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The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap (Switch): COMPLETED!

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Even though I owned this for the duration of my time with a 3DS as my primary form of handheld video gaming entertainment (it was free because I was a 3DS Ambassador), I never actually played it on there. I also have the original, for the GBA, which I did complete at the time (EIGHTEEN YEARS AGO!?) and very much enjoyed it, so no idea why I never played it again. Until now!

It’s another one of the GBA games that has appeared on the recently-released Nintendo Online Game Boy Advance service on the Switch, and so I thought I’d go through it. Mainly to see why so many people complain about it being rubbish. Spoiler: I couldn’t see why so many people complain about it being rubbish.

OK, so perhaps it’s very easy. Not one of the bosses was difficult, none of the dungeons had very tricky puzzles, I never died, and it wasn’t hard to figure out what you’re supposed to be doing at any point. But is that a bad thing? Is it just because I’ve played a lot of Zelda games in my time (and probably subconsciously remember some of it since last time I played Minish Cap)? Does it stop it being happy and fun? No, no it does not.

I forgot to check how long it took to complete, but I’m going to guess at about 15 hours or so. It didn’t feel that long, as I constantly felt like I was making progress and so zoomed through it. It looks incredible too, even blown up to however many inches my laughably oversized TV is compared to the tiny Game Boy Advance SP (or possibly even Micro) I played it on originally.

69: Nice

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Childish schoolboy sniggers abound, it’s Episode 69 of your favourite[citation needed] viddyo games podcast!

This episode, the old men that are deKay, Luffer and Kendrick and the slightly less old man that is Zo, navigate carefully around the choppy waters of the number 69, discuss the new toys Luffer has bought (he got a Pico 4 VR headset to go with his other 54124 VR headsets), Nintendo’s Nintendo Direct direct, Goodbye Volcano High, and important other topics like Bill and Ted and how you just don’t see waggling joysticks these days. Additionally, games!

  • Catherine
  • Vanquish
  • Grand Theft Auto IV
  • Grand Theft Auto III
  • Yakuza: Like a Dragon
  • Like a Dragon Ishin
  • Animal Crossing
  • Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes
  • Sonic Origins
  • Sonic Frontiers
  • Goldeneye 007
  • Hogwarts Legacy
  • Cookie Clicker
  • Walkabout Minigolf
  • Moss
  • Pinball FX2 VR
  • Cubism
  • Forza 5

And! Some! Listener! Questions! Gosh.

(Direct link here)

Intro music credits: The correct final boss music from Sonic CD.

Don’t forget, if you want to contact us with questions or comments for or about the show, you can email podcast@ugvm.org.uk or publicly shame us @ugvmpodcast on the Twittors, and https://mas.to/@ugvmpodcast on the Mastodons.

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles (Switch): COMPLETED!

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Or is it “Sonic the Hedgehog & Knuckles 3”? Either way, Sonic Origins stitches the two games together as $deity intended to make one massive game. And yes, I completed it with all the Chaos Emeralds (and the Super Emeralds). Having finally completed the entire game I feel like something will be missing throughout my day, but to remind me of such a fun process I considered getting my own "Sonic", you'd be surprised if I told you how much does a hedgehog cost.
It’s great, because of course it is. However, there’s something wrong – very wrong – in this version. You see, it’s pretty well known that Michael Jackson was somehow involved in the creation of some of the music tracks in Sonic 3. It has never been fully proven as to what extent, but some of the music does sound very much like some of his work – take the “crash” from both his track “Jam” and Sonic 3’s Carnival Night Zone, for example. Probably related to this, they’ve replaced some of the music with new chiptune music in this release and it’s also the most likely reason why Sonic 3 hasn’t appeared on any Mega Drive or Sonic game compilations in the last decade or so.
This new music is rubbish. Part of it is surely just because it isn’t what my head remembers. It feels wrong playing through levels with the wrong soundtrack. But also, this new music is rubbish. Ice Cap’s new track doesn’t even sound like an ice level music track. The new Carnival Night Zone music is out of tune. Launch Base sounds like it’s in the wrong game. They all make my ears cry. Thankfully, the game itself is as good as it ever was to play.

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (Switch): COMPLETED!

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They made a VERY IMPORTANT change to Sonic 2 on this Sonic Origins compilation. In the original, after getting all the Chaos Emeralds, Sonic has the ability to turn into Super Sonic once he collects 50 rings. Sorry, that might be a spoiler. Super Sonic moves even faster, jumps higher, and is invincible (except for being crushed or falling off the bottom of the screen), but as his rings count down as you use him, you have to constantly collect rings or he’ll run out and you’ll turn back into Normal Boring Sonic with no rings, and invariably die.

Which is fine, except that as Super Sonic, platforming is far trickier as the physics change and he’s much more slippery and quick. So really, you want to be saving your rings until you get to a hard bit or a boss, then triggering The Change. You couldn’t do that, though, as the game decided that the way to trigger The Change was to jump. Yes, just jump. Which, in a platformer, is tricky to avoid doing. UNTIL NOW! Yes, in Sonic 2 in Sonic Origins, you can turn into Super Sonic at will! You still jump, now you also have to press another button in the air. A game changer. No more franticly trying to race to the end of the level before your rings run out, or having to make jumps over pits of doom even more difficult because Sonic acts more like a mouse pointer than a physics-adhering creature. Amazing.

Oh, and the game? Completed it mate. With all the emeralds. That Tails is a git though, especially on the Special Stages.

Sonic CD (Switch): COMPLETED!

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And onto the next! Sonic CD was always the black sheep of the 16-bit Sonic games, what with changing the gameplay and returning to a graphics style more like Sonic 1 even though it came out after Sonic 2 (in the UK at least). Levels don’t feel as well organised as the other games, with scenery overlapping and areas messy with seemingly random item positioning – partly due to being able to travel into the past and future and so some item placements make sense in one time period but not in others, and partly due to The Power Of The Mega CD allowing much more in the way of graphic storage.

Sonic CD certainly has some… interesting colour schemes.

That’s not to say it’s bad, it just was a step sideways. Sonic Origins gets round this a bit by putting it chronologically between Sonics 1 and 2, which makes sense. Unfortunately, it introduces something that close to ruins it for me – the US version soundtrack.

For the most part, the music on the US release of Sonic CD was different to the UK (and Japanese) release. The most well known example being the terrible “Sonic Boom” theme tune in the opening video, which is infinitely superior “You Can Do Anything” (generally known as “Toot Toot Sonic Warrior”) in the UK, but I hadn’t realised that almost all of the music is different. And worse. Much, much worse. The end of game boss music – one of the best on the soundtrack – is especially missed.

Luckily, the gameplay has been left alone. It just feels weird having the wrong music!

This one isn’t too hard. Later special stages are near impossible.

As with the original Sonic the Hedgehog on Sonic Origins, you get coins instead of lives, and can “spend” these on retrying failed Special Stages. And thank $deity you can, because the Sonic CD special stages (where you run around a Mario Kart-like track chasing UFOs) are hard. Yes, I made use of those coins and I don’t even feel guilty. Time stones get! Good ending (which apparently isn’t the canonical ending?!) get! Sonic 2 next!