What do you think about cheaters? How about people who take advantage of exploits in Super Mario Odyssey’s new balloon mode to hide things out of bounds? We’ll discuss all that, and more, in this week’s Nintendo News segment by Two Button Crew.
“Exit the Premises” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
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Author: Scott
Celeste: Scaling The Mountain
Celeste is a beautiful new indie game available now on the Switch eShop. In this pixelated platformer, you play as Madeline as you attempt to scale the treacherous Celeste Mountain. With a stunning musical soundtrack, a compelling storyline, and tough platforming challenges, it seems this game might just have it all.
“Exit the Premises” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
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Labo Just Gets Better and Better!
Headlining our Nintendo News segment this week is some huge developments on the Labo front. With the unveiling of Toy-Con Garage, it’s starting to look like there will be no limit to our cardboard creativity come April 20th.
“Exit the Premises” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
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The Most SUPER of METROIDs? (SNES)
Simeon and Scott played Xeodrifter earlier this week, a game which probably wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for Super Metroid. In this SNES Samus outing, we take control of the bounty hunter and explore a mysterious world.
“Exit the Premises” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
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Episode #666 – Devil World (NES)
How could we not make a video about Devil World for our 666th episode? We practically had no choice. There was no better time to take a look back at one of Miyamoto’s first creations for the Famicom. This Pac-Man clone had some features that stood out and made it quite unique. Too unique to be brought to North America, in some ways!
“Exit the Premises” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
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Xeodrifter: Launching into Space
The talented creators at Atooi have brought one of their finest titles to Switch: Xeodrifter, a bite-sized love letter to the Metroidvania genre. This little indie gem is ready to blow your socks off as you traverse the alien landscape, blast baddies, and power up to take on big bosses. We hope to give you a taste of what this title is like, and we definitely recommend you give it a look in the eShop!
“Exit the Premises” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
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In the Ring with Super Punch-Out!!
Little Mac is one of the littler big stars of Nintendo’s original IP. You don’t hear people begging for new entries in the series often, but fans of the Punch-Out games often speak highly of the few outings he’s had. We’re turning on the SNES Classic Edition to give this game a spin, and see how far we can get in single player mode before being knocked out cold.
“Exit the Premises” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
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Playing Smash Bros… with NO THUMBS
We thought it would be a great idea (or at the very least… entertaining) to attempt a few Smash Bros. matches without using our thumbs. When we streamed this live, our viewers in the chat said they had a hard time distinguishing our playstyle from a normal match! I’d say we adapted pretty well! And for comparison, we show you a couple rounds with all our digits legalized.
“Exit the Premises” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
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Xeodrifter Review (Nintendo Switch)
Xeodrifter is a retro-styled, Metroid-like game from indie developer Atooi. It’s a bite-sized love-letter to the Metroidvania genre, originally released on the 3DS and newly ported to Nintendo Switch.
You play as a little red guy (or girl? You never know with these games…), equipped with a gun, exploring 4 neighboring planets. You’ll need to unlock equipment and abilities as you go to advance through new areas.
Beating bosses earns you power-ups, and you can configure your blaster on the fly by allocating points to its speed, bullet size, spread, and more. Most other unlockables increase your mobility in fun and useful ways; think along the lines of the Metroid series’ shine-spark or rocket jump, but with its own Xeodrifter-flavored twist. The game prompts some “aha” moments as you’re forced to use these mobility upgrades in tandem for some truly memorable segments.
This game presents a real challenge. Once in a great while you will stumble on an enemy nest where you can farm for life replenishment, but by and large you have to traverse through these alien structures with care and caution, where every hit matters. It regularly took me multiple attempts to get what I needed and make it back to the safety of my gunship before embarking on the next mission.
The graphical presentation of Xeodrifter can only be described as simple. When first booting up the game, it didn’t strike me as beautiful when compared to some other modern takes on pixel graphics, but the art style actually did grow on me. For this version, graphics AND rumble were given the “HD” treatment. I also didn’t find myself missing the stereoscopic visuals from the 3D original. However, in the absence of a second screen, a little mini-map in the corner would have saved me a lot of pausing.
One more thing I have filed under the “would have been nice” category is variable jump-height. Whether you quickly tap or hold the jump button down, the character executes the same move and sometimes stays in the air longer than I would have liked. Variable jump height is something the developer has implemented in other games, and that lacking aspect of control did limit my precision.
Overall, I had a fun time with Xeodrifter. The game doesn’t hold your hand, leaving the player to his or her own devices to figure out where to go. In such a compact world, I never felt truly lost. You are encouraged to explore and see where your new weapons can take you.
