Well, once again, I took a week off because there wasn't anything worth tlaking about, then Nintendo DUNN OPENED THE GATES AND LET THE WATER IN...
So first and foremost, we've got a bunch of re-releases of old video games. And, BY A CALENDER MILE, the most substantial of that list is easily Metroid Prime Remastered. The long prophesized prodigal remake just up and slapped into the eShop without so much as a "By your leave". I'd say "Rude", but I was literally jumping for joy when it happened. The OG Metroid Prime is on my shortlist of Most Best Favorite Video Games Ever, EVER, and the Remaster is an improvement in every capacity. Well, nearly every capacity, Beam-Combos are kind of cumbersome to pull off with the new control scheme. Still, 99 steps forward one step back.
Visit scenic: Toxic, Dying Tallon 4, and proceed to finish its extinction cycle. Turn into a ball! Get a Double Jump! Collect a dazzling variety of missile launchers! Look at a robocop dragon!
Next up, and just as responsible for me flying backwards out of my seat like I was Bazooka Joe reborn, are two new consoles added to the NSO; Gameboy if you just have the base package, and Gameboy Advance if you sprung for the Expansion (which finally is enough to justify the upsell); the initial line-up for each is somewhat slight, but definitely swinging for quality over quantity; as we already have Tetris, Kirbys Dreamland, Game & Watch Gallery 3, Links Awakening DX, Metroid 2, Mario Land 2, Wario Land 3, Alone in the Dark, The Minish Cap, Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga, Mario Kart Super Circuit, Super Mario 3: Super Mario Advance 4, Wario Ware and Kurukuru Kururin. Some of those choices are stranger than others; but continues the NSO tradition of at least one game that you only remember from renting in a convenience store near your house.
The Gameboy Color port of Alone in the Dark 4 is... definitely a new benchmark for "Wild-ass NSO submissions"
And speaking of Wild-ass re-releases of aged video games, an even more recent re-release of an even older video game is Montezumas Revenge, which is a port of the Apple ][ Montezumas Revenge, and not the much more playable and fun SMS port. Both are named for poops, however. It's a progenitor of the troid-em-up genre where you're Some Kind of a Hat Guy tasked with exploring a ludicrously danger filled Aztec murder-temple, chock full of snakes and... umm... poison skulls (I... guess?) that you have to fully navigate, and also find keys to open doors to find new paths all in service of robbing a peoples precious cultural heritage because, well, not like they were going to SPEND any of those fist-sized gemstones, right?
AND WE AIN'T DONE WITH RE-RELEASES YET, since we also have Tales of Symphonia: Remastered, which is a Tales game and, like all Tales games, is... a Tales game. They're kind of hard to differentiate them after a bit. It's a JRPG-ass-JRPG with action-y battles, and it commands a higher estimation in the public consciousness than other entries of the series because there was a REAL dearth of RPGs on the Gamecube.
Anywya, travel the land and discover that racism is actually bad, and implement your personal understanding of this by shoving several entire swords directly into a bad guys ass.
Speaking of video games about feeling things, but presumably, not... umm... indignation at human rights violations because there ain't no humans in it, we have Blanc. It's a sketchy (as in the art style) puzz-em-up about a friendly white deer and a friendly black pupper what be pals and buds and explore a forest and town trying to get the little nippers back home. It's is lethally adorable.
Perhaps not so adorable is Labyrinth of Galleria: The Moon Society, a first person dungeon crawler that is IN FACT, a sequel to Labyrinth of Refrain, which came out several years ago (I'm reasonably sure I played that and deemed it "s'okay?". Not really trying to reinvent the wheel here, it's a first person dungeon crawler, so you've got a dungeon to explore from a first person perspective, and a party of adventurers to build to explore it with.
Go nuts, you!
Next up is easily the headliner in a week that didn't contain Metroid Prime or Gameboy Advance games; Theatrhythm Final Bar Line, the latest Theatrhythm game (after a surprisingly long hiatus of No Theatrhythm games) that serves as a means to enjoy the soundtrack of... like... the entire Final Fantasy series, but made Video Gamier, since you jamming out loud to the *hot licks* of Nobuo Uemetsu also translates to you taking whacks at Tonberries and Cactuars and the like.
I... lack the sense of rhythm needed to play the video game effectively myself, but BOY, do I like the collective Final Fantasy soundtrack, and the prospect of whuppin' Flans.
A genre of video game I am much more confident of my abilities with is "Metroidvania" (as indicated by my repeatedly mentioned adoration of Metroid Prime in this very post, and correspondingly, I was already on board when Elderand showed up in the Coming SOon tab. And then I bought it because it was reduced for pre-purchase and I had some spare eShop credit, and this was before Metroid Prime was stealth-dropped, and several other Troids I was even more excited for were revealed as coming out very soon.
Ah, sometimes ya gotta gamble.
It's more Vania that Troid, looks like it really wants to be Blasphemous. I'm sure it's fine.
And finally, another game in a genre that's not exactly underrepresented (but is, aesthetically, right up my alley) we have Dust & Neon, a twin-stick shooter roguelite
BUT!
It's one set in the old west.
EXCEPT!
Everyone is Robitts!
