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aion-rsa · 3 years

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30 Best Nintendo Switch Games

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After four years of the Wii U, we were eagerly anticipating its successor. While there were plenty of great games on the doomed platform, the Wii U just never caught fire with the public at large. But four years into the Switch’s lifespan, and Nintendo has turned things around dramatically.

Instead of winding things down, the Switch shows no signs of slowing down, with plenty of excellent third party games in its library, as well as more than a few innovative titles from the Big N as well. The platform has also been a great way to bring underrated Wii U gems to a broader audience of Switch adopters. With a rumored 4K upgrade on the horizon, there’s a good chance that the Switch may even have another four years ahead of it,

But for now, these are the very best games available for the portable-console hybrid:

30. Untitled Goose Game

2019 | House House

Anyone who’s even been to a pond can attest to one simple fact: Geese are dicks. Untitled Goose Game lets you finally live out the fantasy of being one of nature’s most annoying creatures, flapping, honking, and generally being a nuisance to the residents of a fair English town. The only thing missing is the goose poop covering everything in sight.

Untitled Goose Game is a short but sweet experience inspired by classic stealth games that adds just enough charm and innovation to make it one of the best indie games on the platform.

29. Dark Souls Remastered

2018 | FromSoftware

There’s not much more that can be said about Dark Souls that hasn’t been said about this revolutionary action RPG title already. Its tough-as-nails difficulty, foreboding atmosphere, and esoteric storytelling have made it a fan-favorite and critical darling.

The Switch port doesn’t change much. It’s actually a visual downgrade from the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 versions without the benefit of 4K resolution, but being able to play Dark Souls on-the-go more than makes up for that. This may not be the best version of Dark Souls, but the gameplay still stands up, and like a lot of Switch ports, being able to finally play the game on a handheld makes it a worthy pick up.

28. Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle

2017 | Ubisoft

“What if Mario starred in an XCOM game?” might sound like the basis for some very ambitious fan fiction, but somehow Ubisoft pulled it off with Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle. The Rabbids actually fit into the Mushroom Kingdom pretty well and the Rabbid impersonations of Mario and company are hilarious.

Even if Mario games aren’t typically your cup of tea, the tactics featured in this turn-based strategy title add a layer of difficulty rarely seen in the plumber’s resume. If you aren’t careful, the corrupted Rabbids will repeatedly hand you your ass on a platter.

27. Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker

2018 | Nintendo

The Captain Toad levels were the best parts of Super Mario 3D World, one of the few well-reviewed Wii U exclusives that haven’t yet made it to the Switch. Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker delivered more of what people loved, this time for the 3DS.

Ignoring traditional Mario-style platforming for isometric puzzles that bar jumping, getting all the stars in every level of Captain Toad is genuinely challenging but rarely frustrating. Captain Toad also stands out as one of the better Wii U ports for the Switch, thanks to a number of new levels, although many of them are only available as paid DLC.

26. Starlink: Battle for Atlas

2018 | Ubisoft

Starlink: Battle for Atlas is a fun space shooter bogged down by a confusing and frankly unnecessary toys-to-life gimmick. The basic premise equates to a sort of smaller scale No Man’s Sky, but with highly customizable ships and weapons.

The big draw for the Switch version is exclusive Star Fox content, missions that feel like the animal-themed space combat game people have wanted from Nintendo for years. They’re certainly better than Star Fox Zero. The retail version even comes with awesome Arwing and Fox McCloud toys.

With gamers largely burned out on the toys-to-life phenomenon, Starlink didn’t exactly light up the sales charts, but it did sell best on the Switch and is scratching that Star Fox itch.

25. Hollow Knight

2018 | Team Cherry

Nintendo basically created the Metroidvania genre, but the company has been remarkably stingy about releasing new 2D Metroid games. Thankfully, Hollow Knight is here to fill the void with its insect-filled underground world. While there have been many takes on the Metroidvania formula over the years, a Tim Burton-esque aesthetic gives Hollow Knight a unique edge over the rest of the field.

Of course, Metroidvanias are only as strong as their maps, and Hollow Knight’s giant, secret-filled levels are easy to get lost in for hours. And then there’s the Dark Souls-inspired combat, which requires both patience and skill to master. We can’t wait for the sequel.

24. Xenoblade Chronicles 2

2017 | Monolith Soft

Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is not for casual gamers. The main story alone takes more than 60 hours to complete and you’re looking at well over 100 hours of gameplay if you dig into the side content. Its systems, particularly the Pokemon-style Blade system, aren’t very user-friendly and require time to truly understand. But for those who are willing to keep with it, or who enjoy complex stories and mastering all the intricacies of a JRPG, there are few games of this caliber available on the current crop of consoles. And none of them are on the Switch.

23. The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening

2019 | Nintendo

The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening is arguably the very best game for the original Game Boy, held back only by the portable’s lack of buttons and color. The Switch-exclusive remake easily rectifies those issues, and improves on this classic with so much more, including customizable dungeons and a delightful new art style inspired by children’s toys.

The core Link’s Awakening experience remains as enjoyable as it first was back in 1993, with the deceptively small Koholint Island giving way to nine labyrinthine dungeons and some of the best puzzles in the entire series. This is a great example of a remake done right.

22. Stardew Valley

2017 | ConcernedApe

There’s something oddly relaxing about farming games that Stardew Valley taps into better than any other game in the niche genre. Maybe it’s the especially calming music, the charmingly well-written characters, or just being able to live out your agricultural dreams at your own pace. Whatever the exact reason, Stardew Valley has garnered millions of fans since its original release.

Part of the appeal is the regular updates. Just when you think you’ve seen everything, ConcernedApe will add new content to keep the game fresh. And while Stardew Valley is a fantastic experience on any of the numerous platforms it’s currently available on, being able to play it anywhere on the Switch arguably makes it the definitive version.

21. New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe

2019 | Nintendo

The Switch’s success has allowed many Wii U games to enjoy a second life. With their brief levels, Mario games have always been perfect for handhelds, and with its pitch-perfect controls and heavy nods to Super Mario Bros. 3, New Super Mario Bros. U is arguably the best side-scrolling Mario game of the last decade. The Switch port even includes all of the New Super Luigi U content previously only available as DLC and a new playable character, Toadette.

20. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

2017 | Bethesda Game Studios

We probably didn’t need another version of Skyrim, and the Switch port doesn’t look that much better than the original 2011 release, but as with other ports of older games, the ability to play one of the greatest RPGs anywhere is a good reason to double (or triple) dip. And there are a few cool unlockables though amiibos, like the Master Sword.

