JiliK's Blog: Nintendo Direct 13/02/19: Not-so-live Impressions

Woof! Another super, super late one. Adult responsibilities, you guys, I really don't recommend them. I was actually on the verge of blowing this one off entirely, but hearing some whispers about what showed up here, there was no way I could. Let's take a look!

0:14 - Here it is! Mario Maker! So, Mario World confirmed anyway. (Damn it, Nintendo, there better be slopes this time round!)

0:23 - Looks like a redesigned interface for the stylus-less touchscreen. Still though, not sure how smoothly moving things around a level will go on that Switch screen.

0:25 - Oh hell yeah!! We have slopes, people! Hmm, I see the ON/OFF switch from SMW is there too. Interesting.

0:50 - Got to say, with them calling this Mario Maker 2 rather than Deluxe or something, I'm hoping for some pretty meaningful additions here. Maybe they'll finally do a Mario 2 tileset!

0:54 - Oh no. Damn it, Nintendo, why'd you have to go and add the Mario 3 sun in? I'm already envisioning so many terrible Course World levels, each with no less than twenty of these.

1:13 - Cat Mario. Sure, but the NSMB tile set was never really my thing in Mario Maker. Probably didn't help that it seemed to be the go to tile set for kids - which more often than not resulted in levels that were like, tile salad with three Bowsers at the end.

1:18 - Ooh, huge blocks! A much needed addition for that authentic Mario 3 giant level feel.

1:29 - Oh hell yeah, Boom Boom! Man, I'm really itching to make some more Mario 3 levels right about now.
1:34 - June 2019. Cool! Will definitely be picking this up.
2:14 - Well, looks like they're not delving into it too deeply here. Still hope for some Mario 2 action then. Ooh man, or Mario Land. That'd be wild.

2:27 - Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3. Haven't seen any of this yet, or played any of the old games for that matter. I was vaguely curious about them back in the day, but I just never ended up getting around to them.

3:36 - So, looks to be a very button mashey action RPG, that I suspect your enjoyment of which will be highly dependent on your level of Marvel fandom. As such, I'm not really sure how much I'd get out this. The MCU, it's... fine; there are some highlights in there, but most of those movies, I can take or leave. I have really enjoyed a good few of Fox's Marvel movies though, and the volumes of All New Wolverine and the 2013 Mighty Thor run I've read, which is kind of the sum total of the Marvel books I've checked out. I suspect all that kinda makes me the opposite of the people they're aiming this game at, but we'll see I guess.

3:51 - Oh, nice. Those rumors of a Switch Box Boy were true. Played through a good chunk of the first one on the 3DS. It's a really neat little puzzle platformer. I suppose there's no chance they'll bring the Japan only Box Boy amiibo over with this. I really want one!

4:45 - Smash! Played a ton of it over Christmas, mostly World of Light. Still not even close to unlocking everyone though. World of Light's really neat, even if I do long for some Subspace Emissary-style cut scenes now and then. Gotta say though, spirits as a replacement for trophies: not doing it for me. Do not care about them, at all. 2D images without even the most basic game info attached to them: just not the same.

5:18 - Maaan, the looming possibility that all the Smash DLC fighters are going to be tie-ins with third party franchises on Switch that I don't care about is really bumming me out. We've got Joker coming soon; the Dragon Quest guy seems like pretty much a lock now; that just leaves three more. And today, folks, I'm calling 'em!!! Or, well at least two of them. I think we're getting a Monster Hunter character and a Dark Souls character for sure. The third I could see going a few ways: I'm leaning heavily towards another fighting game character, and I'm thinking maybe an SNK one, and if not, of course there are still persistent rumors of one of them being Steve from Minecraft. All I know is that none of them are going to be Paper Mario. Was my character ballot vote for nothing, Nintendo?

*sigh*

5:26 - These two I'm very excited about though! Hold on........ Damn it, not up for pre-order yet! I... may have just bough King K-Rool, the Ice Climbers and the Piranha Plant ones though. :D

Wow, that was fast.

Caution: Sucking Entertainment Void? I'll bear it in mind.

6:16 - Oh, new DLC for Captain Toad. Sucks they're not doing it for the Wii U version too, but I guess you can hardly expect them to at this stage. (Now on the other hand, a cheap upgrade for for those of us who already bought the game on the Wii U...)

6:55 - I really hope Bloodstained turns out well, but man, some of the hands on impressions so far have not been encouraging.

7:59 - Dragon Quest Builders 2. I totally though that this had already come out!

8:26 - Whoa, finally something for all those Dragon Quest Swords fans out there!

9:14 - Ah yes, Dragon Quest: "THAT classic RPG series" (that no one in the west cares about). :P
10:06 - Dark Spawn: also someone's GameFAQS handle circa 2002.

10:48 - Man, this looks pretty nice.

11:06 - And you can switch to a 16-bit version on the fly? Pretty cool. Can't see myself picking this up at the moment though. I've already got several unplayed Dragon Quest games around here somewhere.

13:00 - The what now?

13:14 - I do quite like the visual style here, but a mini game collection featuring some sort of Disney collectable line? Nah.
13:24 - You can't mention Disney and Tsum Tsum without talking puzzles? If you say so, Voice-over Guy.

