This looks about comparable to the remaster from earlier, which looked incredible for a Switch game. The trailer looked nice but definitely not what we would expect from something on the level of a PS4. I don’t see a reason to doubt that the footage was the game running on Switch.

But the fact that people are debating if this is Switch 2 footage speaks volumes about Retro Studio’s skill. Jaw-dropping graphics for a Switch game.

So weird to see a PlayStation IP on Switch. I wonder if LEGO pushed for that since LEGO games have a big audience on Switch (as far as I can tell based on very limited research and big assumptions.) But I really have to wonder-- If the goal is broadening the audience, why on earth is this game on Switch but not PS4? I’m not mad or anything, but that’s extremely weird. Maybe it’s an attempt to sell more PS5s?

What do people think of the new massive team attack? Does it mess with the balance too much? Is it easy to ignore if it does?

…Huh. Action platformer-shooter wasn’t exactly what I was expecting from a Smurfs game. Seems like a decent game, too.

Oh, I see. 8BitDo really isn’t known for their analog sticks, unfortunately. Hopefully this one is better.

Has 8BitDo made a stick like this before? I see that they’ve made a controller like the N64’s before, but that’s not the same kind of stick as this. This is like a GameCube controller’s stick, which is really good. It’s true that 8BitDo isn’t really known for their sticks, though, so hopefully they pull through.

That controller has an 8BitDo logo on it. Two-handed N64 controller from 8BitDo soon?

I put the image in paint.net and increased the exposure, the results of which you can see here. Looks like the 8BitDo Ultimate Controller, but with N64 buttons. The analogue stick has an octogonal gate with a circular pattern on the cap, much like the GameCube controller’s left stick. Now I’m wishing that 8BitDo would make a GameCube-like controller with hall effect sticks.

…That sounds kind of amazing. I don’t know how happy F-ZERO fans would be with that, but Smash gave Captain Falcon enough fighting moves that it could kind of work.

The focus should stay on the racing. The mechanics need to be solid, there needs to be enough tracks, the works. The singleplayer would need to primarily be about racing, since it’s rare that a game can be two genres at once and succeed. But the structure can be flexible!

You play as Captain Falcon in a somewhat open world. You can drive around freely in the Blue Falcon. The world is very large, but the Falcon is very fast so it’s fun to explore. There are oodles of races to be had, but you have to drive to them in order to participate. At any point you can hop out of the Blue Falcon and, like, start punching stuff. Captain Falcon runs pretty fast, has his Falcon Punch, has most of his moves from Smash and more. You could also tweak the Blue Falcon’s stats and look as you go. It would still be the racing game that F-ZERO fans want, but it would also attract people who weren’t interested in F-ZERO but like Captain Falcon in Smash and want to play as him rather than his vehicle.

I wonder how they make so many of these? Don’t they run out of ideas for puzzles eventually?

It seems to work like this, judging from the Steam page:

1. Solving a Picross puzzle gives you an element. Like, if the image for the puzzle is dirt, you get dirt.
2. In order to unlock new puzzles, you need to fuse elements together. Locked puzzles will have a riddle– Use the riddle to figure out which elements you need to fuse to unlock the puzzle. For example, fusing dirt, water, and sunlight unlocks the plant nonogram. Solve that nonogram to unlock the plant element.
3. As you solve puzzles, Emil (the wizard dude) gets stronger, allowing you to “fuse more puzzles.” Not too sure what that means, but I assume that you need to level Emil up before you’re allowed to fuse the harder puzzles.

I could be wrong, but this is the impression I get. Looks like an interesting gameplay loop. It has 280 puzzles, so it’ll keep you busy for a while.

I love Nonograms/Picross! This company does a pretty good job of translating these puzzles to video games. I played one of their Picross S games, and it’s pretty good (as good as you can expect a Picross game to be, anyway.) Glad they’re publishing on Steam now. Mouse control just makes sense for these kinds of puzzles.

I’m honestly kind of shocked at how few people bought a GameCube. It was such an amazing console, it deserved better. I guess that’s what happens when you’re in the same console generation as the PS2.

I can say the same about the Wii U, to be honest. Yeah the hardware was gimmicky and weak, but it had some stellar games. What’s sad is that most of its killer apps are on Switch now, so the Wii U is all but obsolete. Obviously it’s great that they’re on Switch, but I know it’s gonna hurt the Wii U’s legacy in a few years when the Wii U and Switch are both retro. “I’m gonna emulate some retro games! The Wii U has some excellent titles, let’s play- Wait, these are all better on Switch.”

After playing this game for close to seven years, just last night I discovered that touching the screen during a race pauses the game.

MK8DX has been a top selling game for years. It’s insane how much staying power that title has. It feels like everyone who wants it surely has it by now, and yet it just keeps selling.