It’s impossible to ignore such a classic RPG on the Switch, especially now that you can play it on your lunch break or on the bus. But seriously, Bethesda, you can stop porting Skyrim now. Get to work on The Elder Scrolls VI and maybe bring that to the Switch.

19. Pokemon Let’s Go, Pikachu/Eevee

2018 | Game Freak

The Pokemon franchise has been around so long at this point that the Let’s Go games are actually the second remakes of the original 1996 Red and Blue games. That’s okay though, as even the last remakes were released on the Game Boy Advance in 2004. By 2018, it was time for a new coat of paint.

Let’s Go freshens things up with modern 3D graphics, wild Pokemon that are now visible in the overworld, and Mega Evolutions from more recent games. The biggest change is the most divisive: motion controls for catching Pokemon. It can be a little silly at first, but it actually adds to the game’s charm.

18. Luigi’s Mansion 3

2019 | Nintendo

Luigi has long played second fiddle to his more famous brother, but after three spooky solo games, he’s built up a successful franchise in its own right that ranks up there among Nintendo’s best. If the previous Luigi’s Mansion games had a flaw, it’s that they got a little repetitive. Luigi’s Mansion 3 thankfully fixes that problem with a massive 17-story hotel with plenty of puzzles to solve and ghosts to trap. And while Luigi’s Mansion 3 is a fantastic single player experience, what really gives it legs is its co-operative modes for 2-8 players, making it the best ghostbusting game since, well…Ghostbusters.

17. Octopath Traveler

2018 | Square Enix

Square Enix’s love letter to 16-bit RPGs might just be better than the classics. Octopath Traveler boasts an innovative battle system that tweaks the typical turn-based formula and unique “HD-2D” graphics that are unlike anything else in the genre. It’s easy to lose several hours playing in portable mode or at home on a big screen. And while the story drags a little bit at times, it’s still worth playing to the end to see how the tales of all eight protagonists play out.

16. Astral Chain

2019 | PlatinumGames

PlatinumGames’ streak of creating the best and most unique action games in the industry continues with Astral Chain. Everything that has made the developer’s past titles like Bayonetta and Nier: Automata instant classics is on full display here, from the massive set pieces to the bonkers anime-inspired story of humanity making its last stand against an interdimensional threat.

And while you’d think those previous efforts pushed combat in an action game to its limits, Astral Chain’s innovative gameplay finds way to introduce new twists to the Platinum secret sauce. Here, you control both your main character and a fully customizable tethered Legion to maximize combos. This is the perfect game to tie you over until Platinum finishes up Bayonetta 3.

15. Bayonetta 2

2018 | PlatinumGames

The first Bayonetta was a sexy, stylish take on action-adventure hack and slash games, with some of the smoothest combat around and a badass protagonist. Bayonetta 2 doesn’t mess with the winning formula but adds more combat options and some of the most ridiculous setpieces ever put in a game, like a battle on top of a moving fighter jet. If you’re looking for something a little less family-friendly on the Switch, look no further than this hectic action game.

14. Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze

2018 | Retro Studios

The original Donkey Kong Country trilogy is a highlight of the 16-bit era, but in hindsight, it was more beloved for its graphics than its gameplay. It was only once Retro Studios took over the series that the franchise began to live up to its potential, with super smooth platforming and levels more creative than even some of Nintendo’s Super Mario games.

While Retro’s first Donkey Kong Country game on the Wii was a little too punishing, Tropical Freeze got the balance between challenging and frustrating just right. The game was originally released on the Wii U, and the Switch port adds Funky Kong as a playable character. This is an excellent platformer to play with a friend, too!

13. Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury

2021 | Nintendo

Super Mario 3D World is a top-notch Mario game, so it was always a shame that it released on a platform as underwhelming as the Wii U. The genius of the game is how it so perfectly combines the best elements of 2D and 3D Mario games. Levels have clear beginnings and endings, and ultimately you just need to climb the flag pole at the goal, but there’s also plenty of room for exploration to track down every last green star. Plus, the cat suit is one of the weirdest and best power-ups in any Mario game.

Everything that made the original Wii U release a must-have remains the highlight of the Switch port, but the addition of Bowser’s Fury, a new adventure where Mario and Bowser Jr. must quickly complete missions before the arrival of a giant, enraged Bowser, makes this one well worth a double dip.

12. Pokemon Sword and Shield

2019 | Game Freak

Sword and Shield may not be the best games in the long-running Pokemon series. Arguably, the lack of some older Pokemon (even after two big expansions) is a pretty big mark against it, but the eighth generation still has a lot going for it thanks to more streamlined gameplay, a massive open-world, and the fact this is the first time a mainline Pokemon game can be played on a home console. That’s something that fans have been clamoring for since the series’ inception back in 1996.

So no, you can’t quite “catch ‘em all,” but you can still have a great time battling the gym leaders of Galar in the seemingly never-ending quest to become the very best.

11. Sid Meier’s Civilization VI

2018 | Firaxis Games

Despite the Switch’s early success, it’s still home to relatively few third-party console exclusives, but Civilization VI alone almost makes up for that deficit. This is an uncompromising PC port with 24 different civilizations available from the get-go, and all of the features from the original version. It also works great with either a controller or touchscreen controls. If you’re looking for a 4X strategy game on the Switch, Civilization VI is the one.

10. Diablo III: Eternal Collection

2018 | Blizzard Entertainment

Diablo III is one of the best games of the last decade. The Switch port is late to the party, but if you really want to slay demons on the go and don’t have a laptop handy, this is the perfect way to play the classic action RPG.

The Switch version adds a handful of Legend of Zelda items, including a Ganondorf costume. It’s not an earth-shattering exclusive, but it’s an easy excuse to sink a few more hours into this game.

9. Fire Emblem: Three Houses

2019 | Nintendo

Nintendo is still mostly known for accessible games that appeal to a wider audience. But then there’s Fire Emblem, a series of hardcore tactical RPGs where every battle can mean permanent death for you and your allies. While still true to its roots, Three Houses takes some liberties with the typical Fire Emblem gameplay. There are still plenty of battles to be fought, but the first half of the game largely takes place at a monastery where you’re a teacher preparing your students for war. And the long-used “weapon triangle” has mostly been replaced with the need to equip the best weapons for each character, adding a new layer of strategy.

As if all that didn’t make for dozens of hours of gameplay, the ability to choose which of the titular three houses you belong to has radically different consequences for the game’s story. It takes a very long time to experience everything that Three Houses has to offer.