Some gamers might have a complaint about the boss levels; roughly a half-dozen encounters that use the same giant enemy and attack patterns with increasing difficulty. I actually thought this was a cool analog to my character, as if I was growing more powerful in parallel with my archenemy over multiple showdowns, like you might find with Dark Samus in the Metroid Prime games. The boss fights were another area where this game doesn’t hold back in difficulty, and beating each one felt like an accomplishment.
Xeodrifter is short. It’s an excellent palate-cleanser between bigger titles, a great option for people who miss the Metroid gameplay loop, and a good effort from a passionate indie developer. For the $10 asking price, I can easily recommend it to fans of the genre. Xeodrifter gets a 7.75/10.
Mario Kart Tour – Coming to Mobile!
One of Nintendo’s biggest—and we mean BIGGEST—franchises is coming to an iPhone or Android near you. This is only one of many news stories that Simeon and Scott are here to discuss today, because the world of Nintendo news never seems to slow down. We talk Metroid Prime 4, SteamWorld series, and much, much more.
“Exit the Premises” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
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Can You SteamWorld Dig It? (Switch)
SteamWorld Dig is a revolutionary indie game that took the 3DS eShop by storm. Now it’s back in high definition on Nintendo Switch, ready to be taken anyway or taken in on the big screen. This game features Rusty, perhaps the most beloved SteamWorld hero. This is Simeon’s first time taking to the dirty, dank underground caverns. How will he fare?
“Exit the Premises” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
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5 Labo Toy-Con Nintendo MUST Invent
Nintendo has removed the lid on their latest innovation: Labo. This new way of interacting with video games—through cardboard—could not have been predicted. I always allow room for Nintendo to surprise me with something that would never occur to me, and once again, they did not disappoint. We’ll be unboxing our boxes this April.
Or will we? I’m still not completely sold on the concept. This is no fault of Nintendo’s marketing department; the messaging for Labo is clear: kids and kids-at-heart get to Make, Play, and Discover functioning cardboard creations with the technological help of Nintendo Switch.
I’m no longer a kid, and my heart is still trying to decide how old it is. Were I to invest in multiple sets of cardboard kits, I would definitely need to find a place where I could tuck my creations away to keep them out of my cat’s reach. She would utterly destroy my hard work, and then meow at me with a mischievous glint in her kitty eyes.
But there’s the distinct chance that Nintendo could release Labo kits in the future that would be irresistible. Labo is all about imagination and creativity, right? For the purposes of this blog, I’ve let my imagination run wild and conceived 5 Labo Toy-Con I Would Insta-Buy…
Arcade Stand
You know this needs to be a thing. Arcade games are coming back in a big way thanks to Nintendo Switch. ACA (Arcade Archives) have been releasing arcade ports like crazy, and recently started porting some first-party Mario content as well. Additionally, indies have made a few unique offerings on eShop like Mutant Mudd Collection’s “Mudd Blocks,” Pinball FX, and more—all playable in portrait orientation. If Nintendo were to officially support portrait arcade games by creating a cardboard stand for the console… man, that would be totally tubular!
Camera
Here, I’m essentially asking Nintendo to please give me cheap DSLR lessons. Video games have been a good teacher to me before (I learned the basics of drums on Wii Music with two motion controllers and a balance board for foot pedals). And after kids get done learning piano on a cardboard keyboard, why not move on to photography? Nintendo actually showed a brief glimpse of this product in the initial Labo trailer, though it won’t be available as a product in either of the launch kits. A Joy-Con was shown both in the lens and the main body of the camera. If Nintendo could “gamify” learning the foundations of photography; aperture, exposure… lens… speed? See, I clearly need some help in this department and pointing a cardboard camera at some Pokemon on my TV might just do the trick.
Samus Aran’s Arm Cannon
Did I just blow your mind? Because with a cardboard Samus Canon, you can bet that some heads would be exploding. Imagine shooting with 1:1 pointer controls, but instead of holding a remote in your hand, your arm is the weapon. And with a mounted Joy-Con within reach, you’d be able to use your free hand for inputs like changing beams, calling in an attack from your gunship, and more. Just like our favorite bounty hunter does in-game.
Don’t get me wrong; I’m not saying that I want to play through Metroid Prime 4 dressed up like a poor cosplayer. The Prime series must be treated with great care and respect. But a Labo spinoff title (a la Nintendo Land) would be incredibly enticing.
Poltergust / Flashlight Combo
With a new coat of paint and a few different extensions, the Robot suit’s backpack could easily be transformed into Luigi’s Poltergust Vacuum. Having donned Luigi’s equipment, we would be scouring haunted mansions like never before. We’d be in the action. We’d be flashing lights and sucking baddies like no tomorrow. And HD Rumble could make us feel like we’re actually lugging around specters on our spines.
