It's a thread! (Games discussion, etc.)

[JG]

Walmart's sales are finally known. They go live Monday 7PM EST with the typical seven hour head start for Walmart+ members (Noon EST)

They really put some great stuff in their ad this year - not a lot of junk filler like most years:
* Switch games: Sonic Frontiers $29, Fire Emblem Warriors Three Hopes $35, Mario Party Superstars $29, Link's Awakening $29, Breath of the Wild $29
* PS4 games: Elden Ring $35, Horizon Forbidden West Launch Edition $35, Death Stranding $20, Tiny Tina's Wonderlands $29, Nioh 2 $20
* PS5 games: Gotham Knights $35, Returnal $35, Ratchet & Clank Rift Apart $35, Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 (unknown price), Guardians of the Galaxy $15, Resident Evil Village $20
* Xbox games: Halo Infinite $20, Assassin's Creed Valhalla $29
* Hardware: PS5 DualSense Controller $49 (my #1 wishlist item!), Xbox Series S/X controller (unknown price); no discount on PS5 or Xbox Series X (and unknown price but expecting the standard $249 for the Series S)
Likely some of the games shown for one system are available for others at same price.

Target has stated in press conference "Top Nintendo Switch games at $29.99" but we don't know what they are besides perhaps Skyward Sword. The Xbox Series S deal listed above is still impressive.

Hope nobody here threw the full $60 at Sonic Frontiers last week...

[JG]

Best Buy's Deals. They typically have the most deals of the big vendors:

Switch games: Monster Hunter Rise $25, Assassin's Creed Ezio Collection $15, Assassin's Creed Rebel Collection $15, Among Us Imposter Edition Box Set $30, Tony Hawk 1+2 $25, Atari 50 $30, Immortals Fenyx Rising $10, Rabbids Party of Legends $15, Capcom Fighting Collection $25, Rune Factory 5 $30, New Tales from the Borderlands $30, Persona 5 Royal Launch Edition with Steelbook $30, Among Us Ejected Edition box set $50

PS4 games: Death Stranding $10, Last of Us Part II $10, God of War $10, Watchdogs Legion $13, Sonic Colors $15, Spider-Man Miles Morales $20, Ghost of Tsushima Director's Cut $20, Nioh 2 $20, Rainbox Six Extraction $12, Horizon Forbidden West Launch Edition $30, Resident Evil Village $20, Rider's Republic $12, Atari 50 $30, Capcom Fighting Collection $20, The Quarry $20, Rabbids Party of Legends $15, Assassin's Creed Valhalla $15, New Tales from the Borderlands $30, Saints Row Day 1 Edition $35, Among Us Ejected Edition box set $50, Assassin's Creed Valhalla Ragnarok Edition $30

PS5 games: Death Stranding Director's Cut $20, Destruction All-Stars $10, Rainbox Six Extraction $12, Uncharted Legacy of Thieves Collection $20, Spider-Man Miles Morales $20, Ghost of Tsushima Director's Cut $30, Ratchet & Clank Rift Apart $30, Returnal $30, Back 4 Blood with Steelbook $15, Nioh Collection $30, Tiny Tina's Wonderlands $30, Resident Evil Village $20, FarCry 6 $10, Horizon Forbidden West Launch Edition $40, Gran Turismo 7 $40, Spider-Man Miles Morales $40, Battlefield 2042 $15, Stray $30, Rainbox Six Siege $10, Ghostbusters Spirits Unleashed $30, Evil Dead $20, King of Figthers XV $20, Last of Us Part I $50, The Quarry $30, FarCry 6 $10, Among Us Imposter Edition Box Set $30, New Tales from the Borderlands $30, Tony Hawk 1+2 $30, Assassin's Creed Valhalla $15, Deathloop $20, Saints Row Day 1 Edition $35, Ghostwire $25, Plague Tale Requiem $40, Persona 5 Royal $30, Rider's Republic $12, Gotham Knights $40, Among Us Ejected Edition box set $50

Xbox games: Halo Infinite with Steelbook $20, Watchdogs Legion $12, Rainbox Six Extraction $12, Back 4 Blood $10, Tiny Tina's Wonderlands $30, Tony Hawk 1+2 $30, FarCry 6 $10, Resident Evil Village $20, King of Fighters XV $20, Atari 50 $30, The Quarry $20, Rainbox Six Siege $10, Ghostbusters Spirits Unleashed $30, Tony Hawk 1+2 $25, Capcom Fighting Collection $20, Rabbids Party of Legends $15, Evil Dead $20, The Chant $20, The Quarry $30, Among Us Imposter Edition Box Set $30, New Tales from the Borderlands $30, Assassin's Creed Valhalla $15, Saints Row Day 1 Edition $35, Rider's Republic $12, No More Heroes 3 Day 1 Edition $30, Deathloop $20, Plague Tale Requiem $40, Persona 5 Royal $30, Gotham Knights $40, Among Us Ejected Edition box set $50, Assassin's Creed Valhalla Ragnarok Edition $30

