Online Saturday - Splatoon 3 - November's Splatfest - 15 Battles 5 Wins!

Welcome to Online Saturday.

It's a Splatfest weekend so today's video is on the "What's your go-to greeting?" Splatfest in Splatoon 3. Our choices are between Handshake, fist bump, or hug. I chose to join team handshake.

This wasn't as fun as i had hoped. it was yet another Splatfest blighted by connection issues. it took minutes for nearly all games to be found, and twice games were abandoned due to disconnections. there were also a couple of times when games would continue even tho we'd be down a teammate due to a disconnection. it wasn't great after the last Splatfest, but the game has been patched since then and for things to be still bad is disappointing. As for how this Splatfest went, simply it didn't go great. i would often top the score sheets for my team, but as a team we simply weren't doing enough to ink or work together. so that also adds to the feeling that this wasn't a great Splatfest.

Switch Funday - Splatoon 3 - Getting November's Salmon Run Item

This month's Splatoon 3 Salmon Run item is the Brinestone Boots and like the other Salmon Run items, my goal is to get the item twice and pick the best of the two to keep. This went better than last weeks Eggstra Work Event, https://youtu.be/fohHFUg29QU, not just in that my teams and i were able to complete all waves but also in that it was much quicker getting into a game and there was better rotation of the weapons, too. What was also nice was how the weapon selection today went from good to great. often in Salmon Run there's a weapon i really don't want to use. but today, there were a couple of "OK" and some i had a lot of fun with. 

It only took 6 games to get the item twice, but as the video was short in comparison to my other Splatoon 3 videos, i did an extra video to get to 1,000 points. we also had a game where we went up against the King Salmonid but we were only able to do about half damage. There were many games today where there was great team work and i try to call it out when i see it. these games weren't just fun to play because we did all waves, they were fun because of the teamwork. 

Switch Funday - Tetris 99 - 36th Maximus Cup - Super Mario RPG

This weekend there is the 36th Maximus cup in Tetris 99. the prize this cup is a Super Mario RPG theme. I haven't played the game since the last cup, https://youtu.be/5t4uTf9zjAg, and i definitely felt rusty this time. it felt a lot more difficult and it felt like there were more mistakes. some of those are mine as i have a cold and was coughing. some were down the the poor d-pad on my #Switch Pro Controller. but it also felt like some of it is down to the game and it not registering my button presses. it's an odd sensation.

Switch Funday - Splatoon 3 - November's Eggstra Work Event

Welcome to Switch Funday!

This weekend is November's Eggstra Work Event. I mistakenly thought, especially early on into the recording, that as well as doing the event i would be able to get this months Salmon Run item but i was wrong. so that'll be another video later. as for this Eggstra work event, my goal changed from getting the Salmon Run item, to getting to 800 points, to what i ended up chasing which was trying to get 1,000 points.

But it was not easy. this might be the most difficult Eggstra Work Event i've done in Splatoon 3. My teams and I only managed to get to the final wave once out of the 15 tries, and only to the third wave i think 3 times. It was the second wave that caused the most issues as it was a glowflies challenge. The other annoying thing was that i kept being stuck with the same two weapons. it wasn't until right at the end that i got to use the other two and i enjoyed using the Splatshot the most. Facing the same challenges with the same weapons got boring quickly. especially when the difficulty from wave 1 to wave 2 was already a big leap, but it was even worse if you did good or great as wave 2 got even harder. Nintendo need to do better at balancing Eggstra Work or patch the game so it can be more dynamic with the difficulty.

Switch Funday - Splatoon 3 - Halloween Splatfest Tricolor - 15 Battles 8 Wins!

Welcome to Switch Funday.

It's day two of the Splatfest weekend so today's video focuses on the Tricolor game mode in Splatoon 3. I found that in nearly all games, it was very competitive. some games were more challenging than others, but overall it was a fun Tricolor and a fun Splatfest overall.

But, the online was even worse today than Saturday. the video file for this is over an hour and a half long. It took over 3 minutes for some matches to be found, there were also disconnections in the lobby and in-game, too. there was one game that lasted about 10 seconds! I haven't seen a splatfest with this many bad internet issues since around the launch of the game over a year ago.