13:52 - Starlink! Grabbed a copy of this after it sadly, but predictably, tanked just before Christmas. The Arwing, I have to say I'm a bit disappointed with: there's a very cheap plastic toy look to it. I was kind of hoping for something a bit more upmarket. Oh, the game? Yeah, I haven't even touched that. :D

14:12 - Free Star Fox content though? Nice! I'd say that they're really leaving money on the table here by not putting Crystal in here, but then again, I'm sure the Starlink Switch sets have found their way into dollar stores by now, so....

14:52 - Yeah, that's... not how vegetables work.

15:17 - Is "I love you!" just a choice in every conversation in this game? I approve! Heh, I'm just thinking about how various interactions in Mass Effect would have gone down with that as a permanent option. In every case, they're 100% more hilarious.

16:19 - Ooh, another Tokyo RPG factory game. Looks neat.

18:05 - Still thoroughly unsold on Yoshi's Crafed World, but I'm prepared to be proven wrong. I'll try and check out that demo.

18:11 - Yoshi and a hard brexit. gonna be a big day.

18:32 - Welp, Fire Emblem time. I'm sure I'll have lots of valuable insight to provide here, as usual.
18:39 - What could have brought me here? Great question.
18:56 - Wait, what? What did that have to do with anything!?

19:30 - Well now I'm just thinking about Game of Thrones.

22:37 - I've been entrusted with their future. Wow, someone really fucked up there. :D
23:49 - July 26th. Yeah, this might be the first of the modern Fire Emblems I check out. Probably not for a while though.

24:32 - Oh, FFS. Is this a Tetris battle royale game? Urrrrrrrrrrrgh!

24:40 - Booooo! Also, be a lot cooler if was Tetris 69. Amiright, you guys? Yeah, you know what I'm talking about. Blowjobs.

25:04 - Never really did get into VS Tetris. Yeah, I'm afraid this isn't the carrot to get me to subscribe to your online service, Nintendo.

25:54 - Oh, this is what Dead by Daylight is? I'm pretty sure I've been confusing it with State of Decay this whole time. Well anyway, still don't care. :D

26:53 - Ugh, everything about Undertale, just... ugh.

27:13 - Deamon x Machina though, this looked kind of promising.
27:39 - Oh cool, a demo. For a limited time only? Noooo that sucks! It's already a few days after this aired. I gotta try and grab it right after this, before it's gone. (Edit: And I missed it. Crap.)
27:44 - Including a boss battle? Nice!

28:41 - GRID Autosport. People do seem to like those games, but man, I wish arcade racers would make a comeback. Playing some Ridge Racer 7 the other night. Still really fun.
29:08 - "Welcome additions like motion controls..." Uh huh.

29:23 - Hellblade. Yeah, this seems pretty cool. Haven't picked it up yet but, like the vast majority of Switch releases, there's just really no reason for me to buy the Switch version over the PC one.

30:39 - Assassin's Creed III? That's a pretty random starting point for the series on the Switch. Oh right! Isn't this remaster coming to the other platforms too? Man, I feel like I'm one of the few who mostly enjoyed this game.

30:57 - Yeah, Liberation I also liked a lot. It seems like it's pretty much forgotten about at this stage, but it's still well worth checking out. More of an Assassin's Creed II era game, if all the sailing wasn't your thing in III; Aveline's a more interesting and likeable character than Conor; and New Orleans makes for very cool setting.

31:21 - All the Final Fantasies!!!

31:50 - Huh? I thought we'd be going right into the big reveal here, which sadly, I've already had spoiled on me. Not sure what this is though.

32:08 - I'll admit, my knowledge of Pokémon knock-offs is extremely limited, but is this like a reboot of Yu-Gi-Oh, or Beyblade, or something?

32:20 - Okay, probably not. A new character action game coming to Switch though? I'll take it! (Especially when Travis Strikes Again looks like kind of a bummer.)

33:32 - Oh shit, this is a new Platnium game? Hell yeah. This looks awesome!
33:53 - Astral Chain. Also published by Nintendo. Yes, please keep supplying Platnium with all the money, Nintendo.

34:13 - Well yeah, I was actually just going to speculate about that. Maaan, it's being delayed isn't it?
34:22 - Huh, I guess not. Still not even a teaser yet though. I suspect that game's still a while off.

34:57 - Here it is. So, upon stumbling onto a headline for this, I first read it as a Link to the Past remake, which elicited an eyeroll that could maybe been seen from space. :D Maybe I'm not being quite fair to LttP, but Nintendo have revisited that in various forms a few times now; I'm far more interested to see a remake of this.... Even if I didn't really care the original that much. Mostly, I remember finding the dungeons too difficult, but also, I was a bit let down with how the game stacked up to the lofty praise coming from the contingent of Zelda fans who insisted that this was the secret best Zelda game, often focusing on the characters or the philosophical ideas behind the game. It was a decent little Zelda game, don't get me wrong, but I can't say I shed a tear when the Wind Fish ceased to be. I'm sure it would have seemed like a much more impactful moment had I been eight at the time.

35:25 - Oh wow, did not expect this art style. I was picturing pretty much what they did in Link Between Worlds. There's a real diorama vibe to this. I'm into it.