Super Mario Odyssey | Cheerful Ghost

Nintendo Drops Virtual Game Cards Ahead of Switch 2 Launch

"The new Virtual Game Card feature lets you easily manage your digital Nintendo Switch games, including lending to your Nintendo Account Family Group members! This new system update will be released in late April."

Virtual Game Cards aren't as flexible as regular game carts but it's something and nice to see before the launch of Switch 2.

Summer Games Done Quick 2021 IS HERE!

The Summer Games Done Quick charity speedrun has begun and if you love watching people play videos games fast and supporting incredible charities, this for you. You know, even if that might not sound like it’s your thing I’d recommend clicking the play button above to give a random speedrun a few minutes.

Summer Games Done Quick donations go to support Doctors Without Borders which is a fantastic charity that brings medical help to the places in the world that are in need. So if you have a few minutes to watch some fun runs and a few bucks to chip in make sure you do!

Summer Games Done Quick runs from July 4th - 10th.

https://gamesdonequick.com/
... Read All

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 07/08/2021 at 07:43am

Charity is definitely cool. This particularly catches my interest, because of GTA3. I really loved that game when it came out. I couldn't get enough of it. I had played a little bit of GTA and/or GTA2, but GTA3 really put the game in the spotlight for me. I enjoyed Vice City and San Andreas, too, when they came out. There were some GTA games for the PSP, too, which I also enjoyed. Although, I never did get my hands on Chinatown Wars.

I liked GTA4 and it's expansion packs, but I've only completed all three once on PS3. It was probably the first or at least among the first games I bought when I got my PS3. I have it on Steam now and I did start playing it at one time, but I didn't play it very long. Looking at it now, Steam says I've spent just less than 3 hours playing it. I had it installed recently, but uninstalled it since I hadn't gotten to it, found other games to play instead, and needed the storage space (my SSD is only 1TB, unlike the 2TB HDD I had for the Alienware, which unfortunately both the PC and HDD died two years ago).

Now we have GTA5 and it blew away everything else. I imagine it has to be the most popular in the series and even almost 7 years later, it remains popular. I imagine this could be in part because it was released for the next generation of consoles. That was nice, too, because it got some improvements.

Part of it's continued popularity probably also has to do with GTA Online. I played GTAO a little bit, but I was turned off by it, because of other players. It wouldn't take long for someone to kill you once you stepped out of your residence. I revisited GTAO last year, because there was a quest you could do which rewarded you with a special gun for Red Dead Redemption 2. Once I finished that, I was done with it.

Back to this, it's interesting. I still wonder how someone could speed run through the game and a simple search on Google tells me it's been done in about an hour. Wow! I didn't look into the details of how that's been done, but I still find that amazing.

I'm glad these modern GTA games are on Steam, I have them all, though I haven't played them much. I'd still like to go back and play some of them again. I remember trying to replay San Andreas when I got it on Steam, but I had an issue with the mission where you have to use the hydraulics on your car. The controls just didn't seem to work, but I later read how you're supposed to do it.

Anyway, I just thought I'd share my thoughts. I'm interested to know what anyone else here thinks about this and the series in general.

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Super Mario Odyssey Made Me Love Gaming Again

Travis gives this an astounding "Must Play" on the Ghost Scale

This achieves something special, and it would be a shame to miss it.

Travis gives this a "Must Play" on the Ghost Scale

This achieves something special, and it would be a shame to miss it.

This game is bonkers. In the best way possible. It's trying to edge out Super Mario World to be my favorite Mario game ever, and it's easily the best game I've played in years. It reignited my love for gaming. When I think of labels for myself, "gamer" is definitely one of them, but for the past year or so I haven't been prioritizing gaming like I once did. It wasn't because of a lack of time, but a lack of motivation. I'd get excited about a game and give it a few hours, and then just kinda drift. They were all super fun games, I just ... drifted. All that changed as soon as I finally got my hands on this game.

The premise is pretty simple. Princess Peach has been... Read All This game is bonkers. In the best way possible. It's trying to edge out Super Mario World to be my favorite Mario game ever, and it's easily the best game I've played in years. It reignited my love for gaming. When I think of labels for myself, "gamer" is definitely one of them, but for the past year or so I haven't been prioritizing gaming like I once did. It wasn't because of a lack of time, but a lack of motivation. I'd get excited about a game and give it a few hours, and then just kinda drift. They were all super fun games, I just ... drifted. All that changed as soon as I finally got my hands on this game.