Online Saturday - Splatoon 3 - Halloween Splatfest - 15 Battles 7 Wins!

Welcome to Online Saturday.

It's a Splatfest weekend so today's video is on the "Which Would Be The Best Friend" Splatfest in Splatoon3. Our choices are between Skeleton, Ghost, and Zombie. I chose to join Team Ghost.

This was a fun Splatfest. i would say that it felt like the wait between matches was the longest it's been since the game launched. typically i'd have to wait 10-30 seconds at most but during this Splatfest i had waits two minutes or more. Other than that, it was fun because of how competitive it was. there were some real close games and others that ebbed and flow between the two teams. it was nice to get 2 x10 wins in this Splatfest, i rarely take part in them and even rarer win them. so to win two feels special.

Switch Funday - F-Zero 99 - 1 Month Later With Patch 1.02

For Switch Funday i went back to F-Zero 99. it had received two updates since i last played it. these updates added more content to the game like new tracks as well as some small tweaks.

The thing that surprised me the most is how much better everyone got at the game. in the first video, https://youtu.be/8aoxu1RiYEQ, from the launch weekend, there wasn't as much attacking as there was in this video. people also seemed more familiar with tracks, making fewer mistakes and using the super boost much more efficiently. 

The new tracks that have been added to the game do, mostly, feel a little more difficult with tighter cornering and more corners. they are still visually cool to look at and the race to get on the track is still fun. but the track with the magnets at the edge, Port Town 2 i think, was not fun at all as i was constantly finding them and being damaged and slowed down.

But the biggest surprise was that after a month since release, it did feel like less people were playing F-Zero 99. I had seen this with other "99" games on the Switch like Pac-Man 99, but even Tetris 99 feels like there are plenty of people playing. trying out the Pro Race mode, it felt like 2/3 of the racers were A.I and about the same for the second Grand Prix i tried. Thankfully the F-Zero 99 game mode seemed mostly full of human racers. but it will be interesting to see if this continues to be popular and what Nintendo continues to add to the game. will they do paid DLC like Tetris 99 or will they continue to add content via patches in a similar way to their other big titles like Splatoon 3.

Online Saturday - Splatoon 3 - Getting October's Salmon Run Item

This month's #Splatoon3 #SalmonRun item is the Brinestone Jacket and like the other Salmon Run items, my goal is to get the item twice and pick the best of the two to keep. It took a long time to get the jacket twice. i had a few games where we couldn't even get past the first wave of enemies. there were two weird moments where in one game there were only 2 players and in another there was a big amount of slowdown that i don't remember experiencing in the game before. in the final job, my team and i did face off against the King Salmonoid but we were unable to defeat it.

Switch Funday - Tetris 99 - 35th Maximus Cup - Xenoblade Chronicles 3

For Switch Funday i went back to Tetris 99 to take part in the 35th Maximus Cup. This cup has a Xenoblade Chronicles 3 theme for those who get the 100 points needed to complete it. it took me 5 games to get the theme, with the 6th game being a bonus game where i tried to commentate and also play.

It's great to see how popular Tetris 99 continues to be. it took very little time to find a game. it's also fun to see how competitive the game continues to be. i didn't get to the top 10, but i got top 25 a few times. some games felt like they took a long time whilst others went by very fast.

Switch Funday - F-Zero 99 - F-Zero 25, F-Zero 50, F-Zero 99, Team Battles, And Grand Prix Races

For Switch Funday i played the newly released F-Zero 99, a free game for Nintendo Switch Online subscribers. It takes the gameplay of F-Zero and adds the online multiplayer chaos of Nintendo's 99 series. I haven't played an F-ZERO game since the GameCube so i was excited to give this a go.

This was my first time playing the game so we start with the tutorial, and it's a great tutorial too. the game also doesn't drop you straight into racing against 98 other racers. there's a race against 24 others, then a race against 49 others, and finally you're given a race against 98 others. So by the time i raced in F-Zero 99, i felt prepared. the only thing i didn't know were the tracks themselves.