Hardware: Sony DualSense $50, Xbox S/X controller (black, white, or red) $40, Xbox S/X consoller with wireless adapter for Windows $50, Amiibo Inkling Boy $8, Amiibo Callie & Marie $20, Amiibo Samus & EMMI $20, lots of other Amiibo $8-$15, Xbox Series X Mini Cooler $100

Lots of PS5 deals. I expected a bit more on the Switch side though. And absolutely nothing from SquareEnix (Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasy, Theatrhythm, Life is Strange, Avengers, etc.), who usually discounts heavily on Black Friday.

Best Buy has Walmart beat on the Death Stranding and Horizon: Forbidden West PS4 games, and Ratchet & Clank Rift Apart and Returnal for PS5a, and Assassin's Creed Valhalla. Walmart has them beat on Gotham Knights though, which is a bit embarassing since Best Buy should have already known Walmart's price.

[JG]

Small deal from minor player Staples, who sells video game hardware in some stores (and apparently a few select games, too though I'd never seen them advertise them before) - My Staples never did and in a somewhat bizarre move closed a few months ago, so its never been a place I think about when considering video games. According to ad this offer is only valid in stores (and presumably not until Sunday)

Switch games: Animal Crossing New Horizons $40, Mario Party Superstars $40
Hardware: Xbox controllers $45-$55

The hardware and Mario Party Superstars aren't anything special because we already know they're cheaper elsewhere. Though if you have any Staples Rewards money from recycling ink cartridges and stuff burning a hole in your pocket, maybe these become good deals to you.

But this is the first time Animal Crossing New Horizons has been on a 25%+ sale anywhere to my knowledge. It was not present in any ads last year and Amazon has been offering it at $51 but that's not a huge discount. (Its also possible ACNH is one of Target's $30 Switch games, too.)

[JG]

Target:

Switch games: Mario Party Superstars $30, Breath of the Wild $30, Just Dance 2023 $40, Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope with $10 gift card $60, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Cowabunga Collection $20, Personal 5 Royal $30, Rabbids Party of Legends $15
PS4 games: Jedi Fallen Order $10
PS5 games: Sackboy $20, Ratchet and Clank Rift Apart $30
Xbox games: Halo Infinite $20, Forza Horizon 5 $35, Assassin's Creed Valhalla $15, Battlefield 2042 $15
Hardware: Sony DualSense $50
Other: BOGO 15% off gaming cards (Nintendo eShop, PS Store, Xbox Marketplace, etc.)

Not as impressive on the "biggest discounts on top Nintendo games" claim as I expected. They're also beating Walmart on Ratchet & Clank, but getting beat in several games in their ad. For yet another year, they're coming in a distant third to Walmart and Best Buy.

[JG]

Gamestop right on the heels:

Switch games: Animal Crossing New Horizon $35
PS4 games: Spyro Ignited Trilogy $17, Gran Turismo 7 $29
PS5 games: Ratchet and Clank Rift Apart $29, Plague Tale Requiem $39
Xbox games: Elden Ring $35, Saints Row Day 1 Edition $35, Witcher III Wild Hunt Complete Edition $17, The Quarry $17, Personal 5 Royal $29, Tony Hawk 1+2 $29
Hardware: Sony DualSense $50
Other: Buy Two Get One Free Pre-owned PS4 and Xbox One games

Actually, that's now the best price on Animal Crossing. But they advertised three other Switch games though at $39 and got nailed on all of them (Mario Party Superstars, Link's Awakening, and Fire Emblem Warriors Three Hopes.) A pretty barebones ad this year - they usually list alot more stuff (and helps cover their bases in event of undercutting, which is lesson to be relearned this year)

Final ruling is Best Buy wins by a landslide, Walmart a decent second (especially on Sonic Frontiers), Gamestop third (a few unique deals at $17 or a dollar cheaper than others), and Target in last place.


