Nintendo Game of the Week - Animal Crossing: Wild World

[Champion of Hyrule]

EarthBound IMO deserves to be on the Mt. Rushmore of environmental/non-conventional storytelling alongside Half-Life, Bioshock, and Dark Souls.

There's a very solid, concrete plot to it, yet if you want a lot of the context, you will need to talk to all of the NPCs since mandatory cutscenes are very few and far between in that game. Plus even the more irrelevant NPCs are very funny and witty anyway.

I get what you mean but I don’t think that’s really “environmental storytelling”. Piecing together a plot based on what NPC’s tell you is interesting but you’re still being told and not shown, plot details and I don’t think Earthbound really has enough storytelling details in the environment itself for it to really be environmental storytelling on the same level of those other games you mentioned.

 

[Quillion]

I get what you mean but I don’t think that’s really “environmental storytelling”. Piecing together a plot based on what NPC’s tell you is interesting but you’re still being told and not shown, plot details and I don’t think Earthbound really has enough storytelling details in the environment itself for it to really be environmental storytelling on the same level of those other games you mentioned.

Yeah I know. I don't know what else to really call it other than "non-conventional storytelling" honestly.

I was under the impression that the core of "environmental storytelling" wasn't necessarily "show don't tell", but being required to seek out the information that provides greater context like the item descriptions in FromSoft games.

 

[Swamp Sensei]

Yeah I know. I don't know what else to really call it other than "non-conventional storytelling" honestly.

I was under the impression that the core of "environmental storytelling" wasn't necessarily "show don't tell", but being required to seek out the information that provides greater context like the item descriptions in FromSoft games.

Would it fall under effective world building?

 

[Quillion]

Would it fall under effective world building?

I don't know; the NPCs tell more about the current situation more than how the world works.

 

[Swamp Sensei]

Alright, its time for a brand new game. We were already going to do an F-Zero game, but I thought we'd celebrate a little and talk about...

F-ZERO 99

Spoiler: Box Art

Game Summary: F-Zero 99 is a free download on the NSO. It takes 99 players from around the world and pits them together in an SNES style F-Zero race. Aside from online functionality and 99 players, there are a variety of changes from the SNES original and the new game. For one, players can boost using their vehicles health meter like in later F-Zero games. There's also the addition of the sky rail system where players can earn glowing orbs to unlock a path to gain speed and bypass the majority of other players.

Players can select four F-Zero machines: The Blue Falcon, The Fire Stingray, The Wild Goose and The Golden Fox. These machines are piloted by Captain Falcon, Samurai Goroh, Pico and Dr. Stewart respectively. Each machine has their own stats and playstyle. Players can choose between the main 99 player mode or risk it all in a Grand Prix or special modes to earn better rewards. The game also allows for customization of your F-Zero machine and online profile.


Initial Release:
September 14th, 2023

Playable on...

• Switch

Notable Character Debuts: NA

Spoiler: Music Samples

Current Metacritic Scores:
Critics: NA
Players: 8.0

Confirmed Players:

• Swamp Sensei
• PLATINUM7
• KillerCage
• nirvanafan
• King Sonn DeDeDoo

Recommended by:

• Swamp Sensei
• PLATINUM7
• KillerCage
• King Sonn DeDeDoo

I've never been too into F-Zero. I always respected it, but I'm more into kart racers. I've tried X, GX and the original and only found them alright. When this was revealed in the direct, I decided to give it a try that night. It's actually incredibly fun. The sheer utter chaos of 99 players is super fun. It also has a great pick up and play vibe. No game ever overstays its welcome. I keep finding myself going "just one" more. It's incredibly addicting.

I know this isn't what F-Zero fans were asking for, but this is still a great game and a good step for the F-Zero franchise. I can see this game being a lot of people's introduction to F-Zero and create a lot of life long fans. I recommend you try it. It's a free download for NSO members and each game is like five minutes tops. Give it a shot!

