#NOW ADD TOOIE!!!

[lab-gr0wn-lambs]

Finally finished the first game

Bonus!

[tooies]

i just had the most fucked up experience. so like yesterday i was checking out some new youtuber and i was like oh yeah i like her videos she's cool i'll subscribe. and then this afternoon i go to watch another one of her videos and fucking. my old friend i was good friends with like 3ish years ago is just fucking. there in the video. and then like 30 minutes later i am in a discord groupchat with him and he fucking adds her to the gc and gets her to say "thank you tooie for subscribing". and then she leaves and then i'm in a vc with him as he watches the most godawful instagram reels i've ever seen in my life for like an hour. and now i just have to sit here like ok i guess that's happened now

[bro3256]

Predictions for Nintendo Switch Online

I think it goes without saying that the Nintendo Switch Online (or NSO) service has been controversial to say the least. The fact that we now have to pay for what used to be free online and the lack of benefits you get to subscribing has led to this service being received very poorly at least at launch. It's been about 5 years since NSO launched and a lot of that controversy has seemingly dried up either by new additions to the game library or simply the fact that we're just used to it at this point.

Now don't get me wrong there are still detractors to NSO, but it seems as if this service has been accepted for what it is despite its flaws, although I do have to agree with some of the things said by folks regarding how the service launched and how it currently is.

Now that we've gotten that out of the way, I want to lay down some predictions regarding the future of this service as I've seen some wild things being proposed by fans that sound completely unrealistic and nothing Nintendo would ever regularly do. Starting with the obvious, what future platforms will Nintendo add to the game library?

First things first, GameCube is not going to happen at least for a long time. I suspect Nintendo may add it once the Switch's successor is out but at this very moment it is laughable to consider GameCube right now. The biggest main issue is the fact that Nintendo themselves has been rereleasing GameCube games as full price Switch games. Metroid Prime Remastered and Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door come to mind. I know for the most part the whole "things releasing outside of NSO means it will never come to NSO" myth has more or less died at this point but GameCube tends to be a special case here since these games still feel modern enough to resell as new games.

Another thing is to completely throw out any consideration of any mainline Pokémon games appearing on the Game Boy apps. The spinoffs sure, but actual mainline games is a bit silly. If they were somehow to be added they would need to do a lot of backend stuff to get these games properly working and so players don't cheat with the regular tools NSO offers such as rewind and restore points. It's not impossible but I see this as too much work to be worth it if simply putting these out as digital eShop releases sounds much easier. Besides if every version was put out on NSO then you'd lose the magic of Pokémon just like that, and that wouldn't be fun would it?

Okay so what do I actually think NSO is gonna add to its game library? Well unless Nintendo puts out a Virtual Boy or a Game & Watch app then I suspect we will probably see more third party apps. One consideration I don't see a ton of people talking about is the PC-Engine and TurboGrafx-16.

Games from these consoles have appeared on Virtual Console in the past on Wii and Wii U and a very limited number of PC-Engine games did release on 3DS only in Japan. I wouldn't doubt that Nintendo would add this as apart of their Expansion Pack, heck maybe even regular NSO if we're lucky. I would just love to see more NEC love (or well Konami love now).

But why stop there when the Mark III and Master System could be added too? Sega is already on board with NSO with their Mega Drive and Genesis apps so this would be a great addition especially since these games have not been given enough love even by Sega. SG-1000 would also be cool but that might be a bit too niche for a service like NSO but who knows.

As for games, while there is quite a bit already on the service there are certainly omissions that are quite baffling so let's get some of the more obvious ones out of the way and in no particular order.

Gomoku Narabe Renju, Mahjong, Golf, Urban Champion, SimCity, Mario Paint, Super Smash Bros., Ridge Racer 64, Banjo-Tooie, Super Mario Land, Qix, X, Balloon Kid, Mole Mania, Super Mario Bros. Deluxe, Pokémon Pinball, Densetsu no Stafy 1-3, Mother 3, and Rhythm Tengoku just to name a few.

So lets start with one that might not be interesting at a glance but would be a great addition to the service.

Tetris for the NES (no, not the Tengen version) is one of the more iconic versions of this beloved puzzle game, but why go back to this version specifically? I mean we already have Tetris on the Game Boy app and plenty of other Tetris games on Switch so what's the deal here?

Well for one, this version has never seen any kind of rerelease... kind of. This version in terms of how it played was ported over to Tetris Effect: Connected as a side mode but unless you knew about it I'd imagine not a whole lot of folks have dabbled with it and it's still technically not the original game.

But secondly, the main reason why this mode even exists and also why I personally would like to see it on NSO is purely to make the game accessible to a wider audience considering the competitive scene of this specific classic version of Tetris.

Being able to play this on NSO would mean a ton more people get to experience how this version plays and more importantly gives players another option of playing this without resorting to unofficial PC emulation. Obviously pro players are going to stick to original hardware but if you just wanted to practice or wanted a taste of this version then it's no wonder that having it on Switch would be a dream. Hopefully with the Game Boy version already being on the service this will increase the chances of this one happening.

So this next one is already planned to release for NSO in Japan but there's no word on it releasing internationally but regardless...

...Kaeru no tame ni Kane wa Naru or as its unofficially known as The Frog For Whom the Bell Tolls. It's an action RPG that's often compared to Link's Awakening to the point where in said Zelda game there's a cameo appearance featuring Prince Richard from Bell Tolls. This is one of the more well known Nintendo developed games that never left Japan and as of writing has never seen an official English localization of any kind and unfortunately there seems to be a trend with international NSO releases having Japanese games that have not been translated. So the likelihood of this not only releasing outside of Japan but getting a new localization for NSO is very unlikely but it's more than possible given Nintendo puts in the work to translating this in English. I'd imagine a remake of this game being far more likely to getting an international release if that were to happen and hey if it's in the style of the Link's Awakening remake that would be pretty cool.

So let's move away to one that might actually happen.

This one's pretty straight forward and don't be scared by this being Japan exclusive as outside of some story cutscenes this one's perfectly playable as its mainly a puzzle game. It has seen rereleases in the past on Virtual Console and if it were to release on NSO it's very likely that it would release internationally since the benefit of Nintendo not putting in effort to localize these games means they can just drop this on the SNES app no problem. Also good time to mention that this also includes the original Wrecking Crew so it would be funny to see Wrecking Crew on the service twice.

So let's end this game prediction saga with one that probably will never happen but if it were to happen I'd be curious how it would be implemented.

So let's get this out of the way, this is an M rated game. For a while it was believed that Nintendo would shy away from more mature games from appearing on the service but GoldenEye 007 on N64 at least in Japan indicates that Nintendo's solution is purely to bump up the rating of the overall app. So I'd imagine if this were to drop on NSO we'd not only see a rating bump for the N64 app but hopefully some kind of parental control option to stop players under 17 from playing this one. While it would be cool to see this on NSO in terms of being able to play it on a Nintendo platform again, I purely would like to see this get added just to see what they'd do to the app in response to this M rated addition to the service.

And there are my NSO predictions as of November 2023. I do wonder when the next Nintendo platform releases if we'll see an uptick in support for the service but its likely that this slow trickle of games will continue as usual. I'd normally would wish for more platforms to be represented on NSO but the problem is that some of the ones already on the service are very lacking especially Game Boy and Game Boy Advance. Hopefully those libraries get beefed up soon.

[goqmir]

can you pretty pretty please share some banjo kazooie thoughts?? I would love to hear!!

having played through banjo kazooie and then subsequently banjo tooie in the last three months with wrenny i must say that tooie is fucking awesome in a way that i never really realized as a 3 year old watching my big sister and my mom play it. like holy shit banio tooie has a lot going on. banjo kazooies main difficulty is like,,, finding the random dumb bullshit you have to do to get any given jiggy. and sometimes thats awesome and in the best worlds (mumbos mountain, treasure trove cove, bubblegloop swamp, freezezy peak, click clock wood) that is largely either a negated issue because they designed it well or its less annoying than in the other worlds. but the low points of banjo kazooie can really slog away in an unsatisfying way when you are given a problem and try 10 things to solve it but none of them work so you look it up and its some weird little interaction, or like the choice to put clankers cavern largely underwater with that movement system like thats evil. however banjo kazooie is amazing like the peaks are iconic the fucking collectathon nature is unmatched by any game to this day (cavern of dreams comes out in 8 days so we'll see how this post ages) the music is fucking iconic like go play the game even if you have to look up some puzzle solutions or skip the annoying sections like its amazing.

banjo tooie i always thought was such a slog. last time i tried to beat it i was 13 and lost interest after witchyworld but playing it now as an adult who can understand and process the intricate world design it is so fucking worthwhile to play and now i truly like it more than kazooie. when they say tooie is slow they mean it though. everything takes just a little bit longer than you think it should and that really does add up. the worlds are comparatively huge and the warp pads help less than youd like them to. however the worlds are AMAZING. mayahem temple, glitter gulch mine, witchyworld, terrydactyland, hailfire peaks, jolly rogers lagoon! everything about the game seemed so scary and complex as a tween but now as an adult its so gratifying being able to wrap my mind around a banjo tooie level because after a while running around everything truly does click into place every time. tooie has such a delayed gratification system though. every world has one or two jiggies that are only accessible by A) getting a move to access it in a later level like its metroid or B) going to a later level and opening a path to the previous one. every level in tooie is nauseatingly interlinked in a way that can make you squeal if you get off on that kind of complex interlocking game design type beat but if you prefer banjo kazooie's self-contained romps then tooie's game design may leave you very underwhelmed. i thought i liked kazooies levels more before i went back and played tooie as an adult and realized how awesome it is that everything links to everything else. its amazing. its a good game. play it, especially with a friend or lover if you can. its a delight.

the banjo kazooie jinjos and minjos are fucking amazing btw. their noises are iconic and wren and i have just been pretending to be jinjos and minjos as a bit recently. we'll stop talking for a second and then say "help!" in that jinjo voice while waving our arms side to side. its awesome. be a jinjo

also if you play banjo tooie once you unlock the drill peck in glitter gulch mine go back to spiral mountain and save banjos goldfish please im begging you the ability he gives you will turn jolly rogers lagoon from your most hated world to your beloved

also i fucking love banjo kazooie nuts and bolts. yknow the one everyone hates. but thats for another time. play banjo kazooie on xbox if possible but emulator works too just play it! play the game

[goron-king-darunia]

I was asked to weigh in by @annon-guy2 on both my top pick and on the other titles, so I figured I would just recap and weigh in here for convenience. My choice in the poll was Princess Mononoke, mostly because it's my favorite Ghibli film. When asked to articulate more about what that would entail as a game, this is what I came up with (includes some edits and clarifying language I made just now):

"[A c]ombination Zelda Style adventure puzzle game and stealth game. You lose points for fatalities. Theoretically you could just go all-out and murder everything but you get the bad ending where the Forest God permanently dies (and doesn't just [become] nature) and the world ends. The main objective is to tire your opponent out or outsmart and pin them without killing them. This enables more cutscenes, more rewards, more information,etc. [It would largely follow] the main plot beats of the movie, but with extra stuff. Depending on where the player focuses their attention and what objectives they complete (or [what order they complete these objectives in]) decides which ending (other than the bad ending) that the player can get. For example, if the player focuses on trying to cure Ashitaka, you would get an ending where he's completely healed but San dies [or some other trade off where neglected parts of the story are left unresolved.] Choices affect whether Iron Town survives or not, etc. Theoretically if you played the correct/intended way, focusing on preserving as many lives as possible and stopping the war between nature and industry, you would get the canon ending to the movie.

[But h]onestly I think Princess Mononoke works best as a movie and the closest we would get to a game "set in the Universe of Princess Mononoke" would be, like, Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. [Which already exist, so I'm not sure what novelty could be added that wouldn't just be aping the existing games.] So as much as I would like a game like that, I can see how a very valid reason to not make the Princess Mononoke game would be "the movie already says everything it wants to say perfectly and an interactive element doesn't really add much to the experience." As for the other potential games, in order of their listing above: Castle in the Sky: I think it would work best as a linear, narrative, adventure style game following the main story. Games currently are on a whole "expansive, open-world" kick, and I do enjoy that. I like sandboxes and running around collecting junk. But there's something about older games that, as a product of limited data available on cartridges, sort of railroaded you into doing things in order. There was a bit of flexibility. Collect-a-thons like Donkey Kong 64 and Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Tooie had enough flexibility that you could beat the game by skipping entire levels completely. But a lot of games from that era had a pretty strict sequence that you had to go through to progress. Lots of stuff was locked behind getting certain upgrades. And there was something kind of nice about having the experience already planned out. I'm still not done with TotK even though I very clearly could be after over 200 hours in game, but I can complete all of Banjo-Kazooie in 2 days if I wanted to. Something like that for Castle in the Sky would work well.

It would follow the main story, of course, but you wouldn't be able to alter anything like the idea for Princess Mononoke. Gameplay would largely consist of exploring discrete levels, talking to relevant NPCs, and completing quests. Combat would be limited and would be based around avoiding injury and solving the problem with puzzles.

Nausicaa: Combination crafting/survival game and farming sim. You can befriend and tame Ohmu and Fox-squirrels. Loosely related to the plot but largely one of those "set in the world of" games. Nausicaa would be the ideal protagonist if we stick with the main plot, but honestly you could run it like Ark: Survival Evolved with single player and online multiplayer and have the player character be a customizable OC. I just think it would be really neat to run around and explore all the toxic forests and scavenge Ohmu shed exoskeletons like whalefalls.

Secret World of Arietty: Classic Collect-a-thon, maybe with hints of Pikmin and Chibi-Robo. I think part of the problem with basing the games off the movies is that people would want to see the main cast in them. I could definitely see this as one of those "in the world of" games, where your experience as the player runs parallel to the main events of the story but all the stuff we see in the movie happens off screen and we only intersect with it briefly. While the game could center around Arietty and her family, that sort of a game would be collect-a-thon heavy, I think. Each room of the house would be like a different level and you'd have to gather certain items from it. You could unlock different tools to traverse the environment with, too, like the earring climbing gear. But I can definitely see centering around a group of different Borrowers who have just moved into a new house, and they have to build up their own little home with the stuff you're able to "borrow" from the humans. Pikmin-esque elements could include delegating gathering tasks to certain Borrowers and the Chibi-Robo elements could involve a similar story to what we see in the movie, with the Borrowers slowly befriending the humans of the house.

Spirited Away: This is a hard one, not going to lie. The movie is so entrenched in the cultural consciousness as its own, complete thing that I'm not sure what the game would look like, other than just "it's literally just the events of the movie but with worse pacing to allow for player input, minigames, and quicktime events. Theoretically you could do one that's "in the world of" Spirited Away. But I think that game experience would just end up being "the movie, but boring and worse. The most satisfying gameplay option I can think of is honestly just Chibi-Robo/Viscera Cleanup Detail/Powerwash simulator where they build out detailed 3D environments from the movie and you get to go through and pick up trash and clean up.

Porco Rosso: Flight sim. Arcade style flight sim/shooter. Easy peasy. Innovative? No. Ground-breaking? No. But would it have classic, simple, gameplay with cute Ghibli paint? Yes. Yes it would.

My Neighbor Totoro: Linear Exploration with minigame elements. I don't know what it says about me that this is my first thought, but I'm literally thinking something like Tigger's Hunny Hunt for the Nintendo 64, only instead of a side scrolling platformer, it's 3D. And it has minigames. Like growing the giant tree could be a rhythm game. Catbus could be a Subway Surfer style runner minigame, etc. Howl's Moving Castle: This one's also tricky. "Set in the World of" might work better, since they could work off the themes of the book instead of just Howl and Sophie's story. A world where fairy-tale rules apply but the characters are aware of it. Action adventure game with linear progression of a hero that doesn't want to be the hero and a damsel in distress who just wants to be allowed to solve her own problems without the narrative punishing her for not waiting for her "prince charming." It still has the trappings and styling of the Ghibli film, of course, but the story wouldn't be about Howl and Sophie. But of course that runs into the issue of "Is it really Howl's Moving Castle if Howl and Sophie aren't in it?" But, like with Spirited Away, the narrative is kind of so focused and jam packed with slow, emotional scenes with the characters that, other than a visual novel, there's not much you can do to gamify the movie. And a visual novel is, in this case, "just the movie but boring and worse." Ponyo: Honestly my first thought was that old, tedious "Freddi Fish and Luther's Water Worries" game. And as fitting as that would be, NO THANK YOU, DEAR GOD. 100 levels of literally the exact same thing, eugh. I remember being so mad that the only "reward" you got for beating all those long boring levels was a crappy cutscene that would have been fun after level 20 but felt like a slap in the face after 100 goddamn levels. And then my immediate thought after that was a "Who's Your Daddy?" style gameplay where one person plays as Ponyo and the other plays as Fujimoto, and Ponyo's goal is to grab Sosuke and RUN and it's Fujimoto's objective to basically kidnap her back to the sea because he's not letting his daughter have any fun. By which I mean he's not letting a supernatural force of nature with the mind of a child destroy the entire world on accident. XD But Honestly? Windwaker style gameplay that exists IN THE IMAGINATION of Sosuke and Ponyo, post-movie. You can do literally anything. Because it's two kids playing pretend with each other so whatever happens in the game can be as zany and silly as you want, because it's literally being made up by kids. The treasure chest on the Island of Laundry is full of ham? Of course it is. Ponyo would think of that. The evil giant kraken's main mission in life is to ruin your fun by enforcing bed time? Of course it is. That's how moms are sometimes.

