What are you playing on your Switch 2: Play Harder

While it is a doubler, the two games are very similar.  I don't think there are more than a handful of new monsters introduced between the two, and you revisit all the same areas.  I feel like the best way to play Hacker's Memory is either to play it straight after the original, or leave it several years so you forget it.  Otherwise it feels very... re-heated.

Monster Hunter Stories is a game I have played.


I'm currently playing Bakeru!  I'm all out of 6/10 visual novels, and Bakeru fills the slightly mindless commute-friendly gap nicely.  Just a fun colourful game of beating things up in Weeb Heaven, with an exploratory sideline.

On a related note, I've now played 100 games I'd recommend on Switch!  That's so many more than on any other machine I've ever owned, or even on a Nintendo home/handheld generational pairing.  The Switch is great isn't it? (Yes this does mean a Smurf-style gigapost ranking at some point.)

With things getting busier in my personal and working life I’m not making much time for gaming just now. The only thing I’ve occasionally been chipping away at in the last month is – just like The Balls Man - Bakeru. It’s a very pure, well-designed and solidly built Mystical Ninja spiritual successor that acts as evidence that publishers don’t need to pump hundreds of millions of pounds into making a game that’s varied, interesting and – above all else - fun.
 
On the topic of Bakeru, I recall a few other forumites mentioning that they’d wait for a sale before downloading it. Absolutely feel free to do so, but don’t have any concerns about the amount of content. Bakeru is a surprisingly big game with many lengthy levels, and even as a digital download it warrants it’s high street price-tag. Perhaps I’d argue that it’s a bit too big mind you; as there’s at least one level for all of Japan’s forty-seven sub-districts, I found that as I neared it’s end that the game was repeating a few of its earlier ideas and that the level designs aren’t always unique. Still, there’s racing, shooting and giant robot fighting sections to break things up a bit, so Bakeru never becomes dull.


~
 
Now I’ve completed Bakeru, I’ve moved onto the Switch’s FC 25. It’s not a Legacy Edition and there’s lots of examples of how EA have refined the gameplay to make the tactics more adaptable, to make the training plans and player development more flexible and to make the on-pitch experience to be a bit more realistic. As with FC 24 though, it feels like it’s pushing the Switch a bit beyond what it can comfortably handle. There’s plenty of times where the graphics make it look like it’s running FIFA 2005 on the PSP, navigating the menus feels sluggish, and pre and post-match cutscenes reliably don’t load properly. Speaking of those post-match press conferences, they don’t half ask you stupid questions: “last match, Lewis Miley completed 0 passes, with an accuracy of 0%. Do you feel Lewis Miley can improve on that performance?”. Still, at least FC 25 doesn’t crash your console during transfer negotiations, unlike FC 24 did ‘with an accuracy of 1000%’.

There are 48 Prefectures, which one does it skip?

I'm not sure if it's the one or just a miscount, given that it also features levels set in prefectures such as (checks notes) a big boat.

Agreed with everything Cappa said about Bakeru, it's just a lot (quantity-wise) of good solid varied fun. I can see how it'd feel old before the end maybe (I've hit my second construction-themed level and that's a bit eh), but you'll have had a good time before you get there. I'd love to see you play it actually Buska, or more realistically watch a YouTube video of somebody else playing it and comment on how well each level reflects its prefecture's unique facets or points of interest. Nara for example is a big ol' deer park decked out in autumn colours, and it's quietly lovely.

(I've been playing Zelda, natch.)

Buskalilly wrote:

There are 48 Prefectures, which one does it skip?

East Renfrewshire? I’m not sure, I just read somewhere that Japan has forty-seven districts and thought ‘aye that’ll do, nobody will clock that and correct me on it’.

No, there are literally 47 and I'm full of shit

Having played through two full seasons in the career mode with all its league and cup games, I can summarise that FC 25 on Switch won’t have any reason to go down as one of history’s greatest football games but it’s a perfectly competent kickabout and, crucially, different enough from FIFA 23 and FC 24. More than anything it makes me eager to see what can be done with FC 26 on the next Nintendo console.
 
What seemed to escape the attention of many was the release of Cash Cow DX, the second in a series of three tough-as-nails single-screen platformers that are designed to evoke memories of arcade gaming in the early 1980s. The first one – Donut Dodo – is a Donkey Kong-style belter, it’s one of the best neo-retro games I’ve played. Cash Cow DX – which is a strange mix of Mappy and Sonic The Hedgehog – sadly only exists on the ‘it’s pretty good’ plateau. The visuals, music and level design are all that bit inferior to Donut Dodo, and I’m finding it difficult to get to grips with, even on Easy Mode. Still, it does come recommended. Most of the disappointment simply comes from what Cash Cow DX had to follow.

