankfully, one of you lovely lot saw the light and took up the mantle of Admintendo guest - it's the omnipresent content machine, Drunkalilly. Alright chief?
Drunkalilly: What it is, what it is, it's yer boi, it'syer man, it's yer being of pure light who has transcended the aging process and the realm of mortal flesh, the bold and the bald man but never the fooled man, Luke "Buska "Drunkalilly" Lilly" Summerhayes, World Excite Truck Champion of the World, the Master Cheese, the love machine whose always on the scene.
I'm very well thanks, yourself?
Apologies for any typos, my space bar is still a bit sticky after I chucked a cup of tea on my laptop immediately after arriving in Newcastle at last year's meet.
JayMoyles: Someone clearly doesn't need their own hype man! I'm doing fine this afternoon - ready as always to chat about them games. And don't worry about any typos, they'll usually be picked up in the edit. Usually.
Right, let's hop on without any further ado and get talking about video games.
Ol' FaithfulJayMoyles: So, we'll kick off with the tried and tested "what have you been playing?" section. Start us off, Drunka boy.
Drunkalilly: Well, since the last Admintendo I've obviously been playing the old faithfuls- I still get some
Monster Hunter Generations in with the boys when I can and I've been playing
Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate as well, having missed the gravy boat last time. I recently polished off the last DLC for
Dark Souls III, and I've also dabbled with
Mass Effect Andromeda.
JayMoyles: Was it not because of the gravy boat that you missed MH4U?
Drunkalilly: Yes Jay, that was a deliberate gag, thanks for making it explicit. :p
JayMoyles: Captain Obvious, here to help.
Drunkalilly: Both of those games have been let down a little by the fact that I played them both after completing a little something else. I don't know if you're aware of this, James J "The Main One" Moyles, but Nintendo released a new machine and, alongside it, The Best Videogame Of All Time.
Yes, the game I've put the most obscene number of hours into this year (which I'm having to stop myself every day from just going back to and fucking off all other videogames/ aspects of my life) is of course the
Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. It's quite good.
JayMoyles: Yep, naturally I've put a lot of hours into
Breath of the Wild as well... it's a bit special, isn't it? I was asked by a mate recently what my favourite Zelda game was and whilst before I would umm and ahh over
Wind Waker,
Majora's Mask and
A Link Between Worlds, now it was an instant response for
Breath of the Wild. It's also quite easily my favourite open world game too.
Drunkalilly: I really don't hesitate to call it the best game ever made. See, other things can grab me in the moment, with level design, or mechanics, or written stories and whatnot, but the beauty of Zelda is that the adventure is played out in a huge world every inch of which has very clearly been designed by Nintendo's game-making genius.
I just can't imagine ever, even decades from now, not just firing it up to muck about and having a whale of a time, or discovering some new and silly mechanic, or toying with some character or enemy or climbing frame in some clever new way.
JayMoyles: I'm planning to go back to it in the summer when we'll hopefully have a bit of a games lull and collect the Korok Seeds. I want to experience that world again.
As an add-on to that point about the world design, I saw a picture of how Nintendo placed a trail of treasure chests from the Great Plateau to Kakariko Village so that players can generally get to Kakariko with more gear and money than when they left the Great Plateau. I think that's such an awesome design choice and it's indicative of the overall quality here.
Drunkalilly: So Nintendo. It's that level of attention and care that makes Mass Effect's world so dull, and Dark Souls' gameplay so stiff, by comparison. Zelda has faith in itself and the player, and is a much richer experience for it. What a bloody game.
JayMoyles: Now, to play devil's advocate for a moment... I've heard a fair few people say that whilst this is an excellent game as a whole, it's not a good "Zelda" game. To an extent, I can see where they're coming from as it's unlike any other Zelda game before, and the series' other big leap - 2D to 3D - was purposely meant to ape the 2D games prior to it. What do you reckon, Drunka?
Drunkalilly: I think, if the last 12 months have told us anything, a fair few people saying something doesn't mean they're not talking bollocks.