Kiki's Delivery Service: Take "Death Stranding" but make it cute and soft and pastel. That's it. You did it. Maybe add in some cooking minigames you can use to get buffs. But literally just... deliver packages. Maybe some slight Animal Crossing vibes where you slowly befriend the villagers that you deliver to and learn more about them and help them with their problems.

Anyway, that's it! Those are my ideas. Obviously there's nothing new under the sun so a lot of this is literally just "take an existing game but reskin it to be Ghibli." But that's part of why I'm not in game design. I am not an innovator or an inventor. Literally my favorite thing to do is to take existing things and tweak them and mash them together. That's why I write fanfiction. But Disney built their brand on that and it's literally a human tradition to go "I like this thing. What if I did the same thing but in pink? And 2 inches to the left. Perfect." So yes. Prokopetz I am not, sadly. I will never be behind the newest Nintendo Patent for a new game mechanic or what-have-you. But thank god for that, honestly. I am here doing the word version of playing with Lego. I know how the pieces work. I know the tropes and the words and the genres. I just mash the fun things together and see what sticks. So thank you for thinking of me and what my rock-tumbler of a brain might spit out. If you find any shiny rocks in the pile of my brain dust, good! You can keep them. :) I am by no means the world-class chef thinking up things like asparagus chocolates and making them good somehow. I am just that gremlin in the corner that slaps the right veggies and cheeses in the pot and makes a tasty soup or a banging whitesauce somehow. I am not inventing, but I sure do know how to make existing things in pink and 2 inches to the left.

Studio Ghibli Game Idea Question

From the Page of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind from TVTropes;

"Three video game adaptations of Nausicaä were released for the MSX; two were top-down shooters but where Nausicaä does negotiations with human villages to prevent war and drops stun bombs (NOT regular bombs) on Ohmus as a strict self-defense measure. They were, however, mediocre in their gameplay, and flopped. As a result, not counting Future Boy Conan videogame adaptations, no further games based on Studio Ghibli works were produced (not that it kept the studio from doing the art direction for other games, like Jade Cocoon for the PS1, among others). A very common Urban Legend has it that those games greatly offended Miyazaki, based on the wrong assumption that the games openly subverted the message of his film. Interviews following Ni no Kuni's release, and an actual look on those rare games by Hardcore Gaming 101, debunked these rumors, with Studio Ghibli even being open to a Castle in the Sky adaptation."

Note: I also included what these could be Rated from E (Everyone), E10 (Everyone 10 and Up), T (Teen) or M (Mature). Feel free to explain which movie could be made into what genre of game (open world, platformer, adventure, etc.) in the reblog or comments section below.

[sodapaladin]

Top 10 Games of 2021

As usual, here are my favorite games that I played over the year, not necessarily ones that came out in 2021.

I’ve decided not to include Deltarune chapter 2, because it’s technically part of the same game I already awarded last time, but know that it’s incredible. Now, the annual list!

10. Mario Party Superstars

After half a dozen disappointing Mario Parties, we finally got what fans have been begging for. While there are still some glaring issues, such as the completely busted coin economy and some puzzling minigame choices, I’ve been having a blast with my friends.

9. New Pokemon Snap

At last, a fantastic sequel to the original fun novelty. It’s so charming to see Pokemon living their normal lives in the world. From many of my favorites to some surprising, often forgotten pokes, I enjoyed discovering the many secrets in this relaxing game.

8. Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX

While BDSP disappointed many with its faithfulness taken to a fault, the Mystery Dungeon remake had the perfect mix of new and old. While it stuck to the original three generations of Pokemon like the original game did, it also added all evolutions of those Pokemon that appeared later, such as Mamoswine and Sylveon. As a result, the roster felt totally natural. The QoL additions are much appreciated, and there’s so much content to explore. I loved the music, too; the remixed medley of songs from Gates to Infinity is absolutely lovely, even though I hadn’t played that one. I could easily see myself pouring dozens more hours into this.

7. GameCenter CX 2

AKA Retro Game Challenge 2. Such a shame the original was the only to get officially localized. The experience of playing games with your friend, looking up tips in magazines, and waiting for new game releases as a kid is done so well in this charming nostalgia trip. They could have easily made all of these simple minigames, but they’re all legitimately fun games in their own right. I haven’t even touched the RPG yet, but it’s apparently a full thing with legitimately interesting mechanics.

6. Yooka-Laylee

You heard me right! As a huge fan of Banjo-Kazooie and Tooie, I was looking forward to this, but then put it off for a long time in fear of disappointment. But despite hearing all the complaints, I gave it a fair shot at last, and you know what? I loved it. It’s exactly what I wanted it to be! I honestly don’t understand the hate it gets. If anything, I wish it had more levels. The space one was so cool, and I even loved the casino level. It’s a proper Banjo game in my books, and I’m bummed that the sequel wasn’t also a 3D platformer.

5. Pokemon Card GB2

Another game that tragically didn’t get an English release. The Pokemon TCG was already done well on GBC, and the sequel continues it by including the entire original game’s island, plus a whole new one. The addition of even a single new expansion adds a lot of variety to the game. And that soundtrack! Wow! The normal Team GR battle theme is one of the best Pokemon songs, forever trapped on a Japan-exclusive spinoff game. More people need to hear it.

4. A Short Hike

The definition of “charming.” True to its title, you can see just about everything in the game in an hour or two, but what a lovely hour or two you’ll have. What else to say other than it makes me feel warm inside?

3. Lisa: The Painful

The complete opposite of my last pick. Equal parts depressing and hilarious, this bizarre game gave me an unforgettable ride. On top of the dark humor, the game’s also a lot of fun, with many unique party members. I can’t get the Shenmue grunt sound effect song out of my head.

2. Final Fantasy XIV

Hoo boy. It was really difficult to decide between this and my #1 pick. I had never played an MMO before, and never thought it would appeal to me. But when a friend started the free trial over the summer, I figured eh, I’ll give it a shot. And boom, now it’s half a year later and I’m going to themed cafes with guildmates. My idea of MMOs had always been grinding to fight difficult bosses with minimal story. I didn’t expect to fall in love with a fascinating world. I’ve joined a wonderful free company (read: guild) and made many great friends through it. I’m having the time of my life, and I can’t wait to start Shadowbringers soon.

1. 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim

This is the kind of game you wish you could experience for the first time again. Not since 9 Hours 9 Persons 9 Doors have I had my mind blown to such a degree. There are many mystery games that make less sense the more you think about them, but 13 Sentinels is a game that rewards you for connecting the dots. I love how many times I looked into the timeline and realized how everything fit together. Rather than just outright lying to the player, which makes mysteries feel cheap, the game gives you multiple perspectives. What seems like the obvious truth to one character then plays out entirely differently when you see it from another angle. All of this on top of a kaiju-fighting mecha RTS game that’s surprisingly fun once you get the hang of it, which has tons of postgame levels. If you’re not into visual novels, you may become bored from the tons and tons of story. It’s definitely a VN at heart. But if you’re into mysteries involving sci-fi tropes like giant robots and time travel, this love letter to them is an incredible experience.

[game-boy-pocket]

Well, anything I add to my raspberry pi at this point is just gravy now. all my favorites are already on there, every 1st party Nintendo game that has a rom dump that i'm aware of is there, even fucking Sheriff and Sky Skipper. I'm lacking in N64, but who cares because I've got an Everdrive and N64 looks weird and jagged on the pi and contrary to what some people will tell you, no, it won't run "the ones that matter" ( don't you EVER try to tell me Banjo Tooie, Conker, and Goldeneye don't matter )

Not that I want this to just be another Nintendo machine. Of course I've got my whole Playstation, Turbografx16, and Sega Genesis games on there too. I'd also like to try out some less mainstream ( or at least less mainstream where I'm from ) systems. ZX Spectrum, MSX, Sega Master System, ect. And maybe some things that were mainstream but were before my time like Atari and Commodor 64... I just don't want to get anything that's an inferior port of an arcade game unless I can't get said arcade game running, and i'm pretty sure that makes up like 90% of the atari library.

It's time to actually start playing these games, and while it gives me an excuse just to revisit my favorites again ( I wanna make a screenshot every time I beat a game and set a slideshow as my screensaver ), I'd like to play new stuff too, I just don't know where to start, it's all very overwhelming.

Still not taking back what I said, this thing is still prone to freezing... but it does seem all the major issues that have plagued me are finally in the past.

[spcllbounded]

// Things I love about Banjo Kazooie

Number I lost track:  Playing BK and BT and seeing the different homes of all the characters in this series. 

Banjo and Kazooie have (or uh....had until Tooie. F) probably the coziest and most laid back looking place. It’s not all that big or luxurious of home, but it looks so feel good. Even seeing the different pictures all over the house including the ones of Tooty and Bottles goes to show how the two hold people in their lives so dearly to them.

Bottles and his family’s home is what you’d expect for a family to have. Big and spread out for the family to have their own rooms. Very much has that warm, family feeling when you walk into it.

Mumbo’s hut in BK is decorative and upbeat. I love the different little things he’s doing in his hut during the different seasons of Click Clock Wood! It makes it seem all that more homey. In BT, his hut now has an old, temple feeling, but still a cozy place for the shaman to chill in. Probably a bigger space being perfect to train in magic since he’s getting into bigger stuff this time around. And I dunno if this is just me, but the skull hut looking much smaller on the outside and walking in your get a double floor interior? It gives me that feeling that Mumbo is a guy full of surprises.

Humba’s wigwam, giving off a light in a dark surrounding gives off a mysterious vibe. It’s something very similar you see from Mumbo’s hut in BK, but it gives off a more shrouded and unseen theme to it. I can see this being related to just the unforeseen possibilities of what transformations can take place!

Those are what you get from the main characters and that’s not even talking about the other NPC’s you will come to meet in both games! The Jinjos and their village, Boggy’s igloos, etc. It adds so much to the world and the games as a whole! I love that about these games.

[mariolucario493]

STUFF I WANT IN A BANJO-KAZOOIE REMAKE (IF THERE IS ONE)

So as you are probably aware, Banjo and Kazooie have finally made it into Super Smash Bros. This is a huge accomplishment, as they have been absent from Nintendo for years. But this begs the question - will we be getting a proper new Banjo title in the near future? I certainly hope so, but before that, it would be nice to see the original games re-released on current consoles.

Now the question is how they would do this. Would they just re-release the original games with slightly updated graphics like they did on XBLA? That seems like the safer option. But maybe they’ll go the interesting route and remake the whole games from scratch. Given that we live in a time where everyone seems to be capitalizing on 90′s nostalgia, the latter seems like a possibility. But I’m not here to complain about Disney’s live-action remakes. Besides, with video games, remakes seem to be quite faithful to the originals. We’ve gotten DS/3DS remakes of Mario 64, Star Fox 64, Ocarina of Time, Majora’s Mask, and maybe some others I can’t think of. Pokemon has remade generations before as well. And of course, the remake of Link’s Awakening looks promising. Even Rare has gotten in on it before - remember Conker: Live and Reloaded? True, a lot of the original developers left Rare to form Playtonic, but maybe the two companies could joint develop it - as long as Microsoft gives everyone complete creative control, of course.

So let’s say they do go this route and completely remake the original two games. It shouldn’t just be the same game but in HD. There are some things I’d like them to improve upon from the N64.

First of all, they definitely should keep the changes they did with XBLA - that is, making notes permanently collectible. No one wants to get PTSD from Rusty Bucket Bay. Admittedly, this might make finding the last few notes more difficult, but it’s probably still better than dying with 99 notes. Or what if the notes do not reset if you die, but they do reset if you leave the level? That way, if you’re having trouble finding the last note, you can just reset. Maybe there could also be a special reward for finding all 900. Yes, there is that last door that requires 882 notes and doubles your health, but maybe something else. There’s already a reward for getting all 100 Jiggies in Mumbo teaching you about some of the Stop n’ Swop items.

And speaking of Stop n’ Swop, let’s talk about that. The limited technology of the time meant they weren’t able to implement the idea of transferring items from one game to another during the N64 era. Now they did manage to do that for the XBLA re-releases, but there were still a few flaws that I saw. In the N64 version of Banjo-Tooie, you had to essentially find the Stop n’ Swop items again. In the XBLA version, if you got them in BK, you would have them in BT from the start of the game. But the problem is that the secret areas were still there, just empty. If you had no idea what was supposed to be there, you’d be confused as to why these secret caves exist. So I think they should combine the two ideas. By that I mean, have the secret areas in BT empty normally, but have the secret items show up there once you get them in BK. Maybe include a sign in the secret areas that gives a hint like “Return to the Sandcastle and enter the following code.” If both games were bundled together, it would make the transfer of data even easier. Though the issue there was that the N64 version of BT only had the Ice Key and three of the six eggs. The developers would have to come up with places to hide the last three eggs in BT. But I think they could do that.

It would also be cool if there was a multiplayer mode. Banjo-Tooie had multiplayer minigames, but maybe they could add some to Banjo-Kazooie as well. Specifically, I’d like to see a multiplayer version of Grunty’s Furnace Fun. It would either be a race to the end or just competing for points.

One thing Yooka-Laylee was missing was world maps. Pretty much every 3D game nowadays has a way to bring up an overhead map of the area. But a combination of no maps and everything looking the same made Yooka-Laylee’s worlds difficult to navigate. So yes, there needs to be a map of each world. And that map should highlight certain areas such as the start area, Mumbo’s hut, all the Bottles/Jamjars locations (once you find them, of course), warp pads, etc. And there could also be an option to place beacons. You know, where you put a dot on the map and a light appears in the sky to guide you there. Admittedly, this would be difficult to implement in more cavernous levels like Clanker’s Cavern or Glitter Gulch Mine, so the beacon idea might not be possible. Also, for some maze-like sub areas like Targitzan’s Temple, maybe the map should not be accessible until you complete everything in the area. That way, you can still feel like you’re exploring.

One thing Yooka-Laylee actually did right (once it was patched, of course) was fixing the auto-scrolling text. Pretty much every game has the text pause until you press a button to advance it, but not BK or BT for some reason. You could still hold down the button to make the text scroll faster, but tap it to advance to the next sentence.

And now let’s talk about the toughest thing that I’d like to see changed for this hypothetical remake - that being the comedy. As timeless as these games are, I will admit that there are a few moments that clearly stand out as being a product of the 90′s. Certain jokes might not be acceptable today. Now I love all the fourth wall jokes and subtle adult innuendos, and they should definitely keep those. What I am concerned about is a couple of the characters that are obvious stereotypes. Take for example, Rubee, the snake charmer in Gobi’s Valley. Despite only being part of one Jiggy mission, this character seems to suffer from the same Indian stereotypes that Apu from The Simpsons suffered from.  With his overly large turban and strange way of speaking, he seems like he could use an update. Now how would they do that? My idea? Make him an animal. Perhaps an elephant, like Taj from Diddy Kong Racing. This could also fit his role as a snake charmer, as he could play his trunk like a flute.

There’s also Jolly Roger and Merry Maggie, who seem to be cheap shot at gay stereotypes. Jolly speaks in a very camp voice and makes those hand gestures. Maggie is implied to be a transvestite; and if I remember correctly, Kazooie reacts with disgust when she sees her. Again, we might have to change them up a little. I’m not sure how we would do that, but definitely start by making them more than just one-dimensional stereotypes.

But perhaps the most awkwardly stereotypical character in the Banjo games is Humba Wumba. Native American stereotypes seem to be one of the most controversial out there. The problem with Humba is that she is a much more important character than Jolly or Rubee. She appears in every level of the second game, and her transformations are essential for getting many of the Jiggies. Mumbo also seems to be based on the stereotypical tribal African witch doctor, but again, he is at least non-human enough for that to be acceptable. Humba, on the other hand, is definitely human. And she wears that stereotypical buckskin outfit and feather headdress, and she speaks in broken English Tonto-style, and her theme music includes that war cry that isn’t even a real thing. Now I personally am as white as white can be (at least I think I am, but I’m not about to sent a DNA sample to one of those ancestry sites so they can sell it to the government), so I’m not exactly the best person to talk to about how to write a Native American character. On top of that, Humba seems to just be there for sex appeal. Yes, I’ll admit, I had a few fantasies about her giant polygonal tits growing up. She’s definitely at least more attractive then the fairies in Ocarina of Time. Now for all its faults, Nuts and Bolts did redesign Humba to be a little less of a stereotype. In that game, she wears a more contemporary outfit and has a more realistic figure. It’s not perfect, but it’s a good start. Theoretically, Humba could work if they were more tongue-in-cheek about how insensitive she is. Like have Kazooie make a snarky remark about how the 90′s were a simpler time. If there ever is a completely new Banjo game, they could cut her out altogether; but in the event of a re-release, she is an integral part of Banjo-Tooie.