Keep yourself both rootin' and tootin' while you be shootin', and plug some lead-bellies fella YELLOW because your hand be where your hips be at.
So first and foremost, we've got a bunch of re-releases of old video games. And, BY A CALENDER MILE, the most substantial of that list is easily Metroid Prime Remastered. The long prophesized prodigal remake just up and slapped into the eShop without so much as a "By your leave". I'd say "Rude", but I was literally jumping for joy when it happened. The OG Metroid Prime is on my shortlist of Most Best Favorite Video Games Ever, EVER, and the Remaster is an improvement in every capacity. Well, nearly every capacity, Beam-Combos are kind of cumbersome to pull off with the new control scheme. Still, 99 steps forward one step back.
Visit scenic: Toxic, Dying Tallon 4, and proceed to finish its extinction cycle. Turn into a ball! Get a Double Jump! Collect a dazzling variety of missile launchers! Look at a robocop dragon!
Next up, and just as responsible for me flying backwards out of my seat like I was Bazooka Joe reborn, are two new consoles added to the NSO; Gameboy if you just have the base package, and Gameboy Advance if you sprung for the Expansion (which finally is enough to justify the upsell); the initial line-up for each is somewhat slight, but definitely swinging for quality over quantity; as we already have Tetris, Kirbys Dreamland, Game & Watch Gallery 3, Links Awakening DX, Metroid 2, Mario Land 2, Wario Land 3, Alone in the Dark, The Minish Cap, Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga, Mario Kart Super Circuit, Super Mario 3: Super Mario Advance 4, Wario Ware and Kurukuru Kururin. Some of those choices are stranger than others; but continues the NSO tradition of at least one game that you only remember from renting in a convenience store near your house.
The Gameboy Color port of Alone in the Dark 4 is... definitely a new benchmark for "Wild-ass NSO submissions"
And speaking of Wild-ass re-releases of aged video games, an even more recent re-release of an even older video game is Montezumas Revenge, which is a port of the Apple ][ Montezumas Revenge, and not the much more playable and fun SMS port. Both are named for poops, however. It's a progenitor of the troid-em-up genre where you're Some Kind of a Hat Guy tasked with exploring a ludicrously danger filled Aztec murder-temple, chock full of snakes and... umm... poison skulls (I... guess?) that you have to fully navigate, and also find keys to open doors to find new paths all in service of robbing a peoples precious cultural heritage because, well, not like they were going to SPEND any of those fist-sized gemstones, right?
AND WE AIN'T DONE WITH RE-RELEASES YET, since we also have Tales of Symphonia: Remastered, which is a Tales game and, like all Tales games, is... a Tales game. They're kind of hard to differentiate them after a bit. It's a JRPG-ass-JRPG with action-y battles, and it commands a higher estimation in the public consciousness than other entries of the series because there was a REAL dearth of RPGs on the Gamecube.
Anywya, travel the land and discover that racism is actually bad, and implement your personal understanding of this by shoving several entire swords directly into a bad guys ass.
Speaking of video games about feeling things, but presumably, not... umm... indignation at human rights violations because there ain't no humans in it, we have Blanc. It's a sketchy (as in the art style) puzz-em-up about a friendly white deer and a friendly black pupper what be pals and buds and explore a forest and town trying to get the little nippers back home. It's is lethally adorable.
Perhaps not so adorable is Labyrinth of Galleria: The Moon Society, a first person dungeon crawler that is IN FACT, a sequel to Labyrinth of Refrain, which came out several years ago (I'm reasonably sure I played that and deemed it "s'okay?". Not really trying to reinvent the wheel here, it's a first person dungeon crawler, so you've got a dungeon to explore from a first person perspective, and a party of adventurers to build to explore it with.
Go nuts, you!
Next up is easily the headliner in a week that didn't contain Metroid Prime or Gameboy Advance games; Theatrhythm Final Bar Line, the latest Theatrhythm game (after a surprisingly long hiatus of No Theatrhythm games) that serves as a means to enjoy the soundtrack of... like... the entire Final Fantasy series, but made Video Gamier, since you jamming out loud to the *hot licks* of Nobuo Uemetsu also translates to you taking whacks at Tonberries and Cactuars and the like.
I... lack the sense of rhythm needed to play the video game effectively myself, but BOY, do I like the collective Final Fantasy soundtrack, and the prospect of whuppin' Flans.
A genre of video game I am much more confident of my abilities with is "Metroidvania" (as indicated by my repeatedly mentioned adoration of Metroid Prime in this very post, and correspondingly, I was already on board when Elderand showed up in the Coming SOon tab. And then I bought it because it was reduced for pre-purchase and I had some spare eShop credit, and this was before Metroid Prime was stealth-dropped, and several other Troids I was even more excited for were revealed as coming out very soon.
Ah, sometimes ya gotta gamble.
It's more Vania that Troid, looks like it really wants to be Blasphemous. I'm sure it's fine.
And finally, another game in a genre that's not exactly underrepresented (but is, aesthetically, right up my alley) we have Dust & Neon, a twin-stick shooter roguelite
BUT!
It's one set in the old west.
EXCEPT!
Everyone is Robitts!
Keep yourself both rootin' and tootin' while you be shootin', and plug some lead-bellies fella YELLOW because your hand be where your hips be at.
