Hi, Welcome to my Review of Pokemon Shield. I know the title says Pokemon Sword and Shield, but I only have Pokemon Shield. I figure the games are similar enough that I can use this review to help people thinking about purchasing either version.
Pokemon Sword is similar to Pokemon Shield, but Shield is the version I chose to buy. Pokemon Sword’s Legendary is better overall, focusing on attack, while Shield’s Legendary focuses on defense.
And let’s be honest Pokemon Sword’s Legendary has a better overall design – a Pokemon that carries a sword in its mouth looks way cooler than a Pokemon whose neck scruff is vaguely shaped like a shield lol. So why did I buy Pokemon Shield instead of Sword? read more
Today I’m writing my review for Ciel Fledge. I’ve spent 20 hours or more on this game over the past few months, and it is at times slow, and suffers from really really bad controls on the Switch version… but I kept playing… and I was about halfway through the 10 years with my virtual daughter, when I reached the bad end. Pro tip if battling the gigant, attack the little shadow Ciels around the gigant, and don’t attack these shadows if they’re beside you, lol… I burnt myself… literally. :(… I saved right before that, but I’m burnt out on this game for now. You can also save your game after the credits and start a new game+ with all of your items and money and some of the things, like the diets and etc already unlocked. Nice :).read more
I picked up Animal Crossing New Horizons on its launch day, and I’m still playing it today. I don’t care how you play or choose to enjoy Animal Crossing but this is my little Animal Crossing story… It’s a deeply personal story actually…
I have played every Animal Crossing game ever since the first one – at least those that were brought over for American Gamers stateside that is.
I like the relaxing gameplay, and I play many similar games such as Harvest Moon, Atelier, and Rune Factory, just to name a few. Other similar games include the Sims, “Tycoon” type games, Roller Coaster Tycoon, Sim City, Zoo Tycoon, and indie games like Terraria or Stardew Valley, or taking it back old school style with Azure Dreams. Or Zelda Breath of the Wild other open world PC games like Elder Scrolls or Fallout Or Red Dead Or … Basically any type of semi open world game that allows you to craft or farm or build a village or customize things in kinda a never ending kinda almost aimless type of gameplay…read more
I received this copy of Maitetsu Pure Station in exchange for a review. Opinions expressed in this review are my own.
Title: Maitetsu Pure Station
Platform: Nintendo Switch
Release Date: January 2020
Genre: Visual Novel
Overall Score: 87/100 87% Very Good Game For Girls
Geeky: 5/5 This game is educational and full of both history and sci-fi elements.
Sweetie: 5/5 This game also has adorable cute anime characters and stunning graphics. The story is good with a lot of emotional and cute scenes. The production values are high and the music and voice acting are all well above average. read more
Nelke & The Legendary Alchemists Ateliers Of The New World
Nelke & The Legendary Alchemists Ateliers Of The New World is a brand new game by Koei Tecmo Games to celebrate 20 years of the series. Wow has it been that long already? I still remember the first 2 games way back when. And you know what else I remember, a little-known Nintnedo DS offshoot game in the Atelier Series called Atelier Annie: Alchemists of Sera Island which came out about 10 years ago.
So why Am I mentioning Atelier Annie? Because, if you’ve ever played it, then you know what to expect from Nelke & The Legendary Alchemists. Both games are unlike any of the rest of the Atelier Games, and instead put you in a role of managing a city and completing missions to advance.
Nelke has some really negative reviews – at least on Steam, but I purchased Nelke anyways, on a hunch it’d be like Atelier Annie, and you know what, I’m not disappointed. If you liked Annie, you’ll like Nelke. Conversely, if you hated Annie, you’ll hate Nelke, and if you’ve never played either game, well there’s only one way to find out then, and that’s by giving it a go for yourself.
The reviews on steam are complaining how different Nelke is — and to some — how boring it is… But honestly Atelier Annie was one of my favorites in the series. I loved the humorous story / humorous main character, and yes, I enjoyed the more “Sim Like” gameplay of building a city.