Aw, that's a shame about Cash Cow. I really like how that and Donut Dodo look - they've got the colour just right of good arcade games of the time (and the subtle difference between those and home console ports of the same games).

Time for another round-up:

- Master Key - I think this would probably appeal to the likes of Jas and Jim on here, it's utterly wordless (but not without charm) and quite hard and obscure.  Otherwise it's an action-adventure where you play a sword-wielding fox in a world without much obvious narrative no not that one.  I'd like it more if the checkpoints weren't so blooming far apart.
- Splasher - How many levels does this have before the credits Smurf?  I've got maybe 77 of the lads which looks like it might only be half, and I'm running out of steam a bit.  Or, er, gaseous ink?  Oddly it has the same problem as Master Key, closer checkpoints would do it a world of good.
- Can of Wormholes - ERROR: BRAIN NOT FOUND.  TRY AGAIN LATER.
- Castlevania Dominus Collection: Order of Ecclesia - Okay I'm confused.  The Dominus collection menu presents this one first on its menu but apparently it was the last in the series?  What's going on there?  Anybody know?  This is not rhetorical, I am seriously asking people to tell me whether I've got the order wrong.  This feels like a strong contribution to the series, albeit with an oddly divided map and a couple of endless enemy-filled corridors near the beginning.  I just don't want to play two inferior-due-to-time games afterwards because I've made a mistake.
- Bloomtown - Odd little RPG (I think) in the Omori mould, whereby our protagonists go to a small town in the day and meet Lucifer at night.  It's got a bunch of dice rolls for dialogue checks that recall Disco Elysium, a bunch of time and date progression that recalls Persona, and a bunch of too-distant save points that recall earlier in this post.  
- Sanabi - Why did nobody talk about this?  With its lush pixel art and its "tragic" yet predictable initial story, you'd think the gaming media would have been all over it when it released last year; yet Nintendo Life didn't even slap an 8/10 on it.  I'm barely started this but I'm quite enjoying it, because it looks nice and because the main character has a grappling hook.  Always good.

I think it might be timeline order, as Ecclesia is 1800s, ones 1940s the other 2036.

That would make sense I suppose.  Curious to know if anybody's played the set, either in the Dominus Collection or back in the day, and can tell me whether I've mistakenly started off with the high point.  The GBA collection very much got better with the later games.

Oh and I've wishlisted Last Time I Saw You Mas.

I haven't played any of the DS Castlevania games but intend to get the Dominus collection at some point. Though I should maybe attempt to complete the GBA collection first.

Having just finished Echoes of Wisdom I'm now playing the surprisingly generous Ys X: Nordics demo (which will be of vague interest to Balladeer and of none to anybody else). It's fun! I've ordered the full game. It's very Ys.

I was also playing Atelier Ryza: Ever Darkness and the Secret Hideout because it went on sale and it seemed like the kind of thing I'd like. It's... fine. I find myself in loading screens a lot.

Also got pretty far into Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown. It's a very competent Metroidvania but towards the latter stages a bunch of the map has become a gauntlet of one-hit-death navigation which I don't really enjoy. I'll go back to it now that I've finished Echoes of Wisdom, though.

It feels weird that the Switch now has pretty much every 2D Castlevania except Symphony of the Night, the one people generally bang on about.

Zelda is still my main game at the moment, with Splatoon, Monster Hunter Rise and Dynasty Warriors 8 all in rotation for when I have time for a quick go in the morning or something.

Yesterday I started Monster Hunter Stories as my new killing-time-on-the-train game about raising monsters. I forgot how wordy the opening was so I haven't really done anything yet.

Jimbob wrote:

Aw, that's a shame about Cash Cow. I really like how that and Donut Dodo look - they've got the colour just right of good arcade games of the time (and the subtle difference between those and home console ports of the same games).

Cash Cow DX is still quite good, but it lacks the moreish-ness of Donut Dodo and I’ve truthfully not thought about it in a couple of weeks. Still, just like Donut Dodo I imagine that Cash Cow DX will frequently go on sale and be reduced to £2-odd. They’re both a bargain at that low cost.


