Well, Nintendo Directs haven't been pleasing me much lately, but today's was a great treat! Two must-buys right off the bat are the Super Mario RPG remaster and Super Mario Bros. Wonder. My oldest son Sagan has played more Super Mario RPG on an emulator on my old PSP than I have at all in years, so I'm looking forward to this updated version with bated breath! SMB Wonder looks amazing as well, so on the strength of those two games alone I am looking forward to fall 2023 already!

There's a few other games Deku Deals has listed as announced in this Direct that may also make my wallet hurt in the next six months, including Sonic Superstars, the finally-announced Batman Arkham Trilogy, WarioWare: Move It! (which sounds a little pushy if you ask me), and Vampire Survivors. Not mentioned but recently announced was the DLC for TMNT: Shredder's Revenge, so, yeah...wallet pain impending!

I did something like this after the last Nintendo Direct in February, and even though probably no one reads this space I'm going to vent here anyway.

For me, this Direct was terrible. Let's ignore the fact that I was taken in by some of the rumors I heard; I'll get back to that in a minute. I know Splatoon 3 just came out, and Xenoblade Chronicles 3 as well, and I know Pokémon Scarlet/Violet and Bayonetta 3 are coming out soon, but what they did announce that is coming out in the next six months (which doesn't include Pikmin 4 or Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom) is a whole lot of meh. A bunch of remasters/remakes, sequels, farming sims (oh man the deluge of farming sims) and JRPGs, and scarcely any actually new games outside of that. For a Direct that could have had something for everyone, nothing they announced that wasn't already foretold struck a chord with me. The only two things that I wasn't expecting that I could be interested in are Factorio (which has been on PC for a long time) and Kirby's Return to Dream Land (which is a remaster and not a really groundbreaking game on its own). I have Mario Kart 8 and I'll enjoy that DLC, I have the NSO Expansion Pak so I already expected to enjoy the N64 ROMs (whoop dee doo anyway, GoldenEye), but it really was such a middling presentation that I have nothing really to look forward to until May at the earliest when Zelda comes out.

As for the rumors, mainly the Metroid Prime and Wind Waker/Twilight Princess ones: they both have to taken in different ways. The Metroid Prime: Trilogy could be re-released from the last time it was for Wii U and that would probably have been fine. The two Zelda games in their remastered Wii U versions also could be bundled together and make a ton of money. I think the strategy would be the same as with Super Mario 3D All Stars, where that came out, and then soon after we got the N64 emulator as part of the NSO Expansion Pak; they could do the same with these two franchises and then release a GameCube emulator. I think some, if not all, of these things are coming, but apparently not any time soon. We'll have to see what the winter Direct brings on that front.

Still no news on Advance Wars. That's turning into vaporware!

I saw some complaints about ports of PS3/360-era games. I'm in the group that would love to see more on that front, and I really cannot see why these developers would turn down easy money.

After today's Direct, here's what I'm looking forward to on Nintendo Switch for 2022, each heading ranked by my interest:

Haven't heard anything, didn't need to
Metroid Prime 4, and sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
When they're done, they're done, and I'm getting them, probably Day 1 for both.

Metroid Prime Trilogy, and Batman: Arkham Trilogy
Both are heavily rumored but not confirmed at this point. Both are surefire additions to my collection!

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge, and Hollow Knight: Silksong
Sounds like these will both be slipping into the second half of the year, which, fine.

Saw it on the Direct
MLB The Show 22
I'm curious to see what features they've had to pare from the PlayStation version, but it looks fine even if it is not at 60fps. My ass is pretty chapped from Super Mega Baseball 2 flaking out on me while making MLB rosters, so this would make life easier.

Assassin's Creed The Ezio Collection
Assassin's Creed II was one of my favorite games on the 360. Looking forward to these

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe - Booster Course Pass
Nice, the Expansion Pack is paying for itself again here.

Metroid Dread update
I've beaten the game once already and working on a second save now. Do I need a tougher difficulty? No. Do I need a weaker difficulty? No. I'm looking forward to the Boss Rush update more.

Nintendo Switch Sports
My only qualm is having to use the Joy-Cons like the Wiimote to play. I might have missed something from the preview and that may not actually be the case, but I'll need to see some more depth otherwise.