It was also kind of surprising back in 1998-2000 to see an E-rated game this violent. And I’m not talking about the goofy slapstick either. Both Clanker in Clanker’s Cavern and Lord Woo Fak Fak in Jolly Roger’s Lagoon visibly bleed. How many times do you see blood in an E-rated game? Yeah, they might have to change that. For Clanker, since he’s mostly mechanical, you could replace the bloody parts of his body with rust. And as for Fak Fak, you could just change the color of the blood like you did with Ganondorf. Which would actually be realistic, since red light doesn’t travel that far in water, so red things such as blood often appear greenish-yellow when you’re hundreds of feet below the water’s surface. Of course, Kazooie should still stay red no matter what.

There’s a few other things that might be seen as insensitive, like the child abuse that Boggy’s kids face, or the lady with the watermelons at the end of BK. But as much as some of those jokes seem mean-spirited, I actually think it would be better to keep most of them. I don’t see a game as goofy as Banjo-Kazooie beginning with a serious disclaimer about stereotypes like they put at the start of all those Looney Tunes compilation DVD’s, but the developers should definitely tread lightly if they want to keep the spirit of the original games without offending anyone. We may end up with an E10 or even a T rating, but it would be worth it. But this is Tumblr, after all, and being offended is like a national pastime here.

Just a few months ago, a new Banjo game seemed like a pipe dream. But with what we saw at E3, we might just get it. Either way, the kids of today deserve a chance to experience what we grew up with. But what else would you like to see in a Banjo-Kazooie/Tooie remake or a new game altogether?

[c7thetumbler]

Quick Game Reviews: What I played 2018

I’m gonna go ahead and do this for the whole year, which includes games that WEREN’T released this year, but I played this year. I also made this throughout the year, so most the opinions were right after I played it and if it’s been updated further might not include that in my blurb.

I needed to type and felt like I needed to make something. This might motivate me I suppose. Let’s get started

DOOM 2016 [PC]

I grew up on Pokemon, Mario, and Doom II. I couldn’t play it until I got my new computer this year so yeah way too late. This is a pretty solid game, though thanks to all of the bonuses and honestly nearly intrusive leveling up system kinda stepped in the way of the raw combat. It’s obviously my choice, but I felt encouraged to spend a lot of time exploring areas I’d already cleared rather than run and gun.

That being said, I still loved it. The secrets were, for the most part, really clever and fun anyway and the combat is delicious. I would strongly recommend this

A Hat in Time + Seal the Deal DLC [PC]

I love this game. A lot. It’s really cute and looks really good, it’s got a ton of charm, and it’s honestly a very good time overall. I 100% the base game last year when it first came out, and I would highly recommend to fans of 3D platformers, and still worth a try if you’re on the fence on them. The mod support is also great that it’s in there and I want to try that a lot. however the DLC...

So the new level is pretty short and while it’s fun, it’s not as good as the other levels. The characters (I think) are really cute and the charm is all there and that great, but it has all of 3 levels, and 2 of them are exploring the exact same places (the boat) and the 3rd is a nice twist on that, but other than that it’s pretty barren. The time rifts were fun as well, but alone... eh. The Death Wish portion, that is the super hard challenge mode...

... is not good. Obviously my opinion, and I might be missing the point, but after having been frustrated over and over and over again, the game itself is just not tight or clean enough to warrant it. My backing for this is that a large portion of the challenges rely on originally unintended level geometry or quirky mechanics in order to complete, and having challenges that require you to be in the know about these honestly inconsistent “quirks” is just not good. Specific examples: the ice hat giving you a small boost to avoid jumping in challenges is alright but fluctuates in how much height it gives you a lot, the challenges around the train chase still have the wonky hitboxes that do not line up with what’s still on screen, and the parade challenge has an invisible hitbox on the main platform that can kill runs. In short If you have found you love the main game and are a bit of a masochist, go for the DLC.

Pokémon Ultra Sun [3DS]

This is more or less just a revisit of the same generation with some very minor changes. The story changes take the focus away from Lillie and Lusamine (and as a result how interesting the former and evil the latter are) and places it on Necrozma and Ultra Beasts. I really like what they did with Necrozma, but overall it feels like a lot less. And while the Rainbow Rocket post game was nice and fun nostalgia, it’s still missing a solid post game like B2W2 or Gen II had. 

Ultra Wormholes are cool though, and all the good mechanics from SM are still there, so honestly I would recommend this if you haven’t played gen 7 and like Pokémon.

Hey! Pikmin [3DS]

It’s awful. I can’t think of a reason to pick this up.

I can rant about this for years, but it basically got the Zip Lash/ Sticker Star treatment: it took a franchise known for something and made it something else that was bad. It’s an incredibly slow puzzle “platformer” where you have to collect a bunch of treasure using pikmin you find in the level, it’s laggy even on a n3DS, and even though the point of the game is to collect enough treasure to leave, if you do that they’re all like “by the way, you still have to beat the final boss” so the entire auto-collecting side game you put your pikmin into is entirely pointless. This is honestly the worst 3DS game I played this year.

Hollow Knight [PC]

So I’m normally not that great with the games-that-are-pretty-dang-hard, and this was no exception. That said however, I did get pretty far (probably) before I got to a boss fight I just couldn’t beat (It was an onslaught of rolling knights in the raining city or something, it’s been a while). And after that I tried finding more power-ups and stuff to help, but I had to set it down after getting bottlenecked there. That being said, I can very easily see why people like this hardcore metroid-vania platformer, and would still recommend it if you’re into the Dark Souls style of high difficulty and mechanical mastery in other genres.

Axiom Verge [PC]

This is another Metroid-style game. I really liked this one as well, especially how its power-ups weren’t the traditional “You jump higher now” traversal power-ups. It really has a nice atmosphere and theme that still feels alien and metroidy while also feeling like the glitchy world by giving you weapons and movement abilities that let you glitch and change the environment around you. I really liked it! My only real complaint is the bosses get really challenging through a result of eventually figuring out what weapon and strategy is was designed for, and there are some areas that I was completely lost trying to find where I was going next, but all in all it’s pretty solid.

Octodad: Dadliest Catch [PC]

I normally really hate games where the focus is “lol, you can barely control your character! hahaha.” I actually really liked this one; it isn’t hard to get the hang of it and it’s really funny and still enjoyable at the same time. I rarely actually felt annoyed at the controls. I had a ton of fun with it, even if it was a little short.

Kirby Star Allies [Switch]

My complaints are very much the same as everyone else’s here; it’s a pretty okay Kirby game, but it lacks real challenge and is pretty quick. the real “star” of the show is playing the game with different characters, but since you can’t do that until after you play through as Kirby, by that point it’s either grown on you or hasn’t. The best part is the unique levels they made for the DLC characters, Gooey, Marx, Dreamland buddies, etc. Those are a ton of fun. If you like Kirby games, this one’s no Super Star but you’ll likely love all the attention to the free DLC characters and it’s not bad by any stretch.

HOB [PC]

It’s a 3D, top-down Zelda style game with an emphasis on some platforming elements. The world is wonderful, definitely the Aesthetic with clockwork worlds that Spiral Knights wishes it could’ve had. I actually had a ton of fun with it. The secrets and exploration were great, combat is ehhhhhh but that’s not really the focus. It’s a good time, If you like Zelda but with some puzzle platforming and great atmosphere, check this one out!

Poi [PC]

This is a Unity 3D platformer that attempted to brush off the Unity, and does an alright job with being mechanically tighter than most, but still has the Unity feel. Controls are a bit loose, could’ve used a lot of polish, but honestly this scratched the 3D platformer collect-a-thon itch for a bit and I actually 100% it. You have to love 3D platformers like Sunshine or Banjo Tooie to be able to like this, but if you do it’s a pretty fun romp.

Princess Remedy In a Heap of Trouble [PC]

This is a fun, short bullet-hellish game with an old-school Atari aesthetic. It’s pretty fun, but honestly I like the mechanics in the free game better (though this has more content). It’s fun, it’s funny, it’s quirky (and kinda short), try out the free game and if you like that one give this a try! The main difference is the “date” mechanic, where people you heal can join you to give you a different special power from healing, to various kinda of bombs, time freezing, homing bullets, etc. Once you find one though, it’s hard to convince yourself to try something else.

Splatoon 2: Octo Expansion [Switch]

This is Splatoon 2′s expanded hard/challenge mode. I’m a big fan; a few of the challenges are eh, but overall the aesthetic and branching map structure are super fun. The expanding on the lore and bonuses are also great; even though earlier I don’t normally go for the extremely hard, I found myself 100%’ing this. There’s a really tough challenge at the very end of all that, and I would say If you liked Splatoon 2, pick this up. It’s the expansion of Single Player that it deserves, though prepare for a few frustrating challenges.

... But now you have to pay for a terrible service to play it online so keep that in mind...

Celeste [Switch]

This is a fucking great game and you should buy it. It’s a challenging (very hard) platformer in the line of super meat boy and maybe even I Wanna Be The Guy, but this does it extremely right. restarting is very quick, the controls are incredibly tight, and the levels are genuinely clever and fun.

The story is also really solid, and I can’t recommend the whole package as a solid game.

Grow Up [PC]

This is the sequel to Grow Home, a game I’ve quick-reviewed a long time back. I liked the whole explore a whole planet and find some neat stuff, however the challenges are reliant on some weird procedural animations which don’t necessarily cooperate. It kinda overstays it’s welcome as a result, though the open nature of it is really fun. I have a hard time recommending this one, but it’s still a pretty solid romp even if it fights you a bit.

Sonic Mania Plus [Switch]

Having 100% the base game which I highly recommend, I was expecting a lot more things to do with this. Encore mode is fun; I really like how you can change up your characters and have to adjust on the fly. The new special stages are tough but fun, but the pinball minigame is.. not good. Gets old pretty quick. additionally it doesn’t add much after encore mode. Might and Ray have abilities that meaningfully add some neat gameplay stuff, but after how great the base game was, I was expecting a little bit more. That being said, the DLC is a nice bonus for the base game and you can’t really go wrong with it.

Lovely Planet [PC]

So I made a point to only play this game when I was drunk. The first few times I happened to be when I played it, so I stuck with it. This is a quick-restarting FPS with a focus on perfect shots and maneuvering to destroy all the target and get to the end as soon as possible.It’s hard as balls but really silly, so if you’re into perfectionist gameplay it’s worth a go. Probably not drunk tho.

Ever Oasis [3DS]

IIRC, this came out at a time where there was a lull in Nintendo games, or at least 3DS games so this one was very much skimmed over. It’s a mix between a town management sim and Zelda-style dungeon crawling and resource gathering. On paper, and even somewhat in game, this is a cool idea; you get townsfolk who can go with you on missions, each with their own abilities, and what you get outside of the town is used to help expand you town, which will buff you/your townspeople's abilities to go further in dungeons.

In practice however... they don’t really mesh. The limitation of 1 item per party member and items being locked to specific people you need to find, going to dungeons is a chore as you need to find out which characters you need to actually play (often not your best). Meanwhile, time passes so quickly and your town’s shopkeepers run out of resources so quickly, it’s a full time job to keep up the town and then you run out. They mitigate this near the end game by have the ability to make parties out of townspeople who can’t own shops, which are very rare. The ending is good up until the last moment where they do a thing that doesn’t make sense to get some points for emotion but... It just doesn’t work to me.

All in all, it has a demo to show how a dungeon works, and if you like management AND what that dungeon has to offer, go for it. Otherwise, the setting and character design are great but not enough to really hold interest

Q.U.B.E. 2 [PC]

The First game was Portal-esque in that you navigated the first-person Cube puzzle maze without any dialogue while manipulating the chambers with a variety of cube-spawning and extending abilities. You had to piece out and interpret the story yourself. This is the opposite; there’s a lot of dialogue, story set-pieces, and it’s bizarrely paced. You’ll get through most the game in like an hour, but then the last 2-3 chapters are the bulk of the game. Those are pretty fun, but the game is still incredibly short and I liked the tone of the first better. It’s short, it’s not bad, but it doesn’t really stand out.

NES Classic 

So I dunno if I love or hate this thing. It’s great because it’s an official NES with controller and emulator and gives me the opportunity to play a buncha games I hadn’t before, but the controller cable is too small, the damn thing has trouble getting enough power (EDIT: This was actually my aparement’s faulty wiring, though if you aren’t supplying it with enough power the sound won’t work either), and this things existence is probably part of the reason we’ve not seen a proper virtual console support on Switch. You can hack it to be able to upload other ROMs to it, which is neat (I haven’t done that), but ultimately it’s worth looking at the games and asking yourself: Do I really want to play most of these? Do I really want to buy this when I’ve already bought most of them?

SNES Classic

This is the same as above but more expensive with less games... But to me is a better value. It has a better selection of games (in my opinion), though they could’ve included some better ones. It still has the power issues (which are overcomable easily) but comes with 2 controllers with longer cables. Also StarFox 2 is a very nice game. I’d recommend this more than the NES Classic, but again, weigh what’s in it vs what you actually want to play if you can’t already

WarioWare Gold [3DS]

This is a compilation game done right. It has the WarioWare charm and the voice acting adds even more to it. The microgame selection and adaptations are wonderful, and honestly I don’t have any complaints. It has changed everything to fit in one of 3 (+2 smaller ones) categories: Mash, Twist, and Touch (+ blow and short). These are normally separate by category, but near the end they mix and match and even do some fun mix-up with it in the very last rounds and bonus game modes.  Whether your first WarioWare or a veteran, this is in my opinion the best in the series, and I would suggest you give it a go.

Monster Hunter World [PC]

So this one is hard. I really wanted to like it, and after playing Dauntless I thought I would. I even promised friends I would play it with them frequently and keep up but... between friends being able to play when I couldn’t and the game’s wonky controls and online issues, I was falling behind and getting frustrated. That’s kinda side stuff; if I really liked it I could’ve caught up. The truth is, I liked Dauntless better because while it was also very buggy, the combat was just a lot more straightforward and responsive. Monster Hunter seemed like Dauntless with a bunch of annoyances added onto it. There are tons of collectibles and recipes, weapon sharpness is entirely pointless when the monsters run anyway to give you breaks, the weapons I played seemed sluggish to attack with, and monster attacks were unclear a lot of the time. Everything just felt like a pain in the ass or waste of time to deal with and put a lot of focus on inventory management or grinding, and to me the core game you would do that for just wasn’t there.

Like I enjoyed the free roaming and exploration, but the fighting is just not for me and that’s the whole point of the free roaming and all that. I feel bad about not liking this after enjoying Dauntless, but I just am not into Monster Hunter and will be skipping the series from now on.

Katamari Forever [PS3]

I got this one thinking it was a compilation game of all the Katamari games!

It was not. It’s actually the hardest Katamari game... Which kinda surprised me about how much of a dick they are when you start out since their controls are incredibly weird and unintuitive (you get used to them) and anything short of perfection will get the Kings to any where from passive aggressively imply you did poorly or just straight out call you awful and not to bother.

Here’s the part where randomly in the giant text post I just completely break whatever I was talking about because I’m 95% no one actually reads this so for shits and giggles the first person to reply to my tweet where I posted a link to the blogpost stating that they found this paragraph will get a free me replying back to that tweet saying “nice” back. An enticing gift amirite? Anyway continuing on.

That being said, it’s pretty fun after all that; there are one or two levels designed to be super annoying but the ones where you play the core game of quickly building your Katamari are for the most part very solid. This is for existing fans of the series, but i had a pretty good time with it after I got past the barrier to entry.

Shantae: Half-Genie Hero: Ultimate Edition [PC]

I’ve talked about liking Shantae before on this blog; I mentioned that I liked Pirate’s Curse but the fact that side missions and collectibles were actually required for game completion. This Shantae looks great and all, but they completely tossed out the open-like nature and makes it a series of linear levels that you have to revisit at least 2-3 times to find the stuff that should’ve been off somewhere in a different series of areas and optional that’s really just slightly out of reach due to a power up you arbitrarily find after the level you needed to use it in ends. Dungeons are completely gone; the game literally is just “go right” and remember all the little things you couldn’t get to for when you have to backtrack over and over again.

That’s just the base game, and even with all that said it’s not a bad game, it just doesn’t really feel like a Shantae game anything other than aesthetically. I spent a few hours trying to 100% the base game, but after getting 99% and discovering I had to backtrack yet again to a snake merchant to trade for dances just to use them once and trade back, I just had 0 interest in getting the final percent. There are also a variety of different takes on the same campaign where you play as Shantae in different costumes with different abilities, Risky, or even Bolo + Skye + Rotty, and again those look fun but... I don’t really want to play the same game another 10 times.