Should also point out that PS5s, at least the God of War Ragnarok disc set for $560 looks to be available lots of places. I went to Best Buy at lunch to pick up a DualSense controller and they had 36 of them on the shelf behind checkout. I did not however see any Series Xs (just a half dozen or so Series S, and another two dozen or so Switch OLEDs and Lites) If you want a PS5, its not going to be discounted anywhere, so if you want one, get it before the rush starts next week. If Best Buy is any indication though, you may have to pay for God of War whether you want it or not.

[JG]

Newegg deals:

Xbox Elite Wireless Series 2 Controller - $130
Xbox Game Pass Ultimate 3 Month Membership - $35
Xbox $60 Gift Card - $53.50
Nintendo e-Shop $50 Card - $45
Death Stranding Director's Cut Steam Code - $19

[JG]

Amazon:

Switch games: Harvestella $50, Neir Automata $29, Personal 5 Royal $29, Diofield Chronicle $40, Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope with $10 Amazon gift card $60, Bravely Default II $35
PS5 games: Tales of Arise $30, Guardians of the Galaxy $15, Avengers $10, FF7 Remake Intergrade $28, Stranger of Paradise $29, Battlefield 2042 $10
Xbox One (Digital): Star Wars Squadrons $8, Jedi Fallen Order $6, Battlefront II $5, Mirrors Edge Catalyst $5

Some deals maybe only available to Prime members. Could be other deals but locked behind add-to-cart walls.

[JG]

Keep an eye on Best Buy's 12 Days of Gaming event as well. They did this last year and some of the deals weren't half bad.

Its up to day 4 and today Deathloop for PS5 is offered at only $10. (WOW!)
Previous days were Skyward Sword at $30 (Target already did that), Playstation Store cards 10% off (not really impressive) and A10 headsets for $20 (also bleh)

[JG]

Ever hear the saying that its better to keep your mouth shut and let people think you're dumb, than to open your mouth and prove it?

Well, SquareEnix, in arguably their last action of the year, opened their mouth at Jump Festa and disappointed everyone. After touting "new" Dragon Quest trailers to be displayed at Jump Festa, the interwebs got excited. And rightly so, as they showed the first videos of Dragon Quest XI at Jump Festa several years back and have used it as a platform to introduce a few DQ games over the last decade or so. While the first look at Dragon Quest XII was possible, it was expected they'd announce a new game for the series, since the only outstanding games right now are Infinity Strash (which is rumored to have been complete since spring or summer and in localization now), Dragon Quest III 2D-HD (which Yuji Horii said was effectively complete already, and looked like it in the preview May 2021), and Dragon Quest XII (which is probably about two years off.) Folks like me were hoping for a Builders 3 announcement, though if I had to bet I'd have put money on another mobile game. Instead they brought "new" trailers for Dragon Quest Treasures and a wrap up of the Dragon Quest: Adventure of Dai anime (but apparently not the Infinity Strash game), plus FF7 Crisis Core Reunion and Forspoken. The "new" was just footage not shown in earlier trailers, but since all but Forspoken are available now, trailers don't exactly excite anyone. Its the equivalent of Nintendo saying they'll show new Mario series trailers, and then show stuff for Bowser's Fury instead of an upcoming game, and clips from the Saturday morning cartoon show rather than the new movie.

It would have been better for SquareEnix to not so blatently advertise what was sure to be a disappointment. No real issue showing these trailers in their booth at Jump Festa - just don't tell the world its worth watching when it isn't. For a company that has made both financial and public relations mistake after mistake this year, its a hell of a way to finish.

[JG]

Last day of the year. Time again to review 2022 in gaming (though my eyes)

I actually played a fair number of new games this year, and never even got to either Forbidden West game, Deathloop, Fenyx Rising, Guardians of the Galaxy, or Castlevania Anniversary Collection. Of the ones I played, worst to best:

12. Contra Anniversary Collection (PC, also available on consoles): D-
I expected to be able to use the Konami Code to get 30 lives and enjoy a childhood favorite end-to-end, but it doesn't work here. Since its basically just an emulator shell, I could just as easily use an emulator of my choice and play it how I want, with the cheats I want. At least it was cheap at only $3.99 during Black Friday sale.

11. Astro's Playroom (PS5): D
No real reward system makes it feel more like a demo than a game. Which I guess it is, to show off some PS5 features. Sony could really do better for a pack-in demo game though.

