A Nintendo Switch 2 diary

It happened again today: I was playing Animal Crossing New Horizons, when I suddenly caught a new cicada. I didn't know that it was a new cicada. I got lucky because I was trying to obtain miles from catching bugs.

Maybe part of the reason why the miles program was included in this entry was exactly to encourage players to keep catching all kinds of bugs, so that they'll eventually catch them all. Still, I got pretty lucky today, and it reminded me once more that I have this nitpick with bug catching basically since I played the first game in the series.

Simply put, in New Horizons, the foremost way of knowing whether you have caught an insect or not, is to pull up the "Critterpedia" app to check them out. Each bug or fish will only be displayed if it has been caught, and furthermore, have a little owl icon next to it if it was donated to the museum.

This system isn't as helpful as you may think though, because there are dozens of bugs, and you can't possibly memorize which ones you have and haven't caught. Maybe the idea is that you are supposed to pull up the app to go check when you lay eyes on a bug that you may think you haven't caught yet, but that isn't practical, because not only do some bugs flee in the meantime, but some species are hard to tell apart, so it can be difficult to be sure (especially when your list is nearing completion).

At least, when you catch a bug, if it is new, then the character will first say "Yes!" to indicate that (same for fish). I don't want to be catching every single bug to test that out though.

You need to keep in mind here that bugs, unlike fish, are visible to the player. They just roam around on the surface. That makes a mountain of difference in how the process of catching and cataloguing them should play out.

Thankfully, Nintendo has released another video game (two, in fact) which has a much better mechanic for knowing which bugs you have or haven't caught: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

Breath of the Wild (and Tears of the Kingdom) does something really well about catching bugs (or any "resource"): **When you first approach a new bug, its name will appear as "???" in a "tool tip" floating above it. Once you have caught it for the first time, then you'll get a special jingle with a dialogue that displays the bug's description. From then on out, every time you approach that bug, the tool tip will have its name displayed on it. This indicates that you have caught it before already. Furthermore, even the camera, which is used to fill out the Hyrule Compendium, will either have a set of red/orange brackets around the bug, to indicate that you haven't photographed it yet, or a blue one, to indicate that you have.

Explain to me why New Horizons, which was released a full three years after Breath of the Wild, does not include a tool tip feature for the bugs? It would make total sense. In fact, the tool tip should not only include the name of the bug (once you have caught it for the first time), but also an icon to indicate if you have donated it to the museum. That would make the experience of catching bugs that less frustrating for me.

You may be wondering about fish. Again, only the bugs are visible. The fossils also have their own "gameplay mechanic", as well as the artworks. For the fish, I don't think that it would make sense to have any tool tip appear, unless in a future installment of the series, they make the water transparent, like in Breath of the Wild, and the fish become visible. I understand, however, that the whole purpose of the fish is that you should just go and catch all of them, in the hopes that you get lucky and catch a new one. That makes sense, because the fish are also generally more valuable than the bugs. They sell for a higher price. So, there is an incentive to catch them even if you have caught them before.

Somehow I managed to catch four new species today. The cicada was an accident too. I was just trying to get some miles from catching bugs. I thought that I had that one already.

Today was a busy day. I set up the campsite finally, as well as a bridge. Before that I went on a miles redemption spree, obtaining all pro apps, hair styles, and a bunch of DIY recipes (I had accumulated over 50,000 miles and not spent them on anything). I also shopped a bunch. Finally, I bought 3,600 turnips (fills up the floor of one room) for 97 bells each, so 349,200 in total.

Why doesn't New Horizons allow you to place the turnips that you buy inside your house's storage? Do I have to litter the floor with them? It makes even less sense when you consider that you can store fish and insects.

That may have something to do with your diet, buddy.

Somehow I managed to get not one, but two pink mums spawned on the same day! What are the odds!

I was just discussing with a few people on Discord why the original Animal Crossing for the Gamecube might never get released on NSO.

First of all, they're probably working on the sixth mainline entry in the series as we speak. They'd be dumb not to.

Second, the original Animal Crossing was a bit of a mess. I have researched this a million times and I'm still not sure that I got it memorized: There was the N64 release in Japan first, followed by the Japanese GCN port, then the American GCN release (which was basically an entirely new game with the amount of new content that they added), and then the Japanese release based on the American one. Somewhere in between, the game also got released in Europe (mostly based on the American release), and then China for the extremely iQue (which was a N64 console).

So, not only would they have to choose one of the releases (or create some kind of patchwork), but they'd also have to patch a bunch of features that are pretty central to the gameplay, such as the Island, the train, and the user profiles (just to name a few).

It doesn't seem worth the hassle for a game that has a very niche community. Wild World and New Leaf were vastly more popular. In fact, Wild World even got released on the WiiU.

This saddens me, because I really crave the villager interactions in the GCN entry. Every game since that one has watered them down more and more, to the point that New Horizons is basically just a town-decoration game (which I don't really care for). I still like to play it, but I also don't feel as drawn to it. Believe it or not, but the multiplayer isn't what I like about the game either. I like the feeling of slowing building a "relationship" with the villagers. The original game made that a big and involved part of the gameplay.

Whatever they do with the sixth mainline entry in the series, not only do I hope that they send us back to a town, but also that they employ some proper writers and give the villagers a lot of personality.

I began playing the game on July 13 and completed my first save to 100% by August 8. It took me 16h 42m to achieve that.

I owned a Nintendo 64 and played Super Smash Bros. on it, so I was aware of Metroid as a franchise from then on out, but I thought nothing about it because it wouldn't be until I got a copy of Metroid Prime for the Gamecube that I finally got into the series.

