Messages

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General Gaming / Re: Shocktober VI: Curse of NWR

« on: November 01, 2025, 02:38:40 PM »

Despite me lack of confidence, I did manage to complete Cuphead on Xbox One before the month was up.

I originally played through the game on the normal difficulty accepting any passing grade back in 2019. I finally decided to revisit the game and go for the 200% completion. A bulk of this is getting specific grades on levels and beating each level on expert difficulty. I think I appreciated the game more when replaying for these near-perfect runs. There are definitely still some issues that keep me from rating this game 10/10, but it feels more like a 9/10 now whereas it was an 8/10 in my first playthrough. I would prefer a more traditional level structure with the so-called "run-and-gun" levels being the focus and followed by some shorter versions of the boss battles. I am interested to see what studio MDHR does next and will probably pick up the DLC if they don't have a new game out in the next couple of years.

So with that game completed I do now claim that the curse of NWR is lifted, at least until next October...

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General Gaming / Re: Shocktober VI: Curse of NWR

« on: October 31, 2025, 03:30:36 PM »

I want to thank everyone who joined in on Shocktober this year and wish a safe and happy Halloween to whole NWR community!

You are welcome to report on unfinished business after today. For me, the Curse has kept me from finishing the last game I was planning on discussing so check for that in the next week or so. Also look for a topic for the annual NWR award nomination coming next month.

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General Gaming / Re: Shocktober VI: Curse of NWR

« on: October 24, 2025, 01:33:59 PM »

This week I was able to complete The Addams Family on NES. I was immediately struck by the curse when firing up my Retron to play the original NES cart. Apparently the required voltage was different than the AC adapter I was using and it will no longer work via HDMI. I was able to get it working using the component cables. I need to remember to check the voltage for some of these other plug and play consoles.

I have the CIB version of the game and was able to take advantage of the paper instruction manual. While the game provides a few hints, I don't think I could have completed this in a reasonable amount of time without the manual. I am proud to say I did not use a game genie or look anything up online in the process.

The game is also on SNES with a password system where I am sure it is much more accessible. Overall it holds up well for an NES game and even has some light metroidvania aspects. A successful playthrough is only going to take 1-2 hours, but it took me about 10 hours to get to that point. In the game you play as Gomez and must rescue the eponymous Addams family. Once you rescue Morticia you are treated to a cute dance as shown in the picture above.

In other news, the curse has also claimed my PS5, which will no longer read PS5 discs. Since all my games are on disc, the console is quite useless at the moment while I wait for Sony to mail me a box to mail back to them.

I still have one more game that might cross the finish line before the month ends...

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General Gaming / Re: Shocktober VI: Curse of NWR

« on: October 17, 2025, 07:21:20 PM »

Mina the Hollower releases on actual Halloween so if there are any arbitrary prizes, anyone who beats that game in October should win by default.

Agreed, anyone who beats Mina in Shocktober will lift the curse of NWR!

The Curse lives! Mina delayed to TBA

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General Gaming / Re: Shocktober VI: Curse of NWR

« on: October 17, 2025, 07:19:41 PM »

I am playing quite few games right now with all being possibly completed by the end of the month. To avoid waiting until the end to talk about them I will give some first impressions on the game I am least likely to finish this month.

I have played the first hour or so of Resident Evil 7: Biohazard on Playstation VR (via PS4). I have only played RE4 and Revelations but enjoyed those. If not for the abundance of great games in other genres I would probably play all the mainline games at least. Of course it was the Virtual Reality option that enticed me to this one. I also have RE8 for PSVR2 but figured I should start with the earlier game.

The technical difficulties I was having with my headset seem ameliorated by playing seated, which is not typical for VR games I play. Also unusual is playing with standard controls i.e., the dualshock 4. It is probably better than motion controls would be in this case. The game just would not work with teleporting so you do move along in the usual way. The sluggish pace is actually helpful for limiting the motion sickness, not so much for escaping from all the baddies chasing me.

The graphics obviously took a hit but that is fine with me as along with playing this with Japanese audio (talk about an anatopism!) I am happy for anything that can make this less scary. It's interesting how you hit a point when fun scary is just disturbing scary. Well I have hit that point. I am not sure about you all but the thing that scares me most is being held prisoner with violent people, well that is the premise here.

I will definitely continue on for now but with an average time of about 9.5 hours I don't see myself beating the curse this year.

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General Gaming / Re: Shocktober VI: Curse of NWR

« on: October 17, 2025, 07:08:10 PM »

I'm trying to work through ZombiU and am being reminded why my previous two efforts ended quickly.  The controls are very stiff and the move stuff around with your finger on the gamepad screen is not accurate enough (for me at least).  I don't know if that was intentional to make it more "horror-y" like the tank controls in early RE games or just poor design, but the frequent "cheap" deaths quickly sap my will to play it.  My gaming resolution for 2025 was to finally get some of the over 10-year-old games off my backlog so I'll keep at it.  For reference to anyone who has played it, my first two attempts stopped before getting to the supermarket.  I have gotten farther than that this time at least.

