What are you playing on your Switch 2: Play Harder

I think I just don't seek that zen state from gaming in the same way as some of you, I need at least some level of stimulation or a 60h JRPG.

Rum wrote:

I've played a bit of Golden Sun on NSO and I actually actively thought it had aged pretty well visually! The pacing at the beginning is very sluggish though. It's a huge nostalgia trip regardless though - I think it was one of, if not the, first big JRPGs I played as a kid that wasn't Pokemon.

I'm also playing Ghost Trick at the moment, having (regretfully) missed out on it on DS. It's fun! I've also been on a bit of We Love Katamari, and enjoying how unashamedly nonsensical and self-referential it is.

God yes. That bit on top of the house feels like it takes about five hours to play.

GHOST TRICK GHOST TRICK GHOST TRICK

I bought Penny’s Big Breakaway as soon as I could after it surprise-launched after last week’s Nintendo Direct. My save file says that I’m only 30-odd% of the way through it, but already I sense that it’ll be regarded as a future classic. For now though, I can totally get why some review sites have afforded it a muted response and awarded it a middling score.

For as much as its design and ideas impress, for as superb as the music is and for how satisfyingly skilful a game it is to master, it’s rife with bugs and glitches that you just shouldn’t experience in games nowadays. The worst of these is the inconsistent input recognition – for example, there’s been too many times where Penny failed to jump after I’ve pressed the jump button – and the very unconvincing collision detection. There’s aren’t infrequent issues either, they’ve happened at least a couple of times every time I’ve turned the game on.

There’s an utterly fantastic 3D platformer in here that’s got massive potential, but it’s needing patched and polished. I’m half-tempted to stop playing for the time being, in the hope that they soon release an update that makes the whole thing more reliable.

That's made me feel a bit better about giving it the ol' wishlist-it and leave-it treatment.

It was never gonna get the time it deserved from me just yet anyway so this gives me a good reason to wait to buy it.

Acht, that's grim. I was already a bit iffy about how the lowered frame rate would work for this sort of game, and that's without the bugs or being a great lover of the sort of Sega-ish platformer people were saying Penny took most inspiration from.  I'm very happy to give that a miss.

I'm honestly barely playing anything at the moment.  This is partly on me, I need to drop a game and try something else out - but also the state of the release schedule.  What an idiot I was to think I could get by without picking up the Another Code remakes.

I don't think the lowered framerate harms Penny's Big Breakaway too much in all truth. Speed and precision will matter a lot if you're trying to speedrun it, but I'm not, and most folk who get it probably won't either.

With a little bit of further refinement I feel it’ll become a must-play. I’ve stuck with it for longer and I'm closing in on the last levels, and felt very rewarded by some brilliant level design and just by naturally becoming better at a game. It's very SEGA-ish right enough though, reminding me of Billy Hatcher & The Giant Egg in some faint ways, and of Rister in a couple of others.

I ended up finishing Penny’s Big Breakaway over the couple of nights after I made this post. I thought it ended up an excellent game, a proper platforming treat. It’s my game of the year so far (though when the other games I’ve completed include Shaq-Fu: A Legend Reborn, EyeToy Play and, er, Spice World, the competition admittedly isn’t the sternest). It's great news that Penny's Big Breakaway is awaiting approval for patches to go live on Switch, removing issues like getting stuck on walls and falling through solid objects.

I’ve moved onto Bubble Bobble Everybubble now. It’s the same basic Bust-A-Move formula from the last thirty years, but it’s constantly doing fresh and interesting things and it’s a remarkably polished game considering what it is.

Ah that's great to read. Penny's still solidly on my wishlist, waiting for its chance. For me it'd be up against the fearsome might of, er, Qomp2. You control a Pong ball that breaks free from its game. If that sounds bizarre then I've communicated it correctly.

I'm not playing it much though, because I'm on a bit of a visual novel streak. I'm really tired a lot at the moment (no great reason as to why), and not in much of a mood to deal with instakill spikes and tough bosses and that. Games where 'press A to advance story' forms the gameplay fit the bill pretty well. They're ideal for half-asleep early commutes too. So, I've just finished Anonymous;Code, and I've just bought Seventh Lair and Castle favourite Paranormasight.

If you were to ask me 'why don't you just read books instead', I'd struggle to give a good answer. Regardless, this is what I want to "play" right now apparently. Meanwhile Tunic sits there unloved.

Paranormasight, is a Square Enix game I missed last year that I do want to play.

And oddly today seen it's getting more content with a manga.

Paranormasight is great, get on it.

It's a game that the Back Page Discord might yet do as one of their monthly 'book club' games, so I'm holding fire for now and blitzing Seventh Lair instead.