These tracks have been carefully adjusted with a new starting track that funnels all 99 drivers onto the main race track. this is used in the races and the Team Battles, too. The super boost track is mostly fine tho i did have one or two occasions where i triggered it but i wasn't near it so it felt like i was moved weirdly on to it. there were also some occasions where it ended in an awkward place. Much like the Bullet Bill in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, also on Switch, sometimes the boost lasted a long time and others it felt too short.

No adjustments have been made for the battle mode. this mode has all drivers split into two colored teams. points are earned by crossing the start/finish line each lap but you can also earn points for hitting/spinning into other racers and KOing them. But in all modes, there's a lowest position you can be before being eliminated. each lap there's a message, the admittedly could be bigger and clearer, saying what the lowest position you can be to continue. In Grand Prix races, this is what ended my race. i got to the 4th race out of 5 in the Grand Prix mode, but i needed to finish in the top 20 by the end to get to the 5th and final race and i couldn't manage it.

Overall, i had a great time with F-Zero 99. the game has a great tutorial and adds little pressure on you to finish high. if you don't finish high, you still earn points towards your overall level. even tho i didn't finish the Grand Prix, what i earned is still put onto a leaderboard. i would recommend this game to old fans of F-Zero but also to anyone who has F-Zero 99 via a Nintendo Switch Online Subscription. Just be aware that these 99 games typically rely on skill. this game does have a couple of ways it helps keep everyone together, but ultimately those who are better at it will typically always finish up front.

Switch Funday - Splatoon 3 - September's Tricolor - 15 Games and 6 Wins

Welcome to Switch Funday!

This weekend is the "Who would be the best leader?" Splatfest. Yesterday, Saturday, was the first day and i got in 15 games with 6 wins https://youtu.be/k9yyT8DdPVU. Today was the Tricolor event and it went just as well, again with 6 wins out of 15 games.

What didn't go well was the opposition. the idea with Tricolor games is that you're facing the other two teams. but out of the 15 games, i was only up against Fyre and Big Man teams 4 times! So this Tricolor day got a little boring by the end. it's a big reason why i changed from Bloblobber to the Gold Dynamo Roller. I don't typically play offensive with rollers so to make things interesting for myself i changed weapon and tried to be defensive and offensive. it was a nice challenge and it's not that bad. it is a bit too slow to fire so i'll probably change to something else.

Online Saturday - Splatoon 3 - September's Splatfest - 15 Battles 6 Wins!

Welcome to Online Saturday.

It's a Splatfest weekend so today's video is on the "Who would be the best leader" Splatfest in Splatoon 3. our choices are between Fyre, Shiver, and Big Man. I chose to join team Shiver.

This Saturday's Splatfest went much better than the previous Saturday's did, https://youtu.be/wUTQmGapjWE. I wouldn't say any did was doing a lot better than the other, tho maybe Fyre's teams tended to get the bigger wins. i had a lot of fun and i'm thinking 15 games is the right amount for these Splatfests.  

Demo Play Thursday - Chants of Sennaar on Nintendo Switch

For this week's Demo Play Thursday i played the Nintendo Switch version of Chants of Sennaar. i was very curious about this game when i saw the screenshots on the Nintendo Switch eShop, https://www.nintendo.co.uk/Games/Nintendo-Switch-download-software/Chants-of-Sennaar-2370366.html, as they looked too good to be true. i don't mean to put down the graphical abilities of the switch, but these screenshots looked so crisp and the clear that i wanted to see if it's true.

I can honestly say this game looks amazing on Switch. The demo has it's own language and your main character doesn't know it. by using the context of when people talk to you and what you're doing, you can make notes as to what symbols of the language relate to what activity. your guess is in your language, so for me it's in English. when you're correct, the color changes and when you're wrong your guess is still used to try and understand what's being said. it worked soo well right up to when you can guess which symbol means what action. there's no hint if your guess is correct. in the demo you have a few actions and many symbols to chose from, but the game won't tell you if any of the guess are correct unless you get all of them correct. this was annoying as i don't know if i'm meant to fully understand or not. i feel that it needs a little more interaction with the player or at the very least an option for a hint for those who might obsess over it.