~
 
Sonic X Shadow Generations represents the last ‘new’ Switch game that I’m looking to buy this year. I’m about halfway through Sonic Generations and it appears largely unchanged from what it was like on PS3 and 360 in 2011 although it’s glitchier than I remember, and the ‘wow’ factor is gone now that Generations’ main gimmick of revisiting old levels has since been done better by Sonic Mania. All the same, it’s still very good stuff though, and the Shadow Generations half is supposed to be even better.
 
I squeezed in a quick playthrough of A Little To The Left last weekend, while it’s was a free trial as part of Nintendo Switch Online. It’s a serene puzzler about tidying things up and organising them neatly, and I quite enjoyed it. It’s perhaps restricted by the fact that there’s set solutions to each puzzle so it’s not down to your own interpretation of how items should be arranged or categorised however. Still, this has been far more up my street than the bombardment of farming sims, JRPGs and roguelikes that we’ve been assaulted with via Nintendo Switch Online’s free trials this year.

The Cappuccino Kid wrote:

Sonic X Shadow Generations represents the last ‘new’ Switch game that I’m looking to buy this year. I’m about halfway through Sonic Generations and it appears largely unchanged from what it was like on PS3 and 360 in 2011 although it’s glitchier than I remember, and the ‘wow’ factor is gone now that Generations’ main gimmick of revisiting old levels has since been done better by Sonic Mania. All the same, it’s still very good stuff though, and the Shadow Generations half is supposed to be even better.

I've not played this yet but Mercy has been. She's getting frustrated at controlling Sonic, dealing with unfair deaths and so on, and I'm like yeah - this is what Sonic is like to play. She loves Shadow and Sonic and the characters, but she always had her brother do the actual playing for her I think.

I'm genuinely thinking about getting Sonic x Shadow. It's had grand reviews and I've never played a Sonic game. Even if I hate it, I want to hate it from an informed position, y'know?

Rum wrote:

Having just finished Echoes of Wisdom I'm now playing the surprisingly generous Ys X: Nordics demo (which will be of vague interest to Balladeer and of none to anybody else). It's fun! I've ordered the full game. It's very Ys.

Yes! Good! Very Ys is what I'm here for. I've asked for X for Christmas, alongside the new Trails game. Going to be a big ol' JRPG blow-out for the end of the year. (Also inevitable screw UbiSoft and all their games comment.)

Buskalilly wrote:

It feels weird that the Switch now has pretty much every 2D Castlevania except Symphony of the Night, the one people generally bang on about.

This really is bizarre. Remake for Switch 2 et al. maybe?


And I've taken up Last Time I Saw You. It's really pretty and I love the vibes, and I've just gone into a forest full of yokai which is obviously great. It's a shame it's a straight male coming-of-age story with a waif-like barefoot slightly older mysterious love interest. That sort of thing always makes me a bit.

Balladeer wrote:

Buskalilly wrote:

It feels weird that the Switch now has pretty much every 2D Castlevania except Symphony of the Night, the one people generally bang on about.

This really is bizarre.  Remake for Switch 2 et al. maybe?

Maybe, but the PS1 original is readily available on Xbox and Playstation, I think.

Buskalilly wrote:

Balladeer wrote:

Buskalilly wrote:

It feels weird that the Switch now has pretty much every 2D Castlevania except Symphony of the Night, the one people generally bang on about.

This really is bizarre.  Remake for Switch 2 et al. maybe?

Maybe, but the PS1 original is readily available on Xbox and Playstation, I think.

It's abit of strange game with modern releases.

On Xbox there's a 360 version that's backwards compatible with newer Xboxes and on PS4 they did a port collection with Rondo of Blood (which I think is also not available on switch?)

Think it was Balla the other day on about some series he likes but not played much off, that is me with Castlevania as cool goth action game, like why always been drawn to the Souls games due to the setting as well, yet I've only played a few of them which SOTN is a banger, and couldn't tell you much about the latest collection.

On the games looks like this for modern systems (PS5/Series BC for PS4/ONE Games):