 

[PLATINUM7]

I've only played a little bit of F-Zero 99 but I do like how crisp it makes all the pixel art.

 

[Guynamednelson]

I would give F-Zero 99 a go, but my Switch is banned from the eShop.

 

[Megadoomer]

I haven't played this one yet, though I'll give it a shot. My main experience with the F-Zero series was X and GX, with X being my favourite of the two. (the insane difficulty of GX turned me off of it - I can't even beat the second mission of story mode due to the speed and precision required to beat Samurai Goroh in a race while swerving around instant-death boulders)

 

[KillerCage]

From what I played so far, F-Zero 99 is a blast. Out of the four machines, Wild Goose gels with me the most.

 

[Swamp Sensei]

From what I played so far, F-Zero 99 is a blast. Out of the four machines, Wild Goose gels with me the most.

Me too. The durability is the main draw.

 

[nirvanafan]

Im salty not going to lie, i really enjoy going back to X & GX from time to time & am not the biggest fan of mode-7 racers in general & think there are many people who think the same.

I played 99 for a bit but after maybe a handful of races & seeing most the tracks in the game right now i felt done with the whole thing. Dont feel like mastering these tracks that i didnt care enough to master in the original or getting into unlocking cosmetics.

At least they have cpus so i guess the game could theoretical still be played whenever they discontinue the service. Hopefully everyone else enjoys the game & this does not negatively impact the possibility of a return to the style of f-zero game (probably with a GX remaster) that many people including myslef want to see after so many years.

 

[True Blue Warrior]

I didn’t expect to see F-Zero making a comeback. Maybe there will be a brand new game by the end of this decade.

 

[Quillion]

I'll just copy and paste from the "Off My Chest" thread:

I know some people are upset about F-Zero 99 just being another Arika 99 game.

But considering that Nintendo's online system is horribly outdated, perhaps testing the waters and stress testing with that sort of thing before moving on to a full game is the right call.

And when I say "testing the waters", I mean that they should be testing if "their own waters" can handle this sort of thing, as in their own technology. I don't think they need to really test if there's a fandom for F-Zero.

Heck, if they really are using 99 to test if there's a fandom for F-Zero, it's going to fail at that endeavor since trying to gauge interest with a small-scale filler iteration never works.

 

[King Sonnn DeDeDoo]

Im pretty bad at it, but I do enjoy the grand prix of F zero 99. With a regular 99 race, placing not near the top feels kinda meh but in 3 or 5 track grand prix, just surviving for another race feels like a win and makes trying to get ahead with boosts all the more risky.

 

[Champion of Hyrule]

I wasn't too interested in playing it but checked it out for this thread and yeah it's really fun. F-Zero on SNES didn't gel with me too much but the mechanics clicked a lot more in the more chaotic F-Zero 99. I hope the game gets more additions and cosmetics, and maybe even more vehicles in the future because it definitely seems like the type of game that would work for.

 

[Swamp Sensei]

I'm having some technical difficulties. Until I can fix them, the next game is going to be delayed. You can continue talking about F-Zero 99 if you like.

 

[King Sonnn DeDeDoo]

I have the worst luck with Sand Ocean, also Death Wind is my favorite track

 

[KillerCage]

Out of the seven available tracks, Sand Ocean is the worst.

 

[Swamp Sensei]

Okay. I got my account fixed. That was a bit silly.

Today we'll do something a long time coming. Gen I Pokemon. And ALL of their remakes.

That means today we'll be talking about Red, Green, Blue, Yellow, FireRed, LeafGreen, Let's Go Pikachu. and Let's Go Eevee. We got quite the busy week ahead of us.

