Minecraft Legends launches April 18 - Gematsu

Shinobi non Grata adds PS4, Switch versions - Gematsu

Metal Black S-Tribute cancelled for PS4 and Switch, priced to match Arcade Archives release - Gematsu

Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life launches June 27 in the west - Gematsu

Remnant: From the Ashes for Switch launches March 21 - Gematsu

Caverns of Mars: Recharged announced for PS5, Xbox Series, PS4, Xbox One, Switch, and PC - Gematsu

Saga of Sins launches March 30 - Gematsu

 

Interesting, will get that when I start stocking up on prepaid eShop cards

 

Dude.. If Fuga is based in the same world as Solatorobo that world went to hell!  

 

PSA for anyone wanting more modern dual analog controls in Goldeneye instead of the N64 defaults:

I've played the first couple of levels. I do wish there were sensitivity settings, but it feels more or less like I remember it, a bit of jank included. It hasn't aged very gracefully IMO, but it sure is fun to re-experience from a nostalgia stance.

  Yeah the timeline is wild.
Little Tail Bronx

 

Goldeneye's actual gameplay design has aged quite well IMO, the focus on small levels with heavily incentivised replayability to get around the technical limits of the system makes it pretty unique and interesting. Even Perfect Dark isn't entirely the same because they tried to increase the scope a bit too far for the system.

The stogey controls and technical jank are a big issue though and it's a travesty that the N64 version just got released again instead of a finished 360 version or a new Nightdive port.

 

Yeah other than some floatiness and UI stuff, Goldeneye as a design premise holds up for me too honestly. Especially the added optional objectives that become required on harder difficulties. Honestly even the generous auto-aim (which I know is anathema for some) still feels good even today to me. It's really all just framerate and other QOL stuff and of course the visuals and lack of non-split-screen online multiplayer that feel off. Though, for Switch Online at least, I think it makes sense for this to be more of a straight port. That's the whole premise of Switch Online + EP, not remastered or altered features. Just straight (hopefully faithful, which, sometimes they aren't unfortunately due to emulation problems) ports. But yeah I definitely still wish we could've also gotten an actual remake or at least a more polished remaster separately.

That said, I can't deny that I'm having a blast running through it and remembering everything I'd forgotten about it. It's crazy how the mind builds models of stuff in our memories and then we can return to those things and get those moments of, "Ohhh yeaaah I remember this!"   Just rescued the hostages on the frigate level and so many memories came flooding back to me. Definitely worth it to me for the nostalgia trip (as someone who doesn't do unofficial emulation of course, so for me this really is the first time I've touched it in like 25+ years.)

Not much Switch news today but:

The Crimson Flower that Divides: Lunar Coupling demo now available for Switch - Gematsu

And

 

That's the first time Rhapsody II and III have been released in the west to my knowledge incidentally.

Also:

Also I finished Goldeneye on Agent and am now going for 00 Agent all the way. Wow the missions change a lot more than I remember on 00 Agent. Not only additional objectives, but also things like more automated gun emplacements, tighter time limits, etc. Not the hardest game by today's standards of course, but still quite the decent challenge owing to the jank and floatiness the game always had. I'm really enjoying it though, I have to say. It's such a time capsule.

Some thoughts that occur to me while playing it: Turok came out the same year, and was arguably more graphically and mechanically impressive for what it was. But at the same time, it was just a very different experience of course. Lots of platforming and more of a straightforward action FPS. Goldeneye was always a little slower and more thoughtful. At the time, the idea of optional or additional objectives that you could do, while still succeeding on lower difficulties should you fail them, was sort of a big deal.

It wasn't really until Deus Ex that we again saw a first person perspective game expand on what Goldeneye and Perfect Dark were trying to do. Which makes me realize just how few "secret agent with gadgets" objective based games there really are, at least first person games. I can think of Goldeneye, Perfect Dark, the Deus Ex games, some of the Rainbow Six games maybe, and that's about it. There are plenty of third person and isometric games, most notably the Metal Gear Solid games and I suppose things like Splinter Cell qualify too of course. But FPS games with objectives and "secret agenty stuff" for lack of a better term seem comparatively rare.