Nelke is not without flaws however; Unlike Annie, it lacks the humor and charm, and feels a bit dry and dull so far in the story. I’m 4 hours in at this point… which brings to another flaw, in that 4 hours in, I’m still in the tutorial… This game is very very very linear in the tutorial… Like almost everything will be on lockdown… for a long while… expect your first 8+ hours to be linear AF….
After that though there really is a TON of stuff to do in this game. It is NOT boring at all. You can craft items, gather materials, build new buildings, talk to your villagers, discover new recipes, sell items in your shops, and invest in new routes and tools to use in your adventures. There are simplistic turn based combats and different characters to recruit to your village.
You have to complete some required, and other optional tasks within a set number of days within the game. This can make it difficult and frustrating, so save often and in multiple save slots to try to minimize time lost if you miss a goal.
The game either runs slow on my laptop, or just is really slow by design, to the point where its a little frustrating. It may just be my laptop though and can probably be improved if I adjust some settings.
The main complaint a lot of people have is that while exploring you do nothing but watch your characters walk by on the screen. They will converse, gather items, and occasionally run into random enemy encounters. The battles are also slow and tedious. I do agree with these basic gameplay flaws. However, they don’t detract from my overall enjoyment of the other aspects of city building and mission completing and watching my city grow and evolve based on my decisions and choices made in where to invest and what to build next, etc.
The graphics are insanely adorable as always with the Atelier series.
Unlike a lot of the other games in the Atelier Universe, this one does not have English voice acting. I do like to have the original voice actors, but I also sometimes like to have an English cast too. I was disappointed they didn’t offer both.
I assume replay value is high because each city you build will be pretty unique and you will attract different stores, different npcs, and different quests based on how your city is developing.
All and all I’d rate the score card like this:
Title: Nelke & The Legendary Alchemists – Ateliers Of The New World –
Platform – (for this review The PC version was used.) It’s also available on PS4 and Nintendo Switch.
Where to Purchase: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07FMZZYK1?tag=amz-mkt-chr-us-20&ascsubtag=1ba00-01000-org00-win10-other-nomod-us000-pcomp-feature-scomp-wm-5&ref=aa_scomp
Geeky: 3/5 – Points for bringing back some of the popular characters from this series over the past 20 years.
Sweetie: 5/5 – For the casual gameplay and kawaii art
Overall: 53/70 78% C+ “Good Game For Girls”
Gameplay: 7/10 – I do love the sim aspects, having been a huge fan of Atelier Annie (easily one of my top 3 games in the Atelier universe). But I do agree that the game is slow and the wait for the payoff/reward is pretty steep. The game also doesn’t run great, can’t tell if it’s just my PC though maybe.
Story: 3/10 – I’m not loving the story, or lack there of. I’m 4 hours in and there’s not much of any story to be found; it does keep hinting at solving a mystery about a fruit from a legendary tree. But compared to other Atelier games the story feels less engaging so far.
Characters: 10/10 – I love seeing popular characters from the Atelier games return all in a brand new game. I also love the new characters that were created just for this game.
Voice Acting: 7/10 – The original Japanese voice cast does a great job and sounds super cute, but where’s the dual English voice acting? A bit disappointing especially for a 20th anniversary edition, you’d think they would have put a little more time and effort into the localization on this one. It feels cheap and rushed to not have both to choose from.
Music: 10/10 – Always love the music in the Atelier games, and Nelke doesn’t disappoint here either.
Replay Value: 8/10 – I think replay value will be very high, but I’m not looking forward to dredging through 5+ hours of linear handheld tutorials each time.
Overall: 53/70 78% C+ “Good Game For Girls”
Overall I would recommend this game to anyone who does not mind slower paced casual simulation games, or to anyone who remembers playing Atelier Annie on the DS. I like Atelier Annie a lil bit more because of the humorous story; but Nelke’s story may pick up and become more interesting. I may come in eventually and update my review scores if I find the story to improve as I get further into the game. Gameplay wise though it is almost identical to Atelier Annie, so if that’s your thing, be sure to check Nelke out.
