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Game | Date
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Mario & Luigi: Brothership | Nov 7 Donkey Kong Country Returns HD | Jan 16, 2025 Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition | Mar 20, 2025 Metroid Prime 4 | 2025
The headline made me chuckle slightly, because it sort of amounts to “game company, having finished a game, is working on more games,” but I’ll give it a pass because I did hear Metroid Dread was good.
It was overall good. I’m a Metroid addict and this was the sole game in the series I did not 100% due to ridiculously hard shinespark puzzles (essentially complex controls/mechanic driven puzzles). I’d say that would be my only critique (they’ve always been hard…this game was in my opinion the hardest of all of them in the series), but could also just be age catching up to me…so I’ll keep that critique to myself haha.
Overall it is fantastic and think it didn’t get due credit around the time of release but glad to see over time it seems to get more and more recognition.
I didn't even understand how the shinespark thing worked until I watched a video on it because there was something that I couldn't figure out how to get. Which I think is telling that they didn't do a very good job explaining it and designing levels around it. We didn't ever need it until those optional puzzles.
I did end up getting 100%, but I never would have without watching a video explaining the mechanic.
I did not 100% due to ridiculously hard shinespark puzzles
man I know exactly what you're talking about, they were brutal
I think this game definitely has the hardest shinespark "puzzles", but the actual execution of shinespark is much easier than in previous games which balances it out. Super Metroid had items where figuring out what shinespark maneuver to do was easy, but actually executing it was difficult, while Zero Mission and Fusion had easier-to-pull-off shinesparks with harder puzzles.
With Dread, the challenge is almost entirely in figuring out what to do, once you know exactly where/when to shinespark the actual execution is very intuitive and feels amazing when you land a complex sequence of shinesparks/speed booster runs/wall jumps.
It didn't get credit because it's a $60 game lapped by games that launch at half the price like hollow knight and ori.
Despite the love I had for Dread, the price was too high.
It's not a bad game at all. But platformers and metroidvanias are just past the point where you need the backing of a Nintendo or AAA studio to do a good job. The 2D games Nintendo brings to the table (regardless of all the business structure stuff) are all competent and polished, but they just don't do anything that isn't matched by indies any more. Metroid's visuals might be more technically difficult than my examples of Hollow Knight or Ori, but the end result, while looking pretty good, isn't inherently prettier. It's polished, but so are they. You're looking at preference between any of them over anything you can point to as inherently better, and the two "indies" (I know Microsoft bought Ori partway through the process) have more content.
I'm not going to actual argue they're "better" despite my first post, but the point is that for $20-30 full price, and steeper sales, there are a lot of very competent options, with a lot of unique approaches to mechanics. It's just really hard to justify pulling the trigger, at maybe $40 at the cheapest they'll ever sell it for, with how competitive the space is. TOTK is a $70 game. Fire Emblem is a $60 game. Dread is like a $30 game that should discount to $15-20.
lol, yeah, I mainly posted because it mentions them creating a game with 505 games, which I thought was new. Also just saw MercurySteam and went 'Yay!'
It isn't a given that a game company will always get to work on a new game right after they release one, much less two new games.
Didn't Mercury Steam do a Metroid 2 remake for 3DS? Maybe they're porting that to Switch to follow up on Dread's success. I never owned a 3DS but I would love to play that.
I really hope that’s what this is. I have it on my 2DS but it’s hard to enjoy after using full controls to play Dread, haha
F-Zero Dread let's go
With next gen Mode 7.
Mode 8.
It's time.
I love the shit out of Dread. Considering how big an upgrade Dread is over the already excellent Samus Returns, whatever Metroid 6 is will be crazy good.
I just hope it's less linear. They had some really long portions where there was only 1 route to take.
I bet it’s the next two Smash games.
Just been replaying Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, but I very much doubt the sequel is what they're working on.
First game - amazing art, very imaginative, solid gameplay, great engine, pretty decent plot, good level design with a reasonable balance between fighting, exploration, and puzzling. A bit flawed - gameplay-wise, the camera hates you, you're a liability in the air, and it takes far too long to get given your basic equipment - and it's also far too QTE and exposition heavy, assumes that you've an attention span of about four seconds before you need a reminder. But it was the style at the time, and it's a great game, especially in the second half.
Sequel sorts out your bad air controls and gives you your weapons up-front. Retains the awesome art and design in the Castlevania sections, but contrasts them with the boring-as-fuck awful 'city' levels where you spend most of your time. Includes far too many lengthy instant-fail sections where you're sneaking about as rats, or hiding behind pillars from some dudes - I'm Dracula, for fuck's sake. Voice actors all sound bored to be there. Still assumes that you're a goldfish that loves doing QTEs. Could also make a great game by only including half of it, but unfortunately the good bits are mixed in with the shite bits, rather than having a slow start and a strong finish.
Really interested to see what they're going to do - rarely have I seen a developer that can achieve such great things, but execute on them so badly, and fail to recognise what needs to be left on the cutting room floor.
Let's hope they have learned from that.
Ha! It would be hilarious if this was a 'Scrapland 2'!