10. Marvel's Avengers (PS5, also available on Xbox X/S, Xbox One, and PC, and 'technically' on PS4 but to be strongly avoided): D+
Retest from last year. Wouldn't play reliably without crashing on PS4, but the first two areas interested me enough to try it again once I got a PS5. But ugh. It has very plain gameplay, still buggy on PS5 with graphics clipping and events that don't register correctly, too much and too frequent micromanagement of equipment and skills, and way too much critical chatter happening while busy focusing on other things (like fighting for your life.) It feels like a game made by committee. Someone decided it needs a complicated skill tree. Someone decided it needed a forging system to make better armor. Sometime decided it needed in-game voice chatter. Someone decided it needed an overly large cast of heroes. Throwing all this together just made for a complicated mess. If SquareEnix wants to spend $100 million on a video game, it better come out more polished. Or save that money and make 10 smaller games. (Note that I generally don't list a game more than once, but Avengers was so broken last year I gave it the first ever F- score, and deemed it worthy of at least some redemption.)

9. Katamari Damacy Reroll (PC, also available on consoles) C+
I knew this was an odd game, but it embraces its own bizarreness in a fun but wacky way. I wish the controls were better than some early 2000s semi-indie game though.

8. Halo Infinite (Xbox One, also available on Xbox X/S and PC): B
A decent game, with more open world approach than earlier Halo games which actually works well. Unfortunately, it has some odd physics, some broken boss fights that require coming into the fight with exactly the right weapon or you'll fail (with no opportunity to get a different weapon beforehand), and the occasional poorly timed autosave, that will cause a respawn that instantly kills you. And I was playing it some five or six months after release. Another massive failure by Microsoft. Now both the Gears and Halo franchises have flopped in their last release, with Microsoft not really showing much care. Avengers may have simply been bad design - Halo Infinite is bad follow-through. Still a lot of fun though.

7. Alex Kidd in Miracle World DX (PC, also available on consoles): B
Even with fixes it has broken collision detection making it too faithful to the very difficult original, but very fun even if not a lot of replay value compared to its contemporary, the original Super Mario Bros. But with the help of infinite lives setting I was finally able to beat a game I started 34 or 35 years ago. If you want a cute, simple class platformer game for cheap, Alex Kidd in Miracle World DX is a fine fit. And some decent replayability in achievements that require a few plays (so avoid a Switch purchase for maximum enjoyment)

6. River City Girls (PC, also available on consoles): B+
Great modern rendition of the River City Ransom game. This is what RCR DX should have been, with voiceovers, more story, and much more sprite animation. Kickin' background audio tracks as well. Its really quite fun, with some hidden items to discover along the way.

5. Halo: The Master Chief Collection (PC, also available on Xbox One and X/S): B+
Bought this after finishing Halo Infinite and itching to play earlier games again, only to find out my discs don't work in an Xbox One. Fantastic, but its a shame they didn't redo cinematic sequences for first, third, or fourth Halo in the high quality they did for the second. They play well and faithfully, but Microsoft (again) missed an opportunity for a home run by only doing part of the full effort.

4. Mario+Rabbids: Sparks of Hope (Switch): B+
Lots of fun but buggy as hell. I feel like the funny of the Rabbids was a bit more lost in this one compared to Kingdom Battle, and some of the characters (Rabbid Peach and Luigi especially) get overused. I checked the other day for a patch to the one quest that doesn't clear (despite meeting requirements) and Ubisoft still hasn't fixed it, indicated the game probably won't be. That's a real shame that you can play the game perfectly and not be able to 100% it because of a programming bug that developer apparently doesn't want to fix. It would earn an A were it plugged.

3. Dragon Quest Treasures (Switch): A-
Excellent and fun game, but requires too many trips back to base to unload treasure, making the game overly repetitive, with an average of four trips back and forth just to advance the story progression from one event to the next. Had you been allowed to carry much more treasure (at least twice as much) it would have placed second. They did open-world right here, following the lead of games like breath of the Wild that scale the monster up to meet the player, rather than setting up too-strong monsters in some areas to discourage exploration (except to areas that really need to be saved to later of course.)

2. The Ur-Quan Masters HD (PC): A-
This had been out for a few years but I was still hooked on the original "non-HD" port. This one has better graphics and sound and should appeal more to new players. Though I feel its lost a bit of the charm of the original with some of the animation simplified and with less interesting alien dialogue fonts.

1. Game of the Year: Xenoblade Chronicles 3 (Switch): A
Though the game derails with sidequest-explosion during chapters 5 and 6, its absolutely amazing from start to finish. Pokemon may get the sales, but Xenoblade gets all the critical acclaim as the best game on Switch this year. Not only does its graphics rival Playstation and Xbox games, with wonderous vistas, it has one of the most enchanting soundtracks ever developed (many players agree it should have won the audio awards at Game Awards over God of War.) And on top of that it wonderfully melds the worlds of the first two games, giving a lot of easter eggs to fans of the series who recognize familiar features. And I had doubts they could carry a cast of six with equal billing throughout the story, but MonolithSoft pulled it off wonderfully - each character just naturally gets about 1/6th of the playtime whether you have favorites or not. With a bit more polish to spread the sidequests out, eliminate some of the mundane travelling around the sea, and not making us wait until late 2023 for all the DLC it would have deserved the A+ rating.



