What are you playing on your 3DS/DS right now?

Oh blimey, the CDs! Mr. Ether and Planaria is surely a classic. The internet wasn't so big a "thing" when Wario Land 4 came out; I remember wishing I could explain/discuss this crazy shiz with more people. How would you explain the CD menu to someone who hadn't seen the game? Odd.

The Short Futon. 'Enjoy'.

I feel there's a story with that one that I should be following... but I can't.

Fire Emblem 7. That game is pure class. Modern Fire Emblem really doesn't hold up to scrutiny now that I've seen how it should be done. There are many things I appreciate about FE7, which makes it better than many of its peers, but the best thing it has going for it is just how manageable it is. Modern Fire Emblem presents the player with too many stats and chances to worry about with every turn, while this classic title gives the player the basics to focus on (weapon triangle, important stats, movement ranges) making most turns feel like the result of carefully calculated decisions more of the time.

Have you played PoR by any chance Fronk? I think that's the pinnacle of Fire Emblem in my eyes - it's very much in the style of FE7 in that it's not bloated with skills or stats, nor is it plagued with some of the awful writing in the 3DS games.

My only major gripe with FE7 with that the opening of the game was a tutorial that overstayed its welcome, but I appreciate that I returned to it as an experienced player and this was the West's first exposure to Fire Emblem.

Not yet, it's absurdly expensive nowadays! But I've been meaning to.

The first act of Fire Emblem 7 does get going around chapter 5, but I agree that it should have gotten moving sooner. I think it would have worked better if it gave you more control of units - the last Advance Wars handled that perfectly by guiding you with information rather than commands.

7 really is near-perfect, though, like a lot of R&D1/Intelligent System's last output before Nintendo restructured in 2004-2005 (Wario Land 4, GBA Metroids, WarioWare Inc...). There's just such a high level of craftsmanship throughout the entire game, from the pixel-art in the menus and the unit/portrait sprites, to the animation work, to the sound effects and level design. Nothing feels like it's there to tick a box.

I'm crossing my fingers for PoR/RD to get the Echoes treatment at some point and make their way Switchwards. I think there'd be a huge demand out there for them from the FE fanbase.

Oh, the pixel art in the battle animations is really something to behold. The critical hit animations specifically are wonderful. The battles aren't anywhere close to being a delight to the eyes as FE7/FE8, but I'm hopeful that the Switch FE is going to be a looker in that department.

I'm late to the game, but I'm currently bashing through Metroid: Samus Returns. I really, really love 2D Metroid games, and I'm enjoying this a lot, but it's not quite... perfect. I think my main issue is that there aren't really many proper boss fights/setpieces and there aren't many varieties of the 40 Metroids you have to hunt down. Also not sure I'm totally sold on the melee parry attack as I find it slows things down; I know you don't have to use it but it feels like the game encourages it. Having said that, now I'm at the point where Samus is a powerhouse (just got the screw attack) which is always rad, and the exploration is still great. It's just an 85% kind of a game as opposed to 90%+ (a category I think Fusion and Super definitely fall into).

Ah, I love the parry! Not sold on the lack of boss fights, agreed: it's more impressive if you remember that it's originally a GB game, and they did actually put in a couple of all-new ones, but it's certainly noticeable.

True dat.

Spoiler for a boss bit in Samus Returns:

Omega Ruby. Having a Pokemon game on the go on my 3DS is ideal for train journeys, meal times, and killing time at work because I have a schedule with lots of long dull gaps at the moment.

I kind of bounced off this when it first launched, but I'm actually enjoying it this time. It's the only 3D game explicitly set in a Japanese region and I'm loving the aesthetic. I feel like a lot of this went over my head before.

Rum Rapture wrote:

Also not sure I'm totally sold on the melee parry attack as I find it slows things down

I get where you're coming from here, I think. I found the parry to be super satisfying in boss/hard enemy encounters, but for basic exploration it did slow the flow of moving around. A particular example is those bat enemies - it felt like to avoid a hit you need to parry them, so the movement and traversal felt a bit stop start because of that.

JayMoyles wrote:

Rum Rapture wrote:

Also not sure I'm totally sold on the melee parry attack as I find it slows things down

I get where you're coming from here, I think. I found the parry to be super satisfying in boss/hard enemy encounters, but for basic exploration it did slow the flow of moving around. A particular example is those bat enemies - it felt like to avoid a hit you need to parry them, so the movement and traversal felt a bit stop start because of that.