8. Super Mario Maker 2

2019 | Nintendo

Super Mario Maker 2 is the definitive Mario game, building on its already near-perfect predecessor with new power ups, a world maker, and assets from Super Mario 3D World. The star of the show is the almost endless supply of user created levels that constantly surprise with twists on other genres and some of the most fiendishly difficult levels ever devised. And if you’re the creative type, the course maker remains one of the most intuitive modes in any game, allowing you to design perfectly playable new levels in just a few minutes.

Even if making Mario levels isn’t you’re thing, Super Mario Maker 2 includes a surprisingly fun story mode of 100 original levels that stand toe-to-toe with anything else in the legendary franchise.

7. Hades

2020 | Supergiant Games

Rarely do story, gameplay, and atmosphere mesh together as well as they do in the rogue-lite Hades. You play as Zagreus, the prince of the Underworld, with the simple goal of escaping from the monotonous life you’re forced to lead under your apathetic father. You’ll die a lot during this quest, but each time you’ll get a little stronger and gain new abilities from the gods of Olympus that keep the experience fresh. Hades knows exactly how to leverage its setting, perfectly capturing each deity’s unique personality and abilities.

The rogue-lite gameplay is also well suited for short bursts of gameplay or marathon sessions, making it a perfect fit for the Switch, which is currently the only home console its available on. It’s easily the best third-party game on the system, and one of the best reasons to pick up a Switch if you haven’t already.

6. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe

2017 | Nintendo

Mario Kart 8 is the best kart racing game ever made. That was true with the original Wii U release and it’s true of the Switch port, which includes all previously released DLC and adds a few new characters and a completely reworked battle mode. Each and every track has its own challenges and the addition of anti-gravity racing is a nice update to the formula.

With tracks and characters from F-Zero, The Legend of Zelda, and Animal Crossing, Mario Kart 8 also feels like the most complete Nintendo racing game of all time. There’s really no reason for a Switch owner not to have this one in their collection.

5. Splatoon 2

2017 | Nintendo

Nintendo has never developed a multiplayer shooter like Call of Duty or Halo. Odds are it never will. But the Splatoon series is just as good as those shooters, especially the second installment. Like with the original, the focus of Splatoon 2 is to use a variety of paint-spraying weapons to cover as much of each level as possible. It’s actually a lot more fun and creative than most of the high-profile shooters out there.

Splatoon 2 adds quite a few new levels, weapons, and unlockables. There’s also a sizable single-player mode, and a ridiculously fun cooperative mode called Salmon Run. If that’s not enough content, Nintendo released the lengthy Octo Expansion DLC in 2018. A copy of Splatoon 2 could occupy a Switch gamer for months.

4. Animal Crossing: New Horizons

2020 | Nintendo

For a lot of people, Animal Crossing isn’t just a game. It’s life. New Horizons was always highly anticipated, but its release at the beginning of the Covid-19 lockdowns made it a much-needed escape for millions of people. Birthdays, graduations, and weddings couldn’t be held in-person, so many were celebrated within New Horizons. Even President Biden and Hong Kong democracy activists set up their own islands.

Even without the specter of Covid-19, New Horizons would still be one of the best games on the Switch. Nintendo has been perfecting the franchise for two decades now, but this version of Animal Crossing is easily the best yet, allowing for near-limitless customization of your own little world. And yet you’re still free to play at your own pace, without any of the pressure of the outside world. The ultimate appeal of Animal Crossing continues to be that it allows us to live our ideal lives.

3. Super Mario Odyssey

2017 | Nintendo

Is Super Mario Odyssey the best 3D Mario game? It’s hard to argue otherwise. Odyssey borrows its level structure and progression system from the beloved Super Mario 64, which Nintendo had largely ignored for the last two decades. Several new twists on the traditional 3D platforming formula, like the ability to throw your new hat buddy Cappy at enemies to take control of them, make Super Mario Odyssey feel incredibly fresh. There probably won’t be another platformer this good on the Switch.

2. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

2018 | Nintendo

Super Smash Bros. has remained wildly popular since it debuted in 1999, and there’s always been a lively debate about which title is the best in the series. Melee arguably has the best mechanics, while Brawl’s Subspace Emissary boasts the most complete story mode. The Wii U game looks fantastic, but the Ice Climbers and Snake were sorely missed.

Ultimate tries to satisfy the fans of each game by including every character who’s ever appeared in the series (plus a few new ones), more than 100 stages from throughout the Nintendo universe, a deep adventure mode called World of Light, and interesting tweaks to even the oldest characters in the roster. If Ultimate isn’t the perfect installment of Smash Bros., we don’t know what is.

Further Reading: Super Smash Bros. Characters Ranked

1. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

2017 | Nintendo

Breath of the Wild is the perfect marriage of traditional Legend of Zelda 3D gameplay and innovative new systems. The world and story are unmistakably Hylian, yet the game puts a major focus on exploration and experimentation to an extent never before seen in the series.

Yes, the number of weapons have been cut down drastically, but the handful of abilities — like freezing time and creating ice blocks — create even more ways to complete the game’s challenges and traverse its world. And you will want to explore every last inch of Hyrule’s beautifully realized world.

For almost two decades, Zelda games closely following the formula established by Ocarina of Time, one of the greatest games ever made. Breath of the Wild throws out almost all of the concepts that Ocarina pioneered and redefines Zelda as something more open-ended and exciting that will hopefully continue to evolve over the next few years.

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daleisgreat · 5 years

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30 Years of GamBoy: How I persevered through the 90s with Nintendo's green-and-black portable as my best friend!

Over the past couple weeks social media has been buzzing with tributes and testimonials for the legacy of the GameBoy on its 30th anniversary of its Japan launch and fast approaching North American launch in 1989. There was also that pic a couple weeks ago of Chris Evans and Scarlett Johansson playing linked two player Tetris that went viral that sent waves of nostalgia down my spine! Like countless other 90s kids I had a devout affection for the GameBoy’s (and its 1998 Color update) enduring legacy into 2001 when its true successor, the GameBoy Advance launched. So it is time to lay out my history with the little gray brick that could, but before I do I would be remiss if I were not to point you towards someone who has been doing phenomenal work chronicling the GameBoy’s history first. Retronauts host, Jeremy Parish has been painstakingly crafting videos detailing every GameBoy release for America and Japan in chronological order and currently is nearing the end of covering games released through 1990. So if you want to catch up and find out about the early hits and likely a plethora of titles you have never heard of before, then click here to dive in.

