Recent Posts

Here we go...

- Metroid Dread

Dread lives! There were some quiet rumors of a new 2D Metroid, but I wasn't expecting it to be Dread. I went nuts when I saw that title reveal!

- Cruis'n Blast

They finally did it! Eugene Jarvis insisted this was arcade exclusive, but I held out a sliver a hope. The trailer mentioned it had 30 tracks, which is way more than in the arcade version I've played. Definitely looking forward to this one.

I wonder who's doing the port. It wouldn't be Raw Thrills, themselves, would it?

- Advance Wars 1+2: Re-boot Camp

Does this count as a Fire Emblem remake?

I'm not a fan of this series. I played the first Advance Wars on the Wii U Virtual Console, but I had a hard time getting into it. It seemed a lot more complicated than Fire Emblem, and I couldn't keep track of everything. But still, it's good to see bring back old series.

- WarioWare: Get It Together

I've never played a game in this series, but I just wanted to say that I like that Wario narrated the trailer.

- Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water



OFFICIAL SITE

Glad to see this finally get a Switch port. It's also coming to all other current consoles plus PC, so... does Nintendo still co-own the series, or is this like Wonderful 101 and Nintendo just didn't mind if it went multi-platform? Either way, I'm happy that as many people as possible will be able to play it. I want this series to continue.

It's still digital only. If it was physical, I'd have a strong reason to buy it again. Will I buy it again digitally? Not sure.

This version has a new "photo mode" and new costumes. I assume the new costumes will be replacing the Samus and Zelda costumes from the international Wii U version (which, in turn, replaced the lingerie costumes from the original Japanese release). A shame, since I love the Zelda costume.

- Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity - Wave 1 DLC

I'll go into detail on this in its own tread.

- Sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Ditto.

Overall, I loved this Direct. It's been an unusually boring E3, and Nintendo really pulled through. There were still some omissions (no Bayonetta 3, no Metroid Prime 4 aside from a mention that it's still in development, no Monolith Soft news...), but I'm quite happy with what they showed.

Also, I got bingo!

I'd forgotten about this.

Here's a new trailer for Fuga: Melodies of Steel (previously Fugue on the Battlefield). Coming out on July 29.



And here's a short comedy video that goes with it.

I've been playing quite a lot of R-Type Final 2 since it came out, so I wanted to talk about it a little more.

While the game is still in a bit of a rough state, I get the feeling that Granzella is taking a Smash Bros-like approach to R-Type Final 2, with steady updates and new content planned for the future. I can't find an original source, but I've seen people claim that Kazuma Kujo mentioned in a Japanese interview that he planned to support the game for about two years. In a new blog post, he indicates that there are updates planned for the next several months.

The original R-Type Final already seemed to be a little like Irem's Smash Bros, with all the different ships that are not only based on ships from previous R-Type games, but other Irem games, as well. (Including the Peace Maker from Gallop/Cosmic Cop, the ship from Image Fight, a ship partially based on the one from X Multiply, Mr. Heli, and even a ship named Disaster Report.) R-Type Final 2 takes it a step further with the DLC homage stages, based on stages from previous R-Type games.

I went ahead a bought the stage pass. The first two packs are out now, each including two stages. The third pack is supposed to include three stages. They're interesting because they aren't exact recreations of the original stages, but rather feel like remixed versions of them, with certain elements changed. (You can see videos with direct comparisons here and here.) They also seem to be much harder than they were in their original games (at least to me). It's also kind of funny that they look better, graphically, than some of the stages in the main game.

One feature I neglected to mention in my original impressions was the course editor, which lets you create a sequence of seven stages from any of the stages available in the game, with the exception that stage 7 must be one of the stage 7s from the main game. This isn't a terribly exciting feature with the limited number of stages in the base game, but combined with the extra DLC stages, it starts to feel like a "make your own R-Type" game.

The base game had "only" 54 ships, but there's already been a free update that adds one new ship: the POW Armor from R-Type Delta. The rollout for it was a little strange, though. The PS4 version got it weeks ago, but the Switch version was only updated with it yesterday. Kujo has stated that he wants to include all the ships from the original Final, but it seems that there may be even more beyond that.

If Granzella does continue to support R-Type Final 2 for the long term, I wonder what other content there may be. Perhaps another stage pack with more classic stages? Maybe more original stages? Maybe even stages from other Irem shooters?

I seem to recall an interview with Kujo (unfortunately, I can't remember where, so I hope this isn't a case of the Mandela effect) where he mentioned that back in the late '00s, he wanted to make a crossover shooter with content from other companies, so it would be like R-Type X Gradius, etc., but he couldn't make it happen. If he still has ambition for that, I wonder if we might even see something like that with R-Type Final 2. (It would not be unprecedented. Taito's Dariusburst Chronicles Saviours has DLC for crossover content from Capcom, Sega and CAVE.)

Or maybe I'm just letting my imagination run away with me. I'm sure a lot depends on how well R-Type Final 2 sells. Personally, I love the game. It really caters to how I like to experiment with different ships and discover new strategies. It's one of my "games of the year" so far.

Here's an interview with Toshihiro Kondo and Nippon Ichi's Sohei Niikawa in which they talk about porting games to Switch. It was originally from Famitsu, and translated by Nintendo Everything.

There isn't anything too revelatory in it, but there are some interesting bits. For one, it seems that one of the reasons Falcom switched from having Xseed localize their games to NISA was because Nippon Ichi offered to port it to Swtich as well. Also, it sounds like they're considering a port of Nayuta no Kiseki. Kondo also acknowledges the international demand for the "Crossbell" games.

And again, they say they plan to continue supporting Switch, albeit via outside companies doing the ports.

If the Switch versions of Cold Steel I and II are released outside Japan, I wonder if they'll license Xseed's localization. Dotemu did that with the Switch (and other consoles) version of Ys Origin, so I suppose it's possible, and that could open up the possibility of other older Ys games as well.

As someone who got tired of making courses in Super Mario Maker, I don't think this is for me. But other people will probably make some insanely cool things with it.