Dragalia Lost [Android]

This is Nintendo’s first jump into mobile with a new IP, and while it’s definitely banking hard on more traditional gacha mechanics (you can get 5 star items instead of Hero characters only), it’s definitely not bad. It’s pretty generous with stamina and resources, at least when you start, and my only major complaint is how you seem to hit a wall in terms of how long it takes to really progress about a week or so of playing every day in. And it’s quite a wall; there’s quite a lot of grinding needed once you get to chapter 6 (the current final chapter that really feels like just the end of a prologue (Edit, they recently added chapter 7)), so you really need to like it. The levels are kinda simple as well, though there’s a maze-like area in the story that’s a bit more clever so it’s a start at least. All and all, it’s worth a try, but if you don’t like the top-down brawler after the first world, it’s not worth forcing through gacha mechanics for; especially since after you complete normal story mode, all you’re going to be doing is grinding to get through hard and the summoning currency gets scarce fast. For reference, getting enough to be able to challenge the High Dragon quests and not immediately die in them takes 2 months of grinding specifically for that purpose if you use your stamina optimally, which you won’t because events are more fun anyway

Overcooked 2 [Switch Download]

So this is actually really fun with a friend or 3; and that’s where it really shines. Sure, you can do it single player but it just doesn’t feel as fun. This is a sort of quick time-management game where you have to frantically run around cooking various recipes before they run out of time, to get a star rating at the end. There’s some bad levels, but the majority are really fun and it feels very fair even in single layer; I always think at the end regardless of the rank that I could’ve managed my dudes to do even better. The only real complaint is the loading times seem... unnecessarily long. Especially for restarting a level. It’s nothing too bad though.

Luckily this has online multiplayer, so I highly recommend picking this up on a platform that your friends have it on, ie Steam. I got it on Switch and in hindsight since I strongly dislike Nintendo’s online service I really wish I had gotten like a 2-pack on Steam. That’s not a complaint with the game though; I really liked it!

Super Mario Party [Switch]

Probably the best Mario Party in a very, VERY long time. This is going to be a longer review. I played this first with Keewy and his roommates and we had a great time in every single game mode (except online).

The Mario Party mode is really good; they’ve shrunk the map and reduced how much stars cost to 10 coins, but 10-15 turn games can still take an hour to an hour and a half. This makes it a much simpler, easier to get mode, but the real star here is them bringing back the Ally & character dice mechanic from Mario Party Star Rush (had it’s good moments, but was on 3DS so that’s it for that). Each character can roll a normal 1-6 dice, but they also each have a unique die that has different numbers on it. These are for the most part balanced; character with higher numbers on their dice also have downsides instead of a 1. 0′s, losing coins, and in some cases gaining coins (because you still don’t move), and it adds a level of strategy to it where otherwise it would be just “roll and hop for the best. That’s what it is still, but sometimes you can choose. You can also pick up other characters who will help you in minigames, give you the option to roll their die, and add 1-2 spaces to your roll. It’s super fun.

The River Rafting mode is 4-player co-op, and it’s pretty fun as well your first run through. Not single player though; this very much shines with 4 people. However, because there are only like 8? 4-player co-op minigames, you see every game on your first run so it doesn’t really hold up after your first couple runs.

The dance mode is great; it’s like Rhythm heaven but Mario Party themed. Again, these minigames are really fun, but once you play through all 3 difficulties, which takes about 10 minutes, there aren’t any you haven’t played. 

2v2 is ripped straight out of Star Rush, which is a great thing. Again, don’t play this with a cpu on your team at least. As far as I can tell, even in Mario Party mode, CPU’s make the same brain-dead decisions on the boards regardless of their difficulty level. Anyway, this has the same 4 boards but opened up vastly; You now roll, combine it with your partner, then add any allies you may have picked up along the way’s 1-2 rolls and other bonuses. The point is to land on the starspace and buy it, and it’s just a good time to see the strategy involved with either going for the stars, allies, or secondary goals. By far the best alternative Mario Party gameplay style in a while (way better than Island Tour’s linear maps and 9-10′s Car mode), but again there’s only the 4 maps.

So I guess my only true complaint is that while there are a lot of minigames, they’re split so much over the different modes they don’t feel like a lot and you see repeats frequently. Additionally it would be nice to turn on/off the bonus stars at the end and other options involving maybe skipping some of the cutscenes (star moving, places changed, etc.). All in all, the best and most interesting Mario Party in a long, long time. I highly recommend it if you have a friend to pick it up with.

Just Shapes & Beats

Got this game for a bit of random multiplayer. It’s a pretty fun, music based bullet hell game all about staying alive through the song while crazy stuff happens on screen. The story mode doesn’t overstay its welcome, but there’s also plenty of content and challenges for those who are so inclined, and only one of the levels felt utterly, bullshitingly unfair (which is really good with bullet hells) so It’s a fun time if you’re into top down bullet hells, and better with a friend in challenge mode

Pokémon Let’s Go Eevee [Switch]

I could write a dissertation on this game and how it’s neither good or bad; it’s just kinda... there. Some aspects are incredibly disappointing; the capture mechanics are absolute garbage, forced motion controls are atrocious, player/npc animations and interactions are completely stilted and lazy, the world is very bland vs Sun and Moon, the performance in handheld mode drops frames sometimes which is unacceptable, there’s almost zero post game, and even more. It’s by all means an HD reskin of a Gameboy game running on their crappy 3DS engine.

But there’s a lot of good here as well; seeing pokemon in the overworld is amazing and should be the case in the series moving forward, partner pokemon (eevee) are fun and fucking adorable, riding pokemon is great, having fast captures makes chaining a really fun mechanic, Having some of the E4 and Gym leaders interact with you during your quest makes the world interesting, connectivity with go is very limited but still good, having only one pokemon be obtainable only once in the game is a welcome and frankly overdue change in the game, removing breeding/abilities/held items really streamlines the mechanics and makes the game more enjoyable in a lot of cases, and I could go on.

I’m not going to recommend it, but I mean if you liked any pokemon game you’re definitely not going to not have fun with this one, even if the randomness in the capture mechanics frustrates you to no end

Super Smash Bros Ultimate [Switch]

So I mean it’s smash bros. Not much really to say about that, it’s pretty good. I kinda like Smash Bros not just for the multiplayer but the single-player as well, which is why Brawl is still my Favorite so take that as my approach here. The normal gameplay is fine, though the input buffer feels wonky at times and some characters are much harder to play against than others, which in combination with the sheer amount of characters makes it very difficult to get the hang of and counter accordingly, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It’s just the barrier between playing casually and playing a bit more seriously feels sudden when randomly coming across characters that have inherent advantages from being wonky. Cloud for example seems to have a move for evertyhing, can spit out attacks very quickly, and if you try anything silly they’ll just charge a better move, and then randomly fighting a Ganondorf is like “I hope they don’t know how to read you because you can die at like 35 from a single fuck up”

The Single Player content though was... Disappointing. Not nearly as bad as Sm4sh, but it seems like they spent so much time putting as many characters and stages in the game as possible that they realized they wouldn’t have time to do old game modes the same way, so they made a system which allowed them to make custom smash battles with weird attributes and built the entirety of the bonus content on that. There’s really only adventure mode which is just a progression of Event Matches which gets somewhat stale and repetitive quickly, Mob Smash is just not really that fun past your first run or two, All-Star Smash is actually near impossible and not even rewarding, Classic does one or two cool ideas with routes but they clearly got lazy with a lot of characters there too, and the only platforming challenge in the game is the bonus level which takes 30 seconds and never changes.

Their Online mode is unacceptably bad and lacks options for random fights as well, and given that they’re charging for it this is just flat-out unacceptable. Buy it if you like playing Smash for the Multiplayer (which is almost everyone), but this is a hard pass if you were expecting a large amount of interesting content like Brawl’s Adventure mode had. Or are incapable of learning past a certain point, like me.

Katamari Damacy Reroll [Switch]

So after having played Forever earlier in the year and hearing how much praise this got, I had very High expectations! Unfortunately the controls are still ehhhhh and the game is surprisingly short; I beat it over the course of a 4ish hour flight. It’s definitely a lot nicer to you than Forever is, but in terms of amount of content it’s not aged well. If you’ve not played it before, pick it up on sale, but as far as I can tell this outing doesn’t add anything new to the original and it’s just a straight up re-release

Mario Tennis Aces [Switch]

So does anyone actually look forward to Mario Tennis Games? The past two have been husks of content and this one’s not really much better. The charging mechanic is interesting, but doesn’t feel that consistent or fair in some scenarios, but like was anyone waiting for this to get announced? Or is this just a “safe” series that sells okay and pads out the library for quick cash?”

It’s weird that they knew the Adventure mode was something fans really, REALLY wanted and touted it as some huge deal, even advertising it with a cool pre-rendered cutscene, and the whole mode with all challenges turns out to be at most a couple hours long, repetitive, and only actually has the two cutscenes (the 2nd being like 10 seconds). They made some silly RPG level up mechanic which didn’t feel like it made any difference, you can’t change your character so you’re really only learning how Mario plays, and it does a really poor job of explaining the different kinds of shots to you so it’s not even good for learning the game. I wasn’t expecting an experience worth telling for generations with the plot either, but even that gives up on itself; Luigi is possessed but he doesn’t do anything the whole game until you fight him, not even with the 3/5 power stones you have, and these power stones you spent the game collecting don’t do anything or matter because Bowser comes out of no where and “takes” the racket and power stones and challenges you to an admittedly fun boss fight. Not in a cutscene mind you, you’re just told this happens. It’s just lazy.

The game has some visual issues too; it’s missing any sort of stylistic flair and honestly just looks like an up-res’d Wii game, though with smoother models. Shadows flicker and cut through textures, and something weird’s going on with anti-aliasing that makes everything look blurry as hell too. I will say props for going to the effort of making tennis costumes for every character though; so that’s more effort than what went into Ultra Smash.

If you’re a huge, HUGE fan of Mario Tennis, go nuts. But uh, yeah this isn’t really worth your time for the price otherwise

Starlink: Battle for Atlas (Starter Pack) [Switch]

Yeah so it’s rich coming from me, but honestly this game is only hindered by the physical toys. As far as I can tell you can only play as generic Mr. No Personality or Fox, and then you only have the two options for weapons. The game could get interesting combat-wsie with the combinations of ships and like I think 14ish different weapons? But with just the starter pack you run through what the game has to offer pretty quick.

It is interesting though how I very rarely play Ubisoft games and hadn’t played one since their open-world formula milking, but right away I could tell that it was a Ubisoft open world game. There’s a lot to do, a lot of planets to explore, movement is fun and surprisingly easy, combat is pretty straightforward and has potential, but the key thing is that there’s like 30-50 facilities on each planets with like 4 different types of objectives (3 of which are “kill the same bad guys immediately here”), and you can spend hours on one planets doing some minor variance on that same thing over and over and over.

It’s a pretty good start in terms of base mechanics for what would be a cool system for an open StarFox game (and I know it wasn’t trying for that) but the repetitiveness of exploring, frankly pathetic writing in terms of characters, and locking a lot of the interesting content behind toys detracts from the experience. It’s definitely not un-fun, but after clearing 4 planets and seeing that’s just what the game is doing I don’t have any interest in continuing.

At least other than to see StarFox, because Ubisoft did them better justice than Nintendo has in years.

Best Game I Played in 2018: Celeste

Easy choice here, Celeste has a wonderful story, looks gorgeous, plays like a dream and managed to be an incredibly challenging platformer that didn’t make me lose my patience ever, which is AMAZING considering how little patience I have whenever I fail at a game.

I was going to pick the best game that actually came out in 2018 but honestly it’d be between like 4 games that I had gripes with in some way or another, so i’m going to say Overcooked 2 is pretty fucking solid and leave this whole run on sentence in the heading font because why not it’s my dead blog I can do whatever the fuck I wan-

Anyway that’s it. Hope everyone had a good year

[valmos]

Today I learned free DLC for New Pokemon Snap came out... on August 3rd... Only pokemon on my wishlist is Gyarados, because after Magikarp being is so many stages I kept expecting to finally see a Gyarados that just never came. (I also wouldn’t say no to giving some of the 2/3 starters their third. Like the 1/3′s are fine, but gens that have 2/3 starters are just awkward.)

Also learned a direct was happening after it was done. I am well informed.

Going to ramble about the direct under a read more, with some gleeful yelling in the tags.

Looks like the Monster Hunter Rise expansion will be with western folklore inspirations as hinted at! DRACULA DRAGON! Can’t wait to see more monsters! 

Voice of Cards really peaked my interest. Sadly don’t have the budget for it.

Chocobo GP also really has my interest, I saw Steiner and I just can’t stop laughing. Also saw my child Vivi... but alas another game I have to pass on.

Final Smash character will be known soon... it would be a perfectly Sakurai troll move to add Waluigi after he is already an assist trophy, but that isn’t going to happen. I do feel like it will be a Nintendo character to cap things off, but question is who. I feel like Dixie’s appeal is too localized. Geno’s ship has sailed long ago. Is it finally Bandana-Dee’s time to shine? Or will Sakurai make Master Hand an actual playable character? The capstone before he hopefully takes a much needed break and possibly hands over the reins. (Going to miss wild, mainly baseless, Smash speculation.)

3D Kirby?? I just... I still don’t think it will play well, and the trailer really didn’t quell that feeling. Granted it was the announcement trailer, so maybe a trailer closer to release will do that. I hope it is good for the people who have wanted this for so long.

ROOOOOST! Since it is getting a game specific direct, I hope this is a sizeable update, like 7-15 minutes worth. GIVE ME A DATE FOR THIS DIRECT ALREADY BEFORE I NEVER HEAR ABOUT IT!

I guess they are keeping Triangle Strategies as the name.. I was hoping Octopath Traveler was the exception because it has some charm to it. Oh well still going to get it.

... That Metroid Dread voice over part was weird....

NSO expansion.... I love how they are charging more N64 and the Genesis, yet are still going to drip feed games. And they haven;t announced how much that increase will be. Can only hope that they add more frequently with this. Also find it weird that Phantasy Star IV is launching. Like it is the best one, but still figured 2 would have been the pick for launch. I wonder if this is the reason Phantasy Star 1 was the only one to get the Sega Ages treatment? Since that was for a different system and they had this in the works? Or was it just sales were bad? ALSO YOU TRIED TO SNEAK BANJO-KAZOOIE IN THERE AT THE END! WE ALL SAW IT! Now just have to wonder if Tooie is on the table...and other Rare N64 games. (Also Banjo-Kazooie was the 2nd game in the Japanese direct) I wonder if the Japanese app will get the N64 version of Animal Forest, or maybe they will hold off on that till a possible gamecube.

Actraiser remake coming out of no where! Really don’t like how the side scrolling parts look, but do like the style they went with god/city building part. Zero interest in it, but I do like how it isn’t forgotten. Gives me some hope for the Soul Blazer “trilogy” games and Robotrek

...One day I’ll play Underale and Deltarune... but it won’t be this day.

Gosh this Mario movie is going to be a train wreck.... Outside the choice of Mario it should at least be an enjoyable one.

Bayonetta’s hair is out of control! Does look like Bayonetta 3 will be some nice over the top action. ... I really hope Lappy is an unlockable costume or character like Zero in the first game.

[imagingfox449]

Men Of War Assault Squad 2 Best Mods

Check the mainfolder of the game for all modding tools, such as map editor and plug-ins. Among Us Server Status - Are Servers Down for Maintenance. Unofficial AI and Difficulty Patch Mod (Mod) Posted over 1 year ago; 274 downloads; This Men of War: Assault Squad 2 mod is an unofficial patch that changes the AI and generic difficulty of the vanilla game. Nvidia GeForce Now Games List - Every Game Available... Star Wars: The Clones of War Open Alpha v0.2.1b. Hi guys i was just wondering what you opinions were on what the best mods are. Miles City Structures Aug 10 2020 Released Aug 10, 2020 Real Time Strategy Advertisements Men of War: Assault Squad 2 … Want to contribute? There are some terrrific mods, but I have unistalled them all. Thanks for telling me which are the best mods really appreciate it:) #6. valuor mod, adds bots to the combat gamemode and adds lots of new factons, vechles, etc. Star Wars: Clones of War will add the vehicles and the soldiers of the Grand Army of the Republic and the Droid army of the Confederacy of Independant systems to Men of War. Men of War: Assault Squad 2. We also use cookies to analyse site traffic, personalise content and #7. Diablo 3 Season 22 Start Date - When Does It Begin and End? It adds new units, new time frames, new sides to play as and more. © Valve Corporation. Shilka. to be honest there are a ton of amazing mods, even a star wars mod. many small mods that add crazy stuff like the RATTE, its 1/10 the size of some maps pretty much... Theres even a nuclear power tanks that blows up about 1/4 of some maps if it blows up... nuke artillery. Aug 26, 2016 @ 10:19am valuor mod, adds bots to the combat gamemode and adds lots of new factons, vechles, etc. This Men of War: Assault Squad 2 mod is an unofficial patch that changes the AI and generic difficulty of the vanilla game. We use cookies to enable you to log in and set your site preferences. All rights reserved. because as son as 'AS2' puts out an update one or more Mods are no longer suitable. Note: This is ONLY to be used to report spam, advertising, and problematic (harassment, fighting, or rude) posts. Español - Latinoamérica (Spanish - Latin America). This is a multiplayer mod. You can find out more in our also faces of war campaign, the whole Faces of war campaign is ported and can be played in MOw as 2, there's the red tide campaign as i well i believe. Men of War: Assault Squad 2 Men of War: Assault Squad 2 - Workshop The place to find custom maps, missions and mods for your favourite Men of War game! The game also features the unique “direct control” feature which enables players to maneuver units using the directional keys, rather than pointing and clicking. you wont see them in multiplayer games though, but still fun to mess with. All trademarks are property of their respective owners in the US and other countries. It adds tons of new weapons, armor, vehicles, etc. Focus mainly on the Cold War vehicles, this mod aims to make realistic tank vs tank combat by including high quality model ports and tweaked game mechanics. to the game. provide relevant advertising. Why?