Unlike a lot of the excellent retrospectives I have been reading these past couple of weeks, minus a couple exceptions, I did not play that many of the AAA GameBoy titles from Nintendo. I was a sucker for licenses from my favorite sports leagues and watered down ports of the latest console games as you will later read about. It was not until I much later got the Official GameBoy Player’s Guide with my first Nintendo Power subscription a few years after I got a GameBoy that I realized what were the key titles for the system. However even after re-reading that bible of GameBoy knowledge multiple times I was adamant on avoiding the powerhouse first party titles like Super Mario Land, Metroid II, Link’s Awakening and Donkey Kong in favor for eye-blinking double take titles you will discover in a bit. My childhood preference of games went against the grain to say the least. With that out of the way, let us flashback to 1993…. I remember begging my parents for a GameBoy for Christmas in 1993 when I was 10. I cannot specifically remember why, but after ruminating about it I pinpointed it down to the fact in 1993 I still had a NES and my parents understandably did not want to budge on dropping $200 for the 16-bit upgrade. The GameBoy was at its height of its popularity at this time and advertisements for the green and black handheld dominated my Saturday morning cartoon lineup. The GameBoy launched at $90 in 1989 so by 1993 I think it was going for around $70 which seemed like a much more realistic sell to my folks at being my one-and-only ‘Santa’ gift for Christmas.

Also around this time I was going through serious pro-wrestling withdrawal. From about 1988 until early 1993 I was an avid WWF kiddo. Big Bossman and The Rockers were my favorites, and I have fond memories of braving the classrooms of Catholic school with my Big Bossman tennis shoes. However, growing up with three other siblings who detested the squared circle made it a battle for control of the household’s sole television. Eventually, the numbers game caught up and I got so use to being bullied out of getting my weekly then-WWF fix that I went nearly three years from early ’93 until late ’95 not watching my favorites on the airwaves. The only other way at that time for me to get my dose of wrestling at home was in the mostly mediocre-to-horrible wrestling games on NES. I played far too many hours of duds like Wrestlemania and Steel Cage Challenge than any kid should have, and double that for the decent at best grapplers on the system like Pro Wrestling and Tecmo World Wrestling. Enter 1993 and Royal Rumble for the Super Nintendo and Genesis. I lost track at the number of times I would play that game setup on free play at store kiosks. I was dazzled by Royal Rumble’s superior 16-bit graphics and standout feature, the Royal Rumble match that saw up to six wrestlers in the ring at once trying to throw everyone out and subsequently replaced with a fresh combatant until the game went through its entire 12-man roster. It seemed as close as it was going to get at the time to the insanely awesome Rumble match in one of my all-time favorite arcade games, WWF WrestleFest. Being able to participate in the chaos of the Royal Rumble match with a controller after endless hours of only one-on-one and tag team matches on various NES games was mind-blowing to 10-year old Dale. All the gaming magazines at the time were echoed my sentiments and gushed with glowing reviews which only served to exacerbate my demand.

Again I pleaded for a SNES and a copy of Royal Rumble for Christmas and again I was denied courtesy of its tall asking price. It was then I went with the aforementioned plan b for the GameBoy. Also hitting NES and GameBoy in 1993 was WWF King of the Ring. King of the Ring sported inferior 8-bit graphics and had a smaller roster of wrestlers and no awesome Royal Rumble match to play, but it did have the not-so-great King of the Ring tournament to play which was only a series of one-on-one matches, but most importantly it would be portable and I could play it anywhere and not have to worry about battling for control of the TV with my siblings to play it. Looking back now those were the catalysts to relentlessly ask my parents for the GameBoy. Growing up with divorced parents meant celebrating most holidays and birthdays twice. I got to celebrate Christmas first with my dad a few days before the actual date of Christmas and was elated to unwrap and discover my very own GameBoy with a copy of its killer-app, Tetris! Over the next couple of days I played an un-healthy amount of Tetris. ‘Gee, if this block-puzzle game I barely heard of before is this awesome, imagine how good the wrestling game would be’ naïve me daydreamed of at the time. However, before I could get to that moment, something unexpected and terrible transpired! On Christmas Eve I was with my family that night going to church for its annual Christmas Eve dinner gathering. To get through the night of being with my family I brought my new electronic best friend with me and snuck in as much Tetris as I could between bites. After we wrapped up and my family got back into the car to go back home my GameBoy was not as snugly tucked into my pocket as I thought and as I shut the car door my GameBoy slid out of my pocket and collided with the blunt force of me shutting the door onto it. As you can see in the screenshot here, the incident caused about 95% of the screen to get cracked and impossible to see and I balled my eyes out that entire night. Kids, do not bring your GameBoy to church or God will strike down upon you when least expected!

To make matters worse on Christmas morning the next day I opened up a copy of WWF King of the Ring for GameBoy from Santa. I plugged it into my cracked GameBoy and was stunned to see it still worked and played the music and it would display the miniscule amount of graphics that were possible in the tiny corners of the GameBoy screen that were not damaged. I must have begged my parents for days to see if they could get the GameBoy replaced or returned or something. I feel horrible now for how irritating I must have been at that time. To my surprise, my mom came through a week or two later and got me a new GameBoy. Once again I was thrilled and beyond belief of how those past couple weeks played out, but from then on I was extra careful with my GameBoy and to this day I still own both my busted and replacement brick GameBoys. For a few months all I had was Tetris and King of the Ring. I loved Tetris and even found a classmate to link up and play two player with a few times and it remains in my GameBoy library to this day! However, even with my childhood adoration for wrestling I could tell King of the Ring would be nothing more than a middling wrestling game and nothing compared to its 16-bit brethren (though it did have some rocking wrestler chiptune entrance themes). At this point a few months into 1994 our local videogame shop was a place called Tiger Play, which was essentially a modern day GameStop that bought, sold and traded new and used games. It was the same store where I persistently requested to put Royal Rumble for play in its kiosk to the chagrin of the employees. I have no idea how they tolerated me back then. I decided it was time to part ways with King of the Ring and trade it in for something else.

