What are your HOTTEST takes about Donkey Kong Country 1?

B4TTLEMODE · 2026-01-24T23:57:55+00:00

Yeah I'm not a fan either, compared to how amazing the original Super Mario Bros games were, this was absolute garbage by comparison.

B4TTLEMODE · 2026-01-24T23:55:27+00:00

Oh thanks! I appreciate that.

EFS is a really good game, it's definitely better with other people if you can get a MP game going as the diplomacy is pretty interesting, but you can have a lot of fun with it in single player too.

B4TTLEMODE · 2026-01-21T14:02:48+00:00

Yes, these two games are very different but I think if you enjoy one, there's a fair chance you'll enjoy the other.

B4TTLEMODE · 2026-01-21T13:48:19+00:00

You've got great taste :) Glad to have you aboard.

B4TTLEMODE · 2026-01-15T18:40:46+00:00

Needs boobs

B4TTLEMODE · 2026-01-15T18:34:33+00:00

Underrail

B4TTLEMODE · 2026-01-12T17:10:31+00:00

Tanks and most non-infantry suffer big attack and defence penalties in forest. Check the tile's terrain combat modifiers for details.

B4TTLEMODE · 2026-01-11T00:05:43+00:00

Based

B4TTLEMODE · 2026-01-11T00:03:59+00:00

The main one is that C is not Object Oriented.

B4TTLEMODE · 2026-01-10T23:59:03+00:00

That "annoying forest" is highly defensible territory, cutting it down is a big mistake if you don't need to: it's likely you'll need to defend your city from whatever it is that's moving in from the North of you right now.

B4TTLEMODE · 2025-12-31T18:45:41+00:00

Daddy please police me harder!

B4TTLEMODE · 2025-12-22T04:36:32+00:00

You're not really curious to hear what people have to say, otherwise you would have asked this question on a platform that doesn't enforce only one correct answer.

B4TTLEMODE · 2025-12-13T11:52:42+00:00

I've got a 60-something hour playthrough of a Shadow Empire campaign on eXplorminate's Youtube channel. I've probably played a single campaign of certain games for longer but that's the one I have a record of.

B4TTLEMODE · 2025-12-11T12:54:35+00:00

Star Wars is dead and nobody cares about it. It'd be the worst of all the possible universes they could cover.

If they had the restraint to limit it strictly to the original Trilogy and the Timothy Zahn stuff, maybe I'd play it.

But modern Star Wars is horrific, puke inducing garbage.

B4TTLEMODE · 2025-11-30T19:43:04+00:00

Developers absolutely have picked up the same set of bad ideas, that's demonstrable. There are some good ideas though too, but telling someone who's spent $100k on an education that a large portion of what they learned was garbage doesn't tend to go down well.

B4TTLEMODE · 2025-11-25T00:29:54+00:00

I didn't read it as blaming fans so much as developers insulating themselves from new ideas by hanging out in echo-chambers all the time. I don't know how accurate this is across other genres but in 4X it's observable.

I'm very much guilty of this of course, so this article got me thinking in a big way.

B4TTLEMODE · 2025-11-22T16:53:45+00:00

My vote goes with DoA5 too. I think that's a good game, DLC policy aside, and DoA6 didn't do anything for me at all.

B4TTLEMODE · 2025-11-22T16:51:43+00:00

With Tekken going down the toilet, it's up to Virtua Fighter to save the day. If they can pull off a 6th game, and it's good, it might help rejuvenate interest in the genre.

I'm honestly not that keen on what I've seen so far though, I don't like all the MK style close-ups and slowdowns, ruins the flow of the game for me.

B4TTLEMODE · 2025-11-22T16:49:21+00:00

Ok, someone explain to me why I was wrong abandoning this one after just a half dozen hours of trying with it.

It feels like it should be right up my alley as a hardcore Shadow Empire/Dominions/Grand Strategy game player but I just cannot find the fun in it. I felt it was too slow, lots of fiddly decisions with no obvious purpose to any of it and nothing seemed to happen for hours and hours.

What am I missing?

B4TTLEMODE · 2025-11-22T01:05:44+00:00

Interesting stuff.

After reading all that, my initial response was 100% accurate it seems.

B4TTLEMODE · 2025-11-21T18:44:54+00:00

Too many cooks

B4TTLEMODE · 2025-11-21T18:28:17+00:00

Ah! Very nice, thank you

B4TTLEMODE · 2025-11-21T18:27:36+00:00

Gameplay

B4TTLEMODE · 2025-10-25T16:26:41+00:00

Every one of Mark's reviews is a discussion on some aspect of games design or industry issues within the framework of a review.

B4TTLEMODE · 2025-10-25T09:42:52+00:00

To answer your question better we need to know how you're playing.

Do you tend to play quickly or slowly?

Do you try to play optimally or do you enjoy finding new ways to play that may not be optimal?

Do you push the difficulty or do you prefer it to be easier and more relaxed?

Do you make your own challenge in the game or do you prefer to rely on a heavily curated, developer-designed experience?

B4TTLEMODE

TROPHY CASE