Mario Strikers: Battle League
Any game that leans into the Switch's netcode gives me pause. Without an Ethernet connection, it might not be worth it.

No Man's Sky
I was a little surprised to see this. Another one for which I'll have to look at the reviews.

LIVEALIVE
Looks interesting.

Previously, on Direct
Kirby and the Forgotten Land
Looks like fun, but I'll wait until the reviews to be certain.

LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga
Insane replayability and the Star Wars universe? Sign me up!

Advance Wars 1+2 Re-Boot Camp
I never made it far in the original edition of this turn-based strategy game, but I'm curious to see if a remake will be more appealing.

That's everything I'm anticipating. Plenty to look forward to!

Some thoughts on SSBU, re: the four remaining DLC characters:

Erdrick, from the Dragon Quest series: moderate chance
I don't know much about the Dragon Quest series, but I've seen enough rumors suggesting his inclusion that it would be hard to ignore the likelihood of it happening.

The Marine protagonist, from the Doom series: low chance
I don't see how well Doomguy fits into the game. Like Steve from Minecraft, he's almost exclusively a first-person character, so it would be hard to appreciate him in a side-on third-person perspective. Unlike Steve, Doomguy isn't "fun" and is a bit out of context without enemies from the series.

Steve, from the Minecraft series: high chance
There are more reasons than not for Steve to be included. In fact, the only reason I can think of that he wouldn't be included is that he's a Microsoft property.

Ryu Hayabusa, from the Ninja Gaiden series: high chance
Made even more likely by Ninja Gaiden's addition to the NES library of NSO.

Banjo and Kazooie, from the Banjo-Kazooie series: low chance
Especially if Minecraft Steve is included, but Microsoft/Rare has yet to seem very keen on allowing Nintendo to use the bird-and-bear duo back into Nintendo's library.

Crono, from the Chrono Trigger series: low chance
As with Microsoft, likewise with Square-Enix and their properties, although S-E did budge a little allowing Cloud from Final Fantasy as a playable characters and some Super Mario RPG characters as Spirits.

Sora, from the Kingdom Hearts series: no chance
See above, plus the fact that Kingdom Hearts is a Disney property, and Sora would be out-of-context without cohorts Mickey, Donald, and Goofy.

I had some thoughts for surprise inclusions:

Scorpion and/or Sub-Zero, from the Mortal Kombat series
They got Ryu and Ken from the Street Fighter series, so why not?

Arthur, from the Ghosts and Goblins series
Again, motivated by the original NES game's inclusion in NSO.

Earthworm Jim, from the Earthworm Jim series
LOL

Bub and Bob, from the Bubble Bobble series
Way out in dark horse territory, though maybe not as far as Earthworm Jim

The guys from Double Dragon, or Contra?
Now it's getting silly.

Mike from StarTropics
Impossible

The BattleToads, see also the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
I don't even know why I bother

Pokémon Moon - Beaten
After becoming Pokémon League Champion and the long-ass epilogue and credits (including catching a pseudo-Legendary), I clocked in at 32.5 hours, which sounds about average. Towards the end I started "cheating" (if you'd call researching my opponents' Pokémon for type advantages cheating) and I soft reset on the final match twice, but it was otherwise smooth sailing. I have to thank Exp. Share for being such a useful item; it really has come a long way since the early days when you could only give it to one Pokémon at a time to hold. I cannot even begin to imagine how far I would be right now...being able to level up and maintain either the speed advantage, the attack advantage, or even just the type advantage really made the game a breeze but still challenging and enjoyable. That being said, here's my final crew:

Lv. 65 Decidueye (Leaf Blade, Spirit Shackle, Shadow Claw, Pluck): I was glad to have kept Pluck through Dartrix since I ended up not using a Flying-type Pokémon, it really helped me keep the advantage against mid-and-end-game Bug-types that would have given me fits otherwise.

Lv. 61 Slowbro (Psychic, Yawn, Water Pulse, Blizzard): Slowbro ended up as sort-of an afterthought towards the end, which was too bad because it helped immensely against the Fire and Ghost-types in the mid-game.

Lv. 59 Lilligant (Petal Dance, Giga Drain, Synthesis, Sleep Powder): Slowbro's Yawn worked for a while, but once I saw Petilil use Sleep Powder on me and put me under in one turn instead of two I knew I needed that move in the repertoire. As long as she wasn't knocked out before I could use it, I was in business.