I recall the game having a difficult start. As you stock up on inventory the cheap deaths seemed less frequent. I would say to stick it out if you can as the game is not that long.

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TalkBack / Re: Nintendo Shares Short Film - Close to You

« on: October 16, 2025, 08:22:44 PM »

I keep thinking it is something new that will explain the close to you tease only to get rick rolled by the same video  . Also, the two theories mentioned before are not mutually exclusive i.e., it would not be surprising to have pikmin in the next Mario movie with Miyamoto-san at the wheel.

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General Gaming / Re: Shocktober VI: Curse of NWR

« on: October 12, 2025, 11:35:25 AM »

Dana Gould is also probably his most annoying in the entire series in this entry.

I only know Dana Gould from writing on the Simpsons. I haven't actually seen his stand up or know his voice that well. Is it a case of bad writing, bad performance, or both?

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TalkBack / Re: Nintendo Shares Short Film - Close to You

« on: October 12, 2025, 11:32:58 AM »

The other rumor is that the baby is Rosalina and this is related to the next Mario movie. Personally, the animation style looks just like Illumination to me.

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General Gaming / Re: Shocktober VI: Curse of NWR

« on: October 09, 2025, 04:47:38 PM »

A couple of days ago I kicked off Shocktober by beating the story mode in The House of the Dead: Overkill on Wii. It had been a while since I got to use the Wii zapper and honestly it was not as accurate as I remember. I think it works better with a smaller TV and with non-rechargeable batteries, both things that have changed since I last fired one of these off.
The game itself is quite short, with the story mode only having about 7 chapters and lasting less than 4 hours. The game is gratuitous in more ways than one and reminded me of the Robert Rodriguez film Planet Terror. I am now seeing that according to the the Wikipedia article for the game, the film was an inspiration for the developers. There is a nice upgrade system and during the campaign I was able to fully upgrade the default weapon as well as acquire one more. The Director's Cut is now unlocked and there are some in-game achievements/unlockables that will make this one I can revisit for a long time.

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General Gaming / Re: Shocktober VI: Curse of NWR

« on: October 09, 2025, 04:33:59 PM »

Oh wait, while I'm typing this and checking things I have ZombiU on my Wii U backlog, so I'll go with that.

I feel like that was a past Shocktober game for me...yep, last game of the month in Shocktober 4 back when I was still able to export proper screenshot from Wii U. Definitely a fun game and perfect for this forum topic.

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General Gaming / Re: Shocktober VI: Curse of NWR

« on: October 09, 2025, 04:29:58 PM »

Probably not much from me this month.I am picking up Tormented Souls 2 later this month, but that comes out on the 23rd so it's possible I might not be done with that game by the end of the month.

Might be a good time to play that port of Fear Effect that came out a month or so ago, or to do a proper replay of RE6.

I am also not going to finish many games this month so I might do a lot of first impressions instead.

One on my list is RE7!

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General Gaming / Re: Shocktober VI: Curse of NWR

« on: October 09, 2025, 04:28:02 PM »

Mina the Hollower releases on actual Halloween so if there are any arbitrary prizes, anyone who beats that game in October should win by default.

Agreed, anyone who beats Mina in Shocktober will lift the curse of NWR!

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General Gaming / Shocktober VI: Curse of NWR

« on: October 02, 2025, 12:01:03 AM »

It's Shocktober again and time for our slightly spooky version of a "what have you been playing" forum topic.

When does this start?

Shocktober begins right now, and will last the entire month of October, ending after Halloween night.

What should I play?

Anything that falls under the classification of a "scary" game. Survival horror, action horror, a horror-themed FPS, anything with zombies, etc. In the interest of having fun, this can be more of a loose definition of what defines a scary game, and constitute anything that is more-or-less "spooky themed". Here are a few games that will come out this month:

• Little Nightmares 3
• Bye Sweet Carole
• Plants versus Zombies: Replanted
• Mina the Hollower
• Hannah

You can think of this as another Backlaugust if you want -- You've probably got horror games in your backlog, and it's time to play them. How many games you want to play is up to you, whether that's just one game or a few games. Any platform, doesn't matter. They can be new games, old games. Even horror games you've already beaten long ago and want to replay. You don't have to choose all of your games up front; you can if you want, but it's fine to just take it one-game-at-a-time.

Here are the previous years' threads:
[2024] [2023] [2022] [2021] [2020].

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TalkBack / Re: Nintendo Downloads - September 25, 2025

« on: September 27, 2025, 10:25:47 AM »

The Touryst is a great game, check it out if you have not already.

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Nintendo Gaming / Re: Nintendo Music

« on: September 18, 2025, 04:53:32 PM »

Still no music from the Xenoblade series right? 