It has Link and Zelda, a quest to find the Master Sword and some magical lads, and then he goes and slays Ganon. That's the skeleton of Zelda, and the essence is in the emotions and feelings it gives you on the way. Adventure? Check. Characters and laughs? Check. Melancholy and triumph? Check.
This is what Zelda games were always trying to be. Don't get me wrong, I've loved pretty much every Zelda. I've got a
Skyward Sword tattoo. But every game since
Link to the Past has more or less been the same game, because they found a formula for making a game with a sense of adventure and exploration without having to build a whole world and fill it with gameplay. This time, they just said fuck it and built that world, and they've shown up not just every previous Zelda game but every open world game as well. Typical Nintendo to strut into an established genre and perfect it on their first go.
JayMoyles: Well, I've nothing really to add to that as I was only playing devil's advocate there, after all.
Drunkalilly: Why would you advocate for the devil? He's the devil.
JayMoyles: Tell that to the ADVOCATE OF THE BEAST INCARNATE, BAROOOOOCK LESNAAAA-
*rest of quip shuffled to the Wrestling Thread*I'll wrap up this section by talking about the best of the rest that I've been playing, shall I?
Drunkalilly: I'll briefly shout out
Shovel Knight and
Fast RMX, which I've also enjoyed on Switch, but aye, you go on.
JayMoyles: Besides Zelda, I also dabbled in
I Am Setsuna. Well, I say dabbled - I've all but finished the game. To sum it up in a few words, it's fine but nothing special. The combat and story are pretty standard RPG fare, but I will shout out the exclusively snowy setting and the piano-only soundtrack as unique standouts. If you're strapped for something to play, I could recommend this at a push.
If you've got a PS4 and you're looking for an RPG, I'd tell you to forget about
I Am Setsuna and go for
Persona 5 instead. I'm not going to mention this in great detail as it's an April game and this only really meant to be a review of January through March, but I will say that's my game of the year just now and in a year with
Breath of the Wild, that's astounding to me. Ask me again after my Korok revisit though as my answer will probably change again!
I should add to that last part - it's also out on PS3!
Drunkalilly: The Persona games are something that's always interested me, but I've not really got the time or machines to explore them. I'll refrain from commenting on their comparison to The Best Game just now, as I've not dabbled and you're a mate.
JayMoyles: You know me and JRPGs, and
Persona 5 is to JRPGs as
Breath of the Wild is to open world games.
Drunkalilly: I'd just like to quickly mention one other game I've been playing! It came out in March and is Nintendo relevant.
I've been mucking about on
Mario Run! I've got all but one black coin on the free version now, and will almost definitely be paying for the full game once I tire of the same old Toad Rallies.
It's fun, it's easy to play with one hand, and it's doing a good job of replacing depressing social media as the thing I do when I should be doing other stuff.
JayMoyles: Still need to get on that... hopefully it's got a bit more longevity than
Fire Emblem Heroes.
Drunkalilly: It's fun just to play, so as a mobile phone game I think it'll have pretty good legs even after I wrap up "the campaign".
These Twits on the SwitchJayMoyles: But enough of that... we glossed over it earlier and it's time to have a further chat about it.
Drunkalilly: That's right, we're going to talk about Monster Hunter and why you should all listen to Monster Mash, or at the very least follow and like and subscribe and give it a 5* rating on itunes.
JayMoyles: #XXfortheWest #XXfortheSwitch #XXforJayNotLuke
I am, of course, talking about the Nintendo Switch. It's the latest console from yer boys at Nintendo and we've been waiting for it for what seems like an eternity now. Mr. Summerhayes - was it worth the wait?
Drunkalilly: Oh fucking hell yes.
JayMoyles: Right, that's Admintendo, see ya!
Drunkalilly: I know some people have had some technical hiccups here and there, as with any hardware launch, but for me the Switch has been nothing but joy.
JayMoyles: I had a home screen freeze that required me to hard power it off (holding down the power button like you're suffocating the poor console
) but that's the only hiccup I've experienced. What's been your preferred way to play so far?
Drunkalilly: That's the beauty: I've thoroughly enjoyed multiple modes!