Where to Get: I got Sonic Mania and a buncha other Sonic games in a humble bundle, but if that bundle is over you can find the games on amazon or steam.
Release Date: 2017
Overview: Sonic Mania is one of the newest Sonic Games, however, it pays homage to 90s oldschool Sonic and is very well received by 30+ year old Sonic fans, as well as a whole new generation of gamers.
Gameplay: 10/10 – Sonic is back in a new game, with levels re-designed from the original Sonic games as well as all new levels created for Sonic Mania. You can play as Sonic, Tails, or several “new” characters first appearing in Knuckles Chaotix or Arcade exclusive sonic games. To play the game as other characters you will have to select the characters at the starting screen – you cannot switch characters within the game.
The levels are fun and fast and action packed. You run, jump, spin, and dash through the levels. There are many different paths in each level and many hidden objects, including entrances to bonus stages to capture chaos diamonds. Overall the gameplay is fun and full of nostalgia
Story: 1/10 Sonic isn’t a story-centric game, and it doesn’t really need a story. Timeline wise, it is said to take place after the events in Sonic and Knuckles. Lack of story does not hurt this game, but if you’re looking for a game with a great story, this is not it.
Characters: 5/10 – I enjoyed seeing Sonic and his friends return in an all new game, and it definitely brought back nostalgia and my childhood, but without a story, there’s no real personality or character development here. Once again though, games like this do not really need character development to be central to the player’s enjoyment of the game.
Graphics: 7/10 – The graphics are done in a bright colorful oldschool pixel style. This is not for everyone. Clearly this game is wanting to appeal to old school gamers who grew up with the original Sonic. Me? I liked it. But your opinion may be different. I did see some anti-aliasing and rough edges as to be expected in pixel style games, mostly especially when playing in fullscreen mode. There are different filters and options you can enable in settings to try to minimize this jagged-edginess.
Music: 10/10 – The music is definitely old school too and a great homage to the Sega Genesis Sonic games, which always had some pretty fun music.
Replay Value: 10/10 – The replay value is high because there are different characters that you can play as, each with their own unique abilities that make taking different paths through the same levels very unique experiences. No two characters play exactly alike. There are also different gameplay modes such as time attack and multiplayer competitions.
Nostalgia: 10/10 – This game set out to be a tribute game to the 90’s Sonic games, and it succeeds at this in an unprecedented way, welcoming back into the fold Sega fans who felt disappointed with the past several Sonic games.
Geeky: 5/5 – Nostalgia and pixel graphics and great soundtrack that 90s kids will love, make Sonic Mania chock full of nostalgia.
Sweetie: 2/5 – Lack of story and lack of character dialogue make this a game that is definitely outside the norm of what I normally enjoy or normally review here. However I think the nostalgia and cute/colorful graphics and anthropomorphic animal characters will appeal to most of my readers, who are already probably familiar with the Sonic franchise.
Gamepads are typically the preferred controller when playing video games. However, taking a look at the benefits of opting for an arcade stick, also known as a fight stick, it makes sense why one would want to make a switch.read more
With a new year, I decided to take a look at the upcoming releases for the Switch in 2018 and make a few suggestions as to what games girls should be looking out for in the year ahead. (There may be a few games that released in Q4 of 2017 also on this list as I wasn’t sure of a few of the release dates). Enjoy! And leave me a comment to let me know what games you’re looking forward to on the Switch in 2018. 🙂 I’ll also soon add a list like this for PS4 and PC games as well.
Top 2018 Nintendo Switch Games For Girls
1.) Project Octopath Traveler
Originally scheduled for a 2017 release, and part of our Top 2017 Nintendo Switch Games for Girls list, Octopath Traveler blends gameplay elements from 16 and 32 bit classics such as Chronotrigger and Saga Frontier. The retro game feel is sure to appeal to many visitors of this site. But that’s not all, Project Octopath Traveler also offers a variety of endings and a branching plot line that is shaped by decisions you make within the game.
