Who here likes video games? Anyone?

[balto]

It’s basically Nintendo’s all ages, kid appropriate answer to the shooter genre. There are several different modes. The main mode is just two teams of four facing off and trying to ink more turf than the other team in 3 minutes, with a wide variety of weapons from sniper guns to giant paint rollers and paint brushes. Think super spoakers filled with paint. You can “splat” the other team, which sends them to their spawn point, but killing the other team is not the primary objective. I’ve gotten 20 splats in a match and still lost.

They have some other ranked modes with different objectives (e.g. controlling the central tower, controlling a central zone in your teams color, or capturing the special “rainmaker” weapon and bringing it to the enemy base.

There is a single player campaign, which is fun, but not too long. The multiplayer is the main attraction.

The second Splatoon added a “Salmon run” mode which is a cooperative mode with three others where you are fighting a horde of salmon like creatures and collecting golden eggs while trying to survive.

I’ve never been a big fan of shooters. The only one I ever got into was Goldeneye, but that was 20 years ago. But I really enjoy Splatoon. I was still playing the first one regularly until the second one came out and I picked up the Switch.

That does sound like a fun party game, can you play online with other people or do you just play offline with your daughter? I never really got into any online multiplayer stuff but that seems to be the direction in which everything is going these days. Your description of it kind of reminds me of one of those minigames from Mario Party. I haven’t really played any party-type games recently myself but I did enjoy playing Smash Bros. a lot when I was younger. For some reason not so much anymore.

A month or so ago I picked up a PS3 collection for Ratchet and Clank, which I guess is something of a flagship title for Sony. I wish Nintendo would do things like make these HD remasters of old games because they have quite the vintage library of games. Anyway, speaking of shooters, it is a 3rd person shooter platformer that is pretty solid. It reminds me of those on-foot missions in Starfox Assault which I thoroughly enjoyed. The only annoying thing about it is that the developers are quite obviously trying to push this environmental agenda, which I suppose is mostly fine but can be a tad off-putting at times. Still rather fun to play though. I even have this gadget that is a 2-in-1 hookshot/grappling hook, so a nice tip-of-the-hat to Zelda lol.

 

[Joe_5859]

The only downside to Splatoon is the multiplayer is only online. You cannot play with more than one person on a single console. Though you can join friends, so my brother and I will play together at times. It doesn’t bother me as much as I thought it would before I got the game.

I’m not familiar with Ratchet & Clank as the only Sony console I have is the PS2 I inherited from my wife, and it was pretty much a Dance Dance Revolution delivery device. :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes: Sounds cool, though. I would like to see Nintendo do similar things. Although some would accuse them of making a cash grab, i would still like to see it. They seem to have tested the waters with the two Zelda remakes for the Wii U. It seems like they’ve done a lot of N64 remakes on the handheld consoles. Maybe they will start doing that on the Switch. Sometimes I imagine that’s why they hold off on the Virtual Console.

 

[balto]

That’s cool, it’s nice that you can play with your brother! It’s kind of odd they didn’t put a local multiplayer option in that game, it seems like it would be perfectly suited for it. My brother and I used to play Smash Bros. and Bomberman all the time back when you’d have to huddle around the Magnavox TV with all the wired controllers. We’re kind of only on Platonic terms with each other now unfortunately but I still play a couple of games with my sister when I am visiting home. She really likes playing Starfox for some reason. We used to play this versus mode on Starfox Assault where you’d take out the other players with various weapons/vehicles that would spawn on the map. The game evidently feels sorry for whoever gets knocked down to their last life first and tries to even the playing field by rewarding them with this big yellow bazooka, destroyer of worlds, with two shots that are instant KOs. She’d usually get it which would send me running for the hills lol. The mechanics in that game were odd though. It was kind of hard to turn around so you’d just keep jumping around maniacally if someone was sniping at you. You had to essentially do 3-point turns to reverse direction in a hallway lol. Apparently one of the Ratchet and Clank games is co-op, so I’ll have to see if she’s interested when I am there for Thanksgiving.

She had a Dance Dance Revolution for Wii too I think, complete with that footpad thing you’d have to tap. And my brother and I would agitate her by crawling up behind her and tapping the wrong buttons to mess the game up until she’d figure it out and start swatting at us

What other games do you like to play? I know you’ve mentioned Mario a lot.

