Last week, we caught up on Tears of the Kingdom on its anniversary. This week we get into something new yet old as Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door celebrates an anniversary of its own. Twenty years on and the revamped Switch version brings new characters, battles, and quality-of-life improvements, not to mention the updated visuals and audio.

We also talk about the recent news that Atari has purchased Intellivision. If you were gaming in the ’70s or ’80s, you were likely to have played one of these systems. Kirk and Trev in particular give their thoughts on this situation, which is touted to be the end of the long-running “first console war”.

Dave the Diver has recently received some DLC, which brings Godzilla into the mix. Plus, we’ve been playing a classic NES title, a new visual novel, and continuing our foray into Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes.

Thanks for listening, we love putting these shows together, so let us know your thoughts! And don’t forget to leave us a review to help support the channel.

Until next time, game on everyone!

Support the show!

Please support the Pure Nintendo Podcast by leaving us a review on Spotify or liking on YouTube, and tune in each and every Monday for more Nintendo-related goodness. It’s all happening on the Pure Nintendo Podcast!

You can find our podcast on:

• Spotify
• Apple
• Amazon

You can also subscribe to our bi-monthly magazine over at patreon.com/PureNintendo and follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/PureNintendo. We’d love your support!

The post Pure Nintendo Podcast E62 | Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door appeared first on Pure Nintendo.

Last week, we talked about Nintendo’s latest sales data announced during their annual fiscal report. This week, we begin with a look at sales for Tears of the Kingdom and how that compares to BReath of the Wild and other titles and series.

We delve further into Tears of the Kingdom, with Kirk and Jemma having jumped back into the game this week. Where are we at? What have we achieved? And how do we feel about it 12 months on?

We talk about our favorite moments in the game, along with what we think could be improved in future iterations. Plus, we talk about the future of the franchise, the lack of DLC for Tears of the Kingdom, and much more.

We end the show by chatting about a couple of non-Zelda games we’re playing, including Please Fix My Road and Ikki Unite.

Have you been playing Tears of the Kingdom recently? Let us know your thoughts on Tears of the Kingdom. How do you feel about it on its anniversary?

Thanks for listening, we love putting these shows together, so let us know your thoughts! And don’t forget to leave us a review to help support the channel.

Until next time, game on everyone!

Support the show!

Please support the Pure Nintendo Podcast by leaving us a review on Spotify or liking on YouTube, and tune in each and every Monday for more Nintendo-related goodness. It’s all happening on the Pure Nintendo Podcast!

You can find our podcast on:

• Spotify
• Apple
• Amazon

You can also subscribe to our bi-monthly magazine over at patreon.com/PureNintendo and follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/PureNintendo. We’d love your support!

The post Pure Nintendo Podcast E61 | We revisit Tears of the Kingdom! appeared first on Pure Nintendo.

Last week, we speculated about what might be announced on March 10, this week we know for sure. We talk about the new movie, new LEGO sets, and the two games coming to us soon in the form of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door and Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD.

We also chat about the games we’re currently playing. It’s a mixed bag this week, with Jemma playing something fun called Astro Duel II and something frustrating called rough Justice ’84. Meanwhile, Kirk has been continuing his quest with Unicorn Overlord as well experiencing something quite unique with The Vale: Shadow of the Crown, something developed with vision-impaired players in mind. Cool!

We also look into the altest Switch 2 rumors, including a new name and some tech details.

Thanks for listening, we love putting these shows together, so let us know your thoughts! And don’t forget to leave us a review to help support the channel.

Until next time, game on everyone!

Support the show!

Please support the Pure Nintendo Podcast by leaving us a review on Spotify or liking on YouTube, and tune in each and every Monday for more Nintendo-related goodness. It’s all happening on the Pure Nintendo Podcast!

You can find our podcast on:

• Spotify
• Apple
• Amazon

You can also subscribe to our bi-monthly magazine over at patreon.com/PureNintendo and follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/PureNintendo. We’d love your support!

Epsiode music

Gigakoops – Tunnel of Hate
Rolemusic – If Pigs Could Sing

The post Pure Nintendo Podcast E54 | Happy MAR10 Day! appeared first on Pure Nintendo.