VR Goggles
While first viewing Nintendo’s promotional video for Labo, I thought that VR was becoming a reality for Nintendo fans. I was wrong, and the headset I saw was simply a decorative visor for Project Giant Robo—I mean—the cardboard robot suit. It’s probably wise for Nintendo to hold off on Virtual Reality for the time-being. With the Switch tablet’s 720p resolution, it’s not quite pixel-dense enough to hold up under the demands of VR. However, I believe that Switch and Labo are both initiatives that will last longer than a single traditional console generation. In 5 years, we might have a 4K Switch and a nice cardboard set of goggles to hold it. When that happens, Nintendo will transport us to another world.
There you have it! 5 Toy-Con that would be in my cart before I could say “Lab…Oh…No…”
What do you want Nintendo to craft from cardboard in the future?
SteamWorld Dig Review (Switch)
SteamWorld Dig is indie developer Image & Form’s first claim to fame. Originally released on 3DS in 2013, Dig was universally “dug” around the industry. On February 1st, 2018, Nintendo fans get another chance to play this instant classic on Switch.
SteamWorld Dig joins its sequel and SteamWorld Heist, on the eShop. The main differences between the original Dig and Dig 2 are that, 1: this game is shorter, and 2: the underground labyrinths are randomly generated. It’s kind of like having your own village in Animal Crossing, where all the same features are present, but their placements are determined by an algorithm. This is helpful for people like me who have beaten the game before, to have a fresh experience upon revisiting the steampunk world.
You play as Rusty as you navigate the Earth’s underbelly, mining deeper and deeper under the surface. As you traverse, you’ll gather gems and ore along the way. Once your pouch is full, or your lantern runs out, you will return to the town above, sell your goods, and use the money you earned to upgrade equipment. (By the way, the non-playable robot who you sell to is Dorothy, who goes on to star in SteamWorld Dig 2.) Stronger tools allow you to dig deeper, unlocking more sections of the world in a creative spin on the Metroidvania gameplay loop. Continuing to advance, you will discover caves featuring puzzles that have a predetermined design.
This pattern of digging, mining, spending, upgrading, and repeating is the core of SteamWorld Dig. And it’s a strong core. Few games rival it in instantly hooking the player. The soundtrack is solid (even eliciting memories of Metroid Prime at times), controls and interface are extremely user friendly, and everything periphery melts away as you focus on your goal. However, one aspect of the game sticks out like a sore thumb—and that is combat, which is neither compelling nor rewarding. Rudimentary enemy patterns and limited offensive options leave you feeling lucky when you succeed, but more often, just wishing you could avoid enemies altogether. On that note, with the right tools you can hurry and strike some baddies before they hatch, preventing a cumbersome encounter.
Combat is a mere distraction and not an essential part of the experience, which continues to be a weakness in the series. That’s just about the lone complaint there is to find in this game. Although, I have to wonder if Image & Form could have spent longer to make this a more enticing package. The developers have come a long way and learned many lessons since this game was released. Originally, SteamWorld Dig was finalized at the point just before their team went bankrupt. They’ve gone on record saying that it wasn’t wholly completed to their liking. This port was an opportunity to enhance or add value, but the devs instead opted to do a quick and dirty port.
Okay—the port isn’t dirty at all, but how could I resist that pun with a game about digging? To be clear, the game runs and looks great on Switch. And with no additional bells or whistles, they’ve created an affordable entryway into the wonderful SteamWorld lineup of games. This is worth picking up if you’ve somehow skipped the series, or if you’ve been missing Rusty, his original adventure, and the grassroots origin of one of the best developers on Nintendo eShop. You’d be hard-pressed to play this game without a grin on your face.
SteamWorld Dig gets an 8/10.
Surviving Contra III: The Alien Wars
Our viewers love putting us through the ringer when it comes to “Let’s Play Classics” games, and this week will be no differing. Especially because we can’t get the Konmai code to work! Simeon and Scott will be lucky to make it to level 3 in this tough-as-nails arcade shooter. At least they have each other to count on… right?
“Exit the Premises” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
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2 Nintendo Facts & A Lie!
Are you able to discern fact from fiction? Allow us to try and trip you up with this spin on the popular game “2 Truths and A Lie.” Today, the “truths” are Nintendo facts, and we’ve attempted to sneak one falsehood in with them. Using poker chips to keep score, Simeon and Scott will throwdown in a battle for truth.
