E Shop and Downloadables Discussion

The Cappuccino Kid wrote:

I like Scram Kitty a lot, but what's stopped me playing is the promise of an update that will make things easier, fairer and less frantic. That was announced back in the summer...still waiting.

Even so, I think it's the best exclusive on Wii U's eShop.

I doubled checked the info about the patch I was referring to earlier & it looks like it was the complete rebalance patch you are talking about.

https://miiverse.nintendo.net/posts/AYMHAAACAADRUqGbu-TP5g

Ah! So it's out? In that case I can see myself returning to Scram Kitty very soon. Nice one!

Yup, I think I will return to it as well but those late levels are making it really tough to 100%

Scram Kitty, Cloudberry and Stick it to the man may all be on my list which would most likely make me want to spend more so I can get my Nintendo Network Premium points.

I've gone for Rabbids Land, Child of Light, Stick it to the Man and Duck Hunt from the Wii U's eShop. That's pretty good for under fifteen quid. Mad that there's a 50p difference between a NES ROM from thrity years back and a full Wii U retail download.

I've still got £29-odd credit - any recommendations? Is Shovel Knight really as amazing as I've heard, or is it a Shantae-type thing where people go mental over it for no compelling reason?

I have found it solid, yet not compelling. Good enough level design, with nothing that really made me want to plough onto the next level.

I went a little nuts as I've got money and there's a sale & premium running out soon.

So for a £40 eShop voucher (paid £27 for) I got
Armillo
Art of Balance
Knytt Underground
Paper Monsters Recut
Pier Solar and the Great Architects HD
Scram Kitty and his Buddy on Rails
Tengami

So all that I think will cover me getting another £5 voucher which I will use to buy Weapon Shop on 3DS and Hyrule Warriors costumes.

But I do have one issue I don't know when I will play all these but some are short and that my HDD not turned up, so I'm using 3 USB sticks to store all this lot.

TCK wrote:

Is Shovel Knight really as amazing as I've heard, or is it a Shantae-type thing where people go mental over it for no compelling reason?

Since I have played through it to completion twice & currently on my third via new game plus, I have to say it really is amazing, I love the level designs, boss battles & how great the controls feel.
Also with the relics (usable items) it basically takes the Mario approach of something new with each level as you find these in each level and then use them to progress, though the levels are designed in such a way that even if you miss them they can still be finished.

There aren't many games that make me want to play them over & over again, Shovel Knight is one I can happily do that with.

I had a quick go on all my downloads

Armillo:
It reminds me of the bonus levels in Sonic which you had a around map and collected blue spheres, graphically it's not great but the first level seemed fun

Art of Balance:
Did the first 5 levels or so, now this is nice graphically even though it's just water and blocks. Seemed a decent enough puzzle game & that's something I've not really got on the Wii U

Knytt Underground:
This I got as Jimbob seems to like a lot, I liked how the title screen is basically a level and the art style which kinda like limbos but then I tried the DEMO level (which seems to weird have in the full game) and it's in colour. That's all I played.

Paper Monsters Recut:
From the little bit I played it reminds me of Tearaway / Mario / Epic Yarn the style of it, only did the tutorial level but seems good but only thing I found weird is that you can see all the zones and one says something like not in this port

Pier Solar and the Great Architects HD:
The game I spent the most time with out of all of these, It starts up like the Mega Drive game would then goes to the menu which has things like extras which you can see trophies which do pop during the game (I don't think they post on miiverse though) which is more from the PS3/4/STEAM version then there's the mini games which you need to unlock but has the VMU game listed which of course you can't play on anything but a dreamcast. It does feel they've took the Mega Drive game then build a HD version for all the systems with everything in that the Wii U version has stuff from the other systems in but does have gamepad use as you can touch the screen to use the inventory.  

