La5t Game You Fini5hed And Your Thought5

I've liked the look of Going Under for a while, although dungeon crawlers have never really been my thing. It's a little concerning to see several forumites now having pointed out their frustrations with the first Ori game - I've got it, and it's on my To Play list.

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Seeing as plenty of other forumites have already shared their feelings about it throughout last year, I’ll be brief with my own reflections on Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury. I played the Super Mario 3D World part throughout 2021, but deliberately kept Bowser’s Fury back as my ‘Christmas game’ for the end of last year.

In an old Wii U vote thread, I said that Super Mario 3D World’s original 2013 incarnation was “stunning to look at and excellent fun” and a “true testament to Nintendo EAD’s brilliance”. This still rings true, but the changes that have been made to the gameplay by increasing the speed of each character improve it a ton. I felt that Super Mario 3D World was a bit sluggish on Wii U, but it’s been revitalised and fully polished on Switch. It feels like a whole new game. 9/10.

Speaking of whole new games, I really enjoyed Bowser’s Fury as well. There was a lot of pleasure in exploring and slowly expanding the open-world environment, uncovering all its little secrets and seeing how it’s design changed when Bowser attacked. It looks, sounds and plays amazing too. That said, I’m not totally convinced if this experimental direction is the one I’d like Nintendo to take with their next mainline Super Mario game. Bowser’s Fury feels slightly disjointed and bitsy in places, with a lot of vacant water between the themed islands and areas that you notice are a bit underdeveloped. I also felt that several of the Cat Shine tasks repeated themselves a little too often as well. Yet it’s a first go at a really creative new direction for the series, walking before it runs. With further refinement I think it provides a strong foundation for a very special sequel (albeit one that’s preferably not in place of Super Mario Odyssey 2). 8/10.

The most exciting thing about Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury is that it feels genuinely new. Paired together, this is one of the most adventurous, inventive, energising and bargainous Switch games of them all. 9/10.

The Cappuccino Kid wrote:

It's a little concerning to see several forumites now having pointed out their frustrations with the first Ori game - I've got it, and it's on my To Play list.

Mas and Andy (I think?) and love it for what it's worth.

I won't say much about SM3DW+BF for fear of bringing down the mood. I'll just say that I didn't notice the increased speed at all and I think you're being very kind.

Ori is brilliant, best Metroidvania on Switch.

SOTN, isn't on Switch, is it?

I liked the demo of Ori: Blind forest enough that I bought it but it's sat unplayed for a long time now & it's still fairly low on my to play list.

mas wrote:

Ori is brilliant, best Metroidvania on Switch.

Fair enough if it's your favourite but saying stuff like that might set folk up to be disappointed especially when Switch has stuff like Hollow Knight.

Do you mean Blind Forest or Will of the Wisps mas? Because I could see the argument for the latter but not the former - especially up against other games like Hollow Knight, as Jas says.

It's my opinion It's the best on Switch, sure not played ever Metroidvania on Switch but ones I have then yeah the 1st Ori the best available.

Same if you asked what's the best platformer on Switch, Super Mario Odyssey for instance.

Know Balla isn't doing Switch vote by genre but that's how I would vote in those two genre's for instance.

masofdas wrote:

It's my opinion It's the best on Switch, sure not played ever Metroidvania on Switch but ones I have then yeah the 1st Ori the best available.

Gosh. I will be potently suspicious of you and your opinions forevermore.

I don't think most would debate that opinion though especially if we are talking 3d platformers.

Exactly but can only tell ya what I've played and what I think is the best of a genre, that was the point.

Oh I got the point but it's a forum to discuss said opinions & I just think we've had (as a forum) too many moments of "X is the best" type statements when we probably just mean favourite or that X game is really fuckin' good.
Maybe I'll bump up Ori on my to play list after I beat a few more Switch games in my backlog but based on others I've played in the genre it has an uphill battle in my eyes, who knows though maybe it'll surprise me.

It's a bit of both for me as it is my favourite and like if doing a vote of genre's I'd say best.

Something that's not my favourite but best would be Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Yes it is the best racer on Switch, my favourite No as I've not really played it on the system.

