Games Inbox: Is Astro Bot better than Super Mario?

The Wednesday letters page braces itself for an imminent Nintendo Switch 2 reveal, as one reader wishes EA hadn’t given up on Dead Space.

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Super Astro Bot
I finished Astro Bot over the weekend and I have to agree it’s the best thing Sony has put out in years, even if there’s not much competition for that in terms of volume at the moment. I would say that GC’s review was very accurate, especially in terms of pointing out that a lot of things are needlessly similar to Super Mario and that the actual platforming is fairly simplistic compared to Nintendo games.

That said, I would still say it was clearly better than Super Mario Sunshine and is in fact kind of similar given the way Astro’s rocket boots work. It’s also better than Super Mario 64, but that doesn’t really count because of its age. I would not put it anywhere close to the two Galaxy games but I’m someone that didn’t really enjoy Odyssey as much, so I’d said they were pretty close.

For such a weird little franchise, where this is the first ‘proper’ game, I’d say that was a pretty amazing achievement. It’s definitely better than any other 3D platformer I’ve played, including Ratchet & Clank and Jak And Daxter. Although maybe that just proves that Japanese devs are much better at this sort of thing.
Cranston

Charm offensive
I am fascinated to know what Nintendo was saying to developers when they ordered them in for a meeting this week. That guy had his photo taken by the sign, so they were definitely there. So what were they doing? Picking up their Switch 2 consoles? Being told about it for the first time? Being asked if their game could be in the reveal trailer? It could be literally anything.

It’s tempting to say they’d only go in person if they had something to pick up, but my guess would be that Nintendo was schmoozing people; this was a charm offensive to show them the final model and get them on board.

Like others have said, I have a hard time imagining Nintendo caring much about things like the PS5 Pro, but I do think they want to make a big impression, showing off their third party support, and that is going to mean talking to a lot of different companies – many of which are not going to be as good at keeping secrets as them.
Onibee

Once and future king
I’m always surprised by EA’s tenacity in never giving up on Battlefield or Need For Speed. I’d say these franchises were well past their sell by date, and the last several sequels have all been flops, but they constantly get second chances even though EA is happy to forget other stuff for little real reason

The Dead Space remake got rave reviews and sold okay but it’s never getting another game as far as anyone can tell. Why doesn’t it get endless chances as well? Because no entry ever sold that much, I’d guess. I think EA logic is if it was ever massive then never give up, as it could be massive again.
Gunfrey

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Dream game
Can I just point out that, assuming it’s not going to be at the Tokyo Game Show, Half-Life 3 has failed to materialise for yet another year. And that’s despite some pretty optimistic sounding rumours this time.

Sometimes I feel like I must’ve dreamed the other games, especially the weird decision to make the follow-up to Half-Life 2 a couple of episodic games that they gave up on halfway through. Imagine if they stopped making Star Wars films after The Empire Strikes Back, or felt Infinity War was enough and didn’t bother with Endgame.

Valve will never not be the weirdest company in the games industry.
Dyan

GC: It could be at The Game Awards in December (it won’t be).

GC: When were you playing it, exactly? The Plucky Squire wasn’t released until Tuesday, when you sent this email. Anyway, we didn’t like it very much.

New age of heroes
From waaay many years ago, Capcom and Marvel fighting games have been widely loved. But they have been stuck with rights issues about who owns what. X-Men, Avengers, others? (What even is a Shuma-Gorath?).

This is the first time all have been available in one package. And they have a very vocal group of fans.

Individual reviews, no point taking too much time, you either know them or you don’t.

• X-Men: Children Of The Atom, the first in the series. Total game changer when it came out, massive over-the-top graphics and move-sets.
• Marvel Super Heroes. Iterative update with different characters and still great.
• X-Men Vs. Street Fighter, first of the Vs. games and the start of awesome-ness. Had quite a random selection of characters.
• Marvel Vs. Street Fighter, compare X-Men to Marvel Super Heroes for a similar update with different characters.
• Marvel Vs Capcom, this is where it seemed to get total crazy. Brought new characters into the mix.

The absolute golden trophy of the pack is Marvel Vs, Capcom 2. I played the original version on the Dreamcast and have been in love with it ever since. The game is an entire compendium with every character that has ever existed (except Norimaru, he is cool but pointless).

All of these games have been available at one point or another on other consoles. And having them all in one place is an absolute dream for one-on-one fighting fans.

The score I give it is without even talking about the additional content. And not even touching on the perfect arcade port of The Punisher, which is a really good side-scrolling Final Fight game (only has had a pretty poor Mega drive conversion in the ‘90s).

From a review point of view these games are solid. And if you have ever played any of them they will already have maximum marks for you. Anyone who even vaguely likes one-on-one fighters should buy it.

Score: 10/10

Disclaimer, it really sucks there is no physical Switch version for Europe.
Si (there has been a ‘new’ Si frequently recently, so unsure what to call me!)

GC: Si Zero? Shuma-Gorath is a Dr Strange villain and basically a Lovecraftian god. Why Capcom picked him for a fighting game is a mystery, especially as Dr Strange wasn’t in any of the original games. By the way, we do plan to review Marvel Vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics, but we got a bit behind in our schedule last week.

Merry Christmas
I know Xbox isn’t having the best time of it, but can I say I’m really excited by the upcoming slate of games this side of Christmas. I loved Starfield so the upcoming Shattered Space has me eagerly looking forward to catching up with my ship and crew again.

After that, all on Game Pass, we have Black Ops 6, the first Call Of Duty I’ll play since OG Modern Warfare 3, so I’m sure that’ll be special. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 in November, who’s previews have been looking excellent and then all topped off with Indiana Jones And The Great Circle in December.

Can’t wait.
DarKerR (gamertag)

A Nintendo future
Just as a thought experiment, what does everyone think a games industry where Nintendo is the market leader would look like? Arguably they already are the leader in terms of console sales but what if they had all, or at least most, of the third party games, all running reasonably, if not perfectly. Would anyone ever bother with PlayStation or Xbox again?

They barely bother with Xbox now, so we know the answer to that. But Sony has spent the last two years undermining the main reason people buy a PlayStation console, by stopping making single-player games. Or rather that’s the second reason. The main reason everyone buys them is because they have all the third party games. If Nintendo did as well, with their own top… they really could be unstoppable.

There are two main problems that I can see, the first being that I don’t see how a portable console can handle the very highest end games like GTA 6. So unless streaming factors in I don’t think the Switch 2 could ever play everything.

The second issue is that a certain type of person is never going to accept a Nintendo console as their primary format, because they’re ‘just for kids’.

Even so, I can only see the Switch 2 being even more successful than the original, assuming Nintendo doesn’t act silly over the price. The question is whether you want Nintendo in charge. They might act all nice and fluffy at the moment but they’re just as money-crazed and greedy as anyone else, if not more so.
Keta

Inbox also-rans
Lizardpudlian, have you never heard of CeX? They do trade-ins for cash, bank transfer or store credit. They often gave better prices than GAME anyway. Give it a week after launch and you will see PS5 Pros in stock at CeX. They suspiciously always get new consoles in stock.
Si

That UFO 50 game sounds very interesting but I’m struggling to understand why they wouldn’t release the game separately, or in weekly DLC or something. Any sign of it coming to consoles.
Whistler

GC: Console versions have been implied but not announced.

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The small print
New Inbox updates appear every weekday morning, with special Hot Topic Inboxes at the weekend. Readers’ letters are used on merit and may be edited for length and content.

You can also submit your own 500 to 600-word Reader’s Feature at any time via email or our Submit Stuff page, which if used will be shown in the next available weekend slot.

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