What made this demo stick out in my mind is how i wanted to keep on playing after it was done. i knew what i was going to do with my language notes in the next section and i wanted to see more of the world. the only issue with this in this demo was that, and i could be wrong, i couldn't see a message anywhere saying that my save would be carried over to the main game. If you're curious about the game or just looking for something different on Switch, i highly recommend trying Chants of Sennaar out.

*1st September UPDATE: rundisc have confirmed via X that "Concerning your question: yes, I can confirm that the saves from the demo will be usable in the final version of the game!"

Switch Funday - Alien Storm - A Childhood Favorite

Welcome to Switch Funday!

This week i chose to play a game i had on the Mega Drive when i was much younger. I don't think i ever beat it, but it is a game that i remember playing many times. it has a 1 player mode, 2 player mode, and even a wave based mode called The Duel, where you have to defeat as many waves of enemies as possible without, seemingly, any health or energy pickups!

In this video i try out the single player and The Duel, using all three characters as i played. It's certainly as hard as i remember it being but i also played it on normal. in the options you're able to change difficult, energy collecting effectiveness, and even if you have to repeatedly press the fire button or hold it down. So i, at the very least, recommend anyone interested in this game to change the difficulty to easy. 

For a side scrolling brawler, it has a few interesting game mechanics. there's a chase sequence mechanic as well as a shooting gallery sequence mechanic sequence. these three are used well to help give the game more depth than some recent side scroller brawlers have. I also found it helpful that my character and the enemy characters had big shadows under them so it was easier, than many recent games i've played, to judge where we all were on the horizontal plain.

I know it's not perfect, but it's not pure nostalgia when i say that this is an enjoyable side scroller and well worth playing if you have the SEGA Mega Drive/Genesis app on Switch.

Switch Funday - Pokémon Trading Card Game - My First Time - I Had Fun

Welcome to Switch Funday!

For today's game i wanted to try out the Game Boy Color game Pokémon Trading Card Game. I had a Game Boy Color growing up, the purple one, and i played Pokémon Blue, Yellow, Gold, and Pinball on it. but i never tried out Pokémon Trading Card Game. I didn't know much about it, other than guessing what happens by it's name. Now it's on the Nintendo Switch Online service, i was curious to give it a go and whether or not it would be worth playing in 2023.

I'll admit that i only won the tutorial battle. the other two battles i tried, i lost. but it didn't feel like i lost due to skill but rather i lost due to bad luck. The tutorial is good. it maybe a little too hand holdy for some people, but for me, someone who has never played the Card Game, it was what i needed. the only thing i would've liked is if the tutorial, or game, suggested where i should go with the deck i have. it felt like that it left it up to me, but i didn't know where to go. 

My first battle was against someone in the Poké Lab, i thought that it would be an easy battle as it's right at the start of the game. but it felt like a challenge. i had picked the Bulbasaur Grass Deck so thought the best gym to head to would be the Rock one. But i didn't really have much of an advantage. this game seems to be just Gen 1 Pokémon, so there isn't a lot of choice and my deck had Pokémon of many different types.

I'm glad i tried it out. i do think it holds up today, but i can't compare it to the modern Card Game as i've never played it. but as a strategy card game, it played really well. it's not just the tutorial that was good, but all the information you need is there, too. most of it takes a while to get to, but it's there. this game is slow, but it's what i wanted for my first time, and i could make it go a little faster in the options by speeding up text speed. Even the graphics looked great on my TV. all the Pokémon were clear and some of the card arts i looked at were also cool. If you have the service, i'd recommend giving it a go. i feel that the tutorial is good enough for those unfamiliar with Pokémon, and if you know Pokémon then i feel it'll take less time to get up to speed. i hope you're lucky tho!

Puzzle & Dragons Tuesday - Nintendo Switch Edition - Pixel Ronoue Cup - Achievement Run

Welcome to Puzzle & Dragons Tuesday! Sit back and either watch me play through, with no commentary, the cup or leave it running in the background as BGM!

I play and earn all the achievements from The Pixel Ronoue Cup! (2023/8/14 9:00～2023/8/21 8:59 JST) in Puzzle & Dragons: Nintendo Switch Edition whilst using a GamePad and a docked Nintendo Switch.

