Nintendo Online Service and SNES Online Jubilation Thread

Rum wrote:

I think that's the positive gamer attitude that keeps me here and steers me away from 99% of gaming websites. Thanks Cappa.

I was drunk when I posted that and sober me probably wouldn't be so grossly sincere (what a wiener), but I stand by it!

Obviously I know there's plenty of room to whinge about games but it's nice when people just post about how they like something, which happens reasonably often here.

Rum wrote:

Obviously I know there's plenty of room to whinge about games but it's nice when people just post about how they like something, which happens reasonably often here.

Not from me, I'm a miserable bastard!

Actually, seriously, I agree, I'm quite happy to see these more obscure gems - and they're better than that 2 frames per second fighter that dropped last time. Bit nervous about that there Baseball Simulator though. Where's Fighting Baseball? I want to be Bobson Dugnutt.

Rum wrote:

I was drunk when I posted that and sober me probably wouldn't be so grossly sincere (what a wiener), but I stand by it!

Obviously I know there's plenty of room to whinge about games but it's nice when people just post about how they like something, which happens reasonably often here.

Oh no, please, be sincere! Positive sincerity is great! (And I'm terrible at it.) I was more shiftying at the fact that I think I'm a moaner myself, and not really an embodiment of the positive gamer attitude that keeps you here.

Don’t get me wrong, I can be a miserable bastard when it comes to Nintendo Switch Online too – and definitely, that 2 frames per second fighter that dropped last time was utterly manky. But this week’s update caters to me and my tastes quite nicely, and I’m happy with that.

I just get quite scunnered when I see thousands of people rip into this stuff. They’ve probably not even played Wild Guns. You shouldn’t be allowed an opinion if you haven’t played Wild Guns.

I've only played Magical Drop so far out of the new additions which I recommend based on the pre game smack talk alone.

Treesmurf wrote:

I've only played Magical Drop so far out of the new additions which I recommend based on the pre game smack talk alone.

"Are you sure?"

~

I finished Spanky's Quest last night, and think it's well worth a couple of hours of anybody's time. It's about a monkey who defeats living fruit and vegetables by heading sports balls at them. Belter of a soundtrack too 

Hi all,
I've moved on to City Connection on the NES.

Er... has anyone else played it, and to they know what the fuck's going on?

Actually that's one complaint I do have: I wish the original manuals were also accessible, given that these games are from an era before in-game tutorials.

Aye, I've completed that! You've basically got to drive over all the bits of road in a level to paint them. It's kind of like Flicky meets, er, Mr. Blobby on MS-DOS. It's not a bad little game if you can master the jumping.

The Cappuccino Kid wrote:

Mr. Blobby on MS-DOS

Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. (etc.)
Well I get Flicky anyway - OK, I'll give that a go. I take it I don't hit the cat until I've painted everything.

This evening I did some research.



And now I wish I hadn't.

FUSER might actually be the perfect game for this time's Switch Online trial. I’ve spent about an hour with it and I’m hugely impressed. Mixing and mashing together all sorts of dance, country, punk, rap and rock melodies, beats and vocals has been massively good fun. The gameplay has gradually changed over time to add new mechanics but it’s never so demanding that you can’t enjoy the music. A lot of it seems to be locked behind paid DLC, but the base game has loads going for it all the same – especially for free. You’ve got to try it.

It feels like Nintendo are scraping the bottom of the barrel with this upcoming update. I’d seen someone on Twitter compare this to ‘the only games left to rent at Blockbuster’, and I think that’s quite apt. It’s a really unusual trio altogether.



In all fairness, Claymates is much better than you’d expect – I’d been chipping away at it on Evercade and enjoyed it’s many gimmicks and puzzles. My only memory of Jelly Boy is seeing in all the time in G-Force in Glasgow, well overpriced and clearly unloved. Bombuzal seems to be a SNES prequel to Charlie Blast’s Territory on N64, and I think that’s about as niche as it can get. From what I know, they all got lost in the SNES’s shuffle a long time ago, either by not doing enough to stand out, not selling well enough or by simply never coming out in America, at least one of the three in every case. I’m assuming there’ll be at least one unannounced ‘SP’ game update too, something akin to unlocking all Grand Prix cups and difficulties in SP Super Mario Kart.