Spoiler: Box Art

Game Summary: The original Pokemon games were originally released on the Game Boy. The games introduced 151 critters to catch, befriend, train and battle with. By using Pokeballs, players could catch wild Pokemon and have them join their team. Each Pokemon has one or two types, four usable moves and unique stat spreads making each of them feel unique. Battles use a turn based system where a Pokemon's type can give resistances or weaknesses to other types. Players were tasked with defeating the eight gym leaders of the Kanto region and finally defeating the Elite Four the become the champion of the region. Players would also need to beat their rival and stop the villainous Team Rocket.

Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen were updated remakes released on the GBA. The game updated the original game to use the Generation III Pokemon mechanics. The game also introduced new features including wireless trading and battling and introduced new areas like the Sevii Islands. Generation II and III Pokemon were added into the game, though many needed to be traded into them. The game is widely considered to be better than the original.

Pokemon Let's Go Pikachu and Let's Go Eevee are yet another trip to the Kanto region, however they play radically different to the Game Boy original. While Pokemon battles with trainer still happen with updated Generation VII mechanics, catching Pokemon now plays like Pokemon Go. The game also includes candies that power up your Pokemon and for the first time ever, coach co-op play. The game is divisive as many do not like the mechanical changes, but they do have their fans.

Initial Release:
Red and Green: February 17th, 1996
Blue: October 15th, 1996
Yellow: September 12th, 1998
FireRed and LeafGreen: January 29th, 2004
Let's Go Pikachu and Let's Go Eevee: November 16th, 2018

Playable on...
Red/Blue/Green/Yellow

• GB
• 3DS

FireRed/LeafGreen

• GBA

Let's Go Pikachu/Let's Go Eevee

• Switch

Notable Character Debuts:

Red/Green/Blue/Yellow

• Pikachu
• Jigglypuff
• Mewtwo
• Squirtle
• Ivysaur
• Charizard
• Red
• Blue
• Professor Oak
• Brock
• Misty
• Giovanni
• All Gen 1 Pokemon

FireRed/LeafGreen

• Leaf

Let's Go Pikachu/Let's Go Eevee

• Chase
• Elaine
• Trace

Spoiler: Music Samples

Current Metacritic Scores:
Red/Blue
Critics: 88%

FireRed/LeafGreen
Critics: 81
Players: 8.6

Let's Go Pikachu/Let's Go Eevee
Critics: 79
Players: 6.3



Confirmed Players:

Red/Blue/Yellow

• Swamp Sensei
• PLATINUM7
• Grim "Anubis" Reaper
• Noipoi
• Megadoomer

FireRed/LeafGreen

• Swamp Sensei
• PLATINUM7
• Grim "Anubis" Reaper
• Hadokeyblade
• Chocolatejr9

Let's Go Pikachu/Let's Go Eevee

• Noipoi
• Hadokeyblade

Recommended by:

Red/Blue/Yellow

• Swamp Sensei
• PLATINUM7
• Grim "Anubis" Reaper
• Noipoi
• Megadoomer

FireRed/LeafGreen

• Swamp Sensei
• PLATINUM7
• Grim "Anubis" Reaper
• Hadokeyblade

Let's Go Pikachu/Let's Go Eevee

• Hadokeyblade

Pokemon is a very special series to me. I've loved the games ever since I was a child. In retrospect, the original games, while mind blowing at the time, have not aged well. They're glitchy messes but I find that's part of the charm. Red, Blue and Yellow are games I hold very dear, so its hard to critique them fairly. FireRed and LeafGreen were also childhood games of mine and are ones I think aged a lot better. Honestly I find it hard to talk about the mainline Pokemon games because... they were just always there for me. I suppose that's a ringing endorsement right there.

That said, I haven't actually played the Let's Go games. I have bought Eevee and its in my backlog, but I haven't touched it. That means this is the first game I won't be able to talk about in this thread. I hope you guys can discuss it properly.

 

[PLATINUM7]

Have not played Let's Go and only a little bit of FireRed but I have Red, Blue and Yellow. I've played through them so many times. Simple by today's standards but I think that just helps maintain their pick up and play quality.

