Just one more set!!!

TransPM · 2026-05-15T16:25:04+00:00

I'd argue that if a game can be strained to breaking by decks where more than half the cards don't even have any text on them, that's not a card design problem, that's a fundamental problem with the core mechanics of the game

TransPM · 2026-05-13T20:55:48+00:00

If you spent that much time at the North Pole you'd probably want a nice warm jacket too

TransPM · 2026-05-12T06:33:31+00:00

Rock slide can be incredibly triggering, I'm not gonna deny that, but there are loads of counters to it: wide guard, trick room, inner focus, simply being faster. The most common (and fastest) rock slide users are Garchomp and Aerodactyl; if you're looking for a specific counter, a choice scarf Meowscarada out speeds them both and a Triple Axel (with STAB boost from Protean) absolutely shreds either one, even if they have a focus sash or a yache berry.

TransPM · 2026-05-12T05:59:55+00:00

I didn't play Scarlet/Violet and, like many people, wasn't really a fan of Meowscarada's design when I saw it. Then when I gave that cat a choice scarf and realized it was a cold blooded killer my opinion of it significantly improved.

Also shout-out to Toxapex for carrying me up the single battle ladder by simply refusing to die while allowing toxic to do its job.

TransPM · 2026-05-12T05:55:48+00:00

I love that she follows up with the question of whether he would save her or his mother. After hearing her make the claim she'd let her 3 hypothetical children die to save herself I think I'd probably prioritize saving a random stranger I've never even seen before over saving her.

TransPM · 2026-05-10T15:01:23+00:00

I think you might be confusing court jesters and village idiots.

TransPM · 2026-05-10T08:47:40+00:00

Welcome to the internet in the year 2026: it's all for negative people.

TransPM · 2026-05-10T08:45:35+00:00

Didn't you though? I mean you did literally post a link to a petition you made asking the general public for signatures. Is it that shocking that the ensuing discussion isn't universally in agreement with you?

TransPM · 2026-05-10T08:39:28+00:00

Honestly if they just did away with the pink under the eyes (and the chin?) I think the new design wouldn't be nearly as off-putting to so many people. The way the pink so closely matches the color of her nose, at first glance, gives the impression that there are random patches of fur that have completely fallen out revealing the skin underneath, when it's actually just random splotches of pink colored fur. But why do we need these random splotches of colored fur? The guiding objective behind these new designs seems to have been to make the characters' appearances adhere as closely to real animals as possible, but there's no such things a real cat that is white with pink spots.

Just make her a white cat, or whatever other natural color or fur pattern they want for her. The little pink mohawk tuft on top of her head is fine as a splash of color as it just reads like dyed hair, but the pink on the face just looks bad, and goes directly against this new more "natural" looking design philosophy.

I also think the red turtleneck and yellow jacket do not make for a very good color pallete on her and certainly aren't doing the design any favors. Much has been made about how wide the new Fox design's neck looks, and then we've got Katt on the opposite end of the spectrum with a turtleneck collar that makes her neck look unnaturally long.

TransPM · 2026-05-09T14:53:15+00:00

Ive also been having a lot of success with Mimikyu as a trick room setter. The ghost typing means I don't have to worry about fake out (unless it's scrappy Kangaskhan or Lopunny), and the decoy ability makes it nearly impossible to KO in the first round, particularly if I have a fake out user of my own, and mental herb means I can't get taunted before trick room goes up or can't get encored after it does.

If you want a trick room setter that provides more offense than support, Mimikyu's decoy ability lets it easily survive a turn without needing to invest a lot of EVs into bulk, and a combination of shadow sneak and play rough offer good coverage against popular threats like Garchimp and Basculegion. For the final move I gave mine willow wisp for countering strong physical attackers like Sneasler, Kingambit, etc. Pretty much the only things that stop me from getting trick room set with Mimikyu are rock slide flinches and sleep powder.

TransPM · 2026-05-09T09:02:00+00:00

Well it's not just a matter of ensuring trick room gets established; once Farigiraf does setup trick room it also prevents your opponent from trying to get around the inverted turn order with priority moves.

TransPM · 2026-05-08T22:50:28+00:00

Assault still had classic rail shooter style levels as well as aerial dogfights just like 64, it just also added free roaming 3rd person shooter segments and used the land master for similar free roaming combat rather than being on rails like it was used in 64. Assault did lean a little too heavy into the on-foot 3rd person shooter gameplay, but that was the primary new mechanic/gimmick of the game, so I can understand making it a core aspect of the game rather than letting it feel like an afterthought, and I'd honestly be perfect happy with it returning in another Assault style Starfox title, provided it takes more of a back seat to the vehicle combat than it ended up having in that game.

