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Features

System: Switch
Release date: June 25, 2019
Developer: Artisan Studios / Compile Heart
Publisher: Idea Factory


Have you ever wanted Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft, and SEGA to be personified as anime girls? If for some bizarre reason you answer “yes,” then the Neptunia franchise should be right up your alley. Since the release of the first Neptunia game in 2010, this Japanese RPG series has presented fanciful takes on the age-old console wars. With Super Neptunia RPG, the franchise finally makes its debut on a Nintendo system, as well as its first foray into 2D game design. While this latest entry features all the charm and fast-paced gameplay that make the series so endearing, the larger package feels so rough around the edges that it can be hard to recommend.

Hello my beautiful weapon triangles! Fire Emblem: Three Houses is coming out in three weeks, so we’re celebrating by discussing all about some new details we’ve got on how the game plays and how Koei Tecmo was involved with Nintendo to make this game happen.

We also talk about some interesting comments from Nintendo on 5G, Cloud Gaming, VR, and a new control style they want to create for next-gen that will become the new industry standard. Peculiar stuff! Oni also gushes about Daemon X Machina and laments Bloodstained stumble onto the Switch.

If you’d like to support our show, you can help out by sharing the show with someone who hasn’t heard us before, and by rating us 5 stars on iTunes! We really appreciate all your support an thank you so much for listening!

System: Switch
Release date: June 25, 2019
Developer: ArtPlay
Publisher: 505 Games


Castlevania has been an incredibly important series for the entire medium of gaming. It has also had a long, illustrious life and popularity due in part to longtime series producer Koji Igarashi. The terms Metroidvania and “Igavania” had since been coined thanks to Castlevania’s unique direction of gameplay that usually requires the players to uncover large sections of a map by simply exploring. A huge portion of the fun comes from uncovering the area and seeing how seamlessly it all connects with each other as you run into locked doors and keys in various rooms and levels that intertwine before progressing even further. Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, the newest creation from Igarashi, would be a return to form to a more nostalgic time in video game history, with very little hand-holding and a freedom of exploration only interrupted by a player’s lack of curiosity. It’s without a doubt one of my favorite games to come out this year, but unfortunately, the Switch version of the game should not be the platform of choice when deciding to tackle an otherwise truly fantastic experience that’s been long overdue for fans of the genre.

A new month rolled right on in earlier this week. Now that we’re in July, we want to know what you’ve been playing.

Are you trying out some of Switch’s new releases like Super Mario Maker 2? Or how about Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night? No matter the case, let us know in the comments below.

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At E3 2019, Bethesda kindly invited us to their booth for a gameplay demo and behind-closed-doors interview for their upcoming Switch release, The Elder Scrolls: Blades. In part seven of this series, I’ll be taking a deeper look at how the experience stacks up on Nintendo Switch with classic button controls.

You can hear me chatting about all things gaming (and more) on our weekly podcast, available on iTunes, Spotify, and many other platforms.

For detailed impressions of The Elder Scrolls: Blades, check below the break.

At E3 2019, Capcom kindly invited us to their booth for some behind-closed-doors gameplay demos of their upcoming Switch releases. In part six of this series, I’ll be taking a retrospective look at my experience with Resident Evil 5 and Resident Evil 6.

You can hear me chatting about all things gaming (and more) on our weekly podcast, available on iTunes, Spotify, and many other platforms.

For detailed impressions of both Resident Evil 5 and Resident Evil 6, check below the break.

At E3 2019, SEGA kindly invited us to their booth for some personal time with their line-up of offerings. In part five of this series, I’ll be taking a retrospective look at my experience with a new entry in a game series that still blows my mind that it even exists: Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020.

You can hear me chatting about all things Nintendo (and more) on our weekly podcast, available on iTunes, Spotify, and many other platforms.

For detailed impressions of Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, check below the break.

At E3 2019, Nintendo kindly invited us to their booths for a private look at their most important upcoming titles of the year. In part four of this series, we’ll be taking a look at a game I found to be a mixed bag… The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening.

You can check out footage of Oni Dino playing games from E3 on our YouTube and hear Oni Dino chat about gaming and more on our weekly podcast (available on iTunes, Spotify, and many more platforms).

For more detailed impressions of Link’s Awakening, check below the break.

At E3 2019, Nintendo kindly invited us to their booths for a private look at their most important upcoming titles of the year. In part three of this series, we’ll be taking a look at the spookiest game from Nintendo this year: Luigi’s Mansion 3.

You can check out footage of Oni Dino playing games from E3 on our YouTube and hear Oni Dino chat about E3 impressions from the show floor and more on our weekly podcast (available on iTunes, Spotify, and many more platforms).

For more detailed impressions of Luigi’s Mansion 3, check below the break.

Hello my beautiful Mario and Luigi makers! Super Mario Maker 2 is out this week so let’s chat! Takashi Tezuka has given us some pearls of info to muse on. Galen and Oni have a running argument on autorunner levels. The gang also discusses what Nintendo does with the future of Mario 2D side-scroller platformers as stand alone titles. Oni thinks they need to go a totally new direction, and he has THE BEST ideas. Nintendo, please check these out. They’re free. Oni and Galen have basically acted as creative producer on this and workshopped ‘em.

Oni and Galen then blab on about some new info on an upgraded Switch model, and consider things not only from a consumer standpoint, but from a developer’s burden point of view, as well. We muse on the big questions like, “Is the inevitable Switch model going to be a small bump or a huge leap so it can at least hold its own against the PS5 and Xbox Scarlett?” Galen brings up marketing and aiming at different markets, while Oni fights back with discussions of the slippery slope effect that the Switch could lose 3rd party support.

If you’d like to support our show, you can help out by sharing the show with someone who hasn’t heard of us before, and by rating us 5 stars on iTunes! We really appreciate all your support an thank you so much for listening!


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