It’s telling that Zelda only fills in the map with markers after you’ve found them, and that they’re rewards, not objectives. Each shrine you discover isn’t just a new challenge; it’s a fast travel marker, meaning you’re rewarded for searching for them by making exploration easier. Of course, eventually that does mean…

It almost feels like getting a cheap touchscreen peripheral would work best, but I doubt anyone wants to get what’d be a Wii U Gamepad without 90% of the functionality.

I would hope, though, that the Switch would get a Super Mario Maker 2 instead of just a straight port. There’s a ton of potential for the concept that would need an overhaul and expansion that went far beyond what a port should be expected to do. I’d love to see the creators work at adding a map editor, different…

Probably the Duomo in Assassin’s Creed II, along with the game’s other depictions of Renaissance architecture. I’ve lost pretty much all my love for Assassin’s Creed, but one thing I loved as a History major was getting to explore actual buildings and architecture, even if the designs were never as historically…

Huh; I did a harsh black and white one for New Donk, too - I guess it lends itself to almost all the filters in the game (it’s certainly the best for the line one).

It is; I’ve been trying a number of pictures with the same goal, and there’s about one or two frames of him grabbing the hat.

In a number of ways, what really makes Hyrule Warriors is the amazing Challenge Mode. You’re stuck in a recreation of the original Zelda map, but where every screen is a different challenge. You’ve got crazed timers, exploration stuff, boss challenges...it is genuinely respectable just how much stuff went into the…

Well, the honeymoon couldn’t last forever.

Very much the way I play Mass Effect. I do enjoy the relative “tightness” of the cover shooting in 2 and 3 (even if they lose the potential hiding in the first one), but the fundamental “challenge” in the series has always been from making certain decisions in dialogue. At least for me, I just prefer to tear through…

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So this is just plain bragging, but I just finished Mario Odyssey’s longest, toughest, most grueling level - not counting the snowball races, which I don’t even get. This thing’s (“Journey’s End,” though I think the name’s vague enough not to count as a functional spoiler) amazing; it’s a culmination of so many of the…

Is it wrong to do a generic “all of the above” answer? Because really, I love it all. I love dashing, backtracking, bounding, going off on my own whims, following a straight line...Really, the thing I do least is just be slow and take my time, and that’s something I’m starting to do more with Zelda and Mario, though…

It hadn’t, and thank you. I’ve been too antsy about expecting something to happen that I didn’t wait at all.

DL and I were talking about this on Discord last week, and it also brings to mind how Miyamoto views the characters kind of like in Popeye (which, of course, Donkey Kong was inspired by and supposed to be, but Nintendo couldn’t get the license), where they’re all essentially an acting troupe. Or, if you want to…

I assumed the costume was from Mario Paint - and functionally, it’s essentially a reference - but he just looks like Mario with his cap tilted sideways for that one. The only difference for Artist is that he wears the beret on the cover - which is, admittedly, a bit of a stretch, but hell; he has an outfit inspired by…

Crumbleden is such a wonderful late game surprise. Like, Nintendo showed at least a little bit of almost every major kingdom in the game, so having this bizarre, dark world show up out of fucking nowhere was such a delight. It’s also why the realistic humans don’t bother me at all - at least to a slight extent, every…

As I’ve gone through the game, racing to beat the story the day it came out and diving into it for hours each day since, the problem of excess definitely starts to show itself. I’ve enjoyed some of those “same, but harder” Moons; last night, I spent about a half hour going through a remix of a racing challenge in…

The Deep Woods also has Dark Souls vibes, especially from the general lack of music. And Mount Volbono feels almost like a beautiful, weird indie game with its giant polygons and bright colors. In general, there’s a lot of interest in grabbing influences that aren’t Mario or Nintendo, and that’s a big part of what…

I kinda like that, to be honest. 100% at least Galaxy 2, and to a lesser extent 3D World, feels like an arguably “ideal” way to play, but getting all the Shines in Sunshine is a pretty miserable experience. This isn’t to say some of the Moons aren’t tedious or not great, but I do appreciate that Nintendo has almost…

Still Super Mario Odyssey, still amazing. What’s really been getting me lately is how many details are in this thing. Another online friend pointed out that the water in Bubblaine - which, unlike every single other kind of water in the game, has a natural carbonation - causes a light but noticeable fizz in the Joy-Con…