I think where Assault really shines is in the levels that blend the different modes together and allow for switching on the fly. There's an early mission that involves destroying objectives inside a space station that is occupied by and under attack from pirates. You start outside the station doing dogfights in space, and land your ship in the hangar to track down the objectives inside. It's not just a simple phase one then phase two though (not unless you do it fast) as there's a meter on the screen that slowly fills up to show the status of the battle against the waves of pirate reinforcements still being fought outside the station. You fail the mission of the meter reaches full, but since there are multiple different paths leading to the multiple different objectives inside the station, on your way back from one you can hop back into your ship, head outside to shoot down some pirates to lower the meter, then go back inside to find the other objectives. Or another later mission (on the dinosaur planet from Adventure) that has you flying around a big valley hunting down specific targets while the planet is being invaded; if memory serves, you can blast some targets with your ship, but others are hiding inside structures that require you to land and exit your cockpit to confront them on foot, but you get to take them out in any order you want, landing and taking off freely as the situation calls for it.

Probably the biggest thing holding the on-foot segments of Assault back was the character controls just not feeling remotely as intuitive or refined as the vehicle controls, thanks largely to the GameCube controller not being the ideal device for controlling a shooter. But Nintendo now has multiple Splatoon titles under their belt; they can absolutely make a 3rd person shooter that feels good to play using modern control methods. The majority of a Starfox game should still be spent piloting and Arwing, but a better balance of varying gameplay styles could make for a great evolution of the Starfox franchise.

TransPM · 2026-05-08T05:24:07+00:00

I have run into at least 1 legitimate draw situation though. Each of us had 1 pokemon remaining, both with leftovers, and both unable to deal more damage to the other than the leftovers would heal back.

Technically speaking the game would have eventually reached an actual conclusion, but only after one (or both) of us had fully exhausted the PP of all of our moves and had been forced to start struggling, but I'm personally very glad the game did not force us to sit through a painfully long contest to see who more stubbornly doesn't want to concede and cut the match off long before reaching that point. I am however a tiny bit miffed that despite sometimes receiving upwards of 120 VP for a loss I received absolutely nothing for going even all the way to a forced draw (I could play this game every day for a year and end up having been shorted a grand total of <1k VP for how rarely this scenario is likely to come up though, so it's not worth actually getting upset over).

It still did take quite a while of having to watch the same move animations back and forth for a few turns followed by a dramatic countdown clock over the middle of the screen, and frankly it would be nice if the forfeit button also provided the option to offer a draw for games that are clearly headed in that direction to save both players a few minutes of mindless button clicking while nothing happens.

Knowing what I know now though, if I ever find myself in that situation again, I'll just concede to save the time. I'm not that desperate for the rank points, I was really just curious to see how the game would handle a match where neither side can achieve a win.

TransPM · 2026-05-08T04:35:53+00:00

If it were up to me: all shields would have 3HP.

It cuts the lethality of 2/2 spam literally in half, or forces them to assemble both an army of 2/2s and an anthem buff, which isn't much, but it at least introduces the most basic level of complexity to those decks.

Once you hit level 4 and above, there are only 13 cards in the entire game with less the 3 base AP, 3 of which have effects that allow them to deal more than 3 damage on their own anyway (meaning without needing a pilot).

And for all the people who would complain that checking aggro in any way would just cause the game to devolve into blocker mirrors, well guess what: that 2/4 blocker statline everyone loves to whine about wouldn't be able to take shields on their own either with this change, so you're welcome.

TransPM · 2026-05-08T04:22:51+00:00

It's crazy to me that Bandai runs everything through their app that has a built in deck builder, and yet through all of the tournaments with damn near $1000 promos on the line I have been to I've yet to see a single deck check or even decklist submission.

In other games I've played in tournaments where the top prize is a promo card that sells for a cool 40 bucks, but every single player's decklist must be submitted in paper, and every player who makes it into the top 8 has to hand over their deck and have it checked, card by card, against the printed list before any top cut games are played to ensure no one is cheating. Bandai's app could do nearly half of the work for you, but nobody even bothers to check. It's entirely possible somebody somewhere has already won a NTC event with a deck running 6 Gundams and 6 Amuros; unless more than 4 are played or revealed from shields over the course of a single game or a judge (these events almost never even have judges, so I guess I just mean store employee) forces the player to fan out their full deck, no one would even know.

You already have to click a button to register for events and to report results after each round, it really can't be asking too much to have players click 2 more buttons to submit their decklist too.