Maybe that's why it still resonates even with all the anachronistic jank and dated visuals all these years later. It's just a cool premise that's rarely fully explored in modern games.

 

Proper single player FPS games and Immersive Sims both lost out pretty badly with the way things went with higher budget games between the mid 00s and mid-late 10s as they are in that zone of games that need decent budgets but aren't massively popular with the AAA audience or suitable for heavy monitisation. Hopefully that might turn around a bit this decade now with Bethesda now operating to feed the gamepass beast and Eidos having been brought off of Square Enix by a cash rich AA publisher.

Not a secret agent themed game, but strongly recommend Prey 2017 if you like Deus Ex and haven't played it yet.

 

I think I'm the only OG N64 owner who never played Goldeneye. Not sure why. It's not included with the basic NSO package, right?

 

N64 as a whole is part of the expansion stuff.

 

Only NSO + Expansion Pack sub tier sadly, yeah. That's where all the N64 and Genesis stuff lives.

 

Theatrhythm: Final Bar Line demo launches February 1 - Gematsu

Also, I'm progressing through Goldeneye on 00 Agent difficulty now and... hoooo man I swear I was better at this in 1997, I swear I was.   But then I was probably better at literally everything then.

 

Nintendo finally doing a discount on some of their AAA 1st party exclusives. If you want two games, at least.  

Also this didn't occur to me before this very moment but... where is Duck Hunt on NSO? It worked fine on the Wii U Virtual Console, so I would expect the Joy Con can handle it. Maybe that's a dedicated port though since I know the original ROM required a CRT or a special device to circumvent that limitation, right? Either way... Nintendo give me Duck Hunt.  

 

WiiMotes use infrared sensors while Joy-Cons use Bluetooth. So its not like they can just port over the WiiU version of Duck Hunt and expect it to work the same: the technology will have to be rebuilt up again from the start.

 

They could just port over the inertial sensor based aiming used in Zelda or any number of other Switch games. As far as the controllers the original wiimotes used the IR bar for aiming (the motion plus ones did not) but I think they still used Bluetooth or some earlier similar technology for the wireless communication.

 

It's not hard, if the emulator is any good then it should have have a pointer interface to replicate the gun being pointed at the screen that any input device can be hooked into whether it's mice, sticks, IR or gyros.

We're talking about Nintendo though, so I wouldn't rule out them doing something silly instead of doing sensible things that other people already worked out over 20 years ago.

 

Yeah I feel like it should be more than doable. Duck Hunt is such an iconic part of NES history with the zapper and all of that. (Speaking of which, I wonder if Nintendo being Nintendo would sell a zapper for Switch

Some things posted today:

Puzzle Bobble Everybubble! launches May 23 - Gematsu

Also I've now reached the Depot level part of my 00 Agent attempt. Good lord I'm getting massacred.   I swear I'm so old now.

 

Batsugun S-Tribute rated for Switch in Korea - Gematsu

Ys Memoire: The Oath in Felghana ‘Prologue’ trailer - Gematsu

First-person puzzle game Seven Doors coming to PS5, Xbox Series, PS4, Xbox One, and Switch on February 21 - Gematsu

 

Oooooo, I'm sooooooo getting that when it's launched... love this type of game (note to TAITO: please port Bust-a-Move to the eShop, will ya?)

Also, huzzah! More SHMUP goodness for my Switch (er, Switch Lite)  

 

1
ACA NEOGEO PUZZLE BOBBLE

2
ACA NEOGEO PUZZLE BOBBLE 2

2x and 3
Puzzle Bobble™2X/BUST-A-MOVE™2 Arcade Edition & Puzzle Bobble™3/BUST-A-MOVE™3 S-Tribute