Ultimate Videogame Topic 3: The Next Generation

[Vi]

Recurring question/challenge time.

Can someone find a good reason for me to purchase a game for my 3DS?
Bonus points if you push me over the edge to get a Wii U; there are some games that I'd like to try but I'm very shy about that price tag.

[Vi]

Recurring question/challenge time.

Can someone find a good reason for me to purchase a game for my 3DS?
Bonus points if you push me over the edge to get a Wii U; there are some games that I'd like to try but I'm very shy about that price tag.

uhhh because 3DS has a fuckload of good games

do i win

LIGHTNING ROUND: which ones do you recommend

[Vi]

Both are interesting games but Wind Waker wins massively in terms of game length.

[Vi]

I'm waiting for the full translation of AAI2 to play it, but I've heard it's much better than AAI.

There's a very good fanlation on YouTube. It's definitely better than AAI, but IMO it had some of the same design problems. The first case was still the best.

[Vi]

I also managed to snag a Wii finally at a garage sale! (Don't worry, the seller said it was her daughter's and she simply didn't need it since the family had another one already). I also snagged Mario Kart Wii (lol so behind), but I definitely have a list of games I would like to get and play:

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
Super Mario Galaxy 1 & 2
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
Pikmin 3, maybe?
New Super Mario Bros., maybe?

Any other suggestions? I considered Okami a little but I'm not sure if it's my style of game.

*Twilight Princess wasn't my favorite entry in the series, but it has its moments.
*The Galaxy games are fantastic - the first one for being atmospheric and having the classic Mario "I didn't know that was there/you could do that" features, and the second one for being a legitimately challenging game with the

good

(read: trollish) kind of fanservice.
*Skyward Sword isn't perfect by virtue of its game design but does a lot of things right and has a lot of variety in its challenges.
*Pikmin 3 is for the Wii U. You'll have to wait.
*New Super Mario Bros. Wii (disclaimer: I didn't play it but I watched a 100% video) seemed fun and brought a few neat novelties to the levels, but I'd be able to crack it open in a couple of days if I were actually playing it. If offered a choice between this and the DS version, you should pick this one and not look back. Also, since this is almost a relevant place to put it, the BGM themes of the NSMB series (Mushroom Waltz, etc.) are terrible.
*I haven't played Okami.

[Vi]

I basically stopped console gaming at the Wii, but the other suggestions I have--
*Super Smash Bros. Brawl - Really shouldn't need to be explained. It's really too bad about how it delves into the

bad

kind of fanservice at the expense of making a good single-player game and balanced multi-player game, but for all the stuff it adds you can't

not

pick it up if you're into this series.
*Donkey Kong Country Returns - The most challenging game mentioned thus far, but if you like 100%ing (or time trials!) and you've found recent games too easy, this is your cure. The level design is interesting too, if a little heavy on filler rocket barrels/cart rides.

[Vi]

Oops @ Pikmin. I guess I meant the first two, which are available through VC or Gamecube backwards comp or something?

Right. The first game is a single lengthy experience while the second game leans more toward several varied episodes, but both are worth getting if you like real-time strategy.

[Vi]

Somewhat off-topic question.

I'm intrigued by the -idea- of Kirby Triple Deluxe but it greatly resembles Return to Dream Land, which I found... kind of soulless for the first half of the game, never mind easy and rather repetitive.

Since it's Kirby I'm pretty resigned to "easy" but as long as it's an evocative experience (Crystal Shards, Epic Yarn) or fun to play (Super Star, Amazing Mirror) I'll probably enjoy it.

With that in mind, should I go for it?

[Vi]

Also Unwound Future is the only Professor Layton I've played but I think it's the least cared about and it's still pretty good so

unwound future is pretty unanimously the fan favorite, actually

Unwound Future is what every game in the series should have been.

Throw Mario and Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story onto the list of DS games. If you can find M&L: Superstar Saga, play it first; if not, whichever. Also, Mario Kart DS was pretty good.

[Vi]

Shadow Dragon is, to me, easily the worst FE that has come out in North America because it's a remake of the first game ever made in the series, and it shows.

Huh, I've been playing shadow dragon and have been unimpressed. This explains a lot.

Shadow Dragon is a lot more interesting when you kill off all your units and play with the generic replacements.

[Vi]

Everything Natirasha said in the above post is true. At least the last area was kind of cool, and Tyrell started to go genre savvy at some of the stupidity at one point.

(For what it's worth, Golden Sun is all about the long unskippable dialogue, but at least in the first two games it was interesting.)

[Vi]

holy fucking shit.

Rayman Legends is one of the best games I have ever fucking played. Top 10, easily. My god.

I watched the people I rent with play through most of it. It may not be top 10 for me but I adore the game's style and I'd definitely recommend it.

[Vi]

Wait who says FEA is the best game ever

waifu emblem

They really did an all-out PR push for it though, so a lot of people know about it.

[Vi]

hell yeah it is

This.

I think the tier list of Mario RPGs looks like

M&L: Superstar Saga
Super Mario RPG
|
Paper Mario TTYD
M&L: Bowser's Inside Story
|
Paper Mario <I'd anti-recommend anything below this>
M&L: Dream Team
|
Super Paper Mario
<I'm told Sticker Star goes here>
M&L: Partners in Time

I've heard good things about Paper Jam but etc.

[Vi]

I'd also recommend Super Paper Mario much higher than Vi, because I really enjoyed it, but I know that's a losing battle.

yes it is

It basically microwaved all of the good jokes and gimmicks from the previous two Paper games and beat them like dead horses, totally half-assed most of the things that could potentially have been good about the game, and spent most of the three-dozen hours of gameplay blatantly wasting the player's time. I'm not sure which is worse, the five minutes of critical plot point that you don't get to see unless you watch the entire opening sequence or the ten minutes of noncritical unskippable cutscene that starts the game off. We can talk about gameplay if you really want but that was literally broken too - the Pixl that shrinks you has no downside but makes every enemy lose track of you and revert to their idle animation, even the secret boss. I played through the whole thing because that's how I roll, but I spent almost all of those 40 hours hating it.

I will note that whoever did the names of enemies and places deserves a medal, though. I lost it at "Underwhere", and then lost it again at Barribad followed by its stronger form Sobarribad. Also 3-4 was the undisputed high point of the game because meta.

---

Also I guess this means Sticker Star gets to be at the bottom of the list because I actually can name one good thing about Partners in Time - it had the best Bros. Items in the series. Also for a series that spends its free time taking the piss out of Luigi, the scene with the star door stands out in my memory.

The boss theme was probably the strongest in the series as well(?)

[Vi]

Yay I got an Expansion Pak now I can play DK64!

Even back then I had a hard time finding an Expansion Pak, so gj.

[Vi]

I think I had an expansion pak back in the day. It seems absurd to require that to play any N64 games but I'm sure Nintendo got away with it because Nintendo.

Counterpoint: DK64 was an absurd game that's known for having too much

stuff

and not enough good programming.