There's a few other bit's the game starts with auto run and pathfinder is on which I turned off right away and you can swap between 16Bit which looks horrid as you start in HD+ also there's HD which I think is what the dreamcast version will look like & it looks good considering what the other versions looks like. The sort of cut-scenes (mega drive can only do so much) look good along with the character icons but on to the actual game you know when every review even the positive ones said the game felt old well it does very.

The closet thing I've played to this in a while is Earthbound as it feels and plays like it would of came out the same time you can even play it in 16Bit like I said, so from the hour or so I've played if you liked the earthbound which is likely the most recently played retro game any of us have played (you might of played something else retro recently from the 16bit era) then I would recommend pier solar as it's a game from that era but with a nice lick of paint & trophies.

Ohh one other thing the combat system does have a auto mode a bit like FFXIII that you can just watch Hoston use a avocado to destroy everything also the plot is standard JRPG stuff which I'm fine with and would of been back in 1993 when this feels like it should of come out but some might find it a bit to cliche now.

I do think that's why it's reviewed better on the mega drive &or retro fans then likes of Nintendo Life, the former can deal with such things as there used to it more from playing this sort of stuff more often.

When I do continue playing I will use the actual thread on the game, so don't go on like I have here unless you want me to as then you can all see not just the two JRPG's fans.

Scram Kitty and his Buddy on Rails:
I did two levels, seems like it could be a good puzzle platform thing

Tengami:
Did the first level, I like the art style and that it uses the gamepad at the method to control your character and to interact with the world but this also course a issue that I'm always looking at the gamepad instead of the TV.

That's my thoughts so far on all of those

Just looked after downloading that lot due to you only get points of the cost minus the VAT, I'm still 66 points away from getting another fiver back as I'm so close now I might as well download something else any recommendations could be VC as well. Golden Sun does interest me but a little put of by the chat about that.

Might be a good week for Cappa

Wii U Retail Download
Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker £34.99

Wii U Virtual Console
Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones £6.29, I will be downloading seeing I've got £2.31 to come off
F-Zero: GP Legend £6.29, Never heard of this one

Wii U eShop Promotion
New Super Mario Bros. U + New Super Luigi U £49.99 until 8th January, regular combined price £67.98 - New Super Luigi U is provided as a free download code if New Super Mario Bros. U is purchase on the eShop between 1st and 8th January.

Wii U eShop Temporary Discounts
Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate £24.99 until 8th January
Shovel Knight £8.66 until 8th January, If you weren't sure before might be worth a go now Cappa

Shovel Knight will be getting bought at that price. Nice one.

F-Zero GP Legend was the last F-Zero game Europe saw. I've had it for years, and I'd say it's more of the same as you'd have played in the SNES original and in Maximum Velocity. Not a terrible thing, but the difficulty comes close to knackering it - it jumps between being too easy and too hard much too regularly. Still, much more accessible than F-Zero GX, and it can be quite good fun when it isn't being a complete sod. I'd put it in the same bracket as KuruKuru Kururin; not worth the RRP, but at just over six quid it's absolutely fine.

masofdas wrote:

Knytt Underground:
This I got as Jimbob seems to like a lot, I liked how the title screen is basically a level and the art style which kinda like limbos but then I tried the DEMO level (which seems to weird have in the full game) and it's in colour. That's all I played.

I know this is a pain in the arse, but you do need to stick through to Chapter 3 to get the actual game. In retrospect, that's a little too subversive.

Phillips nailed it on F Zero GP Legend. It's better than Susak's last F Zero effort, but the difficulty still isn't quite there, and it often feels like a slightly-off fan-made F Zero game than the real thing.

I picked up Kuru Kuru Kururin and had a blast with it. Great concept, executed nearly perfectly, too. I think I'd have preferred it if it didn't time you until you complete a stage at least once, though, but otherwise there isn't much I'd change about it, or at least as it is on the Game Boy Advance. A modern version with the ability to create stages and share replays would be sweet.