Last week, we chatted about Super Mario RPG. This week, Trev has finished the game, giving us a quick update. Meanwhile, Jemma has completed Super Mario Bros. Wonder, so we’re starting to wrap up a few bigger titles.

The Game Awards is on tonight! This annual event has been running since 2014, and we talk about the Nintendo games nominated – as well as the controversy around the definition of an “indie” title. Will you be watching the show? It kicks off at 8 pm ET on 7 December.

Level 5, creators of games like Fantasy Life and Professor Layton, provided fans with an update on these and other titles last week. We talk about our time with both series and our expectations for the next iterations.

Thanks for listening, and don’t forget to like this episode and subscribe to the channel to support the show! Until next time, game on everyone!

Support the show!

Please support the Pure Nintendo Podcast by leaving us a review on Spotify or liking on YouTube, and tune in each and every Monday for more Nintendo-related goodness. It’s all happening on the Pure Nintendo Podcast!

You can find our podcast on:

• Spotify
• Apple
• Amazon

You can also subscribe to our bi-monthly magazine over at patreon.com/PureNintendo and follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/PureNintendo. We’d love your support!

Epsiode music

Gigakoops – Tunnel of Hate
Rolemusic – If Pigs Could Sing

The post Pure Nintendo Podcast E39 | Game Awards controversy and Professor Layton update! appeared first on Pure Nintendo.

There’s no prize for guessing that Mario features heaviliy in our list lately, with not one, but two recent games to keep us hooked. We’re loving both Super Mario Bros. Wonder and Super Mario RPG. Incidentally, we talk about Super Mario RPG on our latest episode of the Pure Nintendo Podcast – and stay tuned for our upcoming review.

Meanwhile, ’tis the season for .. Metroidvanias? A couple of entries sneak into our list with 9 Years of Shadows and TEVI. We’re also enamoured with the likes of WarioWare and Professor Layton, not to mention Mario Kart and Splatoon 3.

Check out our latest playlist below to see the games we’re playing this week. What’s on your playlist? Let us know in the comments section!

Kirk

• 9 Years of Shadows (Switch) – I’m reviewing this colorful and refreshingly accessible Metroidvania published by Freedom Games. 9 Years of Shadows’ somewhat musical approach to action RPGs has held my interest for longer than most games within this genre.
• Arcadian Atlas (Switch) – Also for review, this mostly traditional fantasy SRPG features one element I’ve never encountered in all my years of turn-based combat: a jazz soundtrack. It also features a raccoon named Poncho. I’ll need some time with this one.
• Persona 5 Royal (Switch) – As I’ve mentioned in the Pure Nintendo Podcast, I’m not cool enough to hang with the Phantom Thieves. But I’m going to do it anyway, thanks to this game’s 50% off sale. I started it once on PS4. Will I finish it on Switch? Only time will tell!

Justin

• Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (Switch) – I’ve been playing the last wave (Wave 6) of the Mario Kart DLC courses and having a blast. My favorite ‘new’ course is DK Mountain — one of my favorites from the series! It’s reignited my love for the game and my need to complete 3 gold stars on each cup :) I’ve got the 200cc ones down, wanted to get the most difficult ones out of the way first but the Mirror ones are proving quite challenging.
• Super Mario Bros. Wonder (Switch) – Still playing through this with our game night crew — we just finished World 3 and are on to the lava area next. Such amazing creativity in every level! I’m just having an amazing time playing through. I love some of the returning enemy types from Super Mario Bros. 3 and the new enemy variety is amazing.

Trev

• Professor Layton and the Curious Village (DS) – With the release of a new gameplay trailer for Professor Layton and the New World of Steam, I was in the mood to revisit the series. And what better way than the one that started it all? Plus, playing the DS allowed my Switch to recharge between review games. Such as…
• Super Mario RPG (Switch) – After just finishing the main story, I’m getting ready to enjoy some post-game content. My review should be worth the wait, and spoiler alert, this one is scoring high.
• WarioWare: Move It! (Switch) – Don’t sleep on this one. The WarioWare games might be B-tier in terms of sales figures, but it’s AAA when it comes to grins and laughter. Check out my review to see why this game is a guaranteed party.