“Exit the Premises” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
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TBC 008: Game Preservation
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Preservation is the idea of keeping something in tact—the act of taking measures to ensure things won’t fade away, become corrupted, forgotten, or unusable. Sadly, preservation is not currently a priority for the larger gaming industry. These days, developers make money by shipping an incomplete game, patching it to kingdom come, and deleting the source code when they go out of business. That might be an extreme example, but it does take a great deal of intentionality to make sure today’s favorite games will be playable by our kids and grandkids. It was simpler in the days of cartridges, but with so much riding on the upkeep of servers, cloud saves, and day-one-patches, it might be a scary future for video game preservation if we don’t have some thoughtful conversations. That’s why this month’s podcast is all bout preserving the art form of video games.
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“Exit the Premises” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
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Seven Billion Humans Announced for Switch!
The creators of World of Goo and Human Resource Machine are back at it again with the newly announced Seven Billion Humans! Also, stick around for Simeon and Scott to discuss the closure of Miitomo, Nintendo’s first foray into the mobile app market. That, and more, on today’s Nintendo News episode with Two Button Crew!
“Exit the Premises” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
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Super Meat Boy Review (Switch)
Super Meat Boy is a classic indie game, finally slurping and splashing its way onto Nintendo Switch.
This cruel platformer is infamous for its steep difficulty and unforgiving level design. Sounds like my kind of game!
The first time I hit the jump button and felt Meat Boy’s insanely high amount of aerial mobility, I thought I’d never get used to the controls. But I was wrong! The game does a great job of onboarding the player, teaching tough platforming techniques gradually.
Whether you’re playing in Handheld mode, with a single Joy-Con, or the Pro Controller, the control scheme feels great. Running and jumping are the only two button inputs, and you can opt to use a variety of face and shoulder buttons if your grip gets tired.
Which it will, because the moment-to-moment gameplay is intense. Your goal is to navigate Meat Boy between buzz-saws and bullets, and over gigantic ravines and pits of lava in order to get to Bandage Girl. The game’s antagonist, Dr. Fetus, is always one step ahead of you, so you’ll have to overcome multiple unique worlds with plenty of challenges before your final showdown.
The difficulty in this game is inherent, but expert players can challenge themselves further in scoring an A Rank on every level by completing them under a specified amount of time. You can also search out hidden bandages in hard-to-reach locations, but because the User Interface doesn’t indicate when a level has one to find, you’ll have to turn to the Interwebs to complete your collection.
Speaking of collecting, there are a bunch of playable characters to unlock as well. Some have to be found, and others must be earned with bandages. Each character has a unique ability, like floating or double-jumping. It was awesome to see Commander Video from the Bit.Trip games, and other heroes from indie classics like Braid. On the other hand, some of the characters are too similar to Meat Boy to be very compelling.
Music in Super Meat Boy is pretty good, with an energetic soundtrack that will fuel your long and frustrating (yet rewarding) play sessions. Unfortunately, these aren’t the tunes that shipped with the original release on Xbox 360, preferred by many.
Load times are very quick, and once you get into a level, there’s no delay between death and your next attempt, which makes it easy to apply what you’ve learned from past mistakes and try, try again.
The game’s visuals are pretty simple, with a no-frills, grungey aesthetic. It was a treat to find the occasional level that put a spin on the art style, whether it was using backlit silhouettes or old arcade graphics.
During cutscenes, the game’s age and budget showed a bit, although it didn’t detract from the story being established: Dr. Fetus is a really bad dude, and Meat Boy is determined to stop him and rescue Bandage Girl.
As a timed exclusive for the Nintendo Switch version, Team Meat added a local multiplayer Vs. mode. The screen is split in half, and players race each other to complete a certain amount of levels. This mode was tense, and a lot of fun, but undeniably rough around the edges. The stage-selection menu was unintuitive, the character selection screen was visually squished, and worst of all; game-breaking crashes occurred about every 10 minutes. Suffice it to say, Vs. mode could use a few bandages of its own.
In conclusion, it’s wonderful to have this grossly charming hunk of meat join the Nintendo Switch lineup. This was actually my first play-through of Super Meat Boy, and I was compelled to complete the whole thing AND go back and get 100%. If you’re a fan of platformers, don’t miss this title as you prepare for the auto-running sequel to launch later this year!
Super Meat Boy gets an 8.5/10.
Shovel Knight – Co-Op mode!
What do you get when you have two friends, two controllers, a Switch, and Shovel Knight? You get an awesome co-op romp through an amazing 8-bit indie game! That’s right, Simeon and Scott are donning their helmets and hefting their shovels as they raid King Knight’s castle—the villain that will soon be playable in the next update from Yacht Club games.
“Exit the Premises” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
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It’s a ~Secret of Mana~ to Everyone
Thank goodness for Glen, or we would have been wandering around Secret of Mana aimlessly. This is a very interesting, quirky RPG from Square, complete with funny animations for walking up stairs and opening a treasure chest. It’s pretty fun! Watch and enjoy.
“Exit the Premises” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