Thing regrettably missed: Elden Ring (PC, Xbox and Playstation)
This game must be something really special if it won GOTY and best RPG over Xenoblade Chronicles 3, which was easily Nintendo's best attempt at major awards since Breath of the Wild. Metacritic gives it a score of 96, so apparently it is that good. So why wasn't there any talk about it when it came out? No commercials, no Twitter discussion, etc. while XC3 was all over Twitter and even deep into meme-space - and even more memes about it not winning anything at the Game Awards while Elden Ring and God of War basically ran the table. But God of War also got a lot of press. So Elden Ring, to best them both on pretty much word of mouth only must mean its something not to be missed. I'm going to keep an eye on it to go on discount (Best Buy Deal of the Day for example)



Looking forward to in 2023:

• Forspoken: January 24 (PS5/PC) - For a game twice delayed to allow for more PS5 availability, this better be as awesome as SquareEnix claims. My worry is that SquareEnix has made some hefty claims about new IPs of late, but haven't delivered in quality or expectations. (Avengers and Gaurdians of the Galaxy being two prominent examples.) If this game doesn't shine and compete for GOTY honors in 2023, then SquareEnix will have spent alot of money on three non-RPGs int he last two years with massive losses. If it fails, I hope they reevaluate their business model and return to what they always did best: JPRGs and spinoffs of their core series.
• Tales of Symphonia Remastered: February 17 (Switch/PS4/Xbox One) - I'm not actually going to buy this at launch, but maybe after it drops in price to under $20. The graphics don't actually look all that better, just scaled up to 1080p with less pixelation. I guess this makes it look sharper, but I'd rather the characters' 3D designs more closely match their anime selves in the cutscenes. It really looks more like a port than a remaster, and for that reason its simply cheaper to get the PS4 port on Steam.
• Starfield (TBA - expected March) - Pretty much the game that will save the Xbox, if it can be saved. Microsoft needs it to be perfect at launch, and hopefully skipped the holiday season to ensure it is. Of the big three, Xbox has now run dead last in sales for six years in a row, and if Starfield can't reverse that trend, nothing will.
• Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom: May 12 (Switch) - The only real question here is whether it will live up to Breath of the Wild's brilliance. It could come back as a bit of a let down, if its only "nearly as good", despite likely being better than just about every other game we'll see in 2023.
• Pikmin 4 (TBA - expected Q3 or Q4) - Hesitant on this. Incredible when the first came out as a GameCube launch title, but each game in the series has been a little less impressive than the previous one. The series would be ideal to move to tablets, if it were more like Hey, Pikmin! than Pikmin Bloom.
• Dragon Age: Dreadwolf (TBA - expected Q3 or Q4) - Inquisition was a surprisingly good sleeper hit in 2014. With over eight years to prepare a sequel, Bioware should be bringing something spectacular. Like Tears of the Kingdom, it has a high hurdle to meet in a Game of the Year winner as the previous game in the series.
• Marvel's Spider-Man 2 (TBA - expected Q3 or Q4) - I must admit to some Spider-Man fatigue here. The first was excellent, but the Mile Morales game was a launch title for PS5, but due to PS5 availability many people skipped it. They made a PS4 port, but downports are rarely as impressive as they should be, and many people, myself included, decided to wait until they had a PS5 to try it. I still want to, but its one of the very few games for PS5 that was not radically discounted at Black Friday, which should have happened to spread awareness before the sequel drops. Now they're going into 2023 with a lot of people only now getting to play Miles Morales (many on PC now with added content), with number Two on the way later in the year. Too much Spider-Man in too little a time for me. I'd personally rather see it in 2024, or have been given the chance to buy the PS5 version cheap at the previous Black Friday. I'm quite likely to skip this game if Pikmin 4 or Dreadwolf come out anywhere near the same time, as currently expected.
• Final Fantasy VII Rebirth (TBA - expected December to early 2024) - I really haven't played much of the first, but may get back to it as Rebirth nears. There's a fair chance I sit on buying it until well into 2024 though. I just can't get too excited about a game I may not play for nearly two years.