In early 1994 Mortal Kombat fever was running wild with the sequel dominating arcades and the home release being super popular with all my classmates. Mortal Kombat did not come out for NES, but it did for GameBoy and the now much wiser 11-year old Dale thought the GameBoy version would be just as good as the SNES, but only not in color and was thrilled to hear Tiger Play would happily do a straight-up trade of King of the Ring for Mortal Kombat. Right away I could tell something was not right to discover it was missing Johnny Cage from its roster and it ran a significantly slower framerate. I still remember having to ever--so—slowly--like--this input the button sequences for the special moves in order to get them to work. Even worse, facing Shang Tsung on there was super cheap because he would automatically cast a projectile when one input away from pulling off a special move so I had to learn to beat him without special moves which took forever, but I eventually pulled it off. The GameBoy version of MK did have one thing going for it over the rest and that would be it was the only version of MK that let you play as Goro! Goro was unstoppable, but even with that trump card, the handheld MK was pretty lousy, but I forced myself to get some enjoyment out of it before marching back to Tiger Play a few months later and trading MK in for Bo Jackson: Baseball and Football. Turns out ‘Bo Knows…’ how to endorse subpar sports game, but the sports nut in me played that to death for a couple years because Tiger Play closed its doors around this time and it would be a few years until our town got another videogame store. After that brief flirtation with trading games in I would only receive two games a year for GameBoy from 1994 through 1998 shortly before I got my first job and could afford my own games then. At that period in my life those two games a year meant everything to me. As hinted above, I was still drawn towards games based on my favorite licenses at that point and Bart vs. the Juggernauts was one of my early games I received as a present. The mini-game collection featured a lot of hair-pulling cheap controls, but I forced myself to stick with it and lit up when it became one of the first games I ever finished. A much better game I got as a present that I also finished was Donkey Kong Land. I have no idea how Rare was able to get graphics that seemed somewhat comparable to the SNES Donkey Kong Country, but I remember loving playing it, but being bummed at its lackluster ending of only ‘congratulations’ with no accompanying DK crew victory graphic. At least Bart vs. the Juggernauts had a wicked ending with Bart getting rewarded with his very own ‘Truck-a-Saurus.’

I learned my lesson from Bo Jackson and MK to do my research for better games on the GameBoy….actually no because I kept asking for more fighting and sports games for Christmas and birthdays, but at least getting varying degrees of better ones this time. The original NFL Quarterback Club on GameBoy I had a ton of fun with. It only featured the ‘Quarterback Club’ mini-games, but no actual game of football that was playable in its console versions. That was not a problem though as me and my siblings had a surprising amount of fun alternating back-and-forth with the various QB drill mini-games available and I could not help but crack up that my sister only played as Jim Kelley because of how close it sounded to ‘Jim Carrey’ who was wildly popular in the mid-90s. NFL Quarterback Club ‘96 was only actual football and no mini-games, but that was fine because it featured a far better handheld rendition of football compared to Bo Jackson and even a season mode with password save option! Yes, I still have my passwords saved inside the instruction manual. Ken Griffey Jr. Presents: MLB is an awesome port of the SNES original and blew away the baseball from Bo Jackson. It had a battery-save season mode along with the ability to trade players with no restrictions so I created my team of all-stars and rocked through an entire season throughout many family car rides. Mortal Kombat II is a huge upgrade from the first portable version, and while it also had a scaled back roster it did feature more precise gameplay, more friendly controls to pull off special moves and fatalities and a stable framerate resulting in me not trading this one away and playing it way too much.

That wraps up all the games I got as gifts and by the time I got my first job the GameBoy Color hit the market so I eagerly picked that up. There were a couple classmates over the years I met where we borrowed games to each other. I did not discover many new gems that way as most kids were also picking up the dreck of LJN licensed games and I could one can only tolerate so much out of WWF RAW, Fist of the North Star and Home Alone on GameBoy before getting out of the game borrowing market. I managed not to get swept up in PokeFever as I was just a couple years older than that targeted demographic. I did pick up Pokemon Blue shortly after its release after reading about the hype for it and got a little ways into it before my younger brother noticed me playing it and asked to borrow it around the time it was blowing up with younger kids so I did not mind letting him hold onto it until it for his GameBoy until he remembered to give it back to me about ten years later. Since the GameBoy Color was only on the market for a few years I will not meander on as long about it. With that said, the GameBoy Color far surpassed the meek GameBoy in every way with the exception of not having a backlit screen. Other than that, it was smaller, fit more comfortably in my pocket, took two less batteries and well….the addition of color! Yes, I picked up a few too many sports and wrestling games on it again that were mediocre at best, but I did have a lot of fun with some enhanced NES re-releases on there with Super Mario Bros. Deluxe, the first three Dragon Warrior games and Micro Machines 1 & 2: Twin Turbo. For original titles my favorites were Mario Golf and Mario Tennis. For people familiar with the recent Golf Story on Switch Mario Golf is a lot like that where it is a sports-RPG hybrid where it has a fairly in-depth narrative at attending a golf/tennis academy to become the best player and being able to take lessons and play mini-games to level-up and prepare for the tournaments. Super Mario Bros. Deluxe had a lot of fun extras and even a two player competitive mode to see who can finish a stage first that I absolutely ate up.

A couple years ago some unearthly thing got me craving the basic, watered down platformers that dominated GameBoy and I hunted down the five Turok games released for GameBoy platforms and I played through the entirety of the first one on the original GameBoy and had a somewhat decent time with it. I did not play it on the actual GameBoy, mind you but instead on my TV courtesy of the Retron 5. I should mention I am a proud owner of the Super GameBoy, GameBoy Player and Retron 5 which made it convenient to bust out these portable games at a much friendlier resolution and not have to worry about the GameBoy’s non-backlit screen. In honor of the 30th anniversary last week I popped in the GameBoy Color version of Turok 2 and played a couple levels into it. For as weak and watered down most handheld versions of console games were, there was something about it that kept me coming back to them. The GameBoy helped me through my childhood, too many family trip car rides to count and several summers on a farm. I probably had an unorthodox library of games for my GameBoy compared to the average owner who probably owned a majority of vastly superior games released by Nintendo, Capcom and Konami. What can I say, I was too young to realize what to ask my folks for. No matter how strong or weak each game wound up, I made sure to get the absolute most out of each game. Thank you Nintendo for releasing and supporting the GameBoy well after you should have throughout the 90s and enabling me to enjoy games anywhere! Thank you to everyone who got through this indulging my childhood memories of portable gaming with me! I hope you all have just as many great childhood handheld system gaming memories as I did whether it was on GameBoy, GameGear or later generations like GBA, PSP, DS, mobile, etc.

#videogames #gameboy #Mortal Kombat #donkey kong #ken griffey jr #tetris #Wrestling #king of the ring #royal rumble #nintendo #Turok #nfl quarterback club #bo jackson

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operationrainfall · 5 years

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Title Mechstermination Force Developer Hörberg Productions Publisher Hörberg Productions Release Date April 4th, 2019 Genre Run and gun, platformer, boss rush Platform Nintendo Switch Age Rating E for Everyone – Mild Fantasy Violence Official Website

I think by now I have to admit something about myself – sometimes I like hard as nails games. I wouldn’t go so far as to call myself a masochist, but I do find the reward for beating a challenging title to be a heady drug. Which brings us to today’s review, Mechstermination Force. Developed and published by the same group behind Gunman Clive, Hörberg Productions, it’s a very different beast from that Western platformer. Instead it’s strongly inspired by Contra, with towering boss battles against deadly MegaMechs. Throw in a little more inspiration from Shadow of the Colossus, and you have a pure boss rush against mechanical bosses that get progressively harder. The question then, is Mechstermination Force worth the price of admission? Or is it too hard for its own good?

