Poll of the Day > Switch 2 acquired!

(+) Yeah! (+)

Yep, it's great. They really nailed the smashy catharsis angle.

The movement and tech in this game is unbelievable. After I finish it I need to watch the speedrun. But Im only on layer 300, thats still a ways off. Its wild how I can go into Bananza, just start blindly running around and smashing things and find like 6 golden bananas in like a minute. With absolutely no context for how the developers actually intend for you to find and collect them.

papercup posted...

With absolutely no context for how the developers actually intend for you to find and collect them.

I like noticing the little hints they leave sometimes to guide you to things. Broadly, they're often not actually any better than the "yellow paint means 'go here'" that shows up in so much modern level design, but because of how the core gameplay works it ends up actually being a matter of "if you smash that thing that looks like it'll be fun to smash, you'll see another fun thing to smash, and there'll be a banana or fossil at the end of the fun smashing chain" or "if you do a clap to pick up all this stuff, it'll reveal that there's something buried underneath it." It's blatantly pointing you toward items of interest, but it's doing so by offering you an opportunity to engage with a mechanic that's just fun to engage with in its own right, which does a lot to mask how much direction they're giving (and even when you do notice the direction, you don't really care because monkey smash shiny go boom hehehe).

The level design really is absolutely brilliant. "You can break almost everything and find secret items hidden underground" stood a very significant chance of turning into a tedious slog of combing every cubic metre of every level to find things, given that it's not possible to rely on the usual exploration strategy of "find a high point and look for stuff from there" when half of the stuff is underground, but they very consistently managed to provide just enough direction to guide players into finding most bananas/fossils, without actually railroading them into doing them a certain way. That's not to say there aren't a few that are kind of bullshit or that players will never end up running aimlessly around an area mashing R in hopes that they'll see the banana silhouette pop up, but by and large, they've managed to avoid that pitfall (which is good, because meticulously combing through the underground is fine for something like hunting diamonds in Minecraft, but Monkey Smashing Simulator 2025 demands higher-energy gameplay).

papercup posted...

After I finish it I need to watch the speedrun.

Last I watched a video on it, it was down to 76 minutes, skipped two Bananzas entirely, and only got enough bananas for a single skill point, which is pretty wild for only a month in. It looks like it's down to the 74-minute range now. By the sounds of things, the speedrun community is pretty excited by just how much room there is to break the game, which was actually explicitly the devs' intent (they specifically mentioned sequence breaking in an interview and talked about how they felt that in a game about breaking everything else, it seemed only natural to leave in opportunities to break sequences). Pauline even has some voice lines to respond to certain sequence breaks, which both acknowledges that the player did something special and serves to help players that accidentally broke the sequence to realize that they missed something they might need later. It's just good design through and through.

I got everything but one Banana in floor 500, went back to take the other path down. Ill play that level tomorrow. I actually didnt get everything in 300, I should do that before moving beyond the Junction.

If it changes your approach, there are bananas that only become available to get after you beat the game for the first time, so you're going to have to backtrack later regardless of how thorough you are now.

oooooh ba na na

I've heard that jingle 848 times now, and it really never got old (though, admittedly, I was only half paying attention for most of the last 50).

ConfusedTorchic posted...

oooooh ba na na

did you finally get a switch 2 or are you a fake gamer?

I feel like youre gonna love this game

adjl posted...

If it changes your approach, there are bananas that only become available to get after you beat the game for the first time, so you're going to have to backtrack later regardless of how thorough you are now.

Yeah I figured as much. It just feels right to check everything off in this game as I go. Which is the opposite of my recent SMO playthrough where I minimized my Moons as I progressed through the game so I could dump almost 600 at once in the postgame lol

Also, God damn, the Zebra Bananza theme goes hard

DirtBasedSoap posted...

did you finally get a switch 2 or are you a fake gamer?

I feel like youre gonna love this game

i am a fake type gamer

i watched one of dunkeys videos on it is all

Im on Layer 900. This game just keeps surprising me. It is honestly a pretty easy game, but games dont have to be difficult to be fun.

Yeah, there aren't really any decent challenges until end/post-game stuff, and even those aren't exactly the Dark Souls of monkey smashing. But yes, it's still fun despite not being overly hard.

Holding off myself until MP4 comes out, then I'll get one like a week before it launches. Which is supposed to be this year. Got Bayonetta 3 to beat and then my Switch backlog is complete, and I'm on my steam one now.

Layer 1400. How does this game manage to surprise me every single level :0

papercup posted...

Layer 1400. How does this game manage to surprise me every single level :0

Ah I was thinking I was getting close to the end at layer 700. I've been getting every single banana, that almost feels like too much.

Im on 1600. OMG ITS KING K. ROOL. Didnt beat the game yet. Needed to take a break, Ill beat the game tomorrow. What an absolutely incredible game.

There is a 45 minute Kirby Air Riders Direct tomorrow morning :0

I had a chance to get one via the Nintendo email thing but decided not to. Didn't want to drop $500 for a console barely better than the one I already have and only has 2 dedicated games.

Wow the Kirby Air Riders Direct hasnt even happened yet and theyre releasing some of the OST on the Nintendo Music app tonight. I hope we get a new rendition of Checker Knights https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdTyIPkDiow and also Frozen Hillside https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpftpnZptDU

Honestly, I dont know what I could possibly expect from a 45 minute Kirby Air Riders Direct. I know the characters and environments and vehicles and copy abilities I want to see. But this is a Sakurai Kirby game, not a HAL Kirby game. I dont think we can expect to see Magolor or Taranza or Daroach. Or maybe we will, who knows.