Rumors/Things I want to see come true:

• Super Mario - 2023 will be six years (SIX!) since the last new Super Mario mainline game. (We've had three remakes though.) Its only ever gone six years once, between Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Sunshine.
• Metroid Prime 4 - Tired of rumors about progress. Its time for Nintendo to show us something.
• Dragon Quest Builders 3 - 4 years between DQ series releases on consoles (DQB2 and Dragon Quest Treasures) is way too long given how many spin-off titles it has. With DQ12 not expected until 2024, something to fill the gap would be nice. High demand for a sequel to a critically acclaimed game that vastly out-sold its projections and doesn't require a mountain of cash to develop new graphical or audio assets would be a smart move for a company like SquareEnix who is struggling to afford ever more expensive games.
• Dragon Quest X Offline - This would do nicely as well, but its looking grim. As expected, the game did not sell well in Japan because the Online version is simply better, with three times as much story. And SquareEnix management is too thick-headed and Japanese-centric to realize the offline version should sell better in markets where online doesn't already exist. And with SquareEnix's financial woes they don't seem willing to take the chance, making renowned developer Yuji Horii a two-time liar about plans to bring Dragon Quest X west.
• Kid Icarus: Uprising Remake - Creator Masahiro Sakurai hinted this may be in the works. Recent job postings from developer Bandai-Namco referencing a Nintendo-contracted remake of an 3D action game adds fuel to the fire of this rumor.

Something I don't ever want to see come true again:
Mid-lifetime hardware price increases. Sony's decision to increase the price of PS5s is still confusing, as it betrays the point they were trying to make about parts shortage. As soon as the price goes up, the PS5s start to become imminently available across the globe. It's well known now that a large number of units had been manufactured and waiting to be sold with a God of War Ragnarok redemption card upon its release, in order to flood the markets for the holiday season. There was no need to increase the price to make this happen. It was pure greed on the part of Sony, to seek and extra $50 for a product in high demand because of their tactics to purposely restrict the supply. Its still way too expensive for hardware that is two years old, and raising the price doesn't help. (And with PS VR2 on the horizon, Sony has overlooked the fact that the PS VR2 doesn't need to compete with a Meta Quest Pro to be successful - its needs to compete with the base PS5, Xbox Series X and Nintendo Switch. If it's priced as niche product, it will only ever be a niche product. Finding people willing to spend $1150 plus taxes for PS VR2 games will not be easy.)



Payoff of the Year:
For the wrong reasons, Sony's decision above. For right reasons, finally announcing (or leaking) that there will be no Switch Pro. The will or won't question has been hanging around for nearly two years. While I think most people would have liked to see a Switch Pro, if only to give 4K graphics or more equal performance to the handheld system and avoid loss to Steamdeck or other mobile players, the important thing is that the issue is settled. Its rumored to have heled up Tears of the Kingdom not once but twice as a possible launch title, it may have held up a Super Mario title, and other games that would expect to appear on all three platforms but be limited be to what a Switch could or couldn't do can now finally move forward with some clarity. In the long run, Nintendo won't be putting their best-selling product out on a limb with the fear people turn away to Playstation or Xbox, as happened when Wii U displaced the Wii. They can keep manufacturing Switches at a fraction of the cost, sell them far cheaper than the competition, and rely on a strong game library to carry them to 2025 or 2026 when their next new console should arrive. I even suspect we'll see a price reduction in Switch costs in 2023. Everyone wins except the grumbling people who wanted their Switch games to look like PS5 and Xbox games, but who were likely going to buy the PS5 and Xbox versions anyway because they still look better.



Backfire of the Year:
Could ultimately be a payoff, but Microsoft's decision to bump Starfield out of the holiday season and into 2023 certainly hurt sales of the Xbox Series X when they could ill-afford it. For a time they had a narrow advantage over PS5, becuase you could actually buy the X in some places, and the S just about everywhere. But with no marquee game for the holiday season, the appeal was lost. Now that PS5 is available everywhere, Microsoft's advantage is lost and they're unlikely to ever get it back. Welcome to the back row again Xbox.



Confusion of the Year:
Delay of Advance Wars ReBoot Camp. Good to delay in February as the war in Ukraine was erupting. But it still has no release date and doesn't make alot of sense for Nintendo to just sit on a completely finished (and apparently physically produced) game for over a year. Of course now there's a major Pokemon to contend with, and Tears of the Kingdom in May. If Nintendo doesn't slot this into the February-March timeframe very soon, we may not see it until late summer.