Nyleak

• Stardew Valley (Switch) – I started playing this again because I needed something relaxing to pass the time on those boring winter nights. I haven’t played in a while so I’ve been enjoying all of the new updates, and started I started a new file on the beach farm that was recently added.
• Splatoon 3 (Switch) – I recently checked my play time for Splatoon 3 and I’m almost ashamed to say it’s over 700 hours. It’s literally the only online multiplayer game that I enjoy, and I like to stay up late :)
• Super Mario RPG (Switch) – I’ve played quite a bit of the story and I’m really enjoying my time with this awesome remake. I love all of the updated graphics and characters. I do wish the game was a little longer though, but only because I enjoy it so much.
• Kingdom Eighties (Switch) – I’m currently playing this for a review. It’s very interesting and gives off a strong Stranger Things vibe. I’m hoping to have my review wrapped up by next week.

Jemma

• SteamWorld Build (Switch) – This is the latest entry in the long-running series of diverse titles featuring steampunk robots in a post-apocalyptic future. This time around it’s a simulation game, allowing you build a whole town of robots in order to mine a special treasure to get you off a dying planet. I’m also lucky enough to be reviewing this title, so stay tuned!
• Super Mario Bros. Wonder (Switch) – I’ve made it to Bowser! I’ve been taking my time with Mario’s latest platformer, and enjoying every second. It’s a true return to form (even though I loved the New series), with lovely sprites, fun levels, interesting enemies, wonderful surprises.
• TEVI (Switch) – This metroidvania features a heavily Japanese-inspired theme, from Chibi characters to voiceovers that are completely in Japanese. This side-scrolling adventure features bullet-hell tropes as well, with enemies spewing blasts of energy at you on your journey. I’ll be posting a review of my thoughts on this one soon!
• Pui Pui Molcar: Let’s Molcar Party! (Switch) – Have you seen this cute show on Netflix? It features vehicles that also happen to guinea pigs. It’s bonkers, but it’s adorable. This game features a bunch of these cute critters in a simple-yet-fun title that brings together elements of building, photography, minigames, and general good vibes. It’s aimed at a younger audience, but it works quite well. Watch for my upcoming review!

Enjoying our playlist? Check out our Pure Nintendo magazine and our weekly podcast for news, reviews, and much more!

The post PN playlist: the Nintendo games we’re playing this week appeared first on Pure Nintendo.

You are given the option of one of ten heroes to be your champion in the beginning and set off on your adventure. Each hero’s deck is crafted to showcase their unique strengths and weaknesses against the various enemies you’ll encounter on your campaign. 

You get the option to recruit other heroes as you progress and can journey with a party of three, using all of their decks collaboratively in battle. The various heroes’ skills interact in interesting ways. The enormous range of potential combinations gives you plenty of opportunities to get creative in your approach to the game.

Gordian Quest offers multiple modes to play. Campaign mode takes you on a quest spanning four acts, battling supernatural enemies to keep the world safe. Realm mode offers an increasingly challenging roguelite experience, which ends only when you are defeated. Skirmish mode offers a chance to pit your party against a friend. Adventure mode offers procedurally generated maps and dungeons that expand on the world established in the campaign mode. 

Each of these can be tackled with different hero combinations, skill tree choices, and deck choices to offer endless hours of gameplay. Every run is different. Even just playing through the campaign multiple times can offer unique experiences due to the randomized nature of the enemies you face and your choice of how to approach them. The more you understand the world, the more creative choices you are empowered to make as you go through it.

On your adventure, you collect gold, armor and weapons, many of which add cards to your deck once they’re equipped. You can enhance your equipped items with runes to adjust the way they impact your story. This gives you endless opportunities to customize your team to how you want to play each time, as long as you manage to uncover those rarer, more powerful items.

The world of Gordian Quest is genuinely interesting. The art is absolutely incredible, both in terms of the stylistic maps you traverse and the sprites you encounter in battle. The characters, both good and evil, are gorgeously rendered and have thrilling moves that look and feel exactly how you would imagine. 

The story is well-paced, with increasingly challenging battles that force you to think creatively about your strategy, both in and out of combat. The world is legitimately interesting, built up over time as different NPCs teach you more about the various regions you cross and the threats they face that you are tasked with tackling. Each act consists of a number of missions people will ask you to undertake to investigate the villains. You’ll battle monsters and eventually make your way up to a boss battle for that section.