People are mad that Kirby Air Riders is getting news before Metroid Prime 4. 1) you dont know the release schedule for the next several months yet. And 2) Ive been waiting for Air Ride 2 way longer than youve been waiting for Prime 4. Obviously were gonna do Air Ride first, why wouldnt we?

Magolor! Susie! Dark Matter! But no Marx? :0

https://www.reddit.com/r/Kirby/comments/1muq9qh/for_those_worried_about_their_fav_not_being_in/ look how much empty space there is. Unlockable characters? :D

I got every fossil and every banana from the Lagoon Layer down. Will finish up the last area later and start buying bananas and farming chips

777 Bananas acquired! Also bought some. In truth I have 940. Im missing I think 40~ music discs. The end game feels a bit lacking? Like I wish there was a secret postgame level like DK Isle or New Donk City, like the Mushroom Kingdom in SMO. Oh well. Still a fantastic game, absolutely loved it.

Been playing Links Awakening. 4K60 fps. Not seeing a single frame drop walking around. Beautiful. Might play Echoes of Wisdom after? Idk, maybe Ill give that one another year or two before revisiting it.
Star-Crossed World next week! Im excited. Already replayed Forgotten Land at the start of the year before the DLC was announced. I dont care Ill play it again. I hope that and Air Riders coming out brings new people to Kirby. I love Kirby. My favorite Nintendo series.

papercup posted...

There is a 45 minute Kirby Air Riders Direct tomorrow morning :0

I really love just how personable Sakurai is. He's having exactly as much fun with the games he directs as we do, and he's not shy about making that obvious. That "you're not really here for the racing, but I'll explain Air Ride mode first anyway" is quite exceptionally in-touch with the prevailing opinions among the fanbase, far more so than most directors ever achieve.

Between the main theme here and the credit theme from Bananza, Nintendo seems to be really leaning into the "disgustingly cheesy song that's actually kind of unironically lovable" thing.

I wanted to see a comparison of Echoes of Wisdom on Switch 1 and Switch 2. And instead of showing me that, YouTube is now trying to pipeline me into becoming an incel. Like not showing me Zelda content at all. Just straight up Women are the problem with society type shit. WTF YOUTUBE?

:0 Nintendo bought out Warpstar Inc., the company that handles Kirby merchandise, amd production of the anime Kirby Right Back at Ya, and renamed it Nintendo Stars. This rebranded company will handle Nintendo movies and merchandise, including Kirby. New Kirby movie/series in the works?

Also to clarify, Warpstar was 50% owned by Nintendo. 50% owned by HAL, so Nintendo bought out HALs shares.

Hmm apparently Star-Crossed World only adds like 2 hours of content. Maybe Ill hold off a while before I buy it

That's the information I was waiting on. I like the idea of more Forgotten Land, because it was an excellent game, but whether or not the upgrade was worthwhile hinged on just how much extra content there was. $30 CAD for 2 extra hours isn't overly appealing, unless the new stuff is really amazing.

If the rumors are to be believed, Direct on Friday

https://www.youtube.com/post/Ugkx-z3L4X9IrW6AGL7SNumYb7MpkXzpyA3_

More than a rumor. I hope they announce 17 Zelda games and 14 Mario games and the Switch 3 that runs at a jabrillion frames per second and is the strongest console evar and also a cookie.

Mother 3 incoming boys

Friday Direct is real :0

Snoregasm posted...

Mother 3 incoming boys

No way that's ever happening.

They'll make a Mother 4 that gets localized worldwide and use its poor performance in the west to justify not localizing Mother 3.

Got my wisdom teeth removed this morning so didnt watch the direct yet. Will soon though

Good direct. MP4 date, new Fire Emblem, new Yoshi, etc.

Got a birthday about a month before MP4 comes out, so I'll move to get a Switch 2.

Watched the Fire Emblem trailer. Looks really good! Dig the ancient Rome theming

Watched the whole Direct. MP4 on December 4th! Fire Emblem looks awesome. Donkey Kong DLC already

papercup posted...

Watched the Fire Emblem trailer. Looks really good! Dig the ancient Rome theming

Looks like there are Chariot units now, something I've been wanting for a while.

chariot units are stinky

It won't be good because Engage only came out two years ago.

Revelation34 posted...

It won't be good because Engage only came out two years ago.

2-3 years has been the gap between most FE games, and it'll be 3 years by the time Fortune's Weave comes along (Engage launched in January, so I'm guessing it's not very likely that FW will come in sooner than its anniversary if there's no date yet). Heck, 6, 7, 8, and 9 were only one year apart from each other, and 11 was only one year after 10 (though it was a remake). The 3.5-year gap between Three Houses and Engage was longer than between any other two games, unless you discount remakes (in which case it was ~4 years between Fates and 3H, ignoring Echoes releasing between them), and there's a fair chance Engage-FW will be comparable to that (the 3.5-year mark will be July 20 of next year).

Engage was peak. Really hope it's more like that and less like Three Houses.

At least story-wise, it appears to be related to 3H (not sure if prequel or sequel). I'd expect it to also be similar gameplay-wise.

adjl posted...

At least story-wise, it appears to be related to 3H (not sure if prequel or sequel). I'd expect it to also be similar gameplay-wise.

Wow I hope they add the function to micromanage your students bowel movements that was a big miss from 3 houses

Supports will now be based on the number of poops each unit has shared with each other.