Seventh Lair is one of the most bizarre "games" I've "played" in a while.  It reuses a lot of the art from Fata Morgana, not to mention names and personalities, to tell a story about indie game development.  Also it has a QR code linking to an online forum where the characters are expanded on.  I'm so confused, and yet probably enjoying it more than Anonymous;Code.  At least it has characters.

My main thing on the Switch right now is Disney Illusion Island which is just lovely, looks great, nice vibes and some fun writing, difficulty wise it isn't too taxing but I've set it to minimum health so the challenge is still there.

I've fired up Super Mario RPG - I'm not that far into it in that I've just had Geno join the party which is maybe only a couple of hours in, but I'm enjoying it so far. The new rendered cutscenes and team attacks are bloody gorgeous and I'm really glad they kept the spirit of the original game in its art style.

Oh, and the redone soundtrack is incredible. Forest Maze is still an absolute bop.

Other than that, I've fallen into the hole of playing Vampire Survivors and I am surprised my poor launch Switch hasn't erupted into flames when I get on a good run and have ten billion enemies surrounding me and a fireworks display of attacks firing off.

I played the first two missions of Peach last night and it was a delight. A fun little platformer on levels which are stage productions, with Peach magical girl transforming into different personas. The opening sword level was basic, but the second Ninja one was great - running on walls and then harnessing the power of the waves to steer a big rock.

It's not going to match a full-on, A-Team Mario production but it plays nicely and so far has a lot of charm, personality and inventiveness.

I've also been playing Devil May Cry. The first one.

Yeah, I think it was the Sword level and presumably an early Patissiere level that the demo provided, which wasn't exactly a great showcase for the game.

Buskalilly wrote:

I've also been playing Devil May Cry. The first one.

How are you finding it? I found it to be an interesting start for the series as there's hints of it becoming the full blown action game that the series is known for from 3 onwards, but you can definitely see the DNA left over from when it was originally RE4.

Those were my thoughts exactly! Having not played much DMCc, I couldn't wrap my head around it being both a successor to Resident Evil and a precursor to Bayonetta, but it actually kind of makes sense now.

Hope you stick with it and play them all, one to see how wrong Andy is about DMC2 & 3 also your take on DmC as you might not have the whoe that's not my Dante pitchfork out.

I've not actually played DmC myself - looked absolutely fine from what I've seen of it though and reckon the negative response for it was from pissbabies who were mad that Dante was redesigned.

During lockdown I worked out that Devil May Cry is the game I’ve owned the longest without having played it. That’s still true, and I’ll be coming up twenty years with it in my collection at this point. But I couldn’t even tell you if the PS2 disc works (or, come to think of it, if there’s even a disc in the box…). I’m sure I’ve got the HD trilogy and that DmC game on the 360 too, similarly unplayed.

~

As for me and what I’m playing on Switch, I had it in mind to make a start on a couple of ‘bigger’ games between now and the time when Endless Ocean Luminous and Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door release in May. I’ve plonked for Metroid Prime Remastered first: I know it’s reputation, first-person sci-fi shooters are a total break from the norm for me, and it’s something I’ve never earnestly given a fair crack.

A bit of time off work during Easter hopefully means I’ll properly give it the chance I didn’t when I had it on GameCube.

On a final note, I played through Disney Illusion Island at the end of last year - totally agree treesmurf, just lovely.

I'll be interested to hear your take on Prime when you get around to giving it a proper go. I think it's an all-timer and I really should have gotten around to playing the remaster myself at some point.

Prime is definitely worth playing.

There's a room near the start with lots of little clues about secret doodads to find. It seems like a sidequest but you need to do it to get the final boss, so I recommend trying to pay attention throughout rather than waiting until the end and then having to backtrack all over the map.

Buskalilly wrote:

Prime is definitely worth playing.

There's a room near the start with lots of little clues about secret doodads to find. It seems like a sidequest but you need to do it to get the final boss, so I recommend trying to pay attention throughout rather than waiting until the end and then having to backtrack all over the map.

This what I had and soured the game a tad for me, still in my Top 30 though for Switch.

I'm on the last last level in Super Mario Wonder. It's nice that people can help each other out with Jolly Co-operation - although a few times I've quite out halfway through due to the embarrassment of being beholden to them! I am a fragile flower

The Prime Thingummies Hunt is an area where I'd say you can use a walkthrough without shame. If you can manage it without though, and without getting too fed up with the backtracking (and the Chozo Ghost battles), you'll feel like a king. I don't know whether I'd call it a "sci-fi shooter" though, what with aiming mostly handled for you by the lock-on (thank God).

I have no comment on Jolly Co-operation since I had that turned off the entire way. Stuff that last last level though.

The last last level is great though.............just don't be me and miss the top of the flag pole twice.