I'm really happy Shovel Knight is on sale, I think I'll pick it up.

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It seems Nyamyam (developer of Tengami) isn't too happy with the performance of their most recent title, Tengami: http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2014/12/year_in_development_nyamyam

Is it accurate to say that Tengami achieved some notable success on iOS, through being featured, for example? In comparison, how has it fared on the Wii U?

Yes it's accurate to say that. Tengami has done very well for us on iOS. No doubt the worldwide Editor's Choice was a large contributing factor. I hate to think what might have happened had we not been featured. I'd say that the Wii U sales have been somewhat disappointing. Although we had much lower expectations than iOS, I think even taking that into consideration we've been disappointed with the sales so far.

Following on from this, there's also this tweet:

Nyamyam @nyamyamgames
@GoldMetalSonic It is very risky to do a Wii U exclusive at this point. Would have to see how the platform develops.

Hm, that doesn't sound great to me. However I don't believe it's a fair comparison (Tengami to a future Wii U exclusive), since Tengami arrived on Wii U 10 months later than iOS, and it's going to be better on an iPad versus the GamePad anyway, and early reviews back in February likely put people off the game (Eurogamer scored it a 4/10, for example, and even PocketGamer weren't too enamoured with it, stating it was a shallow game that does look amazing).

Chris Seavor's new game (I keep forgetting its name!) and Affordable Space Adventures are two Wii U exclusive indie titles on their way next year.

If anyone was still after Thomas Was Alone, it's free today on Amazon's Android App Store.

Thomas Was Alone comes highly recommended!

In other news, someone downloaded Tengami yesterday... after saying he should play more of the games he's got. It's inoffensive and sort of pretty but there's not much there. More on this story when I have it.

This week is okay again

Wii U eShop
Chariot £13.49, Jas was a fan of this on PS4 (I think)
Underground £15.99
Crunchyroll subscription service, new customers on Wii U get a free 14-day trial

Wii U Virtual Console
Dig Dug £3.49
Lode Runner £3.49

Wii U eShop Temporary Discounts
Cubemen 2 £4.49 , I've heard good things about this
Paper Monsters Recut £2.79, I recently downloaded but from what I played is worth that price
EDGE £0.89
RUSH £0.89
Toki Tori £0.89
Trine 2: Director's Cut £6.99
Tested With Robots! £4.50

Wii U eShop Promotion
Tetrobot & Co £3.74 if you own Kung Fu Rabbit, Puddle or Wooden Sen'SeY
Kung Fu Rabbit £2.24 if you own Tetrobot & Co. , Puddle or Wooden Sen'SeY
Puddle £3.14 if you own Tetrobot & Co., Kung Fu Rabbit or Wooden Sen'SeY
Wooden Sen'SeY £4.00 if you own Tetrobot & Co. , Kung Fu Rabbit or Puddle

Any of the 89p games worth a go

mas wrote:

Chariot £13.49, Jas was a fan of this on PS4 (I think)

Aye it was no bad but it has fell by the wayside due to other games I want to play more.

£2.79 for a whole game? And a 2D platformer, at that! I'm in! Paper Monsters Recut, you will be mine.

I'd say Toki Tori's worth 89p

Thanks might get it

This unique looking, award winning indie title is coming at some-point

Yume Nikki 3: Now with Actual Objectives.

I love a bit of Spanish guitar, but those clockwork sounds get on my wick.

Well that certainly looks like an indie game...

andyman949 wrote:

Well that certainly looks like an indie game...

And that's a good thing

It does look a bit self-consciously quirky, which I guess is what Andy's getting at. "I'M SO INDIE," that sort of thing. Not necessarily a bad thing if there's a solid game backing it up, but there's no point in quirkiness for the sake of quirkiness.

Totally missed the 89p question earlier! EDGE. It's a fab little game once you've worked out how to control the edge move. Get EDGE (don't worry, Stu, not *that* EDGE).