Gordian Quest ultimately tells a classic fantasy story. It’s not the most original tale you’ll ever hear, but it is clearly trying to emulate history RPGs. It does pay a lovely homage to its influences in a way that makes it easy to forgive any tropes in the narrative.

It would be nice to see some elements of the gameplay pushed to the forefront. For instance, the collaboration between the members of your party is a key skill you can develop, but largely takes place at campsites, which you have to use your supplies to set up – and can simply choose not to set up at all. There are plenty of text sections offering context and interesting facts about specific aspects of the game where some dialogue options could be injected to build on the social bonding function. 

Still, Gordian Quest is a very comprehensive game, with a huge amount of action built in and a lot to do. Maybe it isn’t all that surprising that some elements take a backseat. Having to dig into it to get the full experience is far from a rare issue in games so vast, nor something that breaks the game.

The post Review: Gordian Quest (Nintendo Switch) appeared first on Pure Nintendo.

Sonic Superstars is exactly how it looks: a modern day take on 2D Sonic. If you’ve played any classic Sonic game, you know what to expect. Diverse stages, weird boss fights, a mixed bag of platforming (more on that in a moment), great music, and, of course, lots of coins. This modern take on 2D Sonic introduces a new art style, a mix of 2D gameplay with 3D visuals. There’s also the addition of Emerald Powers, a special power up you can use after collecting certain Chaos Emeralds from bonus stages. These range from slowing down time to making a whole bunch of duplicates of yourself that rush onto the screen to destroy enemies. 

Whereas a game like Sonic the Hedgehog 4 tried, and failed, to add something new to 2D Sonic, Sonic Superstars nails what makes the old games beloved, while trying to add something new. It’s overall gameplay is absolutely solid, which is a big deal. The aforementioned Sonic 4 was notorious for feeling equal parts floaty (where the character strangely felt like it floated way too long when jumping) to way too heavy. Regardless of the character you choose, Sonic Superstars nails it’s moment to moment gameplay. Running and jumping feel a little slower than those classic Genesis era Sonic games, but it simply feels good to control each of the characters, although I must admit I mostly played as Sonic.

It also helps that Sonic Superstars looks really nice. I personally liked the new art style; it feels fresh while still feeling like the old school Sonic. Environments are rich in details, characters are super expressive, and the cutscenes are very well executed. It’s a huge improvement over Sega’s previous attempts with 2D Sonic (think Sonic 4 or Sonic Forces) and honestly makes the whole experience quite memorable. The cherry on top of its great visuals is the music. Older Sonic games had absolutely great soundtracks and, thankfully, Sonic Superstars follows suit. While not every track hits, the overall soundtrack for Superstars is top-notch. Trust me, you’ll be humming a few tracks from this game every time you step away from it.

While Sonic Superstars does well at being a modern day take on 2D Sonic, not every new addition works. Emerald Powers sound like they would make a really fun addition, allowing for unique gameplay changes while you play. The problems are that getting the Emerald Powers is more annoying than it is fun, and they aren’t very useful. To get the power ups you have to complete the Bonus Stage. The thing is, finding those stages in levels isn’t easy. Obviously, that is part of the challenge but I found myself accidentally finding a Bonus Stage in the most random of spots, rather than feeling like I found it in a truly clever location. 

Then, once you get the power ups, their use is…mixed at best. Sonic Superstars limits when you can use the power ups and, 9 out of 10 times, you can’t use the power up in the spot where it could be useful. The game flashes an icon at a random point on each stage where you can use the power up, and nowhere else. This kind of defeats the whole point of having this feature, as I don’t care to use, say, multiple versions of myself in the middle of the stage on four enemies. It’s not useful to limit when I can use this, especially when it was such a pain to find and then collect the power up to begin with.