Men Of War Assault Squad 2 Best Mods 1.12.2

Men At War Assault Squad 2

Men Of War Assault Squad 2 Best Mods Xbox One

Men Of War Assault Squad

Men Of War Assault Squad 2 Best Mods Mod

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Nov 28, 2018

MY TOP 10 MODS For Men Of War Assault Squad 2. Posted by 2 years ago. No comments yet. Be the first to share what you think! Men of War: Assault Squad 2. Why do you want to know the mod with the best visuals and content when you say you cant run call to arms? #15 Showing 1-15 of 27 comments. Per page: 15 30 50. Men of War: Assault Squad 2 General Discussions Topic Details. Best of YouTube Music Sports Gaming Movies TV Shows News. Men of War: Assault Squad 2 - Mod - Battle of the Bulge by TheEuropeanCanadian. Men of War: Assault Squad 2 - Galaxy at War. 4) After installing Men of War: Assault Squad 2, you must subscribe to the Cold War Steam service. 5) Wait for the mod to download through the Steam client (Note: Steam now does not show the downloads of the workshop, you can verify the download by placing the cursor over the stimulus icon in the tray). Let’s take a look at some of the best mods available for Men of War: Assault Squad 2. Battles for WW2 This mod was originally developed by Maestro200 for the first installment of this game and the mod has been converted to suit this game.

Comprehensive Guide for Intermediate and Advanced Players.

Initial Unit Purchases

The initial purchase of units is often the most overlooked, and also one of the most important parts of a skirmish. These are the units that will be fighting for the first line, and will also have a large influence on setting the pacing for much of the game. This being said, certain consderations must be taken in order to capture the first line both quickly and efficiently. In a standard skirmish, every force needs at least 3 things at the beginning of a match: a medic, a way to deal with large amounts of infantry, and a way to deal with light armor. Additionally, you will also want to conserve roughly 150-200 points so that you can purchase some early reinforcements to help you clear out the rest of the first line in good order.

Men Of War Assault Squad 2 Best Mods 1.12.2

There are many ways to deal with infantry early-game. All too often players will purchase a mortar as a means to take out the first line of flags. While this is not a wrong choice, it is a poor choice. On Normal difficulty, it is not too big of a deal, as you have 800 mp to spend on units. However, on Hard and Heroic you will only receive 600 and 500 points respectively. At 275 points, a single mortar will be costing you nearly half, or more than half of your mp total at mission start. Also, the mortar is on average slow to kill its targets which makes the mortar very inefficient, because speed is very important when it comes to capturing the first flag. Infantry, when used en masse, is one possible way to capture the first flag. This is more feasible on Hard than Heroic, but purchasing enough Infantry Squads will allow your team to find a more tactical solution to the first flag. Assuming you are conserving points to purchase a unit after your first flag capture, on Hard you can reasonably purchase 3 squads, but on Heroic, only 2. However, Infantry Squads come armed with a variety of weapons that can be used at both close and long ranges, as well as a medic, and plenty of types of grenades that can be put to good use. German and British Infantry Squads also come with a leader armed with a special weapon, either the StG 44, or the EM-3 Riflegrenade. The EM-3 is especially useful, because it is effectively a short-ranged artillery rifle, and the StG is the best SMG-class weapon in the game (yes, we all know it's really a rifle, but the game classifies it as an SMG for...reasons). Another way is to purchase a bunch of AT Infantry. This works better with AT rifles, than AT rockets, as the AT rifles can be used effectively against infantry even at long ranges. Another advantage that the AT rifles have over rockets is the ability to pierce and eventually destroy sandbags and other types of cover that the enemy might use. It might take a while, but eventually AT rifles can completely blow away a section of sandbags, whereas no matter how many AT rockets you shoot, they simply cannot destroy most types of cover. The down side of using a large amount of AT infantry to take the first line, is that it takes precious time to amass that many AT teams. However, this can be somewhat negated since you don't have to worry about lacking a counter to the light armored vehicles that show up early in the game.

Flamethrowers are a very lethal way to clear out enemy infantry, and as a bonus they can potentially be used against vehicles as well. The only problem is getting them into position to fire, but once they do then they will more often than not clear their target within a matter of seconds. Snipers, in the hands of the right player, can be an extremely effective choice when it comes to clearing out a flag. Using snipers in conjunction with other infantries is advised, as snipers lack the rate of fire to clear out an area in good time. Instead, target priority is a must, because without proper target priority, snipers become little more than a glorified rifleman. Heavy Machine Gun teams, costing 25 points more than an Infantry Squad, are a very efficient way to assist in clearing out enemy infantry. While their usefulness drops off dramatically after capturing the first flag, their utility in attacking and capturing that first flag cannot be emphasized enough. Most commonly seen as the defensive positions that pop up when you capture a flag, the purchased HMG are a two man variant that requires both crew to move around the battlefield. The benefits of the HMG are threefold. First and most obviously, the withering amount of bullets that it can shoot can be quite deadly. Second, the HMG forces enemies to take cover, allowing the rest of your men to engage the enemy on more favorable terms. And lastly, if a soldier manning the HMG is ever killed, you can simply re-man the gun with other soldiers. Additionally, the HMG can put out instant sandbags if you ever find you need the extra protection.

Capturing the First Line

After capturing your first flag, no matter which one you chose, you will now be calling in some kind of reinforcements with all those points you've been saving up. Ideally, you will want to order something that will ensure that you can deal with at least light armor, but preparing for medium armor is advised. No matter what you purchase, you will also want them to help your remaining forces clear up the first line. To this end, all options unlocked are viable to some extent. However, some are a lot more useful than others, or have extra utility beyond the first line. For all factions, AT Guns are a good choice, as they can easily take out enemy armor with very little micromanagement from the player, allowing the players to focus on capturing the rest of the flags with their initial force. If you are having trouble with the AT guns switching to HE shells, you can either use those shells up, or simply drop them out of your inventory. By doing this, you will ensure that your AT gun is always ready to engage enemy armor. Elite Infantry (Rangers, SNLF, etc.) come with 10 well equipped soldiers and their own armored halftrack. For the Allied factions, the M3A1 comes armed with the very lethal .50 cal HMG, which can even take out lightly armored vehicles, but the real source of AT is the 2 AT rocket soldiers that come with the squad, allowing them to defeat all but the heaviest armor from close to mid range. The halftrack can also be used offensively against the first line of defense since there are no AT guns present to defend the first three flags. Each faction has access to an armored car (AC), and they are all very different. The only charicteristics shared by all ACs is their light armor and ability to tow things around the field. Despite being lightly armored, even one AC is more than most infantry can handle, assuming the AC stays out of range of thrown grenades. The speed that ACs can move from flag to flag also makes them great at helping your infantry finish the capture of the first line, however for most of them their usefulness becomes more limited after the first line as they start to encounter heavier enemy armor and AT guns. Most decently armored tanks that you gain access to on the first line are expensive, with the Matilda being a very significant exception. However, just like with the armored cars, they also have more than enough defense to crush their way past the first line, and also deal with enemy vehicles that may threaten them. The only vehicles that are NOT recommended for capturing the first line are the SU-85, as it lacks a machine gun, and every tank that costs 500 mp unless you somehow managed to amass that much MP quickly. The AA Gun is a decent choice when purchasing a unit to take the first line. Most of these weapons are 20mm autocannons that can shred masses of enemy infantry quickly, and all of them have some kind of AT potential, allowing them to also destroy lighter vehicles. While slow and often vulnerable, if you get these weapons into a good position you will not be disappointed by what they can do. When used in conjunction with AT guns, they make a slow but devastating pair, especially when they have infantry support. When you've finally captured all three flags of the first line, you will get a bonus of 300 mp, access to your faction's special unit, and the computer will launch a counter-offensive to try to reclaim its lost territory. This is a good time to organize your units, and your team. While many players have different ways of organizing their games, I find that it's best if you either pick lanes, or pick combat buddies, or some combination of the two. Picking lanes allows players to focus on a certain area of the battlefield, and having combat partners allows two or more players to synergize with each other. Sometimes it's good to have skilled infantry or armored players roaming the field. These are the players who will give your team a bit of tactical flexibility to your line. Whatever your team decides to do, now is the best time to do it, and brace for the counter-assault.

Capturing the Second Line

Your next major obstacle will be the light AT guns defending the second line, and increasingly tough enemy armor to contend with. Most maps naturally flow in a left-to-right play when it comes to capturing the enemy's flags, but occassionally some maps have physical obstacles which prevent this from flowing smoothly, or which provide better opportunities than moving from left to right. To this end, light AT guns are not that big of a challenge unless you are unprepared to face them. A few of the best ways to take out light AT guns are as follows: Medium armor is often one of the best ways to take out light AT, and all factions except Japan have access to some kind of tank that can withstand the shells of enemy light AT guns. The best suited tanks from all factions to this task are the Sherman, StuG, Matilda, and T-34. Special care must be taken if facing Japanese though, as their light AT guns can pierce even the formidable armor of a T-34 given the right circumstances. When attacking with tanks, it is not necessary to get close to the enemy when using HE shells (HE shells do the same damage at any range), because the only benefit you gain by closing the distance is increased accuracy. Just stay at a good distance and toss HE shells in the enemy's direction until the ATs are down, but also be careful not to expose your side armor while maneuvering into position. If you're feeling confident and aggressive though, most of these tanks have frontal armor that is strong enough to deflect a light AT shell at point blank range. As always, support these expensive machines with infantry to ensure that they don't get ambushed by a random infantry soldier. It is possible to destroy light AT guns with infantry, but this poses a few problems.

1) AT guns have unlimited HE shells, unlike yours. This means that it will fire HE shells at your troops until it is put out of service.

2) Light AT guns have a fast reload time. With the average reload time of these guns being around 3 seconds, by the time your guys stand up from being knocked on the ground, the AT gun is firing another shell at you. This can devastate large squads of troops if you're not careful.

3) Light AT guns are usually positioned so that they can cover each other. If you plan on sneaking up on these guys, you will either need luck, skill, or lots and lots of smoke.

Typically though, most maps have at least one spot where infantry stand a good chance at taking out a light AT gun or two, and thus punching a hole in the line that can be used to outflank the rest of the AT guns to a greater or lesser extent. Soldiers armed with riflegrenades are particularly useful in this task, as are soldiers armed with AT Rifles and sniper rifles which can easily decrew an AT gun, allowing the rest of the infantry to advance unmolested. Your own AT guns can be used to put hostile AT guns out of service. Typically having longer range and greater destructive power than the light AT guns defending the first line, AT guns can also be moved into position behind either soft or hard cover before firing, increasing their survivability. As they only come with 5 HE shells each, you may want to pick up some extra shells from a supply truck before attempting this, or simply use AP shells instead to decrew the enemy guns, and potentially damage the guns themselves. Whatever choice you make, after capturing the second line, you will get another 400 mp one time bonus, and the enemy will launch an even larger counter attack along with heavier armor.

Capturing the Third Line

The Third defensive line is often one of the more (if not the most) challenging parts of a skirmish. You do not yet have access to your best units, but you are also facing some of the heaviest units that the enemy will be throwing at you. On top of that, you may or may not start to come under artillery fire as you approach the flags you intend to capture. And to make things worse, the vast majority of your tanks will be out-classed by the enemy AT guns you'll be facing, most of which will be medium AT, but will sometimes include the fearsome 88mm Flak cannons. A few significant exceptions to this is the Tiger, StuG III, and the Matilda, but more on that later. All in all, it can sometimes be a complete nightmare to advance past this portion of the map. At this point, you need to be aware of your resources, and what they're capable of. Some of them, at this point in the game, are relatively useless, and others will excel at different things. There are so many different methods and units you could use to capture the 3rd line that it would take forever to describe all of them in detail. Instead, I will here simply go over some common tactics, and let the readers decide which method they would like to use. Before that, however, you need to decide which flag you will be attempting to capture first. Generally speaking, there are 3 types of tanks slotted into these roles that are similar for all factions. On the left will generally be some heavy up-armored tank that is capable of absolutely ignoring enemy AT guns for the most part. In the center you will have an artillery option. And on the right, there will be some kind of Heavy Tank Destroyer. The countries that don't follow this are the Soviet Union, and Japan. For the USSR, the Heavy Tank, and Heavy TD are switched around, but for Japan, the 'Heavy Tank' slot is filled with a typically sub-par tank. Better than what you have available, but still paper thin compared to the choices that other nations have. It is advised that you try to have the resources necessary to buy the unit you want immediately upon capturing the flag, otherwise, ensure that you can hold out long enough until you do have the MP. After you've selected which flag you want to capture, whether it be by terrain or by the unit it offers you, I strongly advise focusing on it as much as possible. As I mentioned before, there are many ways to do this. One of them being the good old infantry assault. Now, the Infantry Assault is difficult, and costly to pull off without support. However, the longer reload time on the larger AT guns means that your men will be taking larger, but fewer HE shells to the face. As always, use prone and go slow, and use whatever cover you can find, including crater holes created by HE shells and artillery. Once you manage to kill the first AT gun, exploit the gap in the line, and try to work towards the other AT guns. Use smoke often and liberally to move from position to position, and build sandbags when necessary, preferebly while under the cover of smoke. Most importantly, don't use large squads, break your men up into groups of 3 maximum, but sometimes it is wiser to use single men. When one unit is advancing, lay down covering fire to support them, and 'leapfrog' your squads from position to position. Using only infantry is difficult, but not impossible to do. Another viable option is an Armored Breakthrough. This method is costly in both resources and time, and requires you to amass several tanks and focus them on one point of the battlefield. The goal here is to bring too many tanks to a single point in the line, and overwhelm the enemy's defenses. The tanks you use, however, don't need to be fancy. I recommend having at least one tank with a nice gun (like a T34/85) to deal with any enemy armor that might show up. As a bonus these higher end tanks are also more accurate than most others available, and can shoot AT guns more accurately than others. Whichever tanks you use is your choice, and it is possible to even use most Armored Cars to help supplement your attack. Casualties will likely be high, however, which is why you should invest in multiple cheap tanks. This is where Britain has the advantage, as their Matildas are dirt cheap, but Germany also has an advantage here in the form of the StuG and Tiger tanks, both being capable of eliminating Medium AT from long range if they're able to get into a good position with LOS on the target, however, sometimes this isn't always possible. Vehicles armed with repeating cannons such as the T-60 or the various AA units are also a viable choice to bring along. No, they won't destroy the gun, but their cannon can pierce the gun shield reliably from medium range. This can either kill the men crewing it, or even cause a 'Gun Damaged' result, or both, putting the gun out of action for a considerable amount of time. As a bonus, these types of vehicles are extremely lethal to infantry, and will help your main tanks in an area where they sometimes struggle against entrenched soldiers. If you're having trouble knocking out those AT guns, and neither of the above methods have worked out for you so far, you may want to consider bringing in some artillery. Most nations don't have access to any artillery outside of the mortar (excluding Japan and USSR), however Japan has a very unique unit that is often overlooked. Mortars are slow, expensive, relatively fragile, and have limited range and damage capacity. The Japanese, however, get access to the Ho-ni 2 self propelled artillery gun in place of an AA tank. Costing just 25 more than a mortar, the Ho-ni 2 is much more useful, even if it is a bigger target. Given how much Japan's tanks have trouble assaulting AT guns, I cannot recommend this unit enough. The method that I find most effective, however, is what is known as the 'Combined Arms' approach, that I'm sure many are familiar with. The concept is to use many different types of units in concert with each other to achieve a goal that would be tough for any single element to do on its own. This is such a versatile concept that it's hard to describe it with any detail, because there are so many different ways to execute it properly. You could use mortars to cover advancing infantry, you could use infantry to distract AT guns while even a single tank picks them off one by one. Once that happens, you can rush the tank up to more aggressively deal with infantry while your own infantry works their way to their individual objectives. In a real battlefield, this tactic would also include the use of air units, but our selection is limited to only land. Even so, Combined Arms perfectly exemplifies the saying, 'The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.' What this means more or less is that teamwork and coordination between different elements on your team can help pull you through a difficult situation that would be almost impossible otherwise. Once you capture the first flag, and purchase your first Heavy unit, you should have a much easier time pressing along. Be careful of enemy heavy tanks however, as once you capture the entirety of the 3rd line, the enemy will send several of their best tanks. This is the moment where you will see multiple Churchills or King Tiger tanks rush your positions. As a counter, I've learned that the Heavy Tank Destroyer option is often one of the best ways to deal with this, even if it is the most expensive unit you can purchase. Fortunately, you receive a 600 MP bonus for capturing the line, and it is recommended that you should put those resources to good use. The units purchased, as always, are up to you.