The premise is pretty simple. Princess Peach has been kidnapped by Bowser (go figure, right?) and you have to save her. The game takes place in a world with many varied kingdoms, but you start off in the Hat Kingdom, a kingdom populated by sentient hats. Makes sense. There you meet your trusty companion for this game, Cappy, who can be thrown onto many enemies, NPCs, and some objects to take control of them, with their abilities. Everything from manhole covers to dinosaurs. This leads to some of the most inventive and unique gameplay I've ever seen.

To put some misconceptions aside, this isn't Mario in a modern, real-life setting except for one kingdom. Much of the pre-release coverage was from the Metro Kingdom, and with good reason. It's probably the best part of the game for me. But it appeared to many (myself included) that the game may take place in a more real-world setting, or at least have a real-world overworld with the ability to travel to others. That's not the case. It's just one of many unique areas you can visit. It's actually the home of Pauline, the damsel in distress from the early arcade Donkey Kong games, and she's come a long way since her being-captured-by-a-giant-ape roots. She's now the mayor! The story there culminates in one of the game's best set pieces with an homage to DK and Super Mario Bros.

Speaking of which, another game mechanic is 8-bit sections that fit in seamlessly with the 3D world. Hop into a pipe and you might be in an 8-bit Mario stage that plays out on a cliffside, allowing you to scale to higher places. I love seeing how Nintendo continues to reference their history while keeping things fresh.

Overall, the graphics are exactly what you'd expect from a Mario game, just with some more shininess and polish, but the music is the real MVP here. The soundtrack is full of songs that will get stuck in your head, especially Jump Up Superstar from the aforementioned Metro Kingdom. But look closer and you'll notice that little NPC animations are in time with the music. Listen as you dive underwater and you'll hear the song seamlessly transition to a version of the same song without the higher-pitched instruments and a softer EQ. And every song transitions to an 8-bit version when you enter those sections. Incidental sounds change key to match the music currently playing. The level of attention and detail here is astounding and very appreciated.

The mechanics keep a lot of the same platforming actions from previous 3D Mario games, and they still feel the same as ever. But some new hat-assisted techniques spice things up. You can take the long way around, or do some crazy hat parkour to take a shortcut. And each creature you take over with the hat gives new abilities that elevate the gameplay. Stack some goombas, throw some hammers with a hammer bro, jump into lava with a fireball, curve around corners with a caterpillar. Like I said in the first sentence of this review: bonkers. In the best way possible.

And if you're a couch co-op aficionado, this game improves on that from the Galaxy titles. I'd say about 95% of my playthrough, my wife was playing Cappy. If you remember Galaxy's co-op, player two controlled the star you kept in your hat and could influence the world a bit while also collecting star bits. Cappy has far more to do in this game, and it adds to the fun factor significantly. Cappy can take care of some enemies or hold others, and can allow player one to focus on other things.

One criticism the game has received is that it's too easy. It may be true that it's easy to get to the end credits, but as with all recent entries in the series, things really get going after you beat the game, and that's where the true challenge lies. There are a total of 836 moon instances in the game. Some of those, especially from boss fights, give you multi-moons, which drives that total up to 880. You can also buy moons for a boost, so you can rack up to a grand total of 999 moons with that. You only need 120 to beat the game, and yeah that's pretty easy to do. A secret area unlocks at 250 moons with some of the hardest platforming challenges I've ever experienced. Another unlocks at 500 that's basically a marathon of tricky but not punishing sections-- the trick here is that there are no checkpoints, so one mistake sends you back to the beginning. THEN after that there's a secret version of the final boss battle that's much harder. So yeah, if you're just playing for the credits, it may not be that challenging, but the challenge is there if you want it.

But it's not all rosy and peachy. A few minigames throughout the game are just not fun at all, and require kinda ludicrous scores to get a moon. Some moons out of those 836 are just uninspired. But the few bad things are a drop in the bucket, all told. The game is truly magical.