I think that there are probably many people in my generation for whom this was the case, but I still feel sad that this is the order in which I played these games. I didn't get to experience that amazing transition from 2D to 3D with this franchise. It wasn't until many years later (after playing also through the second and third entries in the Prime Trilogy, which it soon won't be...) that I decided to give Super Metroid, Fusion, and Zero Mission a try, admittedly, through emulators.

I loved every single one of those games. All of them. I do have nitpicks, but they're very few.

I didn't like Metroid Prime: Hunters though. I never even finished it.

I also didn't play any of the other mainline or spinoff entries in the series.

So, I'm not sure how much I can say that I have a deep knowledge or connection with the franchise, though that didn't prevent me from getting extremely excited when I heard the knews about Metroid Dread. It just looked so spectacular to me right from the beginning.

Boy, oh boy, was I in for a treat. I cannot convey with words how much genuine fun I had getting through this experience. The gameplay loop of Metroid Dread is near perfect to me. It's a clear (and long-awaited) evolution of the 2D entries in the series. It's a shame that Nintendo took so long to notice that everyone was asking for exactly this, but better late than never.

I felt excited every single minute that I invested into this game. From start to finish, I struggled to put the controller down when I needed to. The game kept me on the edge, aching to see what will happen next. I highly recommend Metroid Dread to fans of the series (especially the 2D entries) and metroidvania in general.

I played the game in normal mode, which made it challenging for me. I'm not exactly a nimble gamer. Samus, however, is very nimble. Her controls are somewhat complex (there are a lot of inputs that you need to learn), but they're tight. No death is ever unfair. All enemies have clear and obvious patterns for taking them down that can be learned and mastered with practice. This made for an interesting experience that I never had before with a video game (believe it or not) where some bosses would at first give me the impression that they were unbeatable, only for me to wipe the floor with them on the third try or so. This was particularly shocking when I spent an hour or more fruitlessly trying to defeat the final boss, and then came back a full two days later to beat him on the first try without breaking a sweat. Metroid Dread is just one of those games that makes you feel powerful when you have finally mastered it.

This game also happens to be the very first one in the series that I ever completed to 100%. I mean, there are some more unlockables that I can still get (I think, by playing in hard mode, though I'm not sure), but within the actual game, I was able to get **every single item, without ever consulting an online guide***. That completely blew my mind. It's not that I think that consulting an online guide is a moral wrong... I just personally hate it. I hate having to treat a game like a checklist. I hate having to break the immersion. I hate having to navigate clunky Fandom pages. I really appreciate it when a developer designs a game in such a way that I can 100% it without ever having to look away from the screen. It feels good to achieve that goal. So, I was overjoyed when I saw that 100% completion stat next to my save file. I had finally *100%-ed a Metroid game. Crazy.

The process wasn't tedious either. I personally didn't even feel that there was a lot of backtracking. The game felt pretty linear to me. The map doesn't have "objective markers" as such, but the "network stations" (to not spoil too much), along with the very detailed layout of the map (which indicates what kind of upgrade can help you to get through certain doors or blocks), made it very obvious to me where I was supposed to go next. I heard that there are some "intended" sequence breaks here and there, but I completely missed them. That's just how linear the experience was for me. When I won an upgrade, I always knew: "Ah. I got this ability now so I can go back to that place that I couldn't get through before." Likewise, the "hint" system, which illuminates areas on the map where you have not obtained a hidden item yet, made it trivial to find everything (when I noticed that I was about to reach the final boss, I went back, and combed through every level). There's also a percentage indicator that tells you whether you have cleared a certain area of the world map.

Story-wise, I was very pleased that this entry in the series went back to a more "isolationist" atmosphere, where Samus is just alone, exploring some planet. It makes even more sense given the whole Dread in the title, and the equally dreadful "stealth sections". Until the very end, you feel as though the planet is actively trying to kill you. Save rooms feel like proper "safe" rooms. I also loved the final boss. He was a real villain in the story, motivated by more than just animal rage, like the antagonist in the Prime Trilogy. The world-building of the series got slightly expanded, which I'm always happy about, and Samus spoke... not in English, and not by delivering some cheesy lines (I'm looking at you, Other M), but in the language of the Chozo. It was a small detail and lasted all of one or two minutes, but I loved it.

Speaking of detail, the game is absolutely gorgeous. It's clearly a labor of love. Not one pixel was haphazardly placed on the screen. I can't say that the same dedication went into the music though. It wasn't bad, but it was underwhelming. The first entry in the Prime Trilogy just set the bar too high for me, I guess. Music in Metroid has a very unique "feel" to it that I love to bits. This entry didn't quite deliver that, and it's a shame, because I was hoping to hum some memorable tunes in the future, as I go about my daily life. I still occasionally hum several from other entries in the series.

It took me only 16 hours to complete the game, so maybe to some of you reading this, the $60 price tag (which I admittedly didn't have to pay, because the game was lent to me by a friend), may seem like a bit too much. I don't disagree, but I would have gladly paid that price anyway. (Besides, developers make so little money...) The experience matters to me *that* much, and this game gave me a **phenomenal experience**, worth every cent that I would have spent, had I bought it. In fact, in a world of $80 Tears of the Kingdom-sized games (which I, pun not intended, "dread" a bit to get back to later, since I'm far from finished with it), it's refreshing for me that there are still some games out there which give you that one to two-week experience of playing through them, of having "an adventure".

I therefore give Metroid Dread a 10 out 10 rating. I both loved it and highly recommend it for almost everyone.

Starting off the new season with a joke from my mom.