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First, let me clarify that while there is a plot in the game, it’s just there to set the tone. The world is besieged by MegaMechs, and only a small band of freedom fighters remain. You’re one of them, and it’s up to you to put the robot menace down. That’s pretty much it, other than some clarifying details for why lone soldiers stand a chance where planes and tanks didn’t, which is explained if you talk with your compatriots. But the focus here is really on the action, and there’s a lot to be had. Essentially it’s broken down into 10+ boss battles, and between each you can use cash you get from slagging them to improve your loadout. You only start with a small amount of health and a machine gun, but you can acquire a bunch of other weapons, ranging from a flamethrower to a pulse weapon. Once purchased, you can switch between them at will. You can also buy more health, either permanently or spend less cash to get temporary health boosts before battle. My best advice is to invest in the spreadshot as soon as possible, since it makes every fight a little bit easier when you don’t have to worry as much about your aim. Also, if you find you’re low on funds, you can always replay fights to farm more cash, which is a nice concession to make the game a bit easier without completely eliminating the challenge.

Besides these optional upgrades, you also get progressive ones at set points in the game to provide you with more maneuverability. Specifically, you’ll get the Magnet Gloves, which allow you to cling to surfaces, and later on the Boost Boots, which provide a much needed double jump. You’d think this would make the game easier, but really it just opens up subsequent boss fights to be more complex and dangerous. The flow of the game is relief whenever you beat a seemingly impossible fight, quickly followed by dread that the next one will be a bit harder. But instead of despair, this just led me to gird my loins for the next battle and to try and learn the attack patterns as quickly as possible. Though the game doesn’t give you any real hints for how to beat the bosses, their design and attack patterns are constructed in such a way that the answer becomes obvious if you think critically and pay attention. Furthermore, it helps that one thing each boss has in common are weak points.

The yellow weak points are vulnerable to any weapon, and can usually be dismantled by concentrating fire on them. The tricky ones are the red weak points, since they can only be hurt by your sole melee weapon – a multi-directional baseball bat. You use this to shatter the red points, but keep in mind it takes a second to aim, and the MegaMechs don’t just wait for you to kill them. They’ll buck and twist and generally make your life miserable as you try and put them down. But other than those weakpoints and the way the bosses try and avoid getting hurt, each and every fight is entirely different and generally unexpected. As you damage their weakpoints, the robots will lose limbs and often transform into new, deadlier forms. Don’t go into this with the zombie headshot mentality. Often you’ll decapitate a boss only for it to sprout a new head or utterly change forms as it tries to rip you to shreds. It’s a lot like fighting against angry Decepticons with a bloodlust for pulping humans. And trust me, each and every boss is fully capable to reducing you to a gooey stain in seconds if you’re not careful.

Having said all that, I would still say that Mechstermination Force is fair. It’s tough, and requires patience, but it’s never completely unreasonable. There are certainly a few bosses that strain that rule, such as the most horrible escargot ever, a skyscraper-climbing ape and what I can only refer to as a death skull, but otherwise they all felt balanced. Which isn’t the same as easy, cause the only easy boss is the tutorial one, and things start to get really challenging about 4 boss fights in. But in a boss rush full of death bots, I feel they toe the line pretty well. And if you really feel overwhelmed, I strongly suggest you farm money by taking on old bosses again and buying all the upgrades you can. I ended up beating the game after buying several health extensions and most of the weapons, but in retrospect I probably could have beaten the game with fewer health upgrades and just the spreadshot.

Another of the reasons this game manages to avoid being totally unfair are some nice concessions. First of all, there is no instant death if you fall into a pit or get singed by lava. Instead, if you fall into a pit you will teleport to another part of the stage after losing one chunk of health. Meanwhile threats like lava damage you, but then the game will raise a platform to stand on from underneath it. You can also get pieces of cake to recover your health during battles, but there was seemingly no rhyme or reason for when this occurred. The one frustrating aspect of that is that often the cake would spawn right underneath a giant MegaMech, and by the time I could get to it, it would have disappeared. Also, while each fight involves a hail of bullets and gymnastic feats, you can beat most of them in under 5 minutes. At least once you’ve memorized their attack patterns. That applies for both the tiny bosses and the large ones. And when I say large, I mean boss fights that are almost their own level. A good example is fighting the Cerberus mech, which involves you jumping in their mouths, avoiding getting chomped, blasting your way through their throats and then rinse and repeat. By contrast, the smaller bosses almost felt like mini bosses, but they also provided refreshing breaks from the more hectic battles.

There’s a lot I enjoyed about Mechstermination Force, but now I need to touch on some frustrations. Because the foes you fight are often huge, the camera has to shoot a broad angle as you fight. The problem with that is you’re so tiny, it can often be hard to tell where you are, especially after the boss sends you flying with a giant fist. In the fight against the mechanized snail, every time you damage his head the game randomly sends you flying, and often I took damage just cause I hadn’t gotten my bearings before he started bombarding me with flaming debris. Also problematic was the ability to freely aim your weapon of choice. That’s great in theory, but to aim you need to duck down, and when I tried aiming with my joystick, bullets wouldn’t end up exactly where I wanted. My workaround was to use the directional buttons instead, and that offered more concrete angles that allowed me to more frequently hit my targets. I almost wish it had stuck to Contra’s tried and true method of only offering set angles of fire, but I suppose that would be harder to accommodate in a game where each boss is constantly moving. And while I loved the Magnet Gloves for scaling giant MegaMechs, there were times they didn’t work properly. And I even encountered one glitch in the Cerberus fight where I somehow phased through a solid space, though that actually ended up helping me.

I did get a chance to try out the local co-op in the game, and though it’s a fun idea in theory, it was messier in execution. While it played without any lag, all the problems I had with single player were exaggerated with two players. The camera was even more problematic, and it’s very difficult to coordinate as the robots bear down on you. It also was tricky having my friend essentially look over my broad shoulders to see the screen when played portably. I suppose I should have played while hooked up to my TV. Also, I wish two player allowed some popular conventions such as sacrificing some health to revive your buddy. That isn’t an option, so once someone dies, the other person is entirely on their own. As far as I’m concerned, Mechstermination Force is much better as a single player experience.