Moment of the Year:
The tearjerking conclusion to Chapter 5 of Xenoblade Chronicles 3. If you played it, you know. The whole scene lasts nearly half an hour, the longest no-break portion of the game, but is highly emotionally charged, with a gorgeous voiced song "A Step Away" softly playing in the background. The excellence of this scene (and the game in whole) has propelled MonolithSoft above SquareEnix as the masters of JPRG story telling. (And to make matters worse for SquareEnix, they have to try to follow up that when Aeris meets her end in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. Good luck!) If the voters of The Game Awards had bothered to pay attention, they'd have recognized this as storytelling and audio brilliance and awarded MonolithSoft for their efforts, instead of giving God or War its umpteenth award in the last decade.

[Moge]

Moge's Game of the Year 2022 (switched to a 1-5 rating system)
-----------------------------------------------

16. Virtua Cop (Sega Saturn) -- 2
15. Galaxy Fraulein Yuna (PC-Engine) -- 3
14. Shock Troopers 2 (NeoGeo) -- 3
13. Langrisser (Mega Drive) -- 3

12. Langrisser 2 (Mega Drive) -- 3
11. Metal Combat (SNES) -- 3.5
10. Ganbare Goemon 4 - Boku ga Dancer ni Natta Riyuu - Kirakira Douchuu (SNES) -- 3.5
9. Witch's House MV (PC) -- 3.5

8. Aconcagua (PS1) -- 3.5
7. Beyond Oasis (Mega Drive) -- 4
6. King of Fighters XV (PC) -- 4
5. Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2 (PC) -- 4/5

4. Rayman Redemption (PC) -- 4.5
Incredible fan recreation of the original Rayman that balances the absurd difficulty of the original and brings with it a whole bunch of new and original content that doesn't look out of place.

3. Splatoon 3 (Switch) -- 4
Doesn't really bring a whole lot new to the table on the multiplayer side and instead focuses on quality of life fixes from long standing series issues. Despite me being down on the lack of new features, it's still Splatoon and i can't resist playing more.

2. Tenchu: Stealth Assassins (PS1)  -- 4.5
The combat, stealth mechanics, and cool atmosphere really impressed me. Despite being from an era where 3D gaming was undercooked, this game holds up surprisingly well.

1. 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim (Switch) -- 5
Breathtaking visuals, a gripping narrative that jumps around the 13(!) character cast, phenomental strategy gameplay... i can't sing enough praise to this game. I'm happy this was my first Vanillaware title and i'm quite eager to play their other games.


Biggest Disappointment -- The deluge of company mergers/aquisitions
Runner-up -- Advance Wars Re-Boot Camp's delay

Fave purchase -- Surface Pro 8 -- Opened a lot of doors for me on the art side and the game side
Runner-up -- NSO N64 Controller

Most Anticipated: Street Fighter 6
Runner-up: New Perfect Dark

2022 was definitely a between year, but the deluge of great new indie games (and fan translations) made up for a year that was lacking in AAA releases.

[JG]

Super Mario - 2023 will be six years (SIX!) since the last new Super Mario mainline game. (We've had three remakes though.) Its only ever gone six years once, between Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Sunshine.

The TK passing news kind of derailed thoughts on this for a few days, but I'm sorely disappointed that Nintendo didn't announce a new Mario game on Friday. I guess we're going on seven years now, the longest ever break between Mario main series games.

Only one guy is happy about this.
 


Yes they have the movie, and I can see how that takes Shigeru Miyamoto and maybe some Nintendo bigwigs off the table for past few years, but all these developers could have been working on a game. Seems like Tears of the Kingdom is sucking up all the top talent (akin to how FF7 Remake sucked up alot of SquareEnix's for a couple of years a while back.)


Unrelated: I kind of feel bad that I've never heard of half the games Moge plays anymore.

[Moge]

I'm more concerned there hasn't been a new console Mario Kart in nearly a decade. I get that the game continues to sell crazy well, but i'm so tired of 8 that even the new dlc doesn't excite me

Looked at my list and i counted 11 pre-PS2 era games on there. Seems i have a tendency to favor playing old stuff

I'll be sure to post screenshots next year with each title.

[JG]

They count Mario Kart Tour on mobile devices as the 9th Mario Kart game now. So that fills the gap for Mario Kart games. Both 8 and Tour are fine, but neither are as good (or fair) as Double Dash was back on Gamecube. I've yet to see an MK as good.

[Moge]

Double Dash was the last MK i enjoyed before touching 8 (didn't get a chance to thoroughly play DS, and Wii was very blah). The kart designs were ugly, but the track design and 2-in-1 kart multiplayer were good stuff.

