Definitely a bummer to lose a service that just rewarded customers for buying Nintendo games, but I buy so few games anymore that they were rarely adding up to substantial amounts.

Still, from being a loyal Club Nintendo member to having earned a couple of full-priced games in the eShop thanks to Gold Points, I’m hoping they have a new loyalty program up their sleeves even if it doesn’t make much sense for them to anymore.

Not sure if you’d consider them ‘retro’, but the Professor Layton ports are all excellent! I think each game is about $10 and the first 3 from the Nintendo DS are available. Works perfectly as they were designed for touch screens. Highly recommend!

I feel like Sony isn’t exactly coasting but kind of stuck right now instead. They have gained a reputation of fantastic story games that often set the standard for what games should look like visually. This results in longer development times and fewer games being released.

Combine that with the multiple live service game cancellations (Last of Us online, Concord, other reported games never announced), their release schedule looks very slow and right now Xbox studios looks like they’ll release more titles this year than Sony’s internal studios. Nintendo probably will too despite few announcements for this year as we’ll likely get a flood of them after the full unveiling of Switch 2 in April.

I’m excited for this game but hate the attitude Level-5 has with the Switch version despite it starting on Nintendo platforms. Price went up to fund the multiplat release and no physical release.

I think I’m going to play through the first one on 3DS again and wait for a price drop, but I’m looking forward to seeing how people like it!

I’ve been jumping back into the second Pokemon Scarlet DLC! Trying to take on the E4 at Blueberry Academy and finding it extremely difficult despite playing Pokemon since Blue version came out. I’m accustomed to single battles and the double battles have caught me entirely off guard - I need to go back to the drawing board and focus my team around different mechanics!

Or just grind EXP candies and brute force it. We’ll see!

Damn, they already nailed fucked up with the elephant stuffed animal in It Takes Two, almost scared to see where this one goes!

I agree completely. I work in a middle school and most of my kids love Roblox; that being said, they tend to play with each other instead of just chatting with random people. I used to do that all the time in StarCraft/Diablo lobbies, definitely wouldn’t call it social media.

But is Roblox a problem? Absolutely.

I’ve never played a Digimon game but this looks sick! Definitely on my radar.

I suppose you have a solution and are aware of a candidate who can put that solution into action?

My little guy is just past 10 and has kidney disease too. Has been given the “hospice” diagnosis twice now and he’s still going.

So so sorry for your loss, I understand how helpless it can feel.

Kutcher and Kunis’ phones ringing off the hook right now.

Ooooh big strong man is so angwy!

I recognize a call for help when I see one…so no, I will not ignore.

Am I the only one coming away from this post actually impressed with the idea?

End of an era. Much love for Martinet and I’m happy Nintendo is still keeping him around in some sort of capacity! Hopefully this was mutual; him being in a video about it with Miyamoto feels like it probably was.

I doubt it will be, but I’m hoping that the parents will be Kitty and Red.

…got any grapes?

A buddy of mine loved OW1, ranked top-100 for Rein, and preordered OW2 a long time ago. Not only did Blizz not refund his $60 after they changed directions, he said he still has to pay for this content.

Obviously the main takeaway is another reminder to never preorder games, but that is so slimy.

I wonder if they’ll use this opportunity to sort of “relaunch” the games and include a huge performance patch at release. The DLC was the best part of Sword and Shield, and these look like they could be the same.

It’s also easier for me to get excited because I really didn’t have crazy performance issues. Definitely some bad slowdown in places, Pokemon battles occasionally had some interesting glitches, but I don’t think it ever crashed on me. I played mostly in handheld, so maybe that helped.

For me, the ethical dilemmas affect my enjoyment of games by how involved a scandal/cause of scandal is ingrained into the game. For example, I think Rowling’s views are horrendous and I would absolutely stay away from projects that she has influence in; however, I still picked up Hogwarts Legacy because the studio spoke out against her views, and even included representation in their game for those who she spewed hatred against. The story was almost entirely original, so Rowling’s influence was pretty much restrained to her having created the general world, and some minor character lore. The developers and designers did not cause the hate, so while it sucks some portion of my purchase went to Rowling (even if it was just in a license they paid, the success of the game would likely inspire them to make another, resulting in her getting more cash). It’s difficult to want to punish the teams that built the game when someone who was largely hands-off is the reason it felt a little gross to play.

On the other hand, I’ve avoided High on Life because you need to hear Roiland talk through the majority of the game (until the patch replaces his voice). Squanch Games was owned by him, which means his views are likely reflected in larger portions of the game. I would be constantly reminded of Roiland, and his larger role likely means he profits quite a bit from the game doing well. While it’s certain that Squanch Games has great people working for them that I wouldn’t want to ‘punish’ by their game doing poorly either, it’s just tough for me to separate them. (Also yes I’ve heard Roiland’s charges were dropped, but the judgement was worded in a way that made it clear it was due to lack of damning evidence and not that he was necessarily absolved of accusations).

I agree that it’s important to have discussions about topics and culture that surround projects like this so consumers can be aware of what their cash is supporting. Even though I did feel somewhat guilty buying Hogwarts, I also took the time to give $20 to The Trevor Project in an attempt to offset what Rowling would make from my purchase. Does that make up for it? Who knows.