Chatterbox Tuesday

Dustin Hoffman in a dress?

One of the MrTiddles pantheon of characters.

Shadows in the night.

Shimmering chimeras.

You will find that - spoilers - Odyssey has quite a substantial post-endgame game. But if you are done with everything and want more, as others have already mentioned there's Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury. The 3D World part consists of shorter stages that aren't linked by story but are a lot of fun. The Bowser's Fury part, on the other hand, takes place in one connected world.

If you like the challenge element and/or would like to have a go at making your own stages there's Super Mario Maker 2. Apart from the limitless gameplay that's provided by the user created stages and worlds there's also a good amount of stages provided by the design team. Highly addictive.

The closest in gameplay to Odyssey that's available on the Switch is the Super Mario 3D All Stars collection that consists of Super Mario 64, Super Mario Sunshine, and Super Mario Galaxy (only the first, not the equally brilliant sequel). It was released to mark the 35th anniversary of the franchise and is a casualty of Nintendo nintendoing harder than usual as of late. They made the collection only available for a limited time, so you won't be able to buy it digitally anymore. Instead you would have to look for a physical copy. Fortunately those aren't rare (yet) as loads of people (including myself) let themselves get blackmailed into buying a copy or two (three? four?). Super Mario 64 is also available for free with other N64 games if you have the online expansion pack (which also comes with Genesis games and free Animal Crossing and Mario Kart DLC). There's been a lot of confusion over why they would release Galaxy 1 and not even hint at the existence of Galaxy 2 and whether they might release the two together at a later date. Expect more nintendoing from Nintendo, which could mean that they will. Or not. No-one understands how they operate.

Not a Mario game, but highly recommended if you enjoy creative bosses in interesting worlds full of secrets and collectables is Luigi's Mansion 3. No need to having played the previous two. In some ways I think it's an even better game than Odyssey. You heard.

Another not-Mario-as-such game is Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker. Quite relaxing gameplay (no combat, just exploration) that consists of a sequence of puzzle stages. Also nice. It's got a free demo.

Finally, if you fancy something Mario but a bit different like an RPG with clever and funny writing there's Paper Mario: The Origami King. The combat system isn't everyone's cup of tea, but the rest is great (although not as good as Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, which they won't remake, grrr).

Finally finally, I haven't checked it out myself yet but there's a demo for the soon-to-be-released Kirby and the Forgotten Land which seems to be the Kirby answer to Odyssey. Apparently it's very good but not exactly Dark Souls when it comes to difficulty, which isn't entirely unexpected. Reviews should be in by Thursday, I suppose.

First day back at work for a week and it's all seemed aimless. Seems despite the panic when i told them i was having a week off, i've not come back to a backlog, so either they have overestimated the amount of work pending, or me taking a week off hasn't actually caused them any pain. Hmmm.

tenthenemy - tough times for you and grandchild. Losing a grandparent is often the first brush with mortality for a kid. Also the start of their awareness to cherish folk while they are still here. My granddad lost both legs to gangrene before he passed, but my memory of him is him dismantling his prosthetics and 'fettling' them so as to improve the way the knee linkages worked. I'd never known him when he was a craftsman, but in his 80s he would happily set about his NHS legs with his carpentry tools, and a lifetime of skill.

Sorry gongfarmer - my cartoon post wasn't a comment on your grandfather's fettling.


And neither is it young Tuffers ' discovering THAT!

I fleetingly spotted an advert on the bottom of the page that dissapeared but piqued my interest. It was for "Lily's burrito bowl" and seemed to be tinned vegan burrito stuff.

On greater inspection it turns out to be dog food. Well at least my hair would shine.

I’ll be honest, lazybones. I saw Miyazaki’s comments, and thought he was channelling you.

Wordle 276 4/6*

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Talked myself out of the solution in line 3. Great work, Tent Hen.

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Totally agree with gongfarmer . Look at this nonsense in the upper right.

Club fees are a total racquet.