Nintendo Switch

Luigi is OK, but gets repetitious and suffers from having a fixed camera angle. I was also disappointed you can’t play the main story coop. MP is a set of separate levels.

You can play the main story in Luigi 3 in two player couch co-op. Well, most of it, because you have to unlock Gooigi first.

Ha, I will try that again.

I finally bought Burnout Paradise for $15. This was possibly the most egregious “Switch Tax” game. It released at $50. On the other systems it released at $40, and it was down to $20 by the time of the Switch release.

Not sure I beat EA by waiting… they still made me sign up for an EA account because it’s been that damn long since I bought an EA game.

It’s very strange to have a progression system in place when dozens of good vehicles are unlocked from the start.

Man…it’s been long enough that I might want to play Burnout Paradise again.

The Switch just got a lot more appealing for anyone who was a fan of A-Train: City Simulator on the 3DS, or happens to enjoy deep railway business games with some city-builder elements mixed in. Didn’t appear on the American version of Nintendo Direct because who knows, free exposure is overrated I guess unless Artdink only very recently finalised paperwork for self-publishing the title globally.

Either way, I heartily approve of this game getting a same day global release. Plus with a free trial currently available, that allows you to play the first year of the first scenario\introductory tutorial, there ain’t much to lose in seeing whether you’ll like it or not.

Hmm. I couldn’t get into it on 3DS because of the controls and small screen, and that was with a stylus. I rarely have any joy with management games using a controller.

Mouse definitely my preferred control medium where possible. Though, I can’t fault Artdink for how generous they are with the ability to place\lay objects, move them around or undo if required, and then not charge you until you confirm that everything is to your liking. Rare to encounter a costly misclick compared to some other games I’ve played, even with a stylus or controller.

Burnout Paradise isn’t exactly holding my hand on starting out. I guess I’m supposed to hit a lot of ramps and burst through billboards? Hard to even see them as I fly down the highway.

Also have no idea about the different types of boost… god I hate going to a guide for an arcade racer.

And then events will eventually unlock? Hopefully?

Big plus so far is it DOES feel like Burnout with a different car than the starter.

I don’t recall the very start of the game, so it’s possible there’s a gated section, but basically every junction is its own event.

Bizarre lack of trailers, apart from one kinda blandly assembled gameplay footage video on a random channel. This seems like it would be neat!

Their promotion could indeed be better for such a neat series, IMO. Previously been a third-party affair where a company like Natsume or Degica would localise and publish it in non-Japanese markets. So, this would appear to be ArtDink’s first real crack at handling worldwide publishing themselves and it probably shows so far. The Japanese promotion is leaps ahead, they hosted a 6 hour-long livestream (in Japanese) with game director Masaki Iizuka this past weekend.

Glad they at least carried the free trial idea over to non-Japanese markets because while the English game website is okay I am not sure it is that much more enlightening for people on the fence about buying it.

There are events at every intersection, although some of them (the Burning Routes) are gated until you earn that car.

The non Burning Route events are separated into Races, Stunt Runs, and my favorite, the Road Rage and Marked Man events, where the objective is to crash into or avoid being taken down by other cars. You do need to drive around to the intersection itself to unlock the event (so it shows up on the world map), but you should be able to play any event from the start of the game.

The various boosts are almost all irrelevant unless you are chasing achievements, which on the Switch you won’t be :) You gain boost differently depending on the car you are using, but I find that after a certain point the Aggression cars generate the most boost just because you are always driving into oncoming traffic and crashing into other cars. But you can’t get Burnout chains with those, only with the speed cars.

The billboards and super jumps and whatnot are for achievements and completionists. One of the most fun, semi-hidden modes is pressing L1 and R1 to enter Showtime, where the objective is to cause as many cars to crash as possible. It’s a silly minigame but it’s a hoot for kids.

I really loved Burnout Paradise a decade ago and I’m happy to have transferred this love to my son on the Switch. I know it’s the red-headed stepchild of the Burnout series but it still really works for me.

It is?

It was very different from what came before, IMO. The series peaked for me with 2/3. But I know a LOT of people who got in with Paradise and adored it, so. . . win some, lose some?

Yeah. It’s really not at all like the games that made the series name. It turned off a lot of people.

Burnout Revenge is still my favorite.

There was a brief window in Burnout Paradise that I loved the game. But that window is narrow. It’s inherently got some flaws in its design. Like the fact that missions are given at intersections, and there’s many many more intersections on the right side of the map than the left side of the map. So when a mission usually takes you to the left side of the map, the first few times you get a mission there, but those are soon all completed. Then the game becomes about getting missions that take you to the left side of the map and then having to drive all the way back. It’s just… ugh. They could have designed that so much better.

Thanks, the info has gotten me into it. I’m enjoying a go cart racer with slicks, though it’s apparently very OP for racing right now.

Yeah, Remastered opens up the Toy Cars, Cop Cars and the Legendary cars from the getgo, which are a lot of fun but incredibly OP.

The original cars given to you in the progression gate, e.g. the SUV that looks like a whale and handles like a whale, or the Ferrari knockoff that wrecks if you breathe on it, are not as enjoyable to drive but more satisfying if you pull out the win.

It’s still March 10, the 35th anniversary of Mario.

Here’s some deals.

Mario Kart 8 is $40 at Amazon and Best Buy. Seems outrageously expensive for a game that came out in 2014. But hey, I’d still get it if it was a digital code. Not sure I want a physical copy though.