Capturing the Final Flag

If you've managed to make it this far, and survived the Heavy Tank rush, then the game should be more or less over by now. Use whatever units you have left, relying heavily on the Heavy Tank and Heavy Artillery option to blast apart the enemy's final defenses. Be wary of the occassional Heavy Tank coming onto the field, but I'm sure you'll be able to handle it. A special note must be made of the Nebelwerfer at this point. Unlike most multiple fire rocket artillery, the Nebelwerfer's rockets are large enough to damage the top armor of many tanks, including the Jumbo. This usually only happens when it scores a direct hit on the engine, but I've had 'Turret Damaged' results as well. If it hits your engine, it's likely to progress to an engine fire, that will almost always progress even further to a 'Hull Destroyed' result. A damaged turret wouldn't be so bad if the Nebels weren't so darn good at knocking your tracks out as well. So, when going up against a map with Nebels, just be careful knowing what they're capable of, and make your own judgements on the field. In your final assault, it is the player's perrogative to destroy the AT guns or artillery first, using their own heavy tanks or artillery. This choice will depend greatly upon which units you have remaining on the field. However, all too often do I see players using the Artillery units to attack swarms of infantry. The infantry should be very low on your priority list, because there are so many other units that can engage them effectively. Unless enemy infantry is overrunning your lines, I suggest that artillery focus on eliminating the enemy's fixed positions (AT and Arty). Once the AT guns are gone, your own armor will be able to blaze their way up to the enemy's flag and finish the game. Good job, commander.

Unit Guide Intro

Many country's units are very similar. Here i will go over the basic unit types per slot, and give basic compositions of each selection. After this section will come the detailed country reviews, where i highlight certain units, and explain how each country's units differ from the norm, and what part of the game they perform best at...or...something like that.

General Overview

Infantry Squads Infantry are your mainstay, and will supply you with much of the manpower you need throughout the course of the game. Primarily suited for defending locations against other infantries, your infantry will require support to overcome any serious resistance. A single squad comes with 5 Riflemen, 2 SMGs, 1 LMG, a Medic, and a Squad Leader, who is typically armed with a regular SMG. The mixed selection of weapons within a squad is what makes them rather flexible. A single squad is able to lay down a significant amount of suppressing fire, or alternatively, they can hold their own in close range firefights if necessary. In emergencies, the 3 SMG soldiers have an AT grenade to use against vehicles, and smoke to provide offensive or defensive cover. Every soldier except for the LMG and Medic have at least one frag grenade. The Rifles and LMG have sandbags to deploy cover for your troops which will assist in holding positions. The main drawback of this standard infantry squad is the quality of soldiers being sub-par with the exception of the Squad Leader. AT Team Each nation has either an AT rifle or AT rocket in this slot. When purchased, you will receive two soldiers armed with SMGs that are identical to other SMG infantry, with the excpetion that both soldiers have a higher weapon skill in their preferred AT weapon (Rifle or Rocket skill). Rifles are better at longer ranges, but cannot penetrate the amount of armor that a rocket can, while rockets are extremely close ranged, but typically lethal to most armor. Both can be used against infantry, and often to devastating effect. It is a common practice to use the AT rifle as a sort-of sniper rifle against soft targets. AT rockets, when used against infantry, expand from the point of impact outward in a cone, spraying shrapnel and heat across anything caught in the narrow arc. Flame All flamethrower infantries are the same. Two soldiers, identical to SMG infantry in almost all respects. However, the Flamethrower soldier only comes armed with the flamethrower and gas tank. Flamethrowers are often difficult to get into position, but absolutely lethal to any infantry that they fire their weapon upon. In a pinch, any flame based weapon can also be used against vehicles as well. Aim for the engine and, with enough application of flame, the tank will receive an 'Engine Destroyed' result, which often progresses to a 'Hull Destroyed'. Sniper Snipers are useful for taking out high priority targets. Slow to fire at any range over roughly 30m, the slow rate of fire means that target selection is important for them to be used most effectively. Snipers also have a few special tools that are mostly unique to them. Three camoflauge kits allow them to place bushes wherever they want, even on concrete. They also carry one ammo smoke grenade that is used to bring down a single crate of ammo, allowing you to resupply infantry. The last tool is a single knife which can be thrown to silently silence an enemy. Usually not useful, but it's there if you need it. Elite The best of the best, these soldiers have an unrivalled stat line, and bring the tools of war to match their skill. Each nation has their own slight variation of these soldiers, which all boils down to equipment. What is common between all nations though is that they are, at their core, mechanized infantry. Arriving in an armored halftrack, each squad has 10 soldiers typically armed with 6 SMGs, 2 LMGs, and 2 AT soldiers. However, the differences between each nation is so great that they cannot be adequately explained here. HMG The HMGs of each nation all operate so similarly that the differences between each gun are almost insignificant. Mounted on a tripod, and carried by two soldiers, the HMG is a heavy suppression weapon that is typically seen on all maps as the immobile 1 soldier variant that pops up around CPs after you capture them. Very lethal to any infantry caught out of cover, the abundance of HMGs make this selection obsolete very early in the game, and I can only recommend it for the initial purchase of the game. Mortar A popular unit to most commanders, the mortar's use on the battlefield as a light artillery piece is inarguably useful. However, in MoW:AS, the cost of these weapons is often prohibitively high for skirmishes. Despite this, mortars are often the only artillery piece that commanders have access to until the final stages of the game, making them very popular to many people. AA Effectively super heavy machine guns, the light cannons brought to the field with AA guns are absolutely devastating to enemy infantry, and can also be a threat to light vehicles as well. Most of these weapons can put out a truly large amount of firepower in a very short period of time, and as a bonus, almost all of them can be towed around the battlefield, allowing for quick relocation of firepower. AT

A favorite amongst defensive minded commanders, the AT gun's utility cannot be overlooked. In skirmish, this is often, but not always the most cost-effective option when it comes to destroying enemy armor. When positioned properly behind soft or hard cover, the AT gun can engage and destroy most medium armor with ease. A common problem that most commanders have when using these is the tendency for the AI to choose HE ammo instead of AP ammo. To help prevent this, you can either: 1) Use the HEs up, 2) Drop the HE ammo out of your inventory, or 3) Set the gun to return fire. The last option will require a bit more micromanagement, but it's seldom that a vehicle will surprise your AT gun and destroy it without you knowing. As with the AAs, these units can be towed around the battlefield for quick transportation. Supply Unlike the supply truck that starts at the base camp in each standard skirmish, these trucks carry weapons for vehicles as well, not just infantry ammo. These trucks are essential for any army expecting to spend an extended amount of time on the battlefield, and as a bonus, they can tow guns around the battlefield. AC Armored cars are light scout vehicles used for harassing the enemy and engaging light to medium armored vehicles. Most are armed with a light cannon comparable to cannons armed on many light tanks. As a bonus they can also be used to tow guns around the field. AA Anti-Aircraft vehicles might seem out of place, since there are no aircraft in standard skirmishes, but these vehicles are absolutely lethal to infantry and light vehicles. Commonly equipped with at least one but up to 4, 20mm cannons, and boasting a very high rate of fire, even just one of these tanks can hold infantry out of a large area as long as it has ammo. Tank 1 Each nation has access to two tanks. Typically, the lighter and cheaper tank goes here. These tanks are usually good at supporting infantry, and aren't generally well suited for extended engagements vs other armored vehicles. Tank 2 This tank slot is generally where the main battle tanks go. While not the best tank you will have in your arsenal, these are the ones that are most well rounded, and can help carry you through many early and mid-game engagements with enemy armor. Eventually these tanks will be out-classed by tougher or more lethal enemy armor, but a skilled player will know how to overcome that challenge with one of these tanks. TD This slot is typically occupied by some kind of tank or armored vehicle that is designed to engage and neutralize other enemy armor. Typically carrying an improved cannon, these vehicles are a must for most armored players. Heavy Tank Heavy tanks are gas guzzling juggernauts that can wade through enemy AT fire seemingly with immunity. While not always equipped with the best gun, it doesn't matter as much since they can still shrug off enemy fire, close the distance, and destroy most targets with relative ease. While not invincible, these vehicles are definitely a powerful tool of war. Artillery A favored tool of destruction, most of the units in here are powerful rocket artillery vehicles, with a single exception. The heavy rockets shoot a single shot that can decimate any almost any target, while the smaller rocket launchers fire volleys of high explosives in rapid succession that blanket an entire area with explosive explosions. All units in this slot are very useful in destroying fixed enemy positions, but, with a couple of exceptions are completely incapable of defending themselves and are quite fragile. Heavy TD Without exception, these supremely expensive vehicles are specifically designed to hunt and destroy the strongest and toughest tanks that your enemy brings to the field, and are the best source of AT that you will be able to purchase in the game. Most are relatively fragile, compared to their prey, however they can often out-range their targets by quite a distance. Aside from their designated role as tank destroyers, most of these vehicles have limited utility on the field. On harder difficulties though, it is hard to argue with the often much needed firepower they can bring to the table.

Unit Review: USA

Infantry Squad The US Infantry Squad is a very strong choice when bringing soldiers onto the field. The main and most obvious advantage is that the standard rifleman is equipped with the M1 Garand, which can put out much more fire than other nation's bolt action rifles. Additionally, the Thompson is one of the better SMGs in the game, and the BAR, while having a small magazine, is still a good support weapon. Anti-Tank Team Armed with a Bazooka, the AT infantry are a strong choice when countering enemy armor. Unfortunately, the Bazooka can only go through 120mm of armor, and given non-ideal combat situations, this isn't always enough to bring down some of the heavier German tanks, or even some medium tanks if equipped with schurzen (ablative side armor). Anti-Tank Team Armed with a Bazooka, the AT infantry are a strong choice when countering enemy armor. Unfortunately, the Bazooka can only go through 120mm of armor, and given non-ideal combat situations, this isn't always enough to bring down some of the heavier German tanks, or even some medium tanks if equipped with schurzen (ablative side armor). Rangers Rangers are a highly effective unit when used properly. The M2 Carbine is one of the few rifles that performs very poorly at long ranges, but this is mitigated by the fact that it excels at close range firefights. The Johnson Rifles and LMGs are also good firearms as well, and when wielded by Rangers they only become more effective. The M18 Recoiless Rifle boasts a slightly longer range than most rockets, however, it also has only 100mm of penetration making it even more situational than a Bazooka. The obligatory halftrack that comes with the Rangers comes with the ever present .50 cal HMG which can be either used on the halftrack, or dismounted and carried by one of the Rangers. All in all, the Rangers are an effective unit that can square off against almost any threat and succeed. M45 Maxxon The Maxxon AA is the US anti-air unit. While standard skirmishes don't have any enemy air units, AA's are still more than capable of decimating enemy infantry units. Armed with 4 .50 cal machine guns, the Maxxon doesn't have the penetrating power of other naton's AA guns, but it has a higher rate of fire than most, and can still can go through light vehicles and cover. M1 AT The M1 AT gun is an important unit in the US arsenal. It's a commonly known fact that US AT capabilities are sub-par all around when compared to the Germans. The M1 closes that gap only slightly, allowing the US player to take on tanks like the Pz4H a little more confidently, and at a low cost compared to the Sherman. However, heavier tanks like Tigers and Panthers will still be a major threat, as the M1 still lacks the penetrating power to engage their frontal armor. M8 Greyhound The well equipped Greyhound, is a very effective unit when used against infantry, and is also capable of threatening medium armor. Unique amongst armored cars, the Greyhound has both a main cannon as well as an armor piercing HMG, similar to (but slightly weaker than) the 20mm cannon that the Sdkfz 222 is armed with. Unfortunately, the crewman firing the .50 cal will be exposed to small arms fire, allowing concentrated fire or snipers to rob the Greyhound of some of its firepower temporarily. M24 Chaffee The Chaffee is a light tank with a big gun. Performing similarly to the British Crusader tank, the Chaffee also sports angled armor, for what it's worth. However, the little extra defensiveness that the Chaffee receives from this is often negated by the very large and scary guns that are pointed at it. The Chaffee's main cannon is effectively identical to the gun on the Sherman, giving it good stopping power and range, but a long reload. The main benefits that the Chaffee has over the Sherman are quite significant, one being that it has a lower profile than the Sherman, allowing it to use cover much better than the Sherman ever could. Secondly, it is also much faster than a Sherman, allowing it to get into position to fire, or retreat to cover while it reloads. And lastly, the pricetag is 150 less, so if you're only paying for the gun and not the armor, then you're saving a decent amount of points by going with the Chaffee. M4 Sherman The iconic M4 Sherman tank actually boasts what should be decent frontal armor. However, the powerful German guns that are equipped on various platforms are powerful enough to cut straight through the front armor with ease. The Sherman is plagued by a host of weaknesses, including it's relatively high cost, however, in the hands of a skilled player the Sherman is still a formidable weapons platform. Boasting a quite large 76mm cannon, the Sherman can still do respectable damage if it can get into position quickly enough. Unfortunately though, the M4 is completely outranged by a large list of German armored units that it has to contend with, making getting into position that much more of a problem. M16 The M16 AA halftrack is a quad .50 Maxxon plopped atop the standard M3 halftrack. While not a popular choice, the M16 is still a very effective anti-infantry unit, and with some skill can also be used against fixed positions or enemy light armor in a pinch.

Men At War Assault Squad 2

M10 Wolverine The Wolverine is a tank destroyer, but unlike almost every tank destroyer that exists, this one has a turret. While expensive, the Wolverine can fill a very important role in the US arsenal by providing the second highest AT from a vehicle found in US skirmishes, a role that is only surpassed by the Slugger. However, this utility comes at a price, and the Wolverine has armor that is almost paper thin. Proper positioning, cover, and hit and run tactics will keep the Wolverine alive long enough to do its job, as will target priority. M4A3E2 Jumbo The Jumbo, is simply put an up-armored M4 Sherman. There's nothing special about it aside from the fact that it is extremely hard to destroy. Equipped with the standard Sherman cannon, it still is troubled with (relatively) low penetration power, low accuracy, and long reload, however this is all made up for by the fact that the Jumbo can close the distance with most German tanks and AT guns to destroy them. M4A3 Calliope The Calliope is the USA's artillery option. And once again, it's a Sherman. Trading out the .50 cal for a bunch of rockets, the Calliope is one of the better artillery choices in skirmish, depending on what your intention is with them. Able to fire 2 salvos of 16 (?) rockets before reloading, the Calliope can rain high-explosive death on enemy positions over a wide area, clearing out any heavy guns as well as infantry if they haven't taken cover. Unlike most artillery choices though, the Calliope is capable of defending itself if enemy infantry or tanks get uncomfortably close. When using the Calliope as a tank, it performs identically to the standard M4 Sherman. (Note: The rocket carriage atop the Calliope can be permanently destroyed.) M36 Slugger The Slugger is a lightly armored, but heavily armed tank destroyer. It is capable of destroying up to a Panther at a moderate range on the frontal armor. Realistically though, you'll want to be taking side shots as with most things, and that will allow the Slugger to engage almost any tank and score a penetrating shot at long ranges. A thing to know about German tanks, is that the highest side armor that they have is 80mm, and it is rarely sloped to any significant degree. On higher difficulties, if you are expecting many large and scary tanks, a Slugger may be a good choice to purchase.