Visually speaking, there’s a lot to love about Mechstermination Force. It has big, bold colors and bright visuals for your weapon fire. Each and every MegaMech is a work of art, featuring layered dimensions that slowly evolve as you fight. It’s really cool ripping the armor off a foe to scale them, and watching them transform as you deal critical damage. Though many of the bosses qualify as humanoid, there’s also some great ones patterned after creatures, such as a centipede, the aforementioned snail and even a large arachnid. You won’t get bored with the visuals in the game, that’s a guarantee. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for the sound. While the music is fine, I really wish there were more varied tracks. Though there is a handful, many of them sound very similar to each other. I would have loved more variety, like some hard rocking tunes to mix things up. As for the sound effects, though they work, they also felt a bit muted. The way your character grunts when damaged didn’t really do justice to the amount of punishment they’re taking. The sound effects are thankfully better for the weapons. Overall, the visuals are the better aspect of the game, but the sound design is alright.

By the time the credits rolled, I had spent about 4 and a half hours and gotten 80+ deaths in Mechstermination Force. While I rather enjoyed it overall, there were some features that held it back from perfection. And also, though the final boss is beyond epic, it too suffered from the same complaints I had about earlier battles. But for the base package, I feel you get a lot for your money. My main frustration is that once it’s over, there’s nothing left to do, other than trying to beat the bosses without taking damage to acquire medals. Thankfully I’m not quite that masochistic, so I think I’ll pass. That said, for $11.99 it’s easy to recommend to fans of hardcore games, though I can’t say the same applies to those who identify as more casual gamers. But if you love giant robots and are up for a challenge, Mechstermination Force is the game for you!

[easyreview cat1title=”Overall” cat1detail=”” cat1rating=”3.5″]

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REVIEW: Mechstermination Force Title Mechstermination Force

#Contra #eShop #Hörberg Productions #nintendo switch #oprainfall #Review #Shadow of the Colossus

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postgamecontent · 7 years

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Fire Emblem Chronicles Vol. 1: Fire Emblem: Thracia 776

Original Release Date: September 1, 1999

Original Hardware: Nintendo Super Famicom

Although Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War wasn't quite the success that Mystery of the Emblem had been, it did well enough to keep the series going. With the Nintendo 64 releasing only a few months after the release of Genealogy, it was logical for the next installment to go there. Indeed, work was started on Fire Emblem 64, first mentioned in the summer of 1997 and officially announced in September of that year. While fans were waiting for that one, Shouzou Kaga decided to get a few stories out of his system via the BS-X Satellaview add-on for the Super Famicom. BS Fire Emblem: Archanea War Chronicles was a series of four mini-episodes set in Marth's corner of the world that fleshed out some of the side characters. Like other Satellaview titles, these episodes were broadcasted at specific times and dates, and if you didn't tune in, you missed out on them forever. An odd bit of technology, and not the last time Fire Emblem would flirt with Nintendo's odder delivery methods.

It was believed that Fire Emblem 64 was going to be released on the Nintendo 64DD, the ill-fated Nintendo 64 disk drive that only saw release in Japan. That hardware add-on was released in December of 1999 and fared quite poorly in the market. To be fair, selling an expansion to a system that wasn't exactly flying off the shelves itself was probably never going to work out all that well. The 64DD only saw 10 games completed and released in the year or so it was available. It's hard to say if the 64DD's poor market performance caused problems for Fire Emblem 64, but it probably didn't help. Even before it was released, however, there were signs the game was in trouble. In January of 1999, Kaga stated that the game he was planning was too ambitious for the Nintendo 64 hardware. While the team figured out what to do with that situation, the Super Famicom Fire Emblem engine would get one last kick at the can. The Nintendo 64 game would never see release, but that final Super Famicom game would end up one of the most well-regarded games of the series, albeit one of the worst-selling.

There are lots of potential reasons why Fire Emblem: Thracia 776 didn't pull in the sales numbers of its predecessors. To start with, this was a Super Famicom game that released in late 1999. The SEGA Dreamcast was nearly a year old in Japan by then, and the PlayStation 2 was only a handful of months away. Asking players to dig out a system that was nearly two generations old to play a new game was probably a little much to ask, even assuming they had hung onto their old hardware. If that wasn't enough, the game wasn't even initially available as a packaged release. Instead, players had to buy a rewritable cartridge to use with a kiosk distribution system called Nintendo Power. You would bring this cartridge to a participating retailer, pay a fee, and download the game onto your cartridge. If you wanted a new game, you could overwrite the old one. Suffice it to say, this was a niche within a niche.

By the standards of the Nintendo Power system, Thracia 776 was a big success. The game fared so well that Nintendo gave it a full boxed release in January of 2000. That version would end up selling just over 100,000 copies, making it the lowest-selling installment in the Fire Emblem series. That shouldn't be taken as an indictment of its quality, mind you. While this was Shouzou Kaga's final Fire Emblem game, he didn't do a half-job on it by any means. It rolls back a few things from Genealogy, adds a bunch of new features, and tells an interesting story along the way. But it is perhaps guilty of focusing on the hardcore fanbase to a fault, resulting in a game that is probably a little too involved and strict for the average player. At least as far as I'm concerned, Thracia 776 is the most difficult Fire Emblem game on default difficulty. That difficulty is attractive to some fans, but if you came to the series through the recent 3DS games, you'll probably get bounced like a pinball.

Thracia 776 wasn't originally intended to be a full-length title. Its story follows Leif, one of the characters from Genealogy, giving more information on his history and motivations prior to joining the plot of that game. Kaga had felt like he had focused too much on the story in Genealogy at the expense of the gameplay, so Thracia was meant to be a tighter design with a greater emphasis on the gameplay mechanics. The game certainly feels smaller than Genealogy, but the template it established would be used for years to come. Some mechanics introduced in Thracia still persist in the series, and its refinements on mechanics from earlier titles would prove quite durable. In that regard, I would say that Thracia is probably more influential to the series on the whole than its predecessor, a handy feat for a side-story that barely cracked six digits in sales.

The large stages from Genealogy are gone in favor of a more traditional selection of smaller stages. Each map has only one main goal, and the romance/multi-generation mechanic has been cut. The skill system has been retained, but the skills that enable critical hits and double attacks have been removed in favor of a more traditional stat-based system. Mounted units can dismount like they could in Mystery of the Emblem, so your riders will have to go on foot indoors once again. Weapon proficiency finally reaches its familiar form here, with each unit starting with set ranks that determines which weapons they're able to equip. Those ranks can be increased through use of the weapon in question, giving the player a little bit of agency in how their units develop. Inventory management works similarly to the pre-Genealogy games, addressing my biggest problem with the previous game.