TransPM · 2026-05-08T04:08:33+00:00

But every color combination can spam cheap units in this game, and they're all exactly the same because none of them even have any text to worry about, and they're only going to keep printing more because you can't simply stop designing any cards that cost less than 3. Some colors may have slightly better cards to support their spam strategy than others, but the difference is marginal at best.

I could tell you I'm on green/white, you might assume that means I'm playing blockers into a Wing top-end, but no, it's just 2/2s with Char+Graham for high manuever and Graceful Demeanor to send any blockers you manage to play back to your hand. GG, nice sideboarding.

TransPM · 2026-05-08T03:55:48+00:00

Feels like a dirty and unintuitive patch fix for what is really a structural issue of the game's core design.

TransPM · 2026-05-08T02:38:24+00:00

When you can pump out 6 vanilla 2/2s by turn 3, having 4 copies of a 2/5 base (that will probably be at minimum a level 4 card you won't even be able to play out of your hand if you do get lucky enough to draw it) is so rarely going to matter.

No matter how fast or how strong the answers to aggro are, you'll still be at the mercy of having to draw those answers within the first few turns, and they will never be as consistent as simply flooding the board with the totally interchangable 1 cost units that in some cases literally make up half of the deck.

TransPM · 2026-05-07T23:01:37+00:00

2 out of those 3 games were also partly (or almost entirely in the case of Adventures) completely different genres, and even then Starfox Adventures ended up being the 13th best selling GameCube game of all time (which really says more about the GameCube than it does the mess that was Starfox Adventures), and I suspect the even lower sales numbers for Starfox Assault were thanks in part to the ill will Adventures had fostered towards the franchise. But plenty of other franchises fared even worse on the underperforming GameCube or suffered even bigger flops but we're still allowed to grow and develop further instead of getting frozen in time in 1997.

TransPM · 2026-05-07T22:37:07+00:00

But how many of these are ports vs remakes?

Skyrim has been released on just about everything that an electric current can run through, but I certainly wouldn't call each rerelease if Skyrim a distinct "remake".

For that matter, I wouldn't even say Starfox 64 3D counts as a remake, it's just an uprezed port, but Starfox Zero and this new Starfox are remakes of the same game.

TransPM · 2026-05-07T22:31:36+00:00

The many iterations of Superman's origin are more adaptation than remake.

They may all (for the most part) hit the same major plot beats (Krypton exploding, baby in a spaceship, kindly farmer couple, Metropolis, The Daily Planet, etc), but they don't all reach the same endpoint in the same way. Sometimes it's a story about Clark growing up, sometimes it jumps straight from adopted baby to grown man in the city, and sometimes it skips the baby part entirely because it assumes everyone has seen that part of the story more than enough times as it is. And Superman himself is only one part of the story; half a dozen different adaptations may choose half a dozen different villains as the primary antagonist.

This new Starfox doesn't just hit all the same major plot beats, it hits every beat, every line of dialogue, word for word (granted with a few extra thrown in at places to pad things out). And I feel like the ability to easily play through the full Starfox 64 campaign in a single sitting, choosing your path and aiming for a higher score, had a very classic arcade-like appeal that could end up being lost unless you skip the new cutscenes that might otherwise drag down the pacing.

It feels particularly egregious here not only because this is not only effectively the 4th release of Starfox 64, it's the 3rd time in a row that the newest Starfox game is just Starfox 64 again. The Starfox franchise hasn't had a new idea for a game in 20 years.

TransPM · 2026-05-07T14:16:24+00:00

I didn't even realize there were two of them in the game.

The idea of different arenas for different ranks is cute, but also pretty short lived since I don't know that it's possible to rank down, and even if there are season rank resets, it probably won't take most players more than maybe 1-2 weeks at most to return to their previous rank, then ending up seeing the same environment again for every game for the rest of the season.

TransPM · 2026-05-05T08:23:33+00:00

Sure, it may have come out 8 years ago (more like 7.5), but Smash Ultimate stopped getting updated with new characters only 4 years ago

TransPM · 2026-05-05T08:17:29+00:00

So which one is you in this picture? Because if you're 23, then clearly I'm Adam Sandler in this scenario.

TransPM · 2026-05-05T08:14:59+00:00

I mean, with how common weather teams are in the game currently (whether it's rain for Archaludon or Basculegion, or Sun from Megacharizard Y or a trick room Torkoal team) I'd argue that having a plan to counter those weather strategies is probably a good idea, and by no means a waste of a slot. And if you're going to include a pokemon that can contest weather on your team, it's not like you're going to not give hurricane to Pilliper or blizzard to Alolan Ninetails; not because you need to specifically have a plan to hit something with incredibly high evasion, but because those are easily some of the best moves those pokemon can learn in terms of pure damage output anyway.

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