Unit Review: Germany

Infantry Squad The German Infantry Squad is mostly average when it comes to their soldier's weaponry. There are, however, 2 soldiers who really stand out amongst the unit. The first and most obvious one is the MG soldier, who comes equipped with the infamous MG 42. The other one is the Assault Squad Leader who starts the game wielding the highly accurate Stg 44. AT Team

Men Of War Assault Squad 2 Best Mods Xbox One

The German AT soldiers come equipped with a Panzershrek, making them an extremely good choice at any point during the game. For Germans, the utility that the Panzershrek has is unique as it's the only AT rocket that the Germans have that can reload, as well as it also having the 2nd highest AT value in the game for rockets (the only thing that is higher is the Panzerfaust, see below). Panzergrenadiers Panzergrenadiers are an extremely strong choice when fielding troops. Remember how much we like StG44s and MG42s? Well that's pretty much what this unit is made of. 6 StG44s, the best 'SMG' in the game (yes, we all know it's not really an SMG), and an MG42 on a halftrack that can be dismounted if you want. Additionally, there are also a couple of G43s, which are very similar to Garands, and a pair of Panzerfausts on each AT soldier that comes in the squad for a total of 4 shots. Compared to other nations though, this squad lacks in AT, despite the effectiveness of the Panzerfaust. Also, the Panzerfaust is a slow-flying weapon, unlike it's cousin, meaning that there is a higher chance for it to miss, which wouldn't be so bad if you could reload them. But as a Panzerfaust is a shoot-and-discard weapon, you will have to be relying on other sources of AT if you run out of shots. Fortunately for Germany, this often isn't a problem. PaK 38 The PaK 38 medium AT is relatively poor as far as AT guns go. This is the exact same gun that is equipped on the Pz3J, and it suffers from the same problems of low penetration values vs common targets (see below). One thing that the PaK has going for it is that it is much easier to hide than the Pz3, allowing enemy armor to get much closer to it so that the AT gun can pierce the enemy tank. Given all the other strong options for anti-tank that you have in Germany's arsenal, it is recommended that you avoid getting the PaK 38 when possible. Sdkfz 222 The Sdkfz 222 is an excellent AC that can quickly clear out enemy infantry with its 20mm cannon, and can even engage light vehicles. While it's utility is limited after the first line, it can still perform in a supporting role using it's cannon to penetrate an AT gun's shield and hard cover alike. Wirbelwind The Wirbelwind is probably one of the most underrated units in Skirmishes. It is the most well armored AA tank available for purchase, and comes with a quad 20mm mounting in its turret. The turret, being the weak point on the tank, is large, obvious, and open-topped. However, the hull is very well armored, being identical to the Pz4H minus the schurzen with a whopping 80mm of front armor. This allows players to deploy the Wirbel much more aggressively than one would normally deploy AA tanks. Pzkpfw III ausf J The Pz3J, is a poor choice when purchasing armor for the Germans. Small, and relatively poorly armored, the Pz3 will struggle against many of the tanks you will commonly be facing, especially Shermans, Matildas, and T-34s. That being said, the Pz3J is not useless, and if a player needs a little extra mobile firepower, then the cheap Pz3J is not a bad choice, especially when it comes to providing infantry support. StuG III The StuG is a formidable AT platform, and with 80mm of sloped front armor, it can shrug off a truly ridiculous amount of incoming fire at times. With these defensive capabilities, the StuG can also be used on the offensive to help neutralize enemy AT guns. The main and obvious drawback of the StuG is that it has no turret, meaning that if it gets tracked then it is a sitting duck until it gets repaired. Pzkpfw IV ausf H The Pz4H is another powerful piece of German armor. Armed with the same cannon as the StuG, the Pz4H also comes with a turret and 80mm of frontal armor, and schurzen which act as ablative side armor (mostly to protect it from AT rockets). While not as defensively strong as the StuG, the inclusion of a turret gives the Pz4 better tactical flexibility when it comes to lining up its shots. Pzkpfw V 'Panther' The Pz V Panther tank is arguably the best tank available to the Germans in Skirmish mode. While it has marginally less armor than the Tiger, the front armor of the Panther is sloped allowing many shells to simply bounce off of it. The side armor of the Panther is much weaker though, and must be protected. Additionally, the main cannon sported by the Panther is significantly better than that of the Tiger's, even though it is of a smaller caliber allowing it to engage foes that the Tiger would struggle against. Sturmtiger The Sturmtiger is what is known as a 'self propelled assault gun'. With about 150mm of sloped front armor, there is very little that can pierce its front plating, which means that this unit is perfect for breaking enemy Heavy AT positions. When within its relatively short range, the Sturmtiger will launch a single but devastating rocket at the enemy and destroy pretty much everything within a good radius around the impact point, armor and infantry alike. Just like most tank destroyers, the Sturmtiger lacks a turret and must be positioned facing the enemy, meaning that if tracked the Sturmtiger will be relatively vulnerable until it is repaired. Jagdpanther The Jagdpanther (JP) is the best tank destroyer available to the Germans in skirmish, and performs just as admirably as you would expect. While having relatively weak armor compared to the gun it is carrying (armor that is similar to a StuG), the cannon is second to none, and can pierce through almost any target that it is pointed at. If playing on Hard and Heroic, I cannot recommend this unit enough. Players must exercise caution, though, as the JP is relatively fragile compared to the enemies that it is designed to hunt.

Unit Review: USSR

Infantry Squad The USSR Infantry Squad is exceedingly average. The PPSh's are probably one of the more effective SMGs in the game, but their accuracy and damage-per-round leaves much to be desired during longer ranged firefights. The one unique advantage that the Soviet infantry have is that each Rifleman carries an incendiary molotov cocktail, which can be used to set both vehicles and enemy infantry aflame, or to intentionally start fires in buildings or foliage. As with all flame attacks, when attacking vehicles aim for the engine. AT Rifle Team AT Rifles are very under-rated in skirmishes. No, they're not going to kill a StuG or anything, but they can be used to destroy cover, or be used as a budget-sniper. And for the price of one Sniper, you can get 4 AT rifles. The Russian DPRS AT Rifle is average compared to all other nation's AT Rifles. Red Guard The Red Guard are a very important unit for Soviet infantry players. They are the only way that the Russians can get an AT rocket on the field without salvaging one off the ground. The small arms that are carried by the Red Guard are above average, and the Bazookas are mediocre at best, but having a Bazooka is much better than not having a Bazooka. ZiS-3 The ZiS-3 AT gun is minimally better than the cannon carried by the T-34. In fact, they are so similar that when choosing between the ZiS and a tank, it really will all come down to personal preference. BA-11 The Russian BA-11 carries a light cannon that can be used to engage up to medium armor. The BA-11, however, has a very long hull, and unless you are driving in reverse, then the vast majority of the hull must be exposed in order to fire the main gun. While it can be useful, the vehicle's design limits its usefulness in heavier engagements. T-60 The T-60 is a small and cheap tank that is equipped with a very rapid firing 20mm cannon. While it won't win any awards for its armor, the small size and speed can make it hard to hit at times. I must admit that I have jokingly used mass T-60 rushes to overwhelm enemy AT positions before. The combination of the rapid firing AP gun, small profile, and speed make this possible, even if I can't recommend doing so as standard practice. Su-76 The Su-76 is a relatively poor choice available to Soviet players, and I can only recommend using it in an emergency situation. This is because the Su-76 is plagued by a host of weaknesses that only accentuate how much of a waste of points it can be. Starting with the most obvious drawbacks, it is open-topped, has no turret, and has very thin armor, making it very vulnerable to anything larger than an AT rifle (and from the side even that can be a threat). The small size of the SU is it's only good point, but this isn't much, especially when you consider the fact that it wields the same gun as the ZiS-3 (see above). When thinking about buying the SU-76, I advise considering purchasing a ZiS-3, or saving resources for a T-34 or a squad of Red Guard. T-34/76 The T-34/76 is a solid tank that, in the hands of a skilled player, can square off against any German medium tank. With relatively thin but sloped armor on all sides, the T-34 can bounce shots off of its armor that would normally be a threat to it. Normally Light AT guns aren't a problem, however, special care must be taken when fighting against the Japanese because their Light AT are the best out of any faction, and are only slightly worse than Jap Medium AT guns. In Manchuria, for example, the terrain also does not allow the T-34 to take full advantage of its sloped armor, making the Jap Light AT even more of a threat. (check which version of t-34 it is) T-34/85 The T-34/85 is a much better version of the T-34 that is armed with a bigger gun. This gun is capable of competing with newer tanks like the Pz4H on an even level, and can even be a major threat to Tigers given the right circumstances. Aside from having the bigger 85mm gun, this version of the T-34 also has much better turret armor, for what it's worth. Su-100 (Tank Destroyer) The Su-100 is the best TD available to Russia, and unlike the other nations the Su-100 is on the left flag where the heavy tank normally is. This can change the order of play a little bit for players, but it doesn't necessarily have to. As always, it's up to the player's choice, and while the Su-100 isn't always the best choice, with a bit of creativity it can be put to good use. The Su-100 like all other TDs can effectively engage most any tank from the frontal armor with ease, and side armor with a near garaunteed chance of a kill. Katyusha The Katyusha comes on a truck armed with about 16 rockets that, like the Calliope, fire in two salvos. While not as numerous as the Calliope, the rockets are larger, and have a larger blast radius as a result. Care must be taken though, as the Katys are extremely fragile to even small arms fire, and they need to be placed in a relatively safe location. IS-2 (Heavy Tank) The IS-2 is one of the Soviet Union's most formidable tanks. While it has very strong sloped frontal armor, it is not completely invulnerable and carries a few weaknesses with it as well. As with all heavy tanks, it is depressingly slow and will take a while to get anywhere. However, once it gets there, it will definitely make an impact on the battlefield. Able to withstand heavy AT rounds at long range, the IS-2, given time, can help break through the front line. However, a couple of the biggest drawbacks have to do with the powerful main cannon. The first being that the IS-2 carries a fairly limited amount of rounds, and will repeatedly need to be resupplied if it gets into an extended engagement. The second is that the reload time for the IS-2 is also depressingly slow. When compared to the King Tiger tank, which has a reload time of 8 seconds, the IS-2 takes a whopping 12 seconds to reload, which is a significant disadvantage in tank vs tank combat. Despite this, the IS-2 is a very strong choice when bringing heavy support, as it's main gun is only marginally less effective than the Su-100, and can combat other heavy tanks competently.

Unit Review: Commonwealth

Infantry Squad The UK Infantry Squad is better than most infantry squads, due to a few very unique advantages that British weapons have over their contemporaries. First and most obviously, the ASL for the British comes equipped with a riflegrenade, which can be used to provide short range indirect fire on anything that needs high explosives lobbed at it. The riflegrenade can be effective from the start of the game all the way to the end due to the utility that indirect fire brings with it. Another advantage the Brits have is the Lee-Enfield rifle. While having a longer reload time and a higher magazine capacity than other bolt action rifles, it also has a slightly higher rate of fire. When used en masse, these rifles can churn out a respectable amount of firepower that can either suppress, or even kill targets at a long distance. And to top it all off, the squad comes with the ever-reliable Bren LMG, a solid weapon that has no real drawbacks. AT Rifle Team British Boyes AT Rifle is average compared to other nations, however I must highly recommend against purchasing this after the initial purchase of units. The AT Rifle is as good as all the others, and can still be used as a budget sniper, but the SAS team comes equipped with one, and they are much better soldiers than the AT Riflemen. SAS The SAS are the best infantry that the UK has to offer. Sadly, the UK has decided to arm them with an AT rifle. While this isn't necessarily bad, I feel that most people would have preferred to have another PIAT instead. And speaking of the PIAT, it is arguably one of the better AT weapons in the game since it shoots in a low arc that has the potential to land on top of it's target, potentially hitting the weaker top armor of a tank. The SMGs that they carry are similar to the normal Thompson, they just have the drum magazine. Fortunately, the normal Thompson is already a solid weapon, and leaves little to be desired. However, the Vickers VGO is one of the spots where this unit shines. Arguably one of the top 3 LMGs in the game, the VGO has an extremely fast rate of fire, rivalling the MG42. Oerlikon The 20mm Oerlikon performs just as well as the other 20mm AA guns available. I will not say anymore due to space restrictions. AT Gun The British AT gun is a solid AT gun, and is also the gun equipped by the Crusader. When choosing between Crusader and this, you are making a choice between cost and mobility. Daimler The Daimler is probably the best balanced out of all of the ACs, and is armed with the same cannon that the Matilda is armed with, making it good at engaging medium tanks from a longer range than most ACs can manage. With its turret sitting lower to the ground, and also sitting squarely in the middle of the hull, it has an advantage over the Greyhound and BA-11 in the fact that when it fires, it is typically exposing as little of itself as possible. Crusader AA 2 The Crusader AA2 is in my opinion redundant in the Commonwealth's lineup. It has decent armor, but nothing that's going to save it from serious opposition. And costing just 50 points less than a Matilda, I would most days rather have another Matilda instead. Get this only if you want to quickly wipe out infantry and aren't too concerned about defensiveness or enemy armor. Matilda As an Infantry Tank, the Matilda is without a doubt the best tank in the 350 mp slot. Boasting formidable front and side armor, these tanks will steamroll any AT guns that are in their way until you start to see Flak 88s. And roughly 7/10 times, the Matilda will be able to defeat a Flak 88 at max range when used by a skilled player. The downside to this sturdy tank is the fact that it carries such a small gun. When faced with anything larger than a Pz 3, the Matilda will struggle against the larger cannons that these tanks wield. Crusader The Crusader is a Cruiser Tank, and it carries the exact same cannon as the medium AT Gun. The 6 pdr is a respectable cannon, that can deal with most medium tanks easily at long range. However, this is offset by the extremely thin armor on all sides of the Crusader. The Crusader is supposed to be fast and maneuverable, and it lives up to that, however the large size can at times make the Crusader a bit unwieldly to use. To offset this a little bit, the tank sits very close to the ground, and has a small turret, meaning that if you can manage to find a spot that is somewhat 'hull down', you can simply peak over the terrain and fire. Some people find the 500 mp price tag not worth it, but I feel that the mobility, and more importantly the penetrating power to be more than worth the cost. Cromwell The Cromwell is also a Cruiser Tank, and I honestly have trouble liking it sometimes. Sporting much improved frontal hull armor, it still is not enough to protect it from the larger caliber German guns. On top of that, the turret armor is still very light. But the worst part about the Cromwell, is that it has an inferior gun when compared to the Crusader. It is still good enough to engage most medium tanks, but it's not as good as the Crusader's 6 pdr. By the time you get the Cromwell, you will be beginning to push into the 3rd line, and will be facing progressively heavier tanks. Also, the top armor of the Cromwell is light enough that a direct hit from artillery will likely cause it to explode with no chance of recovery. I don't know, it might just be me, but I prefer to have the Crusader over the Cromwell. Maybe I'm just using it wrong, or maybe I just prefer different things.

Men Of War Assault Squad

Churchill Mk. IV The Churchill Mk IV is an Infantry Tank. There are many problems with the Churchill, but lets start off with the only good thing about it. It is capable of withstanding direct hits from Flak 88s and other large caliber guns, and usually destroying what is shooting at it. Now for the bad stuff. First of all, the Church 4 is a very large and obvious target. Sometimes this can be a good thing since the Church can easily withstand incoming fire from all but the largest guns, but unfortunately, usually, it's not a good thing. Why you ask? It's because of the way the tracks are exposed, and thus when taking fire from just about anything larger than a rifle, there's a pretty good chance that the Church is going to get at least one track disabled. The other thing that is bad about the Church 4 is that it is equipped with the exact same gun as the Crusader. While not exactly a bad gun, it's not exactly the best gun either, and will sometimes have trouble engaging heavier tanks. All in all, like most things British, it's not pretty, and it's not the best, but it gets the job done. Priest The Priest is a US designed SPG (self-propelled gun), and unlike all the other heavy arty choices in skirmish, this one is more traditional and fires volleys of shells that spread over a target area, then takes forever to reload. This is both better and worse than other naton's arty, depending on what you are trying to do. But I mean, hey, it's artillery. For the most part, I rarely use this unit as the Churchill and the rest of the team are typically able to clear up the AT guns before the need for artillery arises. Sherman Firefly The Sherman Firefly, wielding the 17 pdr AT gun, is quite possibly the best tank available in the British skirmishes. Filling the 'Heavy AT' role, the Firefly is still a tank, and performs just as admirably as you would expect a Sherman to. The cannon of the Firefly is capable of gutting even a King Tiger from long-ish range, which is no easy feat.

Unit Review: Japan

Infantry Squad

Men Of War Assault Squad 2 Best Mods Mod

The Japanese Infantry squad, like the Soviets, is exceedingly mediocre, with their small arms having no significant advantage over other nations. However, each rifleman comes armed with a Hand Bomb, which is a weapon that takes practice to use, but can be effective against infantry and vehicles alike. AT Rifle Team The Japanese AT Rifle is slightly above-average compared to other nation's AT Rifles, which is actually a really good thing. Since Jap tanks suck so much, the types of tanks that Japan will face are toned down a lot as far as armor values go. Meaning that purchasing an AT Rifle at almost any point in the game doesn't feel like a waste of points. Yay, finally! SNLF The Special Naval Landing Force (SNLF) bring a bunch of cool stuff to the table for Japan. Always the ones to be different, the Japanese halftrack has not one, but THREE MGs attatched to it. However, only one can be detatched and carried around with you. Rude, I know... Vehicle aside, the squad comes armed with a bunch of pretty cool SMGs that are comfortably above-average when it comes to SMGs. The rockets though, are also above average, and on harder difficulties, very necessary when it comes to destroying enemy heavy armor, especially when facing Britain which will bring the very tough Churchill AVRE to the field. Type 2 AA The Type 2 AA performs just as well as the other 20mm AA guns available. Type-2 AT Gun The Type 2 AT is a solid weapon, able to engage most armor at medium ranges. However, against the various British Infantry Tanks, you will find yourself wanting something with a little more firepower. Type 92 (AC) The Japanese Type 92 is a mobile machine gun nest. Bristling with 4 MGs, one of which is mounted on its top turret, the Type 92 AC excels in the anti-infantry role. But, as it has no AT its utility is limited after the first line. Ho-ni 2 The Ho-Ni 2 is a Japanese SPG that fires a volley of 6 HE shells on its target. Very useful in game since the Japs don't have many ways to deal with AT guns reliably. Ha-go I'm not sure why the developers decided to keep the slots all priced the same for every nation, but especially for Japan. The Ha-Go, quite simply put, is rarely worth it's points cost. Armed with a small cannon, this tankette is only really effective versus similar light tanks. It really can only be used reliably against enemy infantry, and will exploded if an AT crewman simply sneezes at it. Chi-ha 57 The Chi-Ha is better than the Ha-Go, but still far overpriced for what it is. It cannot stand up to even light AT guns in the field, but can at least engage enemy armor somewhat reliably. Against any similarly classed medium tanks it will struggle, however, and is completely outclassed by the US Shermans and Soviet T-34s. Ho-ni 1 The Ho-Ni 1 is one of the few armored vehicles that I can recommend purchasing for the Japs. The penetration power of the Ho-Ni 1 is pretty consistent, and can reliably engage most vehicles at a very long range. Chi-he The Chi-He is a decent tank, if you're not paying 1000 MP for it. It has a better gun than the Chi-Ha, and can engage light armor reliably, but still struggles against many commonly found medium tanks. Ha-to Large, and vulnerable, the Ha-To brings a single-shot long range rocket to the field that is very useful in taking out AT positions. Care must be taken when positioning this on the field though, as it has a tendency to explode easily. Chi-nu The Chi-Nu is as good as it gets in Skirmish mode. The gun carried by the Chi-Nu is marginally better than that carried by the Ho-Ni 1, but sometimes you need that extra bit of penetration power. Additionally it has a turret, and better armor, which is always cool, but this also makes the Chi-Nu a larger target. Recommended for You:

All Men of War Assault Squad 2 Guides!