 

[Cruciferi]

Unfortunately that’s not my picture but my world was pretty big. Several major towns miles of roads and tunnels. I miss it .

 

[Joe_5859]

Yeah, it is a mystery why they don’t have local multiplayer. I suppose for the Wii U it was a product of only being able to have one GamePad, which was essential for playing as it displayed the map and you had to interact with it for certain weapons/items. It seems like something they could have done differently on the Switch, though. Perhaps it’s a limitation of processing power.

I always liked StarFox, but I never played StarFox Assault. Which system was that on? My main experience is with StarFox 64. I still like to throw out “Trust your instincts, Fox” in conversation every now and then. Sounds like you were good brothers to your sister.

I do like Mario. Mario Kart, Smash Bros., and the regular platform Mario games are always good. I like many of the other big Nintendo franchises, too: Donkey Kong Country, Kirby, Zelda (of course). I never got into Metroid, though. It was one of the core original NES games that I never actually played, so it was never really on my radar screen. I tend to pick up the Lego videogames when they drop down below $20. They are one of the few types of games my wife will play with me. She’s too competitive to want to play competitive games with me (because I tend to win). So it’s better for everyone to avoid that. I always liked Mega Man, but for some reason they don’t release Mega Man games anymore. I played Mega Man X so many times I used to be able to play it from beginning to end without dying once. How about you, what games do you like?

 

[RobynP]

That’s cool, it’s nice that you can play with your brother! It’s kind of odd they didn’t put a local multiplayer option in that game, it seems like it would be perfectly suited for it.

Yeah, it is a mystery why they don’t have local multiplayer. I suppose for the Wii U it was a product of only being able to have one GamePad, which was essential for playing as it displayed the map and you had to interact with it for certain weapons/items. It seems like something they could have done differently on the Switch, though. Perhaps it’s a limitation of processing power.

I’ve actually noticed that a lot of the newer games nowadays don’t have local multiplayer anymore. The cynical part of me says they do that to sell more consoles and copies, since now if you want to play with your friends you can’t just all go to the one house that has the game but you each have to get your own. But who knows.

I do miss the old days of having friends over and playing on one screen. Good times.

 

[Joe_5859]

I’ve actually noticed that a lot of the newer games nowadays don’t have local multiplayer anymore. The cynical part of me says they do that to sell more consoles and copies, since now if you want to play with your friends you can’t just all go to the one house that has the game but you each have to get your own. But who knows.

I do miss the old days of having friends over and playing on one screen. Good times.

I wonder, too, how much of it is supply and demand. Do kids play games together in the same room the way they once did? I feel like there is a larger cultural shift away from activities that require us to actually be with other people in the same room (says the guy in a room by himself talking to other people over the internet (Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.)). It’s the whole Bowling Alone phenomenon.

 

[balto]

Starfox Assault was on the Gamecube. I think I actually like that Starfox the best. There were a couple of missions that we more open where you could jump in and out of the vehicles to complete various aspects of the mission. They also had Starfox Adventures on the Gamecube, which was basically a Zelda game with Fox as the main character. I think it was heavily criticized for not being a real Starfox game, but I obviously liked it I was hoping that Starfox Zero would revitalize that series, but unfortunately I don’t think it had that effect.

I remember those Lego games too, my sister used to play them. I think we had Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Harry Potter, and Lord of the Rings. The Star Wars one was the best IMO. And, of course, since you can fight the other player instead of the enemies, the levels took twice as long as the should have lol. I was amused in the Indiana Jones one, when she would not let me play as Indy, and then found out later that Indy can’t hurt female partners but the female partners can hurt him. That generated quite a bit of antagonism!

I only had Nintendo when we were growing up too so I played a lot of the same series that you mentioned. Recently I got back into Pokemon again. We weren’t allowed to have handhelds as kids so I didn’t get to experience that phenomenon back then, but I kind of got reinterested in it from the later Smash Bros games where they started adding characters from the later generations. I haven’t played too much Mario over the years, although a couple of years ago I download Super Mario 64 from the Wii Shop Channel and finally got all 120 stars. I had gotten up to 119 way back when, couldn’t find the last secret castle star. One Mario game I still really like is Paper Mario. One of my college friends is obsessed with that game and wants to talk about the skeleton dragon superboss Bonetail from the second one almost every time I see him. Still waiting for them to make a real Paper Mario again, but after 3 strikes I think they might be out lol.

 

[balto]

Yeah I miss those days too. My brother and I had two friends that lived across the street and we used to play games with them. Both sets of parents would make us go play outside after a while, and then we’d proceed to obey the letter of the law, but not the spirit of the law, by just roleplaying the games outside lol. We used to trick-or-treat with them and I remember the one year when I was adult OoT Link, my brother was young OoT Link (this was when he thought I was cool and copied almost everything I did, those days aren’t coming back ), and then the two friends were Lugia from Pokemon and Princess Peach.

What titles do you like playing?

 

[anikins]

I pulled out my DS last night and checked on my Animal Crossing villiage as well as restarted Sun/Moon. Going to keep it with me during some upcoming trips.

 

[RobynP]

I kind of have a wide range of games I like honestly. I love most of Nintendo’s stuff. Super Smash Bros, even though yeah it’s pretty mindless and repetitive, is still a favorite of mine. It was something my cousins and I used to always play when we were young and so it has a special place for me. In fact, we’ll still play it when we all get together, even though most of us are in our twenties.

The LEGO games are always fun. I also like puzzle/shooter games like Portal or Tomb Raider. And I even like some straight forward FPS games like Halo, though I’m embarrasingly bad at them. Used to like Call of Duty, but when they started releasing a new game every year at 60 bucks a pop I had to quit.

And obviously I love the Zelda games. But I’m ashamed to say, I’ve only played about five of them. Ocarina, Windwaker, Twilight Princess, part of Skyward Sword (for some reason I never finished that one, probably should.) and BOTW. Aren’t there something like fifteen or twenty games in the series? I’d like someday to play them all, but it seems like most of them aren’t playable on any system I own so probably will never happen.

 

[Joe_5859]

Happy birthday, @SuperLuigi! And to your brother, Mario, as well.

 

[DetectiveNiko]

Currently I am playing CrossCode. the game is still in early acess, not fully “built” but I am loving every piece of it. Fun characters, amazing gameplay, good humor, fun exploration and world building, everything is just so great.
But I generally love RPG’s so I would recommend
Legend of heroes trails in the sky (If you want the full story you will have to buy 3 games though :/)
Tales of games (Tales of Symphonia, etc.)
Nintendo games are always great, though I don’t have a console to play them on. There is a free mobile game called fire emblem heroes which is great.
If you like stealthy ninja games I recommend Gunpoint and Mark of the Ninja ( though mark of the ninja is a bit brutal and might not be for everybody )
A great short game literally anybody can play and it lasts only 4 hours but has a beautiful story that will make you cry is : “To the moon”
All you do is walk and talk in the game (and sometimes collect things) but its a great story.
Then there is always the highly appreciated Portal 2.
Those are some of my favourite Steam games, but I have a lot more I like.

 

[balto]

I kind of have a wide range of games I like honestly. I love most of Nintendo’s stuff. Super Smash Bros, even though yeah it’s pretty mindless and repetitive, is still a favorite of mine. It was something my cousins and I used to always play when we were young and so it has a special place for me. In fact, we’ll still play it when we all get together, even though most of us are in our twenties.

That sounds like fun, those kinds of games are more fun to play with other people than alone. I used to play Super Smash Bros. Melee with my brother all the time when we were younger. We didn’t feel right fighting “good guys” so we almost always did a team battle against Bowser and Ganondorf, with Mewtwo thrown in as the third if we played alone. Who is your favorite character? Embarrassingly enough, I used to play really well with Princess Peach She was kind of a beast in Melee and clearly had the easiest time recovering. I like Lucario a lot in the newer ones (I was one of those rare people that liked the transition from Mewtwo to Lucario). Every once in a while I will play the Wii U/3DS Smash Bros and do a 1 vs. 3 team battle againts 3 level 9 CPUs to relive event 51 from Melee. I was tempted to do a 1 vs. 7 team battle in the Wii U one just for the laughs but never did it.

The LEGO games are always fun. I also like puzzle/shooter games like Portal or Tomb Raider. And I even like some straight forward FPS games like Halo, though I’m embarrasingly bad at them. Used to like Call of Duty, but when they started releasing a new game every year at 60 bucks a pop I had to quit.

