Really not surprising when they took a planned DLC and decided to charge $70 for it. I know this won’t change much for the franchise moving forward, but it’s still nice to see!

This price jump is insane. They’re already getting $10/game when bought new, and the games given out with this price hike sucks.

Cancelled my PS+ Extra so it doesn’t renew in June and I’ll likely not sub again.

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.

I just deleted Destiny 2 off my PS5 thinking I’d likely never get around to buying the DLC, and then it gets added to Extra. Welp, guess it’s time to redownload the game!

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.

Talk about learning something new, all of that sounds like the best way to move forward with retro games if the budget allows. Even just the simplicity of connecting everything through HDMI would be worth putting together something, at least on a smaller scale.

Thanks for sharing all of that information!

Damn, that thing looks rad! I hadn’t heard of it before, but I had thought to include a section about modern retro systems like the Analogue Pocket, but it felt a little long when all was said and done. Thank you for sharing the video!

I feel the same exact way! That’s part of what inspired me to write this - I have a couple of games on my Wii U that I would love to play, but I can’t be bothered to dig it out of a box in the garage, get the chargers charged up, and find a space to plug everything in just to play a game for an hour or two for the nostalgia trip. Fortunately, Dolphin exists!

Thank you for reading!

Manifest Destiny - Digital Edition

I love pieces with themes of nature reclaiming the planet! This one is great, thanks for sharing.

I’m not one to care much about graphics either, and I usually enjoy seeing Nintendo rise to the challenge in creating artistically pleasing games that are stylized to make the most of the hardware rather than pushing polygons and making everything look as realistic as possible. Games like Windwaker, Skyward Sword, and Super Mario 3D World are breathtaking despite being on comparatively under powered hardware.

However, there are other game play opportunities that show themselves with better hardware. Paths tend to be able to be more open, more enemies can be on the screen, and more actions can happen simultaneously. Even the lack of loading screens is huge! The freedom we get now in Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom is so immersive, it’s easy to get sucked into the game without it needing to load and breaking up the action. Another great example is the newest Ratchet and Clank game on PS5, the different environments you hop around to in that game is incredible.

But you’re absolutely right - Nintendo isn’t looking to compete anymore, not really anyway. They’re content creating the experiences they want to bring to their fans at a price point that is accessible but doesn’t cost them money. As long as their bottom line isn’t suffering, they’re happy to just keep doing what they’re known for. The lack of innovation with their online service is more than enough evidence of that.

I enjoyed the demo quite a bit, so it’s nice to see that it’s reviewing well! Definitely can understand why longtime fans could be put off by the combat system, but I really enjoyed the change of pace and I’m sure it’ll get more complex as the game progresses.

I’ll definitely pick it up at some point! Still jamming on Diablo 4 though and want to finish side quests in TotK. It’s crazy how many good games have been coming out this year, tough to play them all.