When I'm home alone tucking into a gamey game, sat in front of the TV with my Pro Controller or my lil' puppy-dog Joy-Con grip is obviously the ideal.
I've also played plenty of handheld mode, on transport or lunch breaks or just before bed. I've enjoyed tabletop multiplayer and those same games through the TV, and I've even tried a few games of
1, 2 Switch and
Fast RMX in the back of a moving car, with the screen on my lap (not recommended).
JayMoyles: I've played a bit of Snippers and
Shovel Knight in tabletop mode myself, but it's easily the mode I can see myself playing the least. TV mode - I've only used that for Zelda thus far but I can see MK8 getting a spin on the telly too. The Switch has mostly been in handheld mode for me since launch. I think the console feels more like a portable machine, now that I've had the chance to play about with it myself.
The beauty of the Switch is that you have that flexibility there - there have been times where I've been playing a PS4 game and wished I could play it in bed or on the bog, and on the flipside there have been a few 3DS games that I've wished I could experience on the big screen. I think the overall design of the console is easier to understand than the off-screen shenanigans of the Wii U, too.
Drunkalilly: I've definitely felt that frustration with other home consoles since release, and every time I fire up the 3DS for Monhan it makes me long for a Switch release.
I'm not being original here at all, but this feels a lot like the console Wii U always should have been.
JayMoyles: Oh, of course. The groundwork was there for the Wii U to work, but I think the restrictions on the console (can't take the gamepad out of the house, for example) and the name confusing the casual Wii crowd really didn't help matters along. Second time lucky, I guess?
I suppose that leads us onto the question of the Switch's future. We know of a fair few games in the Switch's near future, but where do you see the Switch in a year or two's time?
Drunkalilly: I'm definitely in the camp of thinking the Switch will do well.
The fact that this is as much a successor to DS and 3DS as Wii and Wii U is huge, and Nintendo will acknowledge that once the install base is a little bigger. From there, this will become the home for all their big first party titles and that kind of quirky, experimental stuff Nintendo's handhelds have been good for. Good ol' masofdas likes to call it Vita 2, and I think it will be similarly good for indy titles and JRPGs and the like, but I think the Switch will be much more than that.
The way it works so well for the multiple types of play it can do will make it more appealing than Xbox Scorpio and the like, which do the same but a bit more powerful. People are familiar with the idea of a tablet, and I'm sure there are plenty of people out there smart enough to realise thumbs on a touch screen can never quite match real controls.
All I care about is that the Switch, in a year or two's time, has
Monster Hunter V.
JayMoyles: I think once the 3DS goes through its final year (I can't see much for the 3DS after
Fire Emblem Echoes and your 2D Pikmin game) then we'll begin to see the Switch bolstered by the traditionally handheld series. Pokémon and Animal Crossing on Switch is going to sell the thing like hotcakes.
3rd party support doesn't bother me too much, to be honest. I've got my PS4 for games like that, but I do hope that the Switch does see third parties tackle it with aplomb. I think Nintendo have recognised that as a flaw of the Wii U and have already made some third party connections to get the ball rolling there.
But yes, in short, MHV for the Switch and I'll be sorted.
Drunkalilly: I'm planning to just have a Switch (and 3DS for now) after I become a bit more nomadic soon, and having more games would be good, be they first party or Nintendo. Plus, having the likes of FIFA available for tabletop multiplayer or on-the-go larks can't be a bad thing.
JayMoyles: You mean the legendary Built From the Ground Up Edition of FIFA?
Peace Out, FriendsJayMoyles: I think that's our lot then, boyo. Any closing remarks?
Drunkalilly: Be excellent to eachother, don't do intravenous drugs, fight fascism, GName forever. Love and peace! Xxx
And I'll see YOU at
Wrestlemania the meet in Newcastle!
JayMoyles: Indeed! More on that on the next thrilling instalment of Admintendo, I'm sure. Other than that, it's a farewell from him, and it's a "get out of my house!" from me. Peace, troops!
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Wed 26 Apr 2017 - 17:00
Ballamity Ganon had come.
