Topic: Nintendo Switch --OT--

Super Mario Bros. Wonder is a ton of fun.

It's not on the level of something like DKC: Tropical Freeze or Rayman Legends, but it has reminded me how much I've missed having a semi-regular influx of new 2D Mario platformers.

I love how the game sort of de-centers Mario now. I'm playing through with Princess Peach, and even the in-game narration refers to "Peach's party" throughout.

Grabbed it with a voucher. Other one is probably going to Princess Peach: Showtime! next year.

I know this is mostly a Playstation forum and Spidey 2 came out the same time but I am genuinely suprised to see this is the only post about Wonder @Ralizah! (Though to be honest I kinda forgot Zelda came out this year with how muted talk about it seems to have been outside of it's launch month compared to BotW where you didn't seem to hear the end of it).

I can't actually say much about Wonder but I'm glad there's a nice selection of characters you can choose from as I've never understood the love for Mario as a character. The games themselves sure but Mario himself? Pretty sure dishwater is more exciting

Princess Peach: Showtime looked a bit basic and rough to me when I saw it in the direct but I hope to be proven wrong about that!

@HallowMoonshadow Me too. A new and extremely well-received 2D Mario isn't exactly a common event. Although I suppose, just given the nature of the game, there's not a lot that needs to be said about it.

RE: Zelda - It's the nature of the beast with highly iterative sequels. Same reason GoW Ragnarok talk was far more muted compared to the 2018 game.

BotW rewrote large portions of the book when it came to open world game design. TotK is BotW, but even bigger and with some really innovative building mechanics layered on.

The Princess Peach game could be a really cool puzzle-platformer, or it could be a shallow stab at Nintendo's sizeable female demographic. I choose to remain hopeful. If nothing else, it's not wildly sexist in concept like Super Princess Peach was.

My girl needs representation.

Okay I REALLY thought soneone else might've chimed in about Wonder by now (I saw a bit of a stream and the whole wonder seed business seems like it could add some much needed variety) but... I guess not @Ralizah!

Bit of a shame as it does seem to actually seem to shake things up a bit compared to the last few 2D Mario games.

Wasn't that Princess Peach game something about her using her emotions to do something? Which yeah... Does sound rather bad. Hopefully Showtime does Peach justice!

... Bit of a side note (but hey it's been out on switch forever) but I saw Gnosia is finally getting a PS4/PS5 port! I never thought it was going to tbh. Can't wait to finally try it, been itching to do so ever since I read your review on it!

@HallowMoonshadow The Wonder Flowers add some creative, transformative gimmick or setpiece to each and every level. It's pretty cool. The complete opposite of the NSMB games where you always knew what to expect from each game.

It's selling well, but I guess there's not a lot of hype in Playstation Land.

It's worse than you think. You had to carefully trigger Princess Peach's extreme mood swings to solve environmental puzzles, since they have abilities or elemental properties attached to them. So, like, if you need to fill a hole, you trigger her to become sad, and she cries so profusely the tears fill it up. If you need to burn something, you trigger her to become mad, and she snarls and stomps around as flames jet out of her body.

It's particularly amusing when you need to swap between the various moods in short succession lol.

It's... creative, but also deeply sexist imo. I've never been comfortable with it. The girl deserves better. I'm hoping Showtime gives her that moment she deserves.

tbf between her portrayal in the Mario movie and the fact that Mario Wonder doesn't feature her getting kidnapped and treats her like the protagonist if you play as her, it's already been a pretty good year for non-stereotyped portrayals of the character.

And yes! Get Gnosia! I'm so glad it's getting ported elsewhere. Such a unique experience.

Yeah, Wonder has been pretty great so far.

It's definitely the weirdest a 2D Mario platformer has been since the Land games (in fact, I'd love for them to use it as a base to make a Land 2 remake), the various "Wonder" effects keep you on your toes, and the non-linear elements are a nice touch (I'm currently in the desert world which makes great use of the idea, with lots of levels that are hidden at first glance). I was also surprised to see that World 3 lacked a castle or airship level as it's climax, so it's definitely defying expectations in many ways.

Finally started Pikmin 4. Fun little game. Definitely has that Nintendo charm.

Super Mario Wonder kinda reminds me a bit of Rayman Legends for the style and a very teensy bit like Yooka-Laylee & The Impossible Lair in that every level has a gimmick to it @Ralizah.

