The latest installment of Splatoon has been out for a few months now and is making waves among fans. In that time, Glen and Nathanael have delved the depths of Alterna, waged Turf Wars, and endured countless shifts at Grizzco to bring you this extended deep dive into Splatoon 3!
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Vitamin Connection brings new meaning to the word cooperative.
Most games are pretty content with just putting you and a buddy in the same space and letting you play together, working in tandem and exploring the same areas. Even though you are working together, what you or your pal are capable of doing isn’t beholden to what the other does. In Vitamin Connection you have a truly symbiotic relationship – you play as a couple of ridiculously cute cartoon bobbins who save a family from their literal ills by way of a two-pilot capsule ship that can’t function without full communication and cooperation from your friend.
Well, you could by playing the game solo, but what’s the fun in that!?
Each stage is set-up like an episode of an old Saturday morning cartoon – a member of the Sable family is on their way to an outing when disaster strikes as they step out the door and they become sick. It is then up to our heroes, Mina-Girl and Vita-Boy, to get them back on the healthy train by attack the bacteria plaguing them so they can get about their day. You travel through their interiors on mostly predetermined paths (with occasional branches to help you find secrets or pick your own route) and find and suss out that level’s big baddy by taking on what amounts to boss battles in pivotal areas of the body.
As you’re traveling, one player is in control of moving the ship in all directions and also the trigger to the Vitamin Beam which you use to clear your path. The other play is in control of rotating the ship, which is crucial in navigating your human host as well as aiming the Vitamin Beam. Both jobs are not created equal, with the person in charge of rotation and aim has to use motion controls which makes for some harrowing moments. The challenge of the game can be mitigated by one simple trick – communication. If you talk to each other and work together, it becomes a breeze!
The aforementioned boss battles are less your typical “find the weak spot and attack” nomenclature and more like mini-games. These too often make use of the Switch’s oft-forgotten gimmicks by having players play Irritating Stick-like obstacle courses and the IR sensor camera to extend a hand through a highway of viruses. It’s a nice break for the most part and yet another fun way to test your communication skills, but it felt like the game would ramp up the difficulty of these segments rather quickly, with my son and I getting stuck on the second level because the IR camera was finicky and the bad guy’s patterns being rather unforgiving. It was frustrating and could have done with maybe a different control option, but it doesn’t dilute the enjoyment we were having.
If nothing else, Vitamin Connection’s presentation compelled us to keep going as the saccharine storyline and infectious music kept us entertained so much that we had to see it through to the end!
Much like Affordable Space Adventures on the much-maligned Wii U, Vitamin Connection feels like an essential on the Switch. The game can be played solo, but it’s use of motion control feels important to the experience as a whole, thus making this game a tough sell for people intending on playing by themselves but imperative to those who have a friend or kid on hand. It has that WayForward charm permeating the whole experience and was so much fun I plan on playing through it again soon with a different son!
Vitamin Connection is a worthwhile way to spend a sick day, especially if you’re stuck at home with a co-pilot.
By Matt Mason. Follow him on Twitter @ObtainPotion and read more of his writing on his blog.
Bombslinger is a western-styled roguelike game, all about blowing up baddies.
If this game instantly looks like Bomberman to you, that’s because—well—this game instantly looks like Bomberman. It might be fair to call Bombslinger a clone, but it does introduce plenty of its own unique elements.
First of all, this game has an interesting setting, and fun characters. You play as a cowboy who’s looking to avenge his wife’s death. Like I said—fun. The main character used to be mixed up with the wrong crowd, and when he turns over a new leaf, the old posse wasn’t too happy about that. Now you’ve got to blast your way through 4 levels and take down 7 big bosses.
Bomblinger sports a really interesting graphic style. At first glance it looks like your run-of-the-mill 8-bit art, but from certain angles and cutscenes it looks a bit more “Minecraftian.” You also get some O.G. LoZ vibes as you leave one top-down area of the map to enter another.
There’s a healthy variety of enemies waiting to be blown to smithereens. From old men hobbling around in… underwear? Diapers? Loincloths? Anyway—there’s a handful of vicious animals, bad dudes armed with rifles or machine guns—you name it. The difficulty curve is appropriate and you gradually face more of these challenges as you progress.
Clearing rooms and levels is fun, and you’re rewarded with gold and XP that can be spent on upgrades. The typical Bomberman fare is here, like extra bombs, bigger explosions, and what I lovingly refer to as “kicky-bombs.” But there are some new tools and powers that are more unique and I won’t spoil in this review. I will say it’s not always clear what things do, so trial and error is your friend along the dirt-road to success.
The developers even include a multiplayer mode, so you can take a break from the campaign, slide off your Joy-Con, and basically pretend you’re playing classic Bomberman in ponchos.
My experience wasn’t without bugs, sadly. I found that going into the menu and hitting “restart” would work about half the time, otherwise booting me out of the game and onto my Switch home screen. Fortunately, I never lost progress since I was actively looking to restart my run, so it was only a minor inconvenience.
Speaking of progress, as you get further and accomplish different feats, you’ll unlock new items to customize your loadout with, and more slots in your inventory. The game rewards you well, and helps equip the main character with better tools to make it to the last boss. There’s even two different endings that you can pick from, not unlike Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, which I reference without hesitation because of course you played that one… right? Anyone?
Overall: Bombslinger is a great time. Whoever had the idea of combining Bomberman mechanics with roguelike systems and western settings deserves a raise… or at least your $12 on the eShop. Bombslinger gets an 8.25 out of 10.
Death Squared is a new indie game that takes GREAT advantage of the Switch hardware and its natural bent toward casual cooperative affairs. In this title, players must work together and employ good communication and a healthy amount of caution to survive and clear test-chamber-like puzzles. Spoiler: it’s a blast!
“Exit the Premises” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Ubisoft just dropped a brand new Mario + Rabbids mode on us, their unsuspecting fans. Vs. mode?! Yes please! Simeon and Scott will showdown and see who is the better strategist. Oh, and one more thing… BWAAAAAAAAAH!
“Exit the Premises” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Full disclosure: I have a Picross addiction. If Pavlov is Nintendo and Picross is a bell, I’m the salivating dog.
They release a new game in the series, I buy it, and the next 20 hours of my life are a blur as I perfect every puzzle.
Having said that, my excitement for the sudden release of Picross S on Switch was huge!
An important new feature was touted: multiplayer. New to the series, two players would be able to “play cooperatively, or compete to see who can place the most tiles!”
This was a game-changer! I have a friend from Picrossers Anonymous who would love to relapse with me and go head-to-head!
Well, Nintendo wasn’t fully honest with their description of this functionality. Technologically, it’s all there: two players can control cursors on the same screen, and it works. It’s fun to help each other out and solve puzzles together.
Competitively, the structure is non-existent. There’s no separate “Vs. Mode” or anything of that nature, it simply tallies up the number of tiles filled in by each player. The game doesn’t keep score over multiple rounds or celebrate a victor. The players are left to point out that their score was higher and rub it in their “opponent’s” face.
That’s not the extent of the issue, either. This game is impossible—I repeat—impossible to be treated competitively. It leaves the door wide open for cheating and unfair play.
I mentioned my fellow addict above. We got to playing a few rounds of Picross S together and it wasn’t long before he had outsmarted the game. Whenever I placed a tile, he would follow behind my cursor and overwrite it with a tile of his own color, taking my points for himself.
Picross S lets competitors get away with whatever they’d like, and also creates another problem by not awarding any points for blocking off tiles. Placing an X on a space that won’t contain a colored title is a critical part of Picross gameplay, but gamers are punished in multiplayer mode by not receiving any points, leaving their opponent to score off their work.
My advice to Switch owners: Purchase this title and enjoy it as a single player or cooperative affair.
Words to Nintendo: Be careful how you advertise your games; it’s important to be honest about what’s included in the package.
Update: Nintendo has adjusted the wording on their Picross S online listing to read ‘Unique to the Switch version, 2 players can now play simultaneously! Enjoy with friends and family!’
That’s better.
Simeon and Scott scored a copy of Pokken Tournament DX on Switch, so it’s time to battle it out and see how the updated version holds up! There are some odd choices for local multiplayer, so the Crew will test out which one is best for competitors, while showing off all the awesome new additions to the roster!
“Escape the Premises” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Snipperclips, Switch’s first split-Joy-Con-co-op experience has been expanded! More levels and modes were added as DLC, and sold as a complete physical package! Maybe you have the original game and are wondering if the upgrade is worth it? Or if you’re just ready to have a good time, watch Simeon and Scott snip and clip their way to victory.
“Escape the Premises” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Do you want the good news, or the bad news first? (Well, too late – we already recorded this episode.) As you’ll see in the video, the good news is that Nintendo is on a huge roll with hardware sales. The bad news is, some third parties are still holding out before committing to support the system with games. Will it be too late by the time they get on board?
“Escape the Premises” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
#588 – We wish we could say we have “nothing but love” for video games, but to be honest, sometimes it’s more of a love/hate relationship. Our goal at Two Button Crew has always been to enhance your enjoyment of Nintendo gaming and fandom, so today we’re doing that quite literally: explaining how to have fun while gaming. We’ve got tips for casual and competitive environments, as well as single player gaming. Hope it helps!
“Escape the Premises” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
#587 – We haven’t seen the New Super Mario Bros. games in a little while, but is that such a bad thing? Nintendo was leaning heavily into the multiplayer aspects of these games, but many gamers found it surprisingly frustrating to share the screen with their friends. Maybe Mario just isn’t a well-suited series for multiplayer. Let’s discuss it! Footage credit: TheRunawayGuys, WiiLikeToPlay
“Escape the Premises” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
ALSO forgot to mention that there is a new Multiplayer Vs. mode!
#574 – This game is now awesome. Thanks to the developers listening to feedback about the game being too hard (like ours), you can now purchase TumbleSeed without reservation! This indie game had everything going for it EXCEPT for its cruel difficulty, which has now been scaled back in a 2.0 update. Enjoy! Footage credit: Zeromus
“Escape the Premises” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
#526 – Sometimes, the side mode ends up being the best offering of the whole game! When the main story mode just isn’t good enough when compared to the side mode, wonderful things happen! Here is a short list of our favorite bonus modes in all Pantendo games. Footage Credit: Mario VS Luigi – SullyPwnz | Super Smash Bros. – RedFalconGames
“Escape the Premises” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Bomberman is the perfect game for the Nintendo Switch – the portable home console that always has two controllers with it! Whether you’re doing some multiplayer showdown matches or teaming up to take on the story mode campaign, it’s always… a… BLAST!
“Escape the Premises” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
At least this is one game that we can say Nintendo gave us early access to! Har har.
Did you enjoy the Splatoon 2 Global Testfire? We sure did! It’s kind of crazy that the game is already in a fully playable state so far ahead of launch. Hopefully Nintendo used this opportunity to spot any hiccups or shortcomings with servers, but our experience was very smooth! In this video we’ll talk about the stages, weapons, and controls of the surprising squid sequel to the Wii U hit original.
“Escape the Premises” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
If we can accomplish this feat blindfolded, I think that means we’re a CUT above the rest. GET IT?!
Snipperclips is a fairly challenging game! This second-party title, uniquely created for the Switch console, is perfect for two players, but the difficulty does ramp up after only a handful of levels. So we thought… why not make this incredibly more challenging by having a blindfold on one of the players at all times?! I MEAN WHY NOT?!
“Escape the Premises” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Not to be overlooked by its first-party contemporaries, Super Bomberman R is a Switch launch title offering from Konami, and it’s a BLAST. Har har. But really, it’s a great game for parties. You can play it with a single joy-con and get a bunch of people playing together in mere minutes. Don’t miss this one!
Shot by Alex Campbell
“Escape the Premises” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
It’s a special 4th of July episode (not really – but do watch until the end)! The Crew continues the treacherous trek through Chariot’s slippery ice world.
Shot by Alex Campbell
“Reformat” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