For a long time I had no way for link functionality but my enjoyment of them increased even more when I got another Game Boy with a link cable and again when I got multiple transfer paks to trade through the Stadium games.

A few things that I remember fondly doing for the first time:

• Making the one way trip to Cerulean City after coming out of Mt. Moon. Really felt like I was a journey, having to continuously push forward. Sure you can make your way back to previous areas later on but it was really cool to travel through Kanto's routes, landmarks and cities like that.
• Being stuck on how to get to Saffron City for some time before I had the thought to buy a drink for the gatekeeper.
• Finding the Warden's teeth and finally getting Surf. The Safari Zone was already cool but that bit made it a scavenger hunt.
• Feeling like a secret agent taking on Team Rocket at their secret base and the Silph Co. building with the music and crazy tiles.
• Catching my favourite Pokemon Snorlax.
• Making my way through Rock Tunnel without Flash.
• Beating the Elite Four and Champion.
• Encountering Missingno. after hearing some people talk about a "152nd" Gen I Pokemon.
• Pulling off the Mew Glitch.
• Kind of more a Gen II moment but trading between Gen I and II with the Time Capsule.
• Seeing my teams in action on the Stadium games.

It was also really cool just to compare my teams with friends and family. I bought these games again off the 3DS VC before it shut down but haven't touched them there. I think I'll stick to playing them on my GB or through the GB tower on Stadium/Stadium 2. It's just nice having the full experience on original hardware.

Here's hoping they do come to Switch with Transfer Pak functionality.

 

[Verde Coeden Scalesworth]

Red is the one I played the most. I did play Blue, Yellow, FireRed, and LeafGreen. Never got the Let's Go games.

I only barely remember that my team all had unique names, like Mewtwo was named Psycho. Some also had a moveset based upon the naming schemes.

I do remember wanting Meowth consistently just for infinite cash grinding(easier than fighting the Elite 4). To say the least, I did a lot of trading among my own games~

 

[Noipoi]

Out of these, I’ve only played Red and Let’s Go Pikachu.

I never beat Red, but I remember thinking it was very archaic. And not in a very fun way. However, the Pokémon formula is still as enjoyable even in its simplest form. And I’ll always respect this game for being the origin of my favorite series of all time.

Let’s Go is fine. I used to really hate this game, but now I’m mostly ambivalent. It’s still the prettiest looking main series game, but the waggle controls are also obnoxious imo.

The Kanto region isn’t where my Pokémon journey started, but it’s where this franchise itself started. And for that, I’m grateful. I’ll always wish I got to witness Pokemania in it’s time.

 

[Hadokeyblade]

Firered and Leafgreen are the definitive way to play the G1 Pokemon games.Almost entirely because the spritework from gen 3/4/5 is peak Pokemon asthetic.

My nuclear level hot take is that Lets go are the second best main series Pokemon games on Switch. Right behind Legends.

Its honestly kinda impressive that albeit probably unintentionally, they made an open world game on the Gameboy. Once you get the third gym the game opens up and you can basically do any of the games objectives in any order.

 

[Swamp Sensei]

So, what's your favorite Gen I Pokemon?

 

[Hadokeyblade]

Sandslash, i tnd to have one on my team whenever i play a game with the species in it.

 

[Noipoi]

Lapras. It’s just a cool plesiosaur.

Though it does have a nasty habit of asking for about 3.50$…

 

[Guynamednelson]

Raichu, whose lack of merch compared to Pikachu I don't really care about since it's not like it gets absolutely nothing.

 

[Megadoomer]

I played Pokemon Yellow (and, I think, Red) on the Game Boy Colour, though I haven't gotten any of the remakes. (I was tempted to get Leaf Green, but I never picked it up) It's been a long time since I played generation 1, and while I'm tempted to replay it, I wouldn't want to start fresh and erase my save data, but I'm not sure how much there'd be left to do.

 

[Swamp Sensei]

Mine probably goes without saying but...

My favorite is the entire Bulbasaur line.

