Nintendo Switch online service

SNES games now available. 20 to start with including Mario, Zelda, Metroid and Mario Kart.

Time to finish Link to the Past, Metroid and Mario World for the millionth time then.

Has anyone done the vouchers for two downloads? I picked one up yesterday to pay for DQ11 and Pokemon.

If you apply a little martonomics it's not a bad deal. £84 quid to start with. You can pick up gift vouchers for less than their sticker price at CD Keys. And use gold points to pay at checkout. And you get a fiver more gold points for buying the voucher.

So it worked out at maybe 70 quid for two download titles, plus I got a fiver voucher to spend on something else. 35 quid for new-game downloads, on Switch, isn't half bad.

See? I always said Martonomics was the future of capitalism.

That said, the fact that absolutely no-one (not even Gar, who I waved it in front of blatantly!) has asked about using my staff discount for digital codes and whatnot rather astounds me. It's like none of you want to save money.

Hello.

Ahoyhoy!

Oh, I absolutely intend to squeeze you for cheap codes until you squeak, I’m just waiting for Nintendo to release something I actually want to buy.

Even looking at screenshots of that game’s teeny tiny text gives me headaches.

For everyone else's reference, 'cheap codes' should be 'cheaper than normal codes'. We're not talking pennies here. A brand new game on day one, assuming it's full price and we'd have it on the books, is roughly €41. That's reduced from €59.99 though. So, depends what you're expecting, I guess.

There's physical stuff too, including hardware, but then you're talking shipping it back to UK too. And bear in mind, if the pound goes through the floor any time soon, this won't be much cheaper than getting stuff normally.

Yes but you can stash food and vitamin supplements into the parcel along with my Joycons though, and actual food and medicine will be the new currency.

I look forward to receiving ration stamps and powdered egg as payment.

Bastion is £2 on Switch just now. If you haven't played it it is genuinely one of the best games I have ever played.

Lots of big games on sale now actually. Final Fantasy X/X-2 and XII and Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate are pretty much half price, and loads of other great stuff including Stardew Valley, Wargroove, Celeste, Darkest Dungeon, Slay the Spire, Hollow Knight and Dragon's Dogma also have smaller discounts.

I see Rime is down to £10. Does anyone here recommend it?

It’s a nice enough Ico-alike but I’ve heard bad things about the Switch port. Wasn’t it on PS+ a while back?

I haven't paid for PS+ for years.

Thanks for the heads up about the port though. Maybe I'll grab it on PS4 someday.

We played a bit of Rime. It's a bit like a plain cheese sandwich. If you're hungry and you fancy a cheese sandwich, then go for it. There are better sandwiches available.

I really enjoyed it, but equally I'm done with it. No compulsion to revisit it. It's a very nice take on the ICO idea though.

Is it though? It's like a game made after a half-remembered conversation about ICO. It's really dull.

It was reasonable. It passed the time. I wouldn’t pay actual money for it though.

I have 63 eShop credit, plus 10 in gold coins. Going to get slay the spire although think I want the physical darkest dungeon.

Now. Slay the Spire. I'm not trying to be controversial at all but that's a right load of old bollocks isn't it?

(On a serious note, what am I missing?)

God. It’s an incredible game. What’s rubbing you up the wrong way about it?

I don't even know what it is, but it involves cards, so I'm immediately suspicious (having hated just about every card-based game I've ever played).

It's just a bit dull.

I don't really know why, I just don't find it fun. I really liked Steam World Quest, so it's not an aversion to card games. Slay the Spire just feels like hard work.

I'm aware this is my loss.

It's not really a question of whether you like videogames like Slay the Spire. It's a question of whether you like deckbuilding, which is a fairly marmite component to card and boardgames and has been as such since the age of Dominion and TCGs like Magic the Gathering. Gar, I think has taken to it like putting a saucer of milk in front of a thirsty kitten, because, perhaps, he wasn't aware that this particular form of gaming was like crack to him (and it can be like crack as the millions who plough cash into deckbuilding games prove).

Slay is a very intelligent, pared down, elegant appropriation of this style of physical card game into a videogame, but it's never going to convince you if it isn't your sorta thang. It's finding joy in the delicate puzzle of interweaving cards and effects, and the big deckbuilding eureka moments - like your life is a resource not a constraint, or why card draw can be critical etc….. But if it isn't a puzzle you enjoy, or see the point in, then Slay isn't likely to convince you otherwise.

Yeah I love it for that reason, I love board and card games but they just feel so inaccessible currently due to the time and space commitment. I played Slay the Spire on Xbox and utterly loved it.

It's all I have picked up so far in the sale.

Yeah I love it for that reason, I love board and card games but they just feel so inaccessible currently due to the time and space commitment. I played Slay the Spire on Xbox and utterly loved it.

It's all I have picked up so far in the sale.

If you do any mobile gaming, the iOS/Android versions of board and card games can be excellent, and a great way to try a game out without forking out the full price for the game, having to try and arrange a game, etc, even if it doesn't feel as "special".

I used to have Carcassone games with some of the Soc regulars (though I was always terrible), and have just started playing Star Realms on my iPad (after deciding a while back it was a bit small to learn on the iPhone screen), which is a great sci-fi deck builder I'm really enjoying (and based on a real card game), for example.

There's also the videogame originals that clearly have their roots are in card/board games, of course. I've taken a lot of games off of my phone recently (as they're more comfortable to play on a bigger screen), but Card Crawl, Card Heist, Meteorfall, Miracle Merchant, Missile Cards and Solitairica, among many others, that are all still (easy to play) on a phone, and well worth a look if you're so inclined.

Any you'd particularly recommend? Especially coming from Slay the Spire. I tried Solitairica but it's basically random as far as I could see - anything a little more engaging?

Meteorfall is the best for scratching that same itch, I found. It also has basically the same controls as Reigns (or Tinder), which makes it very comfortable to play on a phone (one-handed).

There's also Dream Quest (which is also a Dungeon Crawler, and famously hideous to look at), which I really like but haven't played enough of, and then Night of the Full Moon and Silent Abyss, which are both a little bit shonky, but I've still had fun with.

The rest of the ones I listed (that are actually still on my phone) aren't deckbuilders at all, really; Solitairica, Card Crawl, Card Thief, Miracle Merchant and Missile Cards, are all more like variations on solitaire, and Star Realms is more like Ascension (which I think you played?) with a Stellaris skin.

I've not played much of Card Quest or One Deck Dungeon (got both, but just on the iPad at present), but I don't think they're that similar either, despite some obvious thematic similarities.

Does Steamworld Quest count? That's probably a very lightweight version, but I enjoyed it.

I don't do mobile gaming. I do like both Star Realms and Hero Realms though as own both physical versions. I keep toying with getting a Surface Go but doubt they are on there but might have a scan first.