2.) Kirby Star Allies
He’s pink, cute, and the gameplay is fun. Kirby has been a fan favorite of Nintendo gamers for several decades now. In his new adventure, up to four players can join in and you can combine different power ups, as demonstrated in the Nintendo Direct Video above.
3.) Toe Jam & Earl Back in the Groove
Toe Jam & Earl was a childhood favorite of mine. I spent countless hours (or days, or weeks) playing the original two games on Sega Genesis with my best friend. It’s one of the best multiplayer games of my childhood and this new take on the classic, originally slated for 2017, will grace Switch consoles now in 2018. For those unfamillar with the franchise, you run around colorful crazy worlds with zany characters and crazy powerups playing as 2 funky hiphop aliens.
4.) My Time At Portia
https://youtu.be/qX8Z0UX7DAo
My Time At Portia is a cross platform title that features sandbox gameplay in a large open world enviornment. It blends together many gameplay elements from Harvest Moon, Stardew Valley, Rune Factory, and Atelier. In this game you can raise animals, grow crops, and restore an abandoned workshop. The developers say the game takes place in a post apocalyptic world where humans are few and that you search for relics from the past to create inventions for the betterment of society. Also just like in Harvest Moon and similar games, all of the NPCs have their own schedules, they will go to work, school, and have their own stories for you to discover by interacting with them.
5.) Avabel Online
https://youtu.be/Ri7xVGSLXMU
This is perhaps an interesting one to make the list. Avabel Online is a free to play MMORPG that is already available on many platforms, including Android and IOS devices which makes it already portable and playable on the go. Despite that, I’m including it in the list because I do think the gameplay will appeal to girls. Right now, for example, they are running a special Sanrio promotion (makers of hello kitty). You can get cute (sometimes strange) items to decorate your house or dress up your characters. https://avabelonline.com/landing/sanrio
6.) Moonlighter
https://youtu.be/w177ZFHDS54
A Shopkeeping RPG Simulation game with retro style graphics. You can explore and fight for valueable treasure, as well as craft your own items, and then sell them in your shop. You can also communicate with the NPCs to discover what items they want to purchase. The dungeons are procedurally generated and present new challenges and new loot each time.
7.) Atelier Lydie & Suelle: The Alchemists and the Mysterious Paintings
Coming in March 2018, Atelier Lydie & Suelle: The Alchemists and the Mysterious Paintings is the first Atelier title to hit the Nintendo Switch. Atelier games focus on gathering ingredients and crafting new items. As you can see from the trailer, they feature beautiful anime graphics, and deep stories. Their gameplay is often long, and at times it can get tedious, however, for those who love crafting and exploring, Atelier offers the ultimate crafting system.
Nintendo just announced some "new" (more like "enhanced") Pokemon Games that will be available on the Nintendo Switch this Fall, 2017. The games include Pokken Tournament DX, Pokemon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, and Pokemon Gold and Silver...
Like a few of our lucky readers, I was fortunate enough to get a day-one Preorder for the Nintendo Switch. Sadly had to get the plain grey one, but beggars can’t be choosers right? 🙂 What games are you most looking forward to? For me, the only launch title right now that has caught my eye is Zelda, but that’s sure to change as we get closer to release. There are a ton of interesting looking games coming out by the end of the year for the new console.
Here are the Top 10 Nintendo Switch Games Due out in 2017 that I am most looking forward to.
Mario Odyssey – The new Mario Game looks amazing. It reminds me a lot of Mario 64 with a huge open world full of lots of fun and crazy looking levels. Mario has some new abilities too such as being able to throw and jump on his cap to cross large areas. Mario will fly on an airship to travel to “strange new worlds” (for Mario and his friends), but the world is actually made up of different places that we know in real life such as New York City, and Latin and South America. Mario Odyssey’s release date is December 29th, 2017.