Kinda want to send Balla two Switch Top 10 list's as my favourite the one I will send for votes, is very different to what think I is the 10 best games which would have MK8D, SMASH and even BotW on it.

It's your personal vote, just vote for your favourites, the best is always gonna be personal opinion. I'd kind of get if wanted to ignore say Mario Kart because you consider it a Wii U game fair enough but don't go voting for BotW if you don't personally like it.

Personal enjoyment for sure comes into deeming a game "best of the genre" though. You can argue that it's objective but a good game is defined in part by how much people like playing it (even if it's not exactly your cup of tea), so it's always going to be subjective. I'm not sure what the point of separating "best" from "favourite" is.

Edit: Yes I agree with Smurf.

I wouldn't and did say the list I'll be sending for votes is my favourites Switch games (Yes MK8 is a WiiU game) and always has been in these votes.

Just saying if Craig from the Podcast come to me asking what's the best Switch games because he bought a Switch in work on Black Friday then I'd be going BotW, MK8D, SMASH etc if that makes sense from what I'm saying and imo Ori comes into both lists.

Treesmurf wrote:

It's your personal vote, just vote for your favourites, the best is always gonna be personal opinion. I'd kind of get if wanted to ignore say Mario Kart because you consider it a Wii U game fair enough but don't go voting for BotW if you don't personally like it.

Rum wrote:

Personal enjoyment for sure comes into deeming a game "best of the genre" though. You can argue that it's objective but a good game is defined in part by how much people like playing it (even if it's not exactly your cup of tea), so it's always going to be subjective. I'm not sure what the point of separating "best" from "favourite" is.

Edit: Yes I agree with Smurf.

The best is only determined by a large amount of people agreeing/voting on it, right? Obviously you can disagree with the end result which is why I'm not personally keen on votes/lists etc - yet if I look at a person who mentions a game is their favourite I can decide more easily if it's worth my time or not. Also no one is right or wrong here as we've all went overboard with trying to express why we like something but it often just muddies the water.

The best like brexit and tory party 🥳

Obviously this doesn't apply to all aspects of life.

The best is what I say it is, because I'm very smart and I have good taste.
If people disagree with me, that's not a reflection on the game but on the person and their competency/ value as a human being.

Yeah think you be disappointed in most people as I reckon if all of the UK asked to vote on best game it be COD or FIFA, just on sheer popularity.

Hope my Craig scenario made sense especially as EofGiz and myself, a few times have tried to get him to get a Switch when deals on Switches at work.

masofdas wrote:

Yeah think you be disappointed in most people . . . if all of the UK asked to vote

Yes.

Whenever I'm putting together lists of my 'top games' there's usually a bit of heart and a bit of head, which I think is a better way to think of this than 'objective and subjective' - because there's no way to objectively judge art, only which frame rate is better than which. Even 'heart and head' is a bit woolly, but I think we all have a decent idea of what it means, even if we couldn't type it out (which is why I'm not going to try to.)

I'm still trying to re-sort my "best/worst games list" for a topic that I think was made about a year ago now, and I find that I'm asking myself "the best in what way?" which doesn't even make sense. Just like what you like, and assume that if someone says "this is the best" that it's slightly frivolous and they just mean it's one they really like.

EDIT: I thought "hey, my list is looking pretty eclectic here!" - then I realised I haven't yet sorted anything starting with "Super" or "The Legend of"

I still think you can be objective with it personally, with my example of Craig with a Switch or anyone with any console or you know Nintendo asked me to write a catalogue for best Switch games, don't think I'd be putting Fata Morgana on the front cover.

Why not? It's the highest-rated game on the best known aggregator site. You've picked a subjective criterion (essentially 'no visual novels') because you've decided (and those two words are key) that this subjective criterion needs to hold. You could pick something saying 'minimum of ten reviews' or what have you, and even then that choice of ten is reasonably subjective.

Metacritic score is about the only 'objective' method, and that's just an aggregation of subjectivities.

Thinking about it, not so much the best then but what shows/represents the system, if that makes more sense. Pretty sure said to Buska when he got his PS4 checkout Bloodborne, Nioh, Spider-Man etc not all for ms but quality PS4 games.

We are going round in circles though, and hopefully someone comes into the thread actually finished a game.