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[tooies]

fm funk fursday: jan 5th 2023

ok yeah its fm funk fursday now. ive decided because i can decide these things and what the hell am i supposed to do. not be insane about the new album i found yesterday? i am transfem; it's vital to my mental health that i do this. also im still on the initial wave of energy i get from my adderall. either way here's the song

[digitalbyte357]

Spooky Video Game Music No. 170: Once Upon a Time...- Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts (Xbox 360)

8 years. 8 long years since our favorite bear and bird duo hadn’t had an adventure since Banjo-Tooie. During the beginning of Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts, we have a narrator recapping the adventures of Banjo and Kazooie during their N64 days. Now after those 8 years since the events of Banjo-Tooie, Banjo and Kazooie ended up eating pizza and playing their Xbox 360s. However, fate is in favor of the duo when they notice a familiar foe at a distance trying to get her revenge...

It’s quite a short song but damn it’s quite a creepy song. It gives a sense of mystery since we want to know more of their adventures in the past and where did they go. It also adds some suspense as well. Since this also plays before you face against Gruntilda in any of the worlds at night, it gives the feeling that something is not right, like if there is danger afoot. Sure, this game is quite divisive on the Banjo-Kazooie fandom, but we can all agree that Grant Kirkhope always does his best with his music. 🎃

[gameconsolers-blog]

Top 10 N64 Games Not In Top 10s

I’ve scouted several top 10 lists and gathered around 30 games that made people’s top N64 games. Stay with me now. I‘m sure most of you are aware of all of these titles including Mario 64, Goldeneye, and Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Then there’s also the worst of the worst which includes Superman 64 and Quest 64. But what about all the titles in the middle? Shouldn’t they get some recognition? That‘s where my list of mid 10 N64 games comes in! Starting with: 10) San Francisco Rush 2049 You’ve probably played a Rush game on arcades and thought this would just simply be an arcade port... WRONG! This game adds several new game modes, including some that are unconventional to the racing genre such as stunt and battle modes. Its futuristic setting adds unique track designs, which are packed with hidden coins adding an element of exploration also not usually found in racing games. 9) Mario Party 3 With so many Mario Party games, this one happened to fall into the mid-tier zone. But make no mistake; this one is just as fun with friends as any other one. 70 fresh mini games will keep the fun coming for days. What else can I say? It’s a Mario Party, end of story. 8) Rayman 2 If platforming is what you’re into, look no further than Rayman 2! That is, after you’ve looked into Mario 64, Banjo-Kazooie, Banjo-Tooie, Donkey... sigh. OK, so it got overshadowed by many other quality platformers on N64 but give this one a chance and you’ll get a lengthy adventure with boss battles and a variety of puzzles to validate this game as a worthy contender. 7) Turok 2 Often criticized for being rough around the edges and a constant fog that hides what’s 3 feet in front of you, there’s actually quite a lot of fun to be had. While I originally was only able to beat the first level, I believe using cheats is really the best way to play this game. Do me a favor and type in “bewareoblivionisathand” in the cheat input, turn on all weapons and infinite ammo, and hop over to any of the 6 gigantic levels and I promise you won’t be disappointed. 6) Rocket: Robot on Wheels A centralized hub, huge world exploration, realistic physics puzzles, plenty of skills and items to find, and mini games are all part of this great gaming package. It’s a shame that this game often goes unnoticed. Did you know this was developed by Sucker Punch? 5) Extreme G2 This sequel to the futuristic bike racing game is faster, harder, features more tracks, new modes and it’s faster. Did I mention faster already? It’s worth saying twice because it’s SO FAST that you can actually break the sound barrier (with cool effect). Sometimes SO FAST that it kind of breaks the game. 4) Blast Corps I‘m quite surprised that there hasn’t really been a game quite like this one, either before or since then. It’s sort of a puzzle game where you get to destroy cities with a variety of vehicles and robots. Nothing can quite describe the joy of leveling a city (don’t worry, they’ve been evacuated). Dozens of hidden levels and bonus goodies will keep you coming back for more 3) Extreme G When the N64 first came out, this was my first game. I kid you not, I bought it even before Mario 64 and I never regretted it. The commercial, which featured the futuristic bikes speeding and blowing each other up through corkscrews and crazy twisting tracks, appealed to my 10 year old brain in ways that made this seem like the coolest game ever made. I still have fun with it today, and I dare anyone try to beat me at it. 2) Yoshi’s Story Why all the hate? Underrated and misunderstood, Yoshi’s Story is actually a superb platformer if you give it a chance. Often criticized for being too easy, I actually found it to be quite a challenge. Don’t just eat any fruit you see and finish a level quick, the real goal is to seek out the 30 melons hidden, a difficult feat right from the start. Oh, you say you beat the game’s 6 levels in one sitting? No problem, go back and you’ll find 18 MORE, all huge and wildly varied. 1) Jet Force Gemini I’m actually quite surprised to not find this game in anyone’s top 10, it would definitely be in mine. Valid complains about its tedious tribal bear rescuing latter half bring it down. But I found that simply using a guide (Something I usually don’t like to do) allows me to continue having fun with it. Fast paced run and gun gameplay makes it seem like a Contra in 3D in space. Don’t let the second half of the game stop you, there’s still many secret levels and cool things to find.

[game-boy-pocket]

I just finished Banjo Kazooie: Jiggies of Time - a full length mod by Mark Kurko

I don’t normally do reviews because I find it hard to be objective... and this will be no different, so just think of this as me gushing. I’ll go ahead and put the long winded bit under a read more. But the short version is, fans of Banjo Kazooie and Ocarina of Time should play this FOR SURE. Banjo Kazooie fans may actually still love this if they’re not fans of Zelda ( but Zelda knowledge helps sometimes ). Zelda fans may not fare so well if they don’t love the Banjo Kazooie gameplay  ( perhaps they should try the first game as a test if they haven’t played it?  *nudge nudge* )  

I’ve been aware of this project for some time but didn’t really know too much about it. There were a lot of Banjo Kazooie hacks that were just smaller projects that take less than an hour to finish. I was suprised to learn just a few days ago that this project was completed, and was a full length game with the same number of worlds and collectibles as the original Banjo Kazooie. Even better, it ran on a real Nintendo 64! I played mine on the real deal and it ran near perfectly ( there were minor frame dips and a few graphical bugs but nothing too distracting or too frequent )

I’m assuming you already know how Banjo Kazooie plays if you’re reading this, but just in case, Banjo plays a lot like Mario.  You run around in little sandbox areas collecting things, the main collectible being golden jigsaw puzzle pieces called Jiggies, you find these out in the open, by solving puzzles, or by helping NPCs, the secondary collectible being golden music notes, both are needed to progress.  Each level also has five different colored critters called Jinjos that award you with a Jiggy when you find them. Each level has two empty honey comb pieces, collecting six adds another unit of health to your life meter. There are also silver skull shaped tokens used to transform your character into another form in certain levels, and finally, other miscellaneous collectibles to restore health, abilies, and lives.  Pretty basic stuff, you should be familiar if you’ve played any of the Sandbox Mario games, though in Banjo, you unlock your abilities as you progress. 

As I said before the game has 10 worlds. You start in Kokiri forest just like Ocarina of Time. You learn your basic moves in the Lost Woods, though I question the practicality of that, I actually did a full two worlds without my three basic attacks.  I got... lost... I just assumed I was going to learn the attacks elsewhere.  Kokiri forest is actually the first world, with Lost Woods serving as a sort of “Spiral Mountain” area.  Brentilda makes a return here offering three tips about the game each time you encounter her, as well as refilling your health. She appears in every world. Once you get some notes, you can leave to Hyrule Field.

Hyrule Field is the “Gruntilda’s Lair” ( Your Hub world for the uninitiated ) portion of the game, Everything is where you expect it to be, but it’s all sealed off. Instead you need to look for new areas containing jigsaw puzzles to open the locked areas. You will eventually learn a trick to simulate the Sun song as well, but it can only be done here. There’s 10 Jiggies to collect in Hyrule, 7 of which are contained within Lon Lon Ranch, I won’t spoil anything but Lon Lon Ranch has changed pretty drastically. The remaining 3 Jiggies are a bit more elaborately hidden. I’ll get back to those.  When you’re here, Gruntilda will banter with you, just like the original Banjo Kazooie, but sometimes, other characters will talk instead, and there is some genuinely hilarious exchanges between characters here.

Castle Town is the second world, and this is where you get the idea that “oh this isn’t just Banjo in Ocarina of time” because you start to uncover a lot of areas that were not in the original game. It only makes sense that a character with completely different skills can reach places Link never could.  Mumbo Jumbo returns in this world, all of his transformations are the same as the original game, but they’ve been reskinned to fit a Zelda theme... well... mostly.  

Once you wrap up in there, you head to Kakariko village, the third world. And it’s pretty standard. You actually learn the final move in this world. This game utilizes all of the original game’s moves except for the wading boots... they were kind of lame anyway I suppose.  This is also where you start to notice that this game is absolutely loaded to the gills with easter eggs. game cases and consoles are littered everywhere, Nintendo characters playing games are hidden away ( except for one ), and you may also notice some Golden eye characters spying on you ( they actually creep me out when I first catch a glimpse of them. They look ghoulish to me... ) 

Explore Kakariko enough and you should find the way to open Death Mountain, which is the fourth world.  Now this part of the game drove me slightly crazy. Death mountain has lava. Lava is an instant death for Banjo. When you die, you lose all of the notes you collected, and all of your Jinjos too if you haven’t got them all yet.  Here’s the thing, it’s another world where you have to turn into a small creature to get some of the notes, but before you do, you have to open the path for the creature as Banjo. And you have a LOT of ground to cover ( it includes Dodongo’s Cavern, the  mountain trail, Goron City, and a few extra areas not in Ocarina of Time ), so it’s almost like you have to do everything in this level twice... I died several times, at one point all I needed was five more notes, I was about to blow a gasket. After you finish up there, it’s time to head to Zora’s Domain. The world actually starts at Zora’s River, I enjoyed the world a lot but it was also pretty taxing. It demands a LOT of resources I had previously been taking for granted. Namely the eggs you shoot.  I was expecting Jabu Jabu to be replaced with Clanker the whale from the original Banjo Kazooie, but no, it’s just Jabu Jabu.. which is probably fine, this is Hyrule after all.  Jabu Jabu is not actually a dungeon though, which is a little disappointing, but there is some very interesting stuff in there... and this is where I start having a little bit of an issue with the easter eggs, subtlty goes out the window here and we actually start leaving the Zelda theme behind for two pretty big areas in this world.  It doesn’t bother me too much but I really wish this sort of thing was kept for secret levels instead of the main game... there’s a lot of tough platforming around Jabu Jabu’s area.

By now you should have stumbled across the means of opening the way to the Forest Temple. And this is one of the coolest parts of the game but also one of the most long winded and complicated parts.  The game expects you to go back to the old days of taking notes on paper.  You explore the temple looking for letters of the Hylian Alphabet and their English equivalent, you’re expected to to write these down as a chart and then use them to decipher some messages written in Hylian Text through out the temple... the thing is, a lot of the things the text asked me to do, I figured out on my own. There are also paintings on the wall meant to give clues, but I got mixed messages from one of these paintings that was meant to be used in tandem with the hylian writing. So I was trying the wrong thing over and over...  But I will say this level is truly the most jam packed with Zelda easter eggs and It’s hard not to spoil any of it, because I lost my mind at some of it...

At this point I should throw in that this game doesn’t have any new enemies or bosses. Most of the enemies are reskinned to be Zelda themed. It’s pretty effective in selling the illusion... except in the case where it’s not.

Next destination is Lake Hylia. I’ve got to stop to talk about the music real quick because Lake Hylia has my favorite track in the game.  This game has an amazing soundtrack.  It’s mostly Zelda songs remixed in a way that makes it sound like a song you would expect to hear in Banjo Kazooie ( and some hints of Banjo Kazooie/Tooie tunes get mixed in as a medley as well ), very bouncy and fun.  Not all of it is Ocarina of Time music. Lake Hylia actually uses an upbeat version of the Twilight Princess lake hylia theme.   In any case, this level sees you explore the lake, the fishing hole, the water temple, and a new series of floating islands above the lake.  As far as the Water Temple goes, it’s not too bad.

Next is the Gerudo Valley area, which includes the valley, the gerudo fortress, and the desert temple. Disappointingly, you cannot explore the insides of the gerudo fortress.  You can enter them, but you just exit out a different door in the fortress, like some kind of warp maze.  This area was also a real drain on my gold feather and blue egg resources, I almost had to leave to stock up on gold feathers, but I was sly and found a work around my problem and was able to progress. It was probably the least impressive area in the game if I’m being honest... also, Brentilda says that the hylian letters I wrote down were going to be useful here, but I couldn’t find anywhere  in the dungeon that had Hylian letters... hmm.

With this, you head to the final world.  The means which you use to enter this world are very cool. I won’t spoil it but it should be obvious to anyone who’s played already, assuming they haven’t completely forgotten one of the most important locations in the original Ocarina of Time...  Now, the world itself?  It’s cool thematically, but the usage of another small creature transformation really drags the world down.  Not to mention another easter egg really kills the mood of this final world, but it’s easily forgiven.

The final world is also what houses the entrance to the final battle.  But this game actually requires you to get ALL the Jiggies save for three in order to enter the final battle, so if you missed any jiggies at all during the normal levels, time to turn back and get them... unless you’re only short three, and wouldn’t you know it, there are three “secret levels” in this game with extra hidden Jiggies.

So, you would have no doubt seen this by now if you were playing the game but in Castle Town, there’s a museum you can reach by transforming into a small creature and crawling through the keyhole, and this museum houses clues to the location of these secret levels, as well as the secret jiggies within those levels. They’re pretty well hidden.  The clues get revealed more and more as you collect notes. First, just a general description of the area, then a more exact description of the area, but written in hylian, then a photograph of the area you need to inspect to find the entrance, and lastly, a picture of the hidden jiggy in the secret level ( though if you wait this long, the nature of the secret level will be spoiled, and these levels are BIG easter eggs. ), so maybe don’t wait too long to find them.

The final Battle with Gruntilda is the same as it was in the original Banjo Kazooie, but the arena is just slightly altered to make it a little more difficult, but not unfairly so.  Not much more to say beyond that.  The game has a pretty cool credits sequence and ending that Zelda fans are sure to appreciate.

I do kind of wish there was a Quiz show like the original Banjo Kazooie, I was expecting to get my Zelda knowledge tested, but no such luck.

Playing this game was such a blast and it made me feel like I was experiencing Banjo Kazooie and Ocarina of Time for the first time again at the same time, which is a very strange but welcome feeling. I never would have expected these two games fused into one to work so well, but it really is remarkable how well it works, and it tickles my nerd fanboy bone for Zelda in many ways, as well as Banjo, Rareware and Nintendo in general too.  I can’t recommend it enough for fans of both games...  I can only recommend this to non Banjo Zelda fans if they’re willing to play the original Banjo first to see if they like it.  But non Zelda fans of Banjo, I think you’ll just enjoy having a new Banjo Kazooie Adventure to tackle, though the lack of Zelda knowledge might make the road a little bumpy in a few areas.

I love these games to death but i’ve replayed them so much that they don’t entertain as much as they used to. This was a great way to freshen up the experience for both. I’m dying to play more like this. There’s a very interesting “Link in Mario 64″ mod i’m keeping my eye on. But that may take a lot of time, as it’s only released the first demo... for now... I actually kinda want to replay the original BK and OOT agian. Heh.