 

[Verde Coeden Scalesworth]

My favorite of the original is Onix. :3

 

[nirvanafan]

Never really thought of my favorite gen 1 pokemon. Probably going to go with Eevee since the Eeveelution mechanic is unique & cool. Design kind of reminds me of a puppy or kitten too which is a bonus. Will say Gengar is an HM.

 

[chocolatejr9]

I believe I played one of the GBA games, but I was VERY young, so I don't fully remember...

As for favorite Gen Wunner? Squirtle all the way, and it's not even a contest.

 

[Swamp Sensei]

So. Do you dislike the Let's Go games? They seem to be quite controversial.

 

[Hadokeyblade]

I feel like they were on the better end of the Switch Pokemon games.

Sword and shield feel soulless, BDSP suffered from being more a remaster of Diamond and pearl than a remake of it and Scarlet and violet was clearly rushed to release as we all know.

But Lets go and Legends are definitely games i can say i enjoyed, one was a simple reimagining of a fun gameboy classic with (what i personally thought) were really good graphics, while the other gives us a new perspective on a classic location from the series taking place in the Pokemon worlds version of the meiji period. Fun times all around.

 

[Swamp Sensei]

Do you like to party?

Spoiler: Box Art

Game Summary: It's time to party! Mario Party is a multiplayer focused board game/minigame collection for the N64. Players pick one of six characters (Mario, Luigi, Peach, Yoshi, Donkey Kong and Wario) and race to collect stars and coins on various board game like areas. The game has eight different boards, each with their own layouts gimmicks and strategies. The goal of each game is to collect the most stars by the end. Coins are used to pay NPCs and to buy stars. In the case of a star tie, coins are used as tiebreakers.

In between each turn, all players will play a minigame. These minigames can be 4 player free for alls, 4 player cooperative, 1 vs 3, or 2 v 2 games. There are also special 1 player and Bowser minigames triggered by board events. Each minigame is an opportunity for the player to earn coins or to protect the coins they have accumulated. These minigames can also be played in separate modes.

Mario Party gave birth to an entire sub series in

Initial Release:
December 18th, 1998

Playable on...

• N64
• Switch

Notable Character Debuts:
NA

Spoiler: Music Samples

Current Metacritic Scores:
Critics: 79
Players: 8.0


Confirmed Players:

• Swamp Sensei

Recommended by:

• Swamp Sensei

I played Mario Party once when I was a little kid. I was terrible at it. I actually really didn't like it. I didn't understand the rules and I got frustrated. I was pretty tilted. It wasn't until I got older and tried later Mario Party games that I started to understand how they work. It's the kind of game that retroactively got better. It's not the best Mario Party. Heck it isn't even the best Mario Party on the N64, but I do enjoy it immensely. I recommend it.

Just be careful. Do not hurt yourself on the damn N64 control stick!

 

[KillerCage]

Aside from some at Best Buy, I never played the original Mario Party though I did own 2 & 3. I feel I dodged a bullet regarding MP1 as a few of the mini-games required control stick spinning though I would experience those MP1 players' pain through Sonic Riders and its control stick spinning.

 

[Swamp Sensei]

Aside from some at Best Buy, I never played the original Mario Party though I did own 2 & 3. I feel I dodged a bullet regarding MP1 as a few of the mini-games required control stick spinning though I would experience those MP1 players' pain through Sonic Riders and its control stick spinning.

You could actually try the OG on NSO if you have it.

 

[KillerCage]

You could actually try the OG on NSO if you have it.

(que scared laughter)
Can I really not escape palm blisters?

 

[Verde Coeden Scalesworth]

Ah, fun game. While the 2nd game has overall better(everything), the original still holds a great place~

Definitely would recommend. Just wear gloves first.

 

[Swamp Sensei]

(que scared laughter)
Can I really not escape palm blisters?

I really do recommend it. There are only like two or three rotation minigames. 97% of the game is great