Lv. 58 Lunala (Moongeist Beam, Dazzling Gleam, Night Daze, Shadow Ball): a late addition to the team (obviously), but also the most HP and fastest. We'll see how useful it is in the postgame.

Lv. 58 Magnezone (Tri Attack, Discharge, Flash Cannon, Hyper Beam): Came in quite handy against Flying and Rock-types, more so than Slowbro.

Lv. 54 Salandit (Flamethrower, Sludge Bomb, Dragon Claw, Leech Life): Disappointingly squishy, I kept Salandit around really only because he filled in the most of the other niches that were otherwise ignored throughout my run. I would really like to keep him employed, but I might have a hard time doing so as the postgame pushes the rest of the team.

My biggest complaint: held items. Between Z-Crystals, Berries, and the typical assortment of held items, it's getting out of hand.

Quickly:

Next Car Game: Wreckfest - Needs polish, but has potential to be a lot of fun.

The Sims 4 - It's a Sims game! Not much to be said for it yet, it needs about five to seven years to ferment and get its full flavor have all its expansions come out and complete the game.

NBA 2K15 - I'm actually kinda pleased with the gameplay and experience. As the reviews said, playing defense is a bit touchy, but this can usually be mitigated by SCORING MORE POINTS THAN YOUR OPPONENTS.

Pro Evolution Soccer 2015 - So far, it's better than 2014. Whether it'll replace 2013...I've only got two matches under my belt, so it is way too early to tell.

Pro Evolution Soccer 2013 - With the World Cup around the corner, I thought I'd amuse myself with a challenge: win the World Cup with as many also-rans as possible. So far, I got through with the United States, beating England in the Final. Now I'm working on Mexico. Game 1 was a 4-2 win over Brazil, Chicharito with a hat trick. Next up, Cameroon.

Watch Dogs - I've put the main storyline on the backburner in lieu of unlocking ctOS towers and completing the blue side missions (Fixer Contracts, Gang Hideouts, et al.). The police are VERY INSISTENT on hunting my ass down in those Getaway missions.

I love that there are pearlescent cars.

Diablo III: Reaper of Souls - I say Act V was tedious because, let's be real...I had to drop from Torment I for Expert, and I guess I have pretty low DPS? I constantly feel like a noob, especially when I see MrDaravon cruising around eviscerating EVERYTHING like a lawn-mower. That said, the hunt for Legendaries is what drives gameplay (I get excited about GRINDING? Yikes) and getting rid of these Adventurer's Journals and the like.

Happy backloggiversary. Now play some games.

Hard to believe it's been six years on Backloggery.

Regarding Diablo III: I cleared the main questline on Normal in pretty short order, maybe a few days worth of gameplay. I only died maybe three times, so I guess there wasn't a whole lot of challenge in it, but I felt the game pulling me through so it went fairly quickly. I've restarted on Nightmare so we'll see how that goes. I guess my goals now are to clear the game on all three difficulties, upgrade my Blacksmith and Jeweler to max, and Achievement hunt, all before the expansion comes and I'll probably switch to a different class.

You'd think that but it's actually just an illusion created by the fact that we're more proficient in using them, resulting in less accidents and traffic jams.

Gorilla Glacier is basically what it's like to get to work in Canada between November and March.

Everytime the snow starts melting and the grass shows up in spring I think IMMEDIATELY of Secret of Mana. For some reason I associate that time with playing that with my brother; it's weird.

dropped LEGO Marvel Super Heroes, Sid Meier's Railroads!
added Pro Evolution Soccer 2013, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

I guess the snow outside made me think of Skyrim. The same thing happened with Donkey Kong Country.

Can you tell I'm happy hockey's back?

Sequence breaking, wow. I've encountered that in Shadow Complex... but yeah that's a rare feature in a video game. Neat! :D

Hi Dope. I see you.

Bioshock pulls me in, somehow. I beat it for the second time just a few minutes ago and the one thing I take away best is that it has the ability to get me hooked (usually about halfway to three-quarters through the game) and keep me in the game, pushing me the finish line. Those last few chapters (especially after Atlas's true identity is revealed) are a real slog but since as long as I'm not dying I can pull through. I don't even mind the linearity, since it helps me finish the game.