There's such an avalanche of great titles coming out this year. I wonder if i should even bother picking up Advance Wars when it's so close to the release of BotW 2.

[JG]

The problem with MK8 (unless fixed in MK8 Deluxe) is they took the worst feature of the previous several Mario Karts, and made it worse. Over time, the prevalance of the Blue Shell has greatly increased. In Double Dash it was maybe a 20% chance it would show up if you were in the lead a third or halfway through final lap. In DS and Wii it was maybe 60%. In MK8 it is a 100% chance. In other words, the only way to win is to NOT be leading halfway through the final lap, and be far enough behind the leader to avoid the blue shell explosion and then skip ahead to win the race in the final 10 seconds. It punishes good play, so you have to play less than your best and gimmick the system just to win. That concept got old very quickly and why I stopped playing it.

MK Tour isn't as bad about the Blue Shell, but the bots do crazy things like cut across the terrain, drive straight through your kart, or your shells go straight through them - all to cheat you out of a win. I stopped playing it not because it punished good play, but becuase good play wasn't even good enough to win - the game simply decided beforehand that you could not win, so as to prevent you from getting free gacha and making you pay for it instead.

[JG]

Serious admissions from Phil Spencer, head of Microsoft's Xbox Division this week:

• Failure to properly advertise or set expectations for Redfall prior to its release resulted in critical disapproval and poor preorder sales.
• Xbox One had poor direction and a weak exclusives library, causing it to lose gamers to PS4 and Switch.
• Ownership (not giveaway or rental) of digital games established PS4 and Switch as leaders of the digital game market, putting Xbox X/S in too weak of a position to recover against PS5. Players loved GamePass, but it gave away too many games and Xbox players had little incentive to purchase more.
• Regardless of how good Starfield is, Xbox X/S will never catch PS5.

Phil Spencer remains employed as head of Microsoft's Xbox Division...

[Moge]

MS is getting clowned on hard these days. You know it's dire when chart shattering games like Halo aren't lighting up the charts anymore.

I like Phil as a person, but his incessant push for Game Pass has really driven MS into a hole i'm not sure they can get out of easily. The company seems hellbent on trying to make Game Pass a thing, but your typical consumer doesn't buy that many games a year to justify the somewhat low subscription price of Game Pass.

[JG]

Its not that Xbox is missing chart shattering games (which is true), its that all of them are Nintendo or Playstation exclusives, especially in the last year or so.

PS5 is now outselling Xbox X/S by more than a 2-to-1 margin, and its been rapidly accelerating since God of War Ragnorok launched and Sony stopped sitting on its own inventory (approximately month 24 on below chart)

Courtesy VGChartz.com, data through March 2023 (month 29)

Things are so bad that some of the studios are bucking the trend and making previously Series X/S-only games Xbox One compatible just to try to salvage sales with a larger existing market. Turn10 is doing it with Forza Motorsport. And even Microsoft themselves are doing it with Hellblade II. They know, two and half years after launch, there just aren't enough Series X/S units out there to be profitable, and maybe won't ever be. They need a Killer App to get back in the race - GamePass saved their bacon a few years ago but I don't know what other tricks they have up their sleeves short of just giving away the hardware.

[JG]

Rumors are starting to swirl that Xbox division is hemorrhaging money and may start selling ad space within their e-store, on the main page, or even within their first and second party exclusive games in order to recoup costs.

Not only is the console not selling as well as they'd hoped, they aren't selling enough games to offset the hardware cost. Though its not uncommon for a new console to run "in the red" for a year or two, the Series X/S is two and half now and doesn't appear to be turning anymore of a profit than the Xbox One did - and maybe less because the base hardware is more expensive. It is typical that 10-15% of video game sales price goes the hardware manufacturer, so Microsoft is counting on a specific number of $8-$10 per new game sales to break even, and apparently aren't reaching that number. Playstation 5 is equally expensive but its selling more than enough games now to start making Sony some serious money. This is a major reason why the failure of Redfall to meet sales expectations was met with some disdain in Redmond.

The real bother is that you have to have an account to play games on newer consoles and almost all of them are connected to internet. So ads on consoles can take advantage of built-in user tracking and ad customization. Unlike a PC's browser, where you can go into privacy mode, or block cookies and stuff, a console likely wouldn't give these choices.

My best guess is its going to come down to a decision to either add the ads or increase the cost of GamePass (or both) because it doesn't sound like Xbox is profitable enough to keep going another 4-5 years at current pace before the next generation.