 Despite how booming this year has been for game releases, there has still been quite a few games that have been released, and I didn't talk about them for one reason or another, like Just Dance 2022. The reason? Well, it's Just Dance. The thing is, when I don't have a lot to say about one game, it makes it kind of hard to create a full video that will peas the YouTube algorithm, or so I might not have that much nice to say about a game, and if there's one thing my dear old grandmother taught me, it was that if you have nothing nice to say, don't say anything at all, unless it's about Just Dance. Hey, you okay? I'm sensing something strange. Yeah, life is strange. Yeah, it sure is, buddy. No, the game, Life is Strange True Colors, the Nintendo Switch version launched today. I hope the Life is Strange games are great. You heard that from me, dumb brain. The best part is, it's the same game as it is on all the other platforms, including all the character performance capture and facial animations, plus the full extensive licensed music soundtrack. Yeah, the Life is Strange games are known for their beautiful music and fantastic storytelling. Yeah, I'm glad it's exactly the same on Switch. It's not just the same. They had a dedicated and passionate team create this port specifically for the Switch. They rebuilt the lighting engine ground up for the console. They completely reworked how the CPU processes and renders scenes to optimize frame rates. Heck, they reworked almost everything from the character models to the game's foliage and anti-aliasing to preserve vitality while optimizing polycounts. How to be honest, all this sounds incredible. I don't understand why- It even plays at 1080p! Stop! This is not Switch! Switch! Switch! Switch! Switch! Switch! Switch! Switch! Switch! Switch! Switch! Switch! Switch! Switch! Switch! Switch! Switch! Switch! Switch! Switch! Video is brought to you by Life is Strange True Colors. If you've never played a Life is Strange game before, True Colors is a great place to start, as it's a brand-new and exciting story filled with twists and turns, six different endings, supernatural powers, and just a ton of heart. It's a very inclusive game that can be played by both casual and avid gamers. And it would be a great gift idea for this holiday season. A physical edition will be launching in February of 2022, but the digital version is available right now on the eShop. So click the link below to check out the game and support my channel. I do want to cover as many Nintendo Switch games as possible on this channel, while I have some sort of relevancy on the internet. And Metroid Dread has always... Wait, where did I put that game? Does anyone know which way I'm supposed to go? It was here the whole time? Metroid Dread is a game that was 15 years in the making. It was conceived back around 2005 as a sequel to Metroid Fusion for the Nintendo DS. However, the technology back then was too limited to create the game that Yoshio envisioned, so instead he decided to wait until Nintendo developed a console powerful enough to handle his 2D side scroller, and that only took almost two decades. Thankfully, the wait was worth it, as Metroid Dread instantly became one of the best titles on the platform as soon as it was released. The only reason I never talked about Dread is because the day it came out, I was catching a flight to Philly for too many games. A convention that was a whole weekend long, and in 2021, that's about how long it takes the internet to forget about something and move on. And by the time I landed back in Texas on Monday morning, everyone was already back to asking where Metroid Prime 4 was. Bummer for me, because I actually managed to finish the game on both flights. I finally did the whole Nintendo Switch thing of getting on a flight and propping the OLED screen on the chair in front of me and then holding both of my new white joy-cons in either hand. Dread takes approximately seven to eight hours to finish, and I had two four-hour flights, so basic math would tell you that I actually enjoyed flying for once. I loved every second of this game. The controls are super tight, and the action is non-stop, fast-paced, blood-thumping, jump over this duck under that black, black head, yeah! And it only picks up the pace, getting more intense and more difficult as you progress and unlock new abilities and power-ups. I'm sure like 99% of people already know this, but the Metroid series was so influential in its time that it spawned its own genre of video games, Metroidvania. Well, Metroid and Castlevania, but that's a tangent for a different time. But thanks to Metroid, now we have games like Ori, Steam World Dig 2, and of course everyone's favorite, Hollow Knight, so it's tough for a game like Metroid Dread to release all these years later in the very same genre it defined, but also compete with the newer experiences. But Dread does it seamlessly, with some of the greatest level design and progression in the genre to date! Yeah, it has really good game design. Dread carries over the counter system, from Samus Returns, allowing you to deflect and then attack enemies if you have perfect timing, made even more intense during the Emmy encounters. So the Emmys are these machines that were created with the strongest material in the universe. Think like Valerian Steel in Game of Thrones. This is Valerian Steel. So all those really annoying plastic ties they put in new clothes to hold the tags on that you can never rip apart with your bare hands and then they start to cut and bleed. Sorry. Seven Emmys were sent to the planet to investigate but they all went missing. They became corrupted and now their prime directive is to murder Samus dead. And nothing in Samus's arsenal is strong enough to take them down. So when you find an area that an Emmy is living in, the tone of the game completely shifts and it becomes a real terrifying threat. You do not want to spend any time in these areas and despite how creature-infested and hazardous the rest of the game is, in comparison to the Emmy zones, the rest of the game feels like a day trip to Chuck E Cheese. So you'll either want to blast through Emmy zones as quickly as possible or stealth through using any abilities you have. If you do get pinned down by an Emily, you can use the counter as a