Pokemon Stars – Although it is still a rumor at this time, several retailer leaks such as one that has since been taken down on Gamestop seem to refer to the existence of a new Pokemon Game for Nintendo Switch. The rumor is that it is a new version of Pokemon Sun and Moon with over 20 new pokemon added in. This rumor has not been confirmed by Nintendo and so no release date has been given.
Stardew Valley – I actually spent the majority of this past weekend playing the PC version of Stardew Valley. True, you can already play this game right now today on PC and other consoles… But imagine being able to play it ON THE GO, away from home. This will be the title’s first entry into mobile or handheld gaming. Stardew Valley is an amazing “tribute” to classic Nintendo games such as Harvest Moon and Rune Factory – so it makes sense that it would find a home on the Nintendo Switch as well. It is such a relaxing game and the type of game that you can pick up and play as little as an hour, or easily spend 20+ hours straight with. The Nintendo Switch ability to switch from handheld to console form lets you play Stardew Valley whenever, wherever, and however you want. Although it is definitely for sure coming to the Nintendo Switch, there is no official word on a release date.
Tonight’s Nintendo live event revealed a ton more details about Nintendo Switch. But it’s almost midnight, so I’ll just leave you with the most important thing you need to know. The price is $299.99 and it will launch on March 3, 2017 worldwide.
I will update this post with more info from the livestream after a good night’s rest (and hard day of work tomorrow) 🙂
Nintendo has announced plans to begin taking a limited number of preorders for the new Nintendo Switch hybrid handheld/console gaming system beginning tomorrow morning 1/13/2017 at 9am EST exclusively at the Nintendo store in New York City.
They are kicking off the event with two Live Stream events. The first of which is scheduled for 11pm EST tonight 1/12/2017 and will discuss the system specs, price, launch titles and availability.
The 2nd Live Treehouse Event will begin tomorrow at 930am EST and will focus on the gameplay from various launch games which will also appear on tonight’s Live Stream event. They will also offer a special live viewing event for the first 250 customers at the Nintendo Store in NYC tonight at 8pm EST.
Tomorrrow morning’s 9:30AM event can be viewed online at http://www.nintendo.com/switch/nintendo-treehouse/
No other retailers have announced when Preorders will begin, but I would expect them to begin opening preorders shortly after tonight’s live events when pricing details will be made official.
UPDATE: 1/18/2017: We now know the launch date is March 3rd, Price is $299.99. Preorders have already begun and appear to be nearly sold out at most retailers. There will be two versions of the console, each identical except for the color of controllers. In one version they are grey like the console itself, and in another version they are neon red and neon blue. Interesting to note, you can purchase additional/new/replacement joycon sticks for example, the neon red and blue, ones separately from retailers such as Gamestop. So even if you can’t preorder the exact color console you want (For example, I was hoping for the neon one, but had to get grey, and honestly, feel happy/lucky to have even been able to preorder the Switch at all), you can simply buy these new Joycon sticks and swap them out for whatever ones you got with your console. Or if say, you don’t like the mix-matching colors and want all red, or all blue Joycons, you can do that too. Kinda a neat touch to customize your console. I wonder if they will release pink controllers at some point? lol! We also now know that online play will be available free at first, but going to a paid monthly subscription model sometime in fall of 2017. No price has been announced yet for the online service.