This is the game I needed to revitalize my gaming interest. After finishing it, I notice myself wanting to play other games in my backlog and games I have started but walked away from. It's pure, unbridled fun. All told, I racked up every single moon, every purple coin, every costume, and every collectible in around 75 hours. I wish I had 25 more. Or 50. I'm currently playing The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and that game is winning Game of the Year awards like crazy, and seems to be on track to winning ours as well. If something can unseat Super Mario Odyssey for the best game of 2017 then I'm very interested.

I normally hesitate to give scores for games, but this one needs no hesitation. Super Mario Odyssey is a perfect 10/10, easily. There are issues and annoyances, but those are very easy to look past when a game is this fun. It's an absolute must play.

Now You Can Eat Mario For Breakfast - Super Mario Cereal!

https://media.nintendo.com/nintendo/bin/TbOkYKxoTI8bMOpdVokcsFUycia3Q4_Z/3U9SYJ8Gp80E9bLMkniqSWd1JQjU4KH0.jpg

Back in the 1986 Nintendo released the Nintendo Cereal System that was available for about three years before it was discontinued. It had two bags of cereal such as the separate Mario & Zelda bags. My favorite was the Zelda cereal and I only ate it a couple of time's at my cousin's house as my parents never let us get it. Looks like kids everywhere are getting another chance to eat Mario in cereal form because Nintendo is partnering with Kelloggs to bring us Super Mario Cereal. Not only will kids get to eat Mario but the box comes with a scannable Amiibo that allows you in game bonuses in Super Mario Odyssey such as gold coins and hearts.

Super Mario Cereal will be... Read All

What Are You Playing Right Now - Crazy Releases All At Once October Edition!

If you keep pace with the latest releases in gaming this is an interesting week to be paying attention. Today saw the launch of Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus, Super Mario Odyssey and Assassins Creed Origins. If you count all the other not-quite-new-releases such as Destiny 2, the Super Nintendo Classic and the new South Park game how can anyone play all this stuff? Well if you're me you don't even try and just keep playing Mega Man 2 and Castlevania every night on your NES Classic. Which has honestly been a ton of fun and with a job how would I have time for a 60+ hour game anyway? That said, I absolutely loved Wolfenstein: The New Order so I bet that's something I... Read All

Will_Ball Game Mod Super Member wrote on 10/27/2017 at 03:32pm

I am playing The Final Fantasy Legend on my Game Boy Color, a little bit of Grim Fandango and some StarTropics.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 10/27/2017 at 06:27pm

I'm playing Fallout New Vegas on Steam. I'd like to get Wolfenstein II, but can't afford it at the moment. I'm also waiting on Ark's new DLC to come out.

Travis Admin wrote on 10/28/2017 at 01:47am

WOLF 2 BABY

Taking a break from the retro for this one.

Will_Ball Game Mod Super Member wrote on 10/28/2017 at 02:59am

I will get Wolf 2 on the switch.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 10/28/2017 at 06:21pm

Wolf 2 console comparisons. https://youtu.be/YxVD5z3Kj64

scrypt Supporter wrote on 10/30/2017 at 01:34am

Everspace, with sprinkles of other games here and there, but mostly Everspace.

Wolf 2 looks amazing, but that will probably be a PS4 pickup for me. I had a lot of fun with New Order on PS4, and I'm confident now (thanks for that video, Jon) that New Colossus will run just as well there.

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Invasion of the Body Snatchers

Throw your hat, land it on someone/something else, become that person/thing.

This is an insane new mechanic. I'd love to find out more about this story line. Has Mario been a zombie of the hat through all the past games?!?

The music sounds incredible. I'm hoping the actual game has a soundtrack like this!

Anyone else completely confused by this trailer?

Travis Admin wrote on 06/15/2017 at 04:41pm

The music reminds me of the Japanese lounge/swing that's been popular for a few years. The Katamari games are full of it, and I loooove it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwmDUVxBxA0

This game looks like total insanity. I'm so incredibly confused and intrigued.

Will_Ball Game Mod Super Member wrote on 06/15/2017 at 04:49pm

I felt bad for the frog.

AdamPFarnsworth Post Author wrote on 06/15/2017 at 05:07pm

That's a fantastic song from Katamari!

scrypt Supporter wrote on 06/16/2017 at 05:53am

It does look like an interesting new direction for Mario, for sure :D.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 06/16/2017 at 07:46am

I agree, the music sounded cool and relevant to the game, and the mechanics looked cool, too. It reminds me of Mario N64, Sunshine, and Galaxy.

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