last chance resort of temporarily stunning it. But that window is so pinpoint tiny accurate you honestly do deserve a chance to escape if you can even pull it off. The boss fights are the highlights. Not even just for the gameplay but because here is where Samus really gets to show off her badass self. Some of these cutscenes and action moments really allow our favorite space warriors personality to shine through. Oh, and no spoilers, but that last boss fight is one of the toughest fights I've ever had to rage my way through. And finally, the visuals are gorgeous. In both handheld and docked, Metroid Dread is crystal clear with these huge environments that reach back seemingly miles into the screen. Even the tighter spaceship and cave-like environments are highly detailed. All lit by the wonderful dynamic lighting. And all the alien creatures are fantastically designed and animated from the giant monsters to the tiny bat things with waggly tails. Metroid Dread is a near perfect experience and both myself and RGT are really hoping it passes three million in sales. Shin Megami Tensei 5? Did I, was I close? Shin Megami Tensei, Tensei? SMT-5 is gonna be a little tougher for me to review as not only have I not finished the game, but I've barely even played it. I just, I don't think it's for me. I don't think you're for me. I'll start by saying I loved the setup. Typically in these types of games, you spend a while during the start getting to know the characters, going to school, learning about the world before everything goes to hell in a handbasket. But SMT-5 says hell can't come soon enough. After just one quick exam that I can only assume I nailed because immediately after everything gets turned upside down and you find yourself in a vast desert filled with devils, angels, grimers and cats. Shin Megami plays out a little like Pokemon where not only can you battle the demons you discover, but you're also encouraged to sit down and have a conversation with them, maybe share a cup of joe and talk about the daily going on. The weather's been nice lately. Did you watch the Knicks? So what sport people say? Did you watch? I kinda like these strange conversations. It's like talking to old people in a retirement home. Every demon is completely different in the way they talk, what nonsense things they want to talk about and what kinda answers they want from you. Some will prefer you to be submissive while others might prefer a strong leader or some might straight up just want your money. Sounds like my wife. What did you say? Nothing, honey. Amass your demonic horde, level up and progress through the game, or I guess that's what you're supposed to do. Look, I'm never the first person to say a game is too hard. I love a challenge, but this is easily one of the hardest JRPGs I have ever played. Unless I'm doing something completely wrong, which is very easily a possibility. I'm an idiot and I make a lot of mistakes. Just a couple hours into the game and exploring the world, I came across this story boss, a massive hydro, which while looking incredibly cool, kept one hitting my entire team. So I found myself two hours into this adventure having to go away and grind. I tried grinding levels for about 30 minutes as that's what felt appropriate for this stage of the game. I came back and just like my butt after Taco Bell, I was wiped again. That was an awful joke. So off I go for another hour to squeeze out what levels I could, but the random enemies around the world stopped giving me any kind of sizeable XP boost to notice a difference and even though King Hydra over here was less able to one-hit me, especially once I learned that I was supposed to be guarding against his big attack. I told you I was an idiot. I still couldn't put a dent in his massive HP bar while it whittled down my entire team to nothing. So four hours into the game and I started to feel like half the time I had been playing SMT5, I had made no progress. Now I love a good grind as much as the next guy, but for me hitting a grind 20 to 30 hours into a JRPG when I'm already invested in the story and the characters and I have multiple abilities to mix things up with to keep the grind as fresh as a good cup of coffee. Now that can be fun, but two hours in when I just had a couple of attacks at best just felt punishing. I almost shelved the game completely until I had a thought. Not a good one. I thought I legitimately have never had before while playing a game. I wonder if I can lower the difficulty. I mean this when I say I've never put a game on easy in my entire life. I always play games on normal because the way I see it, that's the way the game is designed to be played normally. And I mean, sure, I've put a game on hard before for an extra challenge, but I've never put a game on little baby way be easy. So after two hours of grinding and then setting the game to easy, I managed to struggle my way through the HYDRA fight and finally beat the stupid thing. But I gotta be honest, it felt bad. Didn't, I felt cheap. I felt like, felt like I was walking out of a $2 motel after doing something questionable. I felt dirty. It felt like I didn't deserve to progress. I was conflicted in my emotions. I felt disconnected with the experience and I was no longer invested in the game. So I put it down and I never picked it back up. But I think one day soon I do wanna try again. I wanna start the game completely fresh, maybe even do it on stream. So y'all can yell at me and tell me what I'm doing wrong. So this isn't my review of SMT5. This is just my experience playing SMT5. And I think it, for true JRPG fans and those that love a challenge, you need these brutally difficult games. I mean, maybe this is like the dark souls of the JRPG genre. And in that regard, I'm sure this is a banger. But for now, I'm gonna stick to my paper Mario's. I'll go say baby way be easy and one launches soon on 64 online. Speaking of games, I've been playing on Twitch. The main reason I haven't talked about Pokemon Special Diamond and Pretty Pearl is that I'm not done with my playthrough yet. Let's get two things out of the way really quickly. One, I have found a way to make this game fun again. And two, yes, I think the game is hideous. This is a very diverse topic. And I don't wanna get too into it. So let's get right into it. Art is