Yes, exactly! It's satisfying when, for example, you slap the super-mutated Metroid-reptile things across the face when they try to bite you, and then you can missile their chests to heck. But otherwise, yes, it feels like you keep having to stop, wait for the enemy to approach you, smack them, and then continue on your way. I like the 360 degree aiming, though.

I beat the proper Diggernaut boss earlier today, which to me felt like a very un-Metroid encounter. I found it peculiarly unintuitive, and very much an encounter that was only challenging in that it was longer than it needed to be (that last stage where you could only damage the eye when the lights lined up and the electricity was off, three separate times, meaning you could get to that stage and then literally not be able to damage it so have to go through the previous stage again?!). I dunno, it was fine, but I am finding that encounters like that - and the later, more advanced Metroid fights - are a bit repetitive and boring, considering the exploration has that typical Metroid flair.

Flaahgra (sp?) from Metroid Prime had quite a similar feel, I think.

I fired up Pokemon Crystal to catch my Celebii while waiting for a taxi half-way down a mountain.

Um...five minutes of Flower, Sun and Rain. I'll get to it next year I think, too much on my plate at the moment otherwise.

Apparently the North American version from XSEED has a much better script though - a lot of lines were rewritten to read more naturally, and going from the credits they had four people working on it. I'm guessing what shipped for Europe by Rising Star Games was an early, and rough, translation.

I remember NGamer (Kittsy maybe?) absolutely ripping the pish out of FSaR. AH well...

fronkhead wrote:

Um...five minutes of Flower, Sun and Rain. I'll get to it next year I think, too much on my plate at the moment otherwise.

Apparently the North American version from XSEED has a much better script though - a lot of lines were rewritten to read more naturally, and going from the credits they had four people working on it. I'm guessing what shipped for Europe by Rising Star Games was an early, and rough, translation.

I didn't know that about the translation! It's a super memorable game, one day I'll replay it and actually finish it - some of the puzzles are tough as

Definitely deserves praise, not criticism

Yeah, I wish I spent more time with it but alas I did the stupid thing where I buy three games at once and one of them got the short end of the stick...

This year I played Legend of Legacy, which is actually one of my favourite RPGs of all time. I feel really stupid for having dismissed it back when it released because its name and visuals style were derivative of other games. Which is a shame because even the visuals are gorgeous and aren't really derivative when you realise how the dungeons are presented.

Anyway, it's an exploration-focused RPG with some unique mechanics. There isn't any EXP, and you awaken skills and improve stats by tackling monsters that are tougher than you. It's generally a tough game that encourages you to always put yourself outside of your comfort zone, and I think mapping quick save to a button combo is indicative of that.

But never mind me - I think this article actually does a perfect job of encapsulating why the game is so interesting: http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/ChristianNutt/20160122/264111/The_secret_of_The_Legend_of_Legacy.php

Also the soundtrack is just fantastic. Its successor, Alliance Alive, was my second favourite RPG of 2017 to follow Labyrinth of Refrain, but in hindsight it's the less interesting game to Legend of Legacy. With AA it felt like they made an RPG to satisfy what people expect from the genre, but in doing so the game became less unique than LoL. It's still unique in its own right - it retains the battle and 'levelling' mechanics, and it is generally very polished and well rounded, but there are elements of its design which aren't bravely doing in their own direction.

Legend of Legacy fulfils the whole 'embark on an adventure all your own' promise far better than Octopath Traveler. Give it a look!

I started Pokemon Black last night. The only reason I didn't jump in more quickly after Pearl is that finding a reasonably priced copy of this game is impossible, especially when trying to import and English-language version to Japan. Mine was new, sealed in cellophane, and apparently intended for sale in Malaysia or the UAE.

I'm playing as a female trainer called Katsito (from Katsì:tso, the Mohawk for Lily), and I went for Tepig as its the year of the boar. His name is Fisk.

Shen's ordered a copy of White, so this will be our first time playing a pokemon game side-by-side, and her actual first time playing Gen V

I'm continuing my Crystal adventure, where I've just hit Kanto, so not really far off, Then I may start Links Awakening and get it done before September

Are you thinking of playing the original LA before the new one? The remake looks pretty faithful, it might kind of ruin it for you. . . or save you some cash, depending on your point of view I suppose.

Why not play it twice??

Yeah the original, It's been sitting on my 3ds for ages untouched as I downloaded it and well forgot all about it, so yeah the plan is to play the original mainly to say that I have and then go through it again when the remake is released.

Well technically it's not the original because it's DX, so you get the camera shop and color dungeon that aren't in the original :p

The camera shop looks like it isn't in the remake though so there's something you'll genuinely get in DX that you won't there!