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TalkBack / Re: Switch Online Expansion Pack Breaks Glass, Unleashes Virtual Boy

« on: September 18, 2025, 04:51:56 PM »

As a fan of anything with stereoscopic 3D, I am super excited that this is coming out. This will be what finally gets me to sign up for the expansion pass online.

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TalkBack / Re: Next Nintendo Direct To Air September 12

« on: September 10, 2025, 10:27:55 AM »

So the rumours were true 
I would like a release date for Metroid Prime 4 as that is my next Switch 2 game as of now.
I would also be stoked to hear about a new Fire Emblem.

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General Gaming / Re: Backlaugust 2025 - Nintendo Switch 2 Edition

« on: September 05, 2025, 11:24:06 AM »

As Mop it up mentioned that is a wrap on Backlaugust 2025. I am happy to report we surpassed last years total and ended up with a decent list of 30 games removed from our backlogs. That's about one game per day!

Congrats to broodwars for taking the lead spot with an impressive 8 games!

Some other highlights include:

• 2 people playing the same game - Donkey Kong Bonanza
• Lemonade playing two cat games - Stray and Little Kitty Big City
• Appearances by both previous hosts - pokepal148 and Khushrenada - "What is this, a crossover episode?"
• Rabicle rallying the Discordians to find with us against Bak'laag

Thanks to everyone that participated, this was a lot of fun!

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General Gaming / Re: Backlaugust 2025 - Nintendo Switch 2 Edition

« on: August 31, 2025, 05:10:04 PM »

I have one last game to add to the list. I just finished up Iron Man VR on Playstation VR. The game has 12 chapters and I had been doing one a day when I could with plans to finish last week. When I tried to fire it up for chapter 11, the headset was not working. It has malfunctioned before with the displays in the headset working intermittently, but this time I could not get it working with any adjustments. I went to the local video game repair shop and they "respectfully declined" citing an absence of parts. Apparently this is the typical cause for these headsets dying and so all the broken ones have the same broken part  . I starting looking at buying another on from GameStop or sending it to Sony for repairs and then gave it one more try and it started working again. I was able to finish the last two chapters today just in time. The game itself is pretty solid with some fun flying and shooting. Surprisingly the flying did not make me motion sick and the game really takes advantage of the move controllers. I only got 28/42 of the trophies and while I plan to go back and get more, I am not sure if I have the patience to get all of them. Somebody should really port this to PSVR2 as I think it deserves the upgrade.

Overall a pretty solid month and with six games that might be a personal record. Feel free to post about anything completed in August throughout the next few days. I will total up the games and post the leaders.

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General Gaming / Re: Backlaugust 2025 - Nintendo Switch 2 Edition

« on: August 31, 2025, 05:01:40 PM »

Yeah, I'd like to get back to Stray at some point. Got really frustrated trying to do a challenge on that first level where you try to complete it without getting hit, and ended up just putting the game on the backburner.

I think I know the challenge you are referring to. That is one of the hardest trophies in the whole game. I recommend saving that for later. After playing the game you can revisit individual chapters to work on challenges like that.

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General Gaming / Re: Backlaugust 2025 - Nintendo Switch 2 Edition

« on: August 31, 2025, 01:47:25 PM »

I was able to win the final mission and beat Advance Wars yesterday. More specifically, I beat the campaign of Advance Wars via Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp on Switch. I played on the Classic mode and had a completion of 64% after the 22 hour run. This was my first Advance Wars game and I quite enjoyed it. While it is similar to Fire Emblem, having all the units just be vehicle or generic infantry allows you to really think of them as disposable and shift your strategy. There are some nice options to turn off the music and animations to speed things up. Way Forward also put in some nice cut scenes and tutorials to modernize the game. I am not sure if I will go back and 100% this but I am definitely looking forward to playing the second campaign.

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General Gaming / Re: Backlaugust 2025 - Nintendo Switch 2 Edition

« on: August 31, 2025, 01:39:33 PM »

Finished Stray just in time for the end of August.

Stray and Little Kitty Big City  You had a double header cat adventure!

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General Gaming / Re: Backlaugust 2025 - Nintendo Switch 2 Edition

« on: August 25, 2025, 07:48:15 PM »

Nearing the end of Robocop: Rogue City - Unfinished Business, the standalone expansion for Rogue City. So far, it's been a LOT of fun, albeit very simple fun. This is much more of a retro shooter than Rogue City was, with an emphasis on corridor shooting with big guns and monster closets.

Did you finish this game or is it unfinished business? 

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General Gaming / Re: Backlaugust 2025 - Nintendo Switch 2 Edition

« on: August 25, 2025, 07:45:41 PM »

Finished Little Kitty Big City, or at least the main objective and some side stuff. The game is extremely cute. Its fun to run around as a cat and collect things. Im glad its short though, it could easily overstay its welcome. Overall as a game though, I liked it less than Stray. I will probably go back to it later this year after that update is released that was shown in the Indie World video a few weeks ago.

I just learned that there is a physical version of the game through Fangamer so I deleted it from my wishlist and plan on picking that up next month.