UPDATE 3: 10/25/2016 11:00am EST: No hardware specs to report, but NVIDIA offers up a closer explanation of what’s exactly going on from a technical standpoint inside the Nintendo Switch. In a blog post last week, NVIDIA revealed that “Nintendo Switch is powered by the performance of the custom Tegra processor. The high-efficiency scalable processor includes an NVIDIA GPU based on the same architecture as the world’s top-performing GeForce gaming graphics cards. The Nintendo Switch’s gaming experience is also supported by fully custom software, including a revamped physics engine, new libraries, advanced game tools and libraries. NVIDIA additionally created new gaming APIs to fully harness this performance. The newest API, NVN, was built specifically to bring lightweight, fast gaming to the masses. Gameplay is further enhanced by hardware-accelerated video playback and custom software for audio effects and rendering. We’ve optimized the full suite of hardware and software for gaming and mobile use cases. This includes custom operating system integration with the GPU to increase both performance and efficiency. NVIDIA gaming technology is integrated into all aspects of the new Nintendo Switch home gaming system, which promises to deliver a great experience to gamers.” (Source: https://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/2016/10/20/nintendo-switch/)
A price rumor is also floating around several UK sites which pins the price around $350 GBP which translates to a whopping $424 usd – Techradar is speculating a price around $300 to $350 for US Gamers. (Source: http://www.techradar.com/news/nintendo-nx-price)
The Wii U price at launch was $299 for the standalone console, or $349 for a bundle with a game. Given the “beefier” tech insides of the Nintendo Switch compared to the low end, Wii U, I could see this price speculation put forth by techradar as being fairly accurate — However, most gamers are going to naturally want to compare the Nintendo Switch to the Nintendo DS / Nintendo 3DS and not perhaps make the logical association with the Wii U and increased tech prowess of the new system — The 3DS launched at a price of just $249 — Meaning, if Tech Radar’s rumors are true, the Nintendo Switch is going to be nearly double the cost. Nintendo’s fiercest competitors, Sony, and Microsoft, debuted their new gaming consoles at $399 and $499 when they first came out — However, since the technology has been on the market for several years, both consoles are now under the $300 mark, making Nintendo’s Switch a late arrival to the party. — Will Nintendo Switch’s specs and exclusive games be enough to justify such a large price? Or is it a price that the market can no longer bear? Nintendo has its work cut out for it to win back fans who have felt neglected by Nintendo in recent years. If they price the system too high it may be doomed to failure before it even launches.
I think it’s going to come down to what titles Nintendo has available and how they choose to handle localization of these titles – Nintendo of America especially has come under fire for strict censorship which has pushed away droves of fans. Nintendo’s glory days are far behind them — but that doesn’t mean they can’t make a come back with the right games that fans want. The Switch will either give rebirth to the once great gaming company, or become the final nail in the coffin.
To that end, Nintendo has been very transparent about who they have onboard currently developing titles for the new system. A full list of developers is now appearing on the Gamestop sign up page at http://www.gamestop.com/switch which at time of this writing includes the following companies:
05 Games
Activision Publishing, Inc.
ARC SYSTEM WORKS Co., Ltd.
ATLUS CO., LTD.
Audiokinetic Inc.
Autodesk, Inc.
BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment Inc.
Bethesda
CAPCOM CO., LTD.
Codemasters®
CRI Middleware Co., Ltd.
DeNA Co., Ltd.
Electronic Arts
Epic Games Inc.
Firelight Technologies
FromSoftware, Inc.
Frozenbyte
GameTrust
GRASSHOPPER MANUFACTURE INC.
Gungho Online Entertainment, Inc.
HAMSTER Corporation
Havok
INTI CREATES CO., LTD.
KOEI TECMO GAMES CO., LTD.
Konami Digital Entertainment Co., Ltd.
LEVEL-5 Inc.
Marvelous Inc.
Maximum Games, LLC
Nippon Ichi Software, Inc.
Parity Bit Inc.
PlatinumGames Inc.
RAD Game Tools, Inc.
RecoChoku Co., Ltd.
SEGA Games Co., Ltd.
Silicon Studio Corporation
Spike Chunsoft Co., Ltd.
SQUARE ENIX CO., LTD.
Starbreeze Studios
Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc.
Telltale Games
THQ Nordic
Tokyo RPG Factory Co., Ltd.
TT Games
UBISOFT
Ubitus Inc.
Unity Technologies, Inc.
Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
Web Technology Corp
UPDATE 2: 10/21/16 1:30pm EST:
Arstechnica has reported several confirmed tidbits regarding the Nintendo Switchread more