Castlevania on PS4, ONE, Switch via Anniversary Collection
Castlevania 64 on Nothing
Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge on PS4, ONE, Switch via Anniversary Collection
Castlevania II: Simon's Quest on PS4, ONE, Switch via Anniversary Collection
Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse on PS4, ONE, Switch via Anniversary Collection
Super Castlevania IV on PS4, ONE, Switch via Anniversary Collection
Castlevania: The Adventure on PS4, ONE, Switch via Anniversary Collection
Castlevania: The Adventure ReBirth on Nothing
Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow on PS4, ONE, Switch via Advance Collection
Castlevania: Bloodlines on PS4, ONE, Switch via Anniversary Collection
Castlevania: Circle of the Moon on PS4, ONE, Switch via Advance Collection
Castlevania: Chronicles on Nothing
Castlevania: Curse of Darkness on Nothing
Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow on PS5, Series, Switch via Dominus Collection
Castlevania: Dracula X on PS4, ONE, Switch via Advance Collection
Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles on Nothing
Castlevania: Grimoire of Souls on Apple Arcade
Castlevania: Harmony of Despair on Xboxes via BC of 360 version
Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance on PS4, ONE, Switch via Advance Collection
Castlevania: Judgment on Nothing
Castlevania: Lament of Innocence on Nothing
Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness on Nothing
Castlevania: Legends Switch via NSO
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow on Xboxes via BC of 360 version
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 on Xboxes via BC of 360 version
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - Mirror of Fate HD on Xboxes via BC of 360 version
Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia on PS5, Series, Switch via Dominus Collection
Castlevania: Order of Shadows on Nothing
Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin on PS5, Series, Switch via Dominus Collection
Castlevania: Puzzle: Encore of the Night on Nothing
Castlevania: Rondo of Blood on PS4 via Requiem
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night on PS4 via Requiem, on Xboxes via BC of 360 version
Haunted Castle on PS5, Series, Switch via Dominus Collection
Haunted Castle Revisited on PS5, Series, Switch via Dominus Collection
Kid Dracula Famicom on PS4, ONE, Switch via Anniversary Collection
Kid Dracula GameBoy on Nothing
Vampire Killer on Nothing

That's 22 Series, 19 PS5, 18 Switch and 1 Apple Arcade

On the other goings on some of the games played myself or picked up that I talk about in here with one of those Balla like big posts.

I heard we were talking about Castlevania and felt an unnatural vampiric call to log in to the forum.

Balladeer wrote:

- Castlevania Dominus Collection: Order of Ecclesia - Okay I'm confused.  The Dominus collection menu presents this one first on its menu but apparently it was the last in the series?  What's going on there?  Anybody know?  This is not rhetorical, I am seriously asking people to tell me whether I've got the order wrong.  This feels like a strong contribution to the series, albeit with an oddly divided map and a couple of endless enemy-filled corridors near the beginning.  I just don't want to play two inferior-due-to-time games afterwards because I've made a mistake..

As you'll have since read/heard, Order of Ecclesia is the last of the DS games that came out. I think they all reviewed reasonably similarly for what it's worth. I've not actually played Order of Ecclesia but it's one I was always interested in because I bloody loved Dawn of Sorrow and especially Portrait of Ruin. I really think these three games are the series's highpoint. The Dominus Collection is such a steal.

masofdas wrote:

Think it was Balla the other day on about some series he likes but not played much off, that is me with Castlevania as cool goth action game, like why always been drawn to the Souls games due to the setting as well, yet I've only played a few of them which SOTN is a banger, and couldn't tell you much about the latest collection.

If I was to give you recommendations from the ones I've played, I'd probably list something like this:

Castlevania III: The best of the NES bunch in my eyes, but it's still a NES game at heart so keep that in mind.
Super Castlevania IV: Just a good evolution of the original Castlevania style games, worth a play.
Rondo of Blood: Really good side scrolling action game - probably the best of that style of Castlevania game in my eyes.
Symphony of the Night: Of course.
Aria/Dawn of Sorrow: Pretty much any of the Castlevania games in the SOTN style are worth a look, but I think these two are especially worth it. The way you acquire powers from defeating monsters and taking their abilities is a novel idea.
Portrait of Ruin: My personal favourite in the series. I love the dual protagonists, loved using different weapons and spells, love how the dual character focus worked for both combat and puzzles... yeah, a banger.

Glowing endorsement there from yer man, sounds like I can't go too far wrong with any of 'em so I might as well finish with Ecclesia since I've started it. Cheers!

Out of that list Jay, I've played Rondo & SOTN.

Started on Mario & Luigi: Brothership and first impressions are good, I wasn't keen when I first seen it but I'm really liking the arstyle of it, the actual character designs of the Concordians leave a lot to be desired but at least the Bros look good. The actual structure of it is wildly different from anything else in the series, you direct your ship via a chart and you can pick different islands to visit when in close proximity and whilst I've not had anything yet there's suggestions that choices you make can affect the story (although I suspect it'll be fairly inconsequential).

I've seen mixed reviews but I saw a clip on tiktok or insta or somewhere that was delightful.

Spoiler:

That happens moments after the game announces a new feature called Luigi Logic which made the preceeding events even funnier when I wasn't expecting it.