Without much – or any - Capcom, Konami, Electronic Arts and Namco support, I think the best we can hope for is the occasional ‘B/C tier’ title from Interplay, Tecmo, Jaleco or Data East, as well as whatever rubbish PIKO Interactive want to throw up.

~

Also, the upcoming Nintendo Switch Online free trial is for Two Point Hospital.



Well worth trying if you’ve not played it already.

Ooh, I'll give Two Point Hospital a go! Makes up for the fact that the SNES online offerings are insane. (Jelly Boy sounds like a condition a patient might have in Two Point Hospital.)

What big games are we still waiting for from the NES and SNES outside those companies Cappa mentioned?  I know people are moaning about Earthbound and Super Mario RPG: is that pretty much it?

I wouldn't mind some Famicom Wars but they'd probably charge for it as it needs translating.

There’s only three big games I can think of outside of those aforementioned companies (and Square, I forgot them). That’s the two Earthbound games for NES and SNES, and Super Mario RPG. From Nintendo, I can also think of Startropics II, Adventures of Lolo 2 and Kirby’s Ghost Trap.

Even dismissing the games that are already part of paid bundles on the eShop (i.e. Street Fighter, Secret of Mana, Zombies Ate My Neighbours, Contra, etc), there’s still big gaps. Off the top of my head, I don’t know what the hold-up is with stuff like Legend of Mystical Ninja, Harvest Moon, Axelay and Cybernator. Maybe they’re to come…but maybe not at this stage.

Still, I’ve enjoyed the opportunity to try different games. Of the lesser-known stuff, I’d highlight Spanky’s Quest, Operation Logic Bomb and Prehistorik Man as three games that are well worth trying.

I also love the obscure games, and Claymates is a very charming game if I remember correctly (very Amiga-y though). But I do have to agree this is disappointing; Bombuzal looks like the most boring thing ever burnt to a SNES cartridge. Just watching that Nintendo video, I was waiting for the clip to finish so I could see something else.

One of the things that interested me was to see who licensed Bombuzal and Jelly Boy to come out for Nintendo Switch Online. The app itself tells you that it’s a company called Throwback Entertainment. They seem to be in the same kind of business as PIKO Interactive are, which is cheaply acquiring old media properties that have been sitting around idly for decades and re-releasing them for modern platforms. There’s little info about their portfolio online, but crucially it appears that they own the rights to Iggy’s Wreckin Balls on the N64.

Between Throwback Entertainment having Iggy’s Wreckin Balls and PIKO Interactive owning the one-two knockout punch that is Milo’s Astro Lanes and Starshot Space Circus, I think that’s N64 Online pretty much sorted.

Wow, that's weird. And they're using the old companies as "brands" I see. Mirrorsoft? Everyone's favourite software publisher owned by a famous pension fund stealing media magnate?

Oh, and they're releasing the old DOS ports of these 80s games on Steam. Well this is weird. I mean it's nice to see some of our old shit as opposed to America and Japan's old shit, but...

This isn't official yet, but Eurogamer have confirmed reports that Game Boy and Game Boy Colour games are going to be added to Nintendo Switch Online in the near-future.

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2021-09-03-game-boy-and-game-boy-color-titles-headed-to-nintendo-switch-online

There’s lots to first and third party stuff to mine from the original Game Boy library, I can see how a Game Boy app can be supported for years. I’m more interested to see what’s released for Game Boy Colour. Once you get past the usual Mario, Zelda and Wario games, I can’t think of much that they’d be able to license. I also think there’s too much money still to be made from Pokemon R/B/Y/G/S for them to be added to this app.

I’m looking forward to being surprised though, I'll play just about any old bollocks.

I've been eyeing up trying to play through the Oracles games in Japanese, so not having to do that is good news by itself. Otherwise, though, I have far more genuine nostalgia for the Game Boy than the NES or SNES so this will be a treat for sure.

inb4 they don't add the Oracles because Nintendo are embarrassed that Capcom made some good Zelda games

I think after my experiences of Link's Awakening I should really wait until the Oracles get remade.  I don't think I could play GB-era games I don't have nostalgia for without the helping hand of fancy graphics.  

On the other hand, I never did get around to trying Daemon x Machina (the full game anyway), so that it's going to be the next NSO trial is a nice surprise.