That section of Super Metroid was one of the most baffling and lovely things about it when I played through it for the first time last year. I was thinking that surely there was some purpose to the area, but (other than being forced to learn an unnecessary skill) there really wasn't much to be gained there. It's kind…

This is one of my favorite features in games, and it's one of my favorite features of such spaces in reality as well. There is something simultaneously comforting and haunting about a space that was used for one thing, but is now used for another (or is unused entirely). It speaks to the capacity that man has for…

Yeah, this is my take on it too. There are definitely artists' whose actions make a person inclined to boycott their work (Cosby, Polanski, etc.), but the artist having a different opinion than me, no matter how vile I find it, isn't grounds to avoid a piece of art.

Wow, that's some strikingly tone-deaf stuff at best, and some outright hateful racism at worst. Flip it the bird once for me!!

Despite my general willingness to call out racism when it appears, I'm cautious about lumping everyone who questions BLM up-front into the racist category. There is a long-standing cultural narrative in America, which was formed with good intentions, that treating color as something to be ignored would be the best…

This is an extremely interesting line of thought, and conversation. I fall more on the side of @venerablemonk:disqus, if only because I think, at this point, the "All Lives Matter" is too toxic and could muddy the message of Black Live Matter in the eyes of the media, who are always looking for a reason to move to the…

There's part of me that would like to see 3DS games on the smaller screens, just for fidelity's sake, and I am sad I don't get to use those slick Mario Maker faceplates, but my eyes seem to be much happier dealing with text on the larger New 3DS XL screens. Oh, to be young again… ;-)

It's so disappointing that anything featuring animal characters kind of leaves you with that feeling in the back of your mind at this point. Like, we never thought about that kind of thing growing up playing those Sonic titles and so forth, but Dust gets hit with all of these implications that are hard to avoid. I…

Agreed wrt The Witness. I'm not really expecting a story - the island feels like a necessary set-dressing for the puzzles, as it is more compelling that simply presenting them via a menu. Any storytelling would be a bonus, but I'm glad that it's not getting in the way of sweet, sweet line-drawing fun.

Yup - it's been out in Europe for much of the year, if memory serves. I'm actually really looking forward to it, since I've enjoyed Phantom Hourglass far more than I expected to. Link in a little conductor's outfit and Zelda actually participating in the adventure via that mechanical armor is quite promising.

I absolutely love the Nintendo Directs. If they were around when I was a kid, I would have eaten them up even more. Something about the tone and presentation style is so strange and unique - it feels like more a model of how new stuff would be debuted back at a World's Fair or something. I love everything about…

Pokemon Picross is pretty outstanding, if you're willing to pay a bit for it to overcome the F2P mechanics. I really enjoyed it. Twilight Princess Picross is also supposed to be good, and is purchasable with My Nintendo points, I think.

There is a lot to this perspective, but I would actually offer a dissenting voice. The levels on Mega Man 1 are significantly shorter, or at least feel that way, so you can delve into them in a more bite-sized fashion before tackling the comparatively sprawling complexes of Mega Man 2 and 3 (or, heaven forbid, 4+).

Believe it or not, I actually beat him legit! The Legacy Collection, at least when played on PC using an XBOX One controller, does not appear to allow the weapon glitch - you can't pause and unpause fast enough. That said, I did save immediately before the fight and played it approximately 50 times. Even my wife…

Hey there,

Thanks for the tip! I was sad to see that Hearts of Iron IV, my only currently desired Paradox title, is discounted by a mere 10%. To be fair, it just came out a few months ago, so 'll just have to be happy waiting until Christmas.

I've never played Power Tennis, but I may be acquiring it in the near future. Good to hear that it's a great game - I have no doubt it'll be a good addition to the multiplayer games in my household.

I liked seeing the ninja one too! "Hurl ninjas into the air to defeat demons," as one does.

Yeah, Super Mario Sports compilation sounds pretty intriguing. My interest in buying it will probably be determined by early reviews and the cost, since those sports titles aren't as much a sure bet as they used to be (Mario Tennis!). If it's a winner, I suspect it'll be a great party game for years to come.

I just saw that apparently Mario Golf 3DS is on sale for 30% off if you have enough Nintendo Coins or something - I might see about picking it up. I wasn't crazy about the demo, but I'd love to play with fellow AVClubbers.