subjective. So you can love it, you can hate it and both answers are okay. I don't wanna see anyone fighting in the comments, especially towards me. And yes, I am making full use of there being no dislike button anymore. Okay, maybe hate is coming on a bit strong. But I find the art style extremely ugly. And I wanna say Borderline Amateur, which would be fine if this wasn't a Pokemon game. Literally the world's largest franchise and presumably a company with lots of monies. Many people are quick to point out this game wasn't developed by Game Freak. Rather, this remake was handled by Ilka, which is true. But defending an art style by saying Game Freak didn't do it, someone else did. Doesn't really fly with me. When they can afford to have literally any studio make it. But instead, they chose a studio who doesn't even have a Wikipedia page yet. So it made things a little tough for me to even find out what other games they have made in the past. But from all I could find, they have made by themselves is the Pokemon Home app. So it's completely fair and safe to say that these Pokemon titles were Elka's first ever games. And again, I'm fine for that. Happy for them even. And as far as a one for one remake, they did an incredible job at accurately recreating the games, especially for their first attempt at making games. But visually it's just nothing special. And since the visuals are the only reason to play this over playing the original, it just strikes me as weird that Game Freak didn't reach out to a company that had a little more experience in creating visuals in a game or at least give Elka access to the same engine and assets they created for the Let's Go games. This is a long tangent on something that really doesn't matter. And ultimately it's just my opinion. But it's just that perfect pearl and dazzling diamond were two of my favorite Pokemon games. And I just don't feel like the remakes did their beauty any justice. The level of care and detail that was given to the Let's Go games were missing. And a perfect example of that can be seen in just booting up the games and comparing the initial title screens. One is super animated, colorful and full of life. And the other looks like it was mocked up in Microsoft Word and they accidentally forgot to change the color of the lower text from red. And I know this is a small thing to nitpick but it does resemble the rest of the game in my opinion. Look, I know I've compared this game a lot to Let's Go and granted for the most part they are two completely different styles. If you prefer the squatty Chibi look that's fine but the Chibi style is still missing the lighting effects, shadows, the animations look cheaper and ultimately it just needs a ton more polish to make it. That's the last time I'm gonna talk about it. It's tough to avoid talking about it as again the only difference in remaking this game, a one for one remake is the visuals. So in a way it's really the only thing I can talk about that's different without just reviewing the game as it's always been for years. So as far as the game goes, yeah it's a one for one remake. It's the great games you remember. And I have been a little a lot burned out on the traditional style of Pokemon. So this time I decided to try something different and it has completely changed the game for me literally and emotionally. Have you ever heard of a little thing called Nuzlocke? Yeah, I know I'm like probably 10 years too late to this. I decided to try my first ever Nuzlocke challenge something I had never even cared to learn about before I had a pure desperation to change up the formula of these older games. So here's how it works. Once per new route you are allowed to catch the first Pokemon you find in the wild. If you accidentally faint it or miss it you can't catch another Pokemon on that route. It sucks but it's also exciting. Other rules are you can't catch duplicates. So if you already have the first wild Pokemon you find on the route you can look for another one. You have to nickname each Pokemon too. And furthermore if a Pokemon faint at any point it's treated as being dead and you need to release it back to the wild of which it once came. Oh and if you ever faint or white out yourself it's permadeath game over. It's a fresh way of playing the game that keeps you connected and attached to each of your Pokemon. You have a much smaller pool to choose from and it forces you to use Pokemon you normally never would and let me tell you every lost hurts. I've been turning my Nuzlocke streams into fully edited videos on my highlights channel so you can go and watch how deeply my soul leaves my body every time I lose someone. Especially my starter. I have never ever felt so emotionally attached to my Pokemon before. You would think that playing these games would be a breeze especially with how many quality of life changes they've added to make the games easier these days like constant EXP share but I'm telling you it just takes one awkward Pokemon matchup at a gym to ruin your entire playthrough. Oh! Despite how I feel about the game's visuals it doesn't matter like I said because this is easily the most fun and the most stress I have had playing a Pokemon game for years. Okay, I hope you enjoyed this video. Clearly I loved Dredd and then had mixed feelings on the other two but again that's why I didn't make them their own videos and I can't adore every game the way it's supposed to be adored. Sometimes you just don't like something and I can't help that but I still wanna talk about it and now the dislike button is gone. I can't. Do like the video, subscribe and comment but also the highlights channel where I'm uploading the Pokemon Nuzlocs go give that a sub because a lot of my streams from Twitch I'm gonna be editing from now on and uploading them there as well as little short videos which I'm also doing on TikTok now. I know it's a lot but I have a TikTok now and I'm uploading original content to TikTok things that I'm not I'm not just cutting down YouTube videos I'm actually creating TikTok content. Oh, those words made me feel old. Finally those Twitch streams that I'm editing they happen on Twitch and if you wanna watch them live we have a ton of fun over there so go follow me on Twitch and watch Twitch as well. All right everyone that's my whole thing. Bye bye.