Not quite the same of course for either game but they're the best comparisons I could come up with

... Also does the Elephant transformation have any actual use? It looked really pointless to me when I saw gameplay, as if it was only made for memes

Oooph. Yeah that is bad for Super Princess Peach. Creative for sure like you say but it certainly does make me facepalm as well from how nobody thought about the implications it could have.

Haven't actually seen the Mario movie so can't comment on that (Though if I recall correctly from the one trailer I saw she came off as a bit of a generic tough girl) but it's nice Wonder gives her protag status and hopefully Showtime gives her the limelight she deserves!

@HallowMoonshadow The badges you unlock in-game are heavily reminiscent of the tonics in Impossible Lair as well. And yeah, the style definitely cribbed a bit from Rayman Legends.

Yeah, so, the elephant transformation had a unique mechanic where you can hold water in your trunk and splash objects in your environment with it. Elephants are also heavier and able to more easily push blocks.

Still, the game does very little with it. It's one of the complaints I noted in the (probably needlessly critical) review I just posted.

The movie trailers sell Peach as a typical Hollywood tough girl, which rubbed me the wrong way, but she's actually not that bad in the movie. She's just not helpless.

https://hard-drive.net/hd/video-games/doug-bowser-slowly-walk...

Sometimes I question the types of games that I play!

Seriously though, it’s really good to be playing Xenoblade Chronicles 3 again. I’ve been stuck for months on what I assumed were mandatory tough enemies, but it turned out that I could bypass them by going a different route. Hoping to have this done by the time Super Mario RPG is out.

I’m hopeful going to get Super Mario RPG next week, so I might do the 2 vouchers for £84 deal. Not too sure what my second game will be. I’m leaning towards Kirby and the Forgotten Land or Super Mario Bros. Wonder. Any suggestions? The games I own are…

Xenoblade Chronicles 3
Super Mario Odyssey
Metroid Prime Remastered
The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
Animal Crossing: New Horizons
Pikmin 4
Famicom Detective Club: The Missing Heir
Famicom Detective Club: The Girl Who Stands Behind

So there’s plenty of games for me to choose from.

@Bentleyma yeah, you can't go wrong with either Forgotten Land or Wonder (probably the best amongst the Kirby & Mario platforming games you don't have, though I'd put Return to Dreamland Deluxe & 3D World + Bowser's Fury on the list for future purchasing decisions).

Otherwise the other Xenoblade games are good shouts (but sounds like you may be RPGed out after 3 & Mario RPG), as would Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze, Metroid Dread, Luigi's Mansion 3, Astral Chain, Daemon X Machina, & SMTV (though I'm not sure if the last two would be voucher eligible).

Of course there's BotW/TotK as well, but those are high profile enough that I figure there's probably a reason you don't already have (or haven't mentioned) them.

@Bentleyma Have you taken a look at the Fire Emblem games on the system?

I'd recommend BotW, but as @RR529 said, if you don't already own it, I'm guessing you're not excited for it.

I'll second and third Metroid Dread and Tropical Freeze. Two of the best side-scrolling games on the system.

Kirby is pretty solid as well, so you won't go wrong opting for that.

@RR529 @Ralizah Some good suggestions there. The problem is that I want pretty much every game by Nintendo that isn’t a sports game! I think that I definitely want something that isn’t an RPG. I’ve played Breath of the Wild before and while I didn’t hate it, it didn’t really click with me. I do want to give either that or Tears of the Kingdom another shot at some point though. I think I’m almost certain I want to grab a platformer. That or Detective Pikachu Returns has caught my attention, but I wouldn’t be saving much money if I bought that.

The final wave of tracks are available in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, along with a few new characters. Overall I think they’ve been a pretty decent selection. I do wish that more effort went into them, but any new content is better than no new content. I don’t even mind the more simplistic look, the tracks still look nice enough. My biggest issue is the scale of everything.

It just looks silly. Especially when you’ve got a regular sized Toad sat on a Mario Kart TV van taken from the base game and right next to that you have a giant 5 foot Toad.

Alright gang! Looking to buy some eshop credit for my son and was wondering where is the cheapest as internet searches are pretty chaotic. Traditionally I've used CDkeys for psn credit and found it to be ok on the whole. Any advice would be greatly appreciated, ta 👍

@AgentCooper I think CDkeys is probably the best you’re going to do.

@Bentleyma lol Reminds me of Giant Land from SMB3.

@Bentleyma I see, fair enough buddy, thanks 👍