This is the Fire Emblem game that finally implements a Fog of War system. In certain stages you can't see very far without using a torch item, making for some terribly unpleasant surprises. When combined with the permadeath mechanic, it's almost a little too cruel, which might explain why the idea was largely discarded in subsequent games. Thracia 776 is also the first game in the series with optional stages that open up under certain conditions, known alternatively in English as Gaiden stages or Paralogues depending on which game you're playing. Due to the way these stages work, it's impossible to recruit every character on any given playthrough. You'll have to make some hard choices along the way.

The game also introduces some new stats and a few mechanics that draw from them. The fatigue system is yet another attempt to make players make full use of their roster. As characters take actions, their fatigue stat will build. When it exceeds their HP, they'll have to sit out a stage to recover. This mechanic was not seen again until the recently-released Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia. It's not a bad idea in a vacuum, but Thracia often has you relying on a small group of units, making it difficult at times to avoid over-exerting characters. The newly-introduced constitution stat governs a few different things, but the most obvious are in the two new actions available to players. Units are now able to rescue other units provided their constitution is high enough, giving you the chance to yank them out of harm's way. Rescuing would be a regular part of the series going forward.

Similarly, units can capture enemy units, robbing them of their weapons and, in some specific cases, recruiting them to the player's cause. If you've played Fire Emblem Fates, you've probably messed around with the similar mechanic that appears there. In Thracia, any unit can attempt a capture. You can't bring generic units to your side, but certain named units will join if you're able to capture them. The trick is that enemies are able to capture your units if you give them the opportunity. If you are unable to recover the unit before the enemy slips away, you'll lose that unit until late in the game, where a Gaiden chapter offers a final chance to rescue them. Mind your mages and healers, as they're highly vulnerable to this.

While the capture mechanic could conceivably be ignored in Fire Emblem Fates, it's absolutely essential to take advantage of it in Thracia 776. The story puts your team on the move right from the start. Generally speaking, you won't have access to many resources unless you loot them from the enemies. If you don't capture enemy units, you'll likely run out of weapons by the fourth or fifth stage. Neglecting capturing is one of the things that makes Thracia so hard for newcomers. You have to fully embrace it and constantly be on guard about enemy capturing if you don't want to end up ridiculously short-handed and low on weapons. Once you get the hang of the capture and rescue mechanics, Thracia gets a little bit easier to manage.

Only a little, mind you. You still have to contend with the challenging map designs, the difficulty of certain stage goals, and the fact that Leif isn't terribly strong as Fire Emblem lords go. Certain maps require you to escape the map to win. This goal has been seen in other Fire Emblem games, but Thracia has one key difference. Once Leif leaves the map, the stage is finished, and any other units who did not escape ahead of him will be considered captured. You have to leave Leif out until everyone else is clear, and he's not the most robust of fellows. Thracia also makes use of frequent, endless reinforcements during these escape stages. A careful, well-prepared player can use these levels to build up some experience, but it's certainly a level of pressure that few other Fire Emblem games match.

There are other little details that add to the difficulty as well. Healing staves can actually miss their targets. There are random warp tiles in some stages in unexpected locations. A mechanic that randomly allows a unit to take an extra turn is certainly welcome when it happens to the player but devastating when it happens to an enemy unit, and you can probably guess which of the two sides it tends to advantage. This game loves enemy ballista units and it cannot lie. Throne bonuses are obscene, making it harder than it should be to dislodge bosses. There are status ailments that are permanent if you don't have a means of restoring them, which can actually make particular maps unwinnable if your luck is poor. Certain crucial recruits are nearly impossible to pick up without knowing what to do beforehand, adding yet another hurdle for first-time players to overcome. It's really easy in general to paint yourself into a corner with no escape in Thracia 776, and that's a quality that is going to irritate as many people as it pleases.

It all adds up to a game that will delightfully roast veterans but isn't very fun for anyone else. As with Genealogy, I believe Thracia 776 is only a few tweaks away from vastly widening its appeal, and hopefully it will get a chance to do that in a remake one day. In its original form, it's exercise best left to the hardcore strategists out there. It's a bit better on a replay than on the initial run, but if I never see stage 24x of Thracia again in my life, it will be too soon. Still, you've got to hand it to Kaga. He may have been on his way out the door, but he left the team a pretty good blueprint to follow while they found their own footing.

It's interesting that Kaga made a point of putting the gameplay ahead of the story here, because I think Thracia's story is one of the best in the series. Given that it's tucked in the middle of the two parts of Genealogy, the plot of Thracia by necessity has to be smaller and more personal than most Fire Emblem games. Leif might be weak in gameplay terms, but in his story, he's forced to be stronger than just about any other Fire Emblem lord. The development team did a nice job of weaving the story into the map designs, as well. Fire Emblem usually likes to tell its stories off of the battlefield, but some of the stages in Thracia nicely tie-in with the on-going plot. It's a story worth experiencing, even if you have to do it through a Let's Play due to the ridiculous difficulty level.

Like all of Kaga's Fire Emblem games, Thracia 776 has never received an official English release. The game is readily available on the Japanese Virtual Console for Wii, Wii U, and 3DS, which is a nice alternative to paying the relatively high price for one of the scarce cartridges. I think Thracia would make a nice candidate for a remake, but it's hard to say whether or not Nintendo will get around to it and in what form they would pursue it if they did do it. It's meant to be enjoyed alongside Genealogy, so I'd assume that if that game gets a remake, this one would, too. There are some incomplete English patches out there made by fans if you don't feel like waiting around. I can't speak to their quality, but if you can't read Japanese, it's probably the best you're going to get.

After wrapping up Fire Emblem: Thracia 776, Shouzou Kaga would leave Intelligent Systems and Nintendo behind to start his own development studio. That studio produced two games, one of which was close enough to Fire Emblem to attract a lawsuit. The other was different enough to avoid such measures. After that, he stayed out of the public eye until a few years ago, when he announced he was making a new SRPG for PCs using an RPG Maker-like tool built for SRPGs. He has never explained why he left Intelligent Systems, as far as I could find. It doesn't seem like it was a particularly amicable split given what he got up to after that. Fire Emblem would go on without him, of course. Although the Nintendo 64 version was canceled, many of its ideas ended up in the Game Boy Advance title Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade. But that game, and its successors, are a story for another time.

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#fire emblem chronicles #fire emblem #fire emblem thracia 776 #gaming #retro #rpg #super famicom #snes #nintendo #intelligent systems

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