I didn't win a single game this week. i played against many other players and they were really good. i managed to often get to the boss and beat it a couple of times, too. But my best result this week was only second. This week was one of, if not the most, competitive cups i have ever played in this series and it was a lot of fun. I was listening to music, @TheBTchannel's The Hopeful Machines that i had put onto MiniDisc (With Electronic Opus versions too), and i was leaning forward a lot. I nearly forgot i was recording a video as i was soo focused on trying to beat the other players.

This week i played against:

Hades - Rank 51

YUKI - Rank 87

Labin - Rank 67

ふたば - Rank 71

おちゃ - Rank 76

SWITCH - Rank 89

souta_そうた - Rank 59

アレルギーのおとこ３ - Rank 78

Dan - Rank 65

Melusine - Rank 81

エ - Rank 57

pyors - Rank 68

Switch Funday - Splatoon 3 - August’s Tricolor - 16 Games and 11 Wins

Welcome to Switch Funday!

This weekend is the  "What’s most important in life?" Splatfest. Yesterday, Saturday, was the first day and i got in 15 games with 4 wins https://youtu.be/wUTQmGapjWE. Today was the Tricolor event and it went much better!

A big highlight for me was discovering a new weapon i like to use. after yesterday's video, i went and bought a new weapon the #Bloblobber! for the first 3 games i used my other favorite weapon, the N-ZAP '89, but all the matches after that were with the Bloblobber.

I thought that the connection issues i had yesterday were better today, in that the disconnections only happened in the lobby rather than in-game, but the waiting for matches in the lobby were just as bad if not worse. Plus, as you can see (On YouTube) in the chapters below, there were plenty of matches were it was just Money fighting with Money against Money. i put a "*" to show which team i was on.

Switch Funday - Splatoon 3 - Ice Cream Tricolor - 12 Games and 3 Wins - Many Disconnections!

Welcome to Switch Funday!

This weekend is the Ice Cream Splatfest. Yesterday, Saturday, was the first day and i got in 13 games with 7 wins https://youtu.be/flBuwuQ2ncs. Today was the Tricolor event and it didn't go as well.

Today's big highlight was the poor internet connection. i had 3 matches disconnect, several disconnections from the lobby, and longer waiting times than normal. it was probably the worst since the first month or so.

Tricolor is always harder than the normal Turfwar event. and it really showed across these 12 matches. there were some big losses both when my team was attacking and when we were defending. we got in 3 wins, but i wouldn't say either of them were as big as some of the losses we had. what was fun was that in the last match my teammate and i nearly got the best score as attackers but right at the end the other attacking team just beat us to the best score. What was a little strange is that i didn't feel as comfortable with any weapon i used unlike yesterday. this is probably due to the stage the Tricolor event was taking place on.

After playing across these two days, i feel that Vanilla will be the winning team.

Online Saturday - Splatoon 3 - July’s Ice Cream Splatfest - 13 Games, 7 Wins!

Welcome to Online Saturday.

It's a Splatfest weekend so today's video is on the Ice Cream Splatfest in Splatoon 3.

this has to be my best, or one of my best, days of playing Splatoon 3 ever! My teams and I managed to get 7 wins out of the 13 games i played. nearly all the battles were against Vanilla and they were tough. whilst playing them, when we won it rarely felt like an overwhelming win. But the competitiveness made it really fun and enjoyable. the stages also help, most of the matches i played were in more open areas which allowed for a lot of movement and inking.

Online Saturday - Tetris 99 - 34th Maximus Cup - Pikmin 4 Edition

Welcome to Online Saturday!

Today i'm playing Tetris 99 on Nintendo Switch. This weekend it's a special event where you can earn a Pikmin 4 theme by earning 100 points in the 34th Maximus Cup.

Maximus Cups are a welcomed reason to pop back into Tetris 99. of course the goal is to get enough points but the other goal is to try and win. I've played Tetris 99 a lot but i've never managed to win. unfortunately, i didn't win today either. i got a couple of top 15 finishes, but it's really tough.

It's a nice theme, tho i'm not too sure about the music. Let me know how the cup went for you. did you get a win?