Regarding Super Nintendo World: I was there last Saturday for the last day of the annual pass preview. My time was 10 am - noon. The park's official opening time was 9 am. My friend and I showed up to register at 7:30 am. Registering early allowed us to have our choice for the Toadstool cafe reservation. We chose 11:45 am, right at the end of our 2 hour window.
They let us into the park at 8 am, stopping most at a rope without access to most of the park (a common practice that the phrase "be there at rope drop" comes from), but the AP preview folks were allowed to head straight into Super Nintendo World. It's a good 15 min trek to Super Nintendo World as it is in a corner of the park that is the furthest possible place you have access to from the front gate. I was in by 8:30 am, a full 1.5 hours before my 10 am start time.
Being early paid off. It was empty. We walked through the main queue of Bowser's Challenge (Mario Kart ride) very quickly. Unfortunately, the ride had some tech difficulties, so we got held up in the queue for 30 min. After the ride, we did the 4 "key challenges" without any line. Then, we did the Bowser Jr. fight.
Next, we rode Bowser's challenge 3 more times with plenty of time to spare before our lunch reservation. This was possible because there is a single rider line that had hardly anyone in it and also grants access to a view of the park that isn't otherwise accessible. The downside is you miss out on the elaborately decorated queue and you miss out on the pre-show instructions that tell you how to "play" the ride.
So, the gist of my story is GET THERE EARLY, perhaps a couple hours before the posted opening time.
The interaction in Super Nintendo World is unlike any "land" in any theme park I've been to, and I've been to all of the significant one in the US. By that I mean all the Universal, Disney, Sea World Entertainment (which includes Busch Gardens) parks as well as over a dozen Cedar Fair (including Cedar Point and King's Island) and Six Flags (including Magic Mountain) parks, plus others. What's neat is that the interaction is deeper than expected. For instance, a "key challenge" has you crank a handle to make a goomba fall off a treadmill. If you keep going for the couple seconds after the goomba "dies", you'll get bonus coins. If you do the same challenge again, the difficulty goes up (I hear there are 3 tiers of difficulty), and yes, you can lose the challenge. A sidenote: My friend and I had a blast going from one key challenge to the next. However, I don't know how fun they would've been if we had to wait 30 min in line for each one.
The "game" in Bowser's Challenge is deeper than it seems as well. You don't have unlimited shells to shoot (although your supply replenishes often). So, you need to be strategic if you want to get some of the tougher "stamps" (i.e. achievements in the companion app). Some of those stamps are tough and repeat rides are rewarded.
There's also "stamps" for finding hidden 8-bit characters throughout the land. There's one for finding hidden scenes in the AR binoculars, which are found at the top of a somewhat hidden staircase (BTW, finding this staircase feels like you found a secret room in a Mario level). Finally, although there aren't stamps for it, there were some Pikimin hidden about. Even some of the employees didn't really know about them (at least as of last Saturday).
Now, most of this interaction is gated by having a $40 "PowerUp" band. That's a bit pricey, imo. However, they also work as Amiibo. In fact, you can get an exclusive Mii Suit for Mario Kart that corresponds to your band. Sidenote: you see a physical version of these suits in the pre-show part of the queue for Bowser's challenge.
In the end, it was the most fun I've had at a theme park in a while. A bonus perk is that, unlike Disney parks, Universal will let you cosplay. I showed up as Mario and I wasn't the only adult in his 40s doing so.
Using votes to calculate the top 10 was a smart improvement. In all the previous years, the top 10 negotiations was the worst part of the podcast as it inevitably devolved into trash talking a great game. The negotiations always ended with a cynical and negative aura.
One improvement I'd suggest is making the vote a blind vote that is locked in (using the honor system is fine) to avoid anyone gaming the system. I'd also suggest that voters are asked to rank based on how they actually feel and not to give extra points just to ensure a game that no one else is likely to vote for gets as many points as possible (I'm looking at you, Jess). Once people start voting based on the meta, that's when this all turns into the same crap as previous years.
A criticism I have is that there is still an issue with some voices dominating conversations. I think some of Jan's favorite games got cut out of the top 20 just because he is more chill while Jess managed to bully Immortality out of the top 50. The strength of GB is the different personalities, but in GOTY deliberations, personalities that are more laid back or less confrontational always "lose" to the dominant personalities. A possible remedy that I've seen work for other personality driven teams of content creators is group therapy. An example is The Normies channel on YouTube where you can see a marked improvement in that team's chemistry after group therapy.
Not long ago, Bakalar complained that Nintendo needed to make a sequel to Wii Sports and then Nintendo announces Nintendo Switch Sports. Today Bakalar complains