I never got into FPS games. I had to look up PUBG when you mentioned it earlier. Seems like something that my coworkers would like to play, sometimes even at work lol.

And obviously I love the Zelda games. But I’m ashamed to say, I’ve only played about five of them. Ocarina, Windwaker, Twilight Princess, part of Skyward Sword (for some reason I never finished that one, probably should.) and BOTW. Aren’t there something like fifteen or twenty games in the series? I’d like someday to play them all, but it seems like most of them aren’t playable on any system I own so probably will never happen.

Yeah there’s a bunch and I haven’t played them all either. You need to finish Skyward Sword though. I actually really liked that one and don’t get most of the criticism it got. I think Nintendo really shot themselves in the foot by doing away with the motion controlled Wiimote features with the transition away from the original Wii. It was a lot of fun to just be able to swing the remote around to use the gadgets.

 

[balto]

Tales of games (Tales of Symphonia, etc.)

Interesting, I originally bought a PS2 and PS3 because I was interested in the Tales games. We had Symphonia and Vesperia when I was a sophomore in college and had a lot of fun playing them with some other guys with which I shared a dormitory suite. I liked Abyss and Xillia 2 a lot, some of the other ones didn’t have very intriguing storylines but the gameplay was usually fun. The first time I saw your avatar on these forums I thought it was an image of Yuri Lowell from Vesperia haha.

 

[starshiptrooper]

I liked both Brawl and Melee. I played Fox, Zero Suit Samus, and Marth as my mains.

 

[josh987654321]

The cynical part of me says they do that to sell more consoles and copies, since now if you want to play with your friends you can’t just all go to the one house that has the game but you each have to get your own. But who knows.

I do miss the old days of having friends over and playing on one screen. Good times.

Not cynical, very apt. I remember for some old games I could just share a disc with my brother and play a game together over LAN. They don’t really bother with LAN nowadays as it’s all online, so they can verify copies and make sure each player has their own copy of the game and normally that would be fine, but even with your own copy of the game, they take away so much freedom that most multiplayer games are so very limited in what you can do.

 

[DetectiveNiko]

He does kinda look like Yuri yeah. Though I am curious how you menaged to get Vesperia.
I thought Vesperia on the PS3 was Japan exclusive. I played a bit of Abyss but not much since i didnt own it.
I only have Symphonia right now because my computer is not the best and thats the only older tales game on steam.
I would say Symphonia for me is definitely cliche in many parts. But the gameplay always makes it great I agree.

 

[balto]

I liked both Brawl and Melee. I played Fox, Zero Suit Samus, and Marth as my mains.

Oh interesting, I never really played well as Zero Suit Samus for some reason. I liked Fox a lot too although I think I preferred Wolf out of the 3 of them in Brawl. It was kind of surprising they put him into Brawl, but then they took him out of 3DS/Wii U. Link was pretty good in Smash Bros. too, although I miss having Young Link from Melee over Toon Link.

 

[balto]

He does kinda look like Yuri yeah. Though I am curious how you menaged to get Vesperia.

I thought Vesperia on the PS3 was Japan exclusive. I played a bit of Abyss but not much since i didnt own it.

I only have Symphonia right now because my computer is not the best and thats the only older tales game on steam.

I would say Symphonia for me is definitely cliche in many parts. But the gameplay always makes it great I agree.

That’s right, I had forgotten Symphonia has a remake for Steam now. We had the original GameCube version and then I eventually got the HD PS3 remake.

One of my suitemates that year had an XBox 360 so we played Vesperia on that, and my sister has an XBox 360 at my parents’ house so she is currently in possession of that game. I actually did import a copy of the Japanese PS3 version, since PS3s oddly enough are not region-protected like most consoles. It’s kind of a shame they never localized that remake because it contains a decent amount of added content over the XBox 360 version. They were some additions to the main story, a new post-game dungeon, a team-mode for the coliseum, a snowboarding minigame for Repede, the overlimit gauge goes up to 8 instead of 4, Flynn eventually joins the party permanently and there was an additional brand new party member, Patty. I think I liked Vesperia’s gameplay the best, despite not being terribly impressed with the story. I used to play as Repede and two other friends played as Rita and Raven.