The other major issue I have with Sonic Superstars is its wildly uneven difficulty spikes. I’ve seen major difficulty spikes in games before, but Sonic Superstars might be the most whiplash I’ve had in a long time. The biggest issues are the mid-stage and final boss fights. Mid-stage boss fights typically aren’t that difficult, and you can easily figure out how to defeat the enemy without taking much or any damage. In Sonic Superstars, the mid-stage boss fights are harder than the end-stage bosses. In fact, defeating Dr. Eggman at the end of each stage is really, really easy; you just jump up and hit him on the head of his robot. His attacks aren’t hard to figure out, and you beat them with ease.

Mid-stage boss fights? It’s pretty unclear how to beat the bosses when they start up, and they are laser focused on hitting you and ultimately defeating you. It’s a strange and very uneven experience that feels like someone at Sega accidentally switched the code by mistake.

Then, there’s the last Eggman boss fight. It’s hard, like way too hard for its own good. It takes 13 hits to his head to defeat him in the end, and you can’t simply jump on his head every time to damage him. Without spoiling the boss fight, let’s just say they change up how you damage him during the fight. The overall experience comes off as annoyingly difficult rather than a rewarding challenge.

In the end, Sonic Superstars is a fun, modern take on the classic 2D Sonic formula. Its solid moment to moment gameplay, fun new visual style, and great soundtrack make for a very fun experience. The game falters a bit in the new addition of Emerald Powers, which aren’t fun to collect and aren’t useful when collected. The major difficulty spikes in mid-stage bosses and end bosses make for a frustrating combat experience rather than a rewarding one. Still, Sonic Superstars manages to pull together an experience old and new Sonic fans—or 2D platforming fans in general—will get plenty of enjoyment out of.

The post Review: Sonic Superstars (Nintendo Switch) appeared first on Pure Nintendo.

Last week, we chatted about PAX Aus. This week, we continue talking about indie devs with Barry from Premium Edition Games. The team works with indie devs to bring their digital titles to life in physical format for the Switch and other consoles, including the NES.

The team recently announced its latest lineup of physycal titles, and we discuss these great games from some terrific devs. this includes Sunshine Anthology, Anuchard, Oratorio, Lonesome Village, and C.A.R.L.

We also chat about our time with Detective Piachu Returns so far, plus the news of a new voice for Mario in the form of Kevin Afghani. Looking ahead, new games from Mario and Sonic are both out this week, so there’s a lot to be excited about.

Thanks for listening, and don’t forget to like this episode and subscribe to the channel to support the show! Until next time, game on everyone!

Support the show!

Please support the Pure Nintendo Podcast by leaving us a review on Spotify or liking on YouTube, and tune in each and every Monday for more Nintendo-related goodness. It’s all happening on the Pure Nintendo Podcast!

You can find our podcast on:

• Spotify
• Apple
• Amazon

You can also subscribe to our bi-monthly magazine over at patreon.com/PureNintendo and follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/PureNintendo. We’d love your support!

The post Pure Nintendo Podcast E33 | We get hyped for physical games! appeared first on Pure Nintendo.

Quantum Recharged is a very simple game. You control a small… thing (it’s unclear if you’re supposed to be a ship or something else entirely). Your goal is to create “dead zones” on the playing field to eliminate the enemy, which also happens to be…some other shape. You do this by drawing a loop around the enemy and enclosing it. The original Quantum required you to enclose an enemy in your loop, but for Quantum Recharged, dead zones stay on screen for a little bit and anything that crosses into one of the loops is eliminated. This means you don’t have to enclose an enemy; simply guess where you think the enemy will go and drop a trap. However, the challenge with this strategy is that you have to be super mindful of your own surroundings. Anything that didn’t come out of your ship/shape/thing kills you.

The simplicity of Quantum Recharged is equally its best and worst aspect. It’s easy to understand what you need to do to play a round of Quantum and ultimately understand why you died. The problem with this is that the game never changes anything up. Thus, after about 5 minutes or so, you’ve experienced the whole game. Quantum Recharged adds a new game mode intended to add more depth to the game, but outside of that, the point is ultimately to get higher up the leaderboard. 

Like most of the Recharged series, the developers opted to add a Mission Mode to Quantum. Mission Mode is, as the name would imply, a game mode where you are assigned missions to complete during your playthrough. The idea is that these missions change up and give you something new or different to try to achieve. The problem with this mode in Quantum Recharged is that the game itself has one objective: eliminate the enemy without dying. This means that the Mission Mode is “Eliminate All Enemies” and…that’s it. The missions don’t change up beyond this, which makes mission mode kind of pointless. 

In the end, Quantum Recharged is likely going to appeal only to the Atari faithful or die-hard retro game players. While it’s a very simple game to learn and play, there just isn’t that much in it to keep you invested for any long amount of time (unless you want to climb the leaderboards). It’s great for a five minute burst, which fits well on Nintendo Switch. Yet, like a lot of the Recharged series, the new additions of things like “Mission Mode” highlight how there isn’t much you can add to these older games. It’s a fun experience that will likely have a limited appeal.

The post Review: Quantum Recharged (Nintendo Switch) appeared first on Pure Nintendo.

One of the most exciting elements to be announced is Nintendo’s presence at the event. Yes, the Big N will be at PAX Aus to showcase plenty of new titles. Here’s what we can expect to see during the show:

• Super Mario Bros. Wonder
• Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet: The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero Part 1: The Teal Mask
• Detective Pikachu Returns
• The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
• Pikmin 4
• Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown
• STAR OCEAN THE SECOND STORY R
• Sonic Superstars

We can’t wait to try some of these out, so stay tuned for details of our hands-on impressions.

What else can fans expect to see at PAX? Here are some of the daily highlights:

Friday, October 6

• Storytime with Erika Ishii | Main Theatre, 12:00 – 1:00 pm
• Whose Voice Is it Anyway 2: The Voicening | Twitch Quokka Theatre, 6:30 – 7:30 pm
• Beyond Stereotypes: Exploring Indigenous representation in video games | Kookaburra Theatre, 3:30 – 4:30 pm
• Cursed Cakes 2.0 | GenerOZity Wombat Theatre, 4:30 – 5:30 pm
• Sustainability at Xbox and its Approach to Developer Engagement | PAX Together Theatre, 10:00 – 10:30 am
• The Future of Gaming – is cloud gaming set to transform the future of how we play forever? | Twitch Quokka Theatre, 11:00 – 12:00 pm

Saturday, October 7

• Secrets & Stories, Music & Myths: A Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical Development Retrospective | Main Theatre, 12:00 – 1:00 pm
• Robert Hartley GM presents D&D Death Roulette | GenerOZity Wombat Theatre, 1:30 – 3:00 pm
• Sea Shanties you say? Yahaarghh! | GenerOZity Wombat Theatre, 9:00 – 11:00 pm
• Cosplay Beginnings Workshop: Props and Armour | Cosplay Theatre, 11:00 – 12:00 pm

Sunday, October 8

• My parents wanted me to be a doctor, but I want to be a content creator | Twitch Quokka Theatre, 12:30 – 1:30 pm
• Bach 4 Blood: Game Soundtracks vs. Classical Music | Galah Theatre, 3:00 – 4:00 pm
• Cosplay Central Crown Championship Finals | Main Theatre, 2:00 – 3:30 pm

In addition to the massive panel schedule, there will also be some celebratory, memory-inducing moments celebrating PAX Aus’ 10th Anniversary. These are:

• The Year That Was PAX Aus 2013 – a special retrospective panel reminiscing on the year that was 2013;
• Fireside with Mick Gordon hosted by New Zealand podcaster, KiwiTalkz, as they deep dive into 10 years of video game music;
• PinnyPals 4*Eva – Celebrating a decade of PAX pin collecting down under;
• Join the Press X Science panel who have hosted a panel for 10 years at PAX Aus exploring what we have learned from a decade of exploring science and videogames;
• A retrospective on the legendary PAX Aus Omegathon;
• Fireside with Halfbrick who were at the original PAX Aus – looking back to 2013 as well as discussing what they have been doing since then;
• I attended every PAX Aus for 10 years – a look at the memories from the community, content creators exploring the key moments in the history of PAX Aus that have made the event what it is today;
• Omegathon 10 Year Battle Royale – The last 10 years of Omegathon winners compete to find out who will be crowned the 10 year Omeganaut.

Will you be at PAX Aus? Let us know – maybe we’ll see you there! In the meantime, check out our latest podcast, which goes into our pre-PAX excitement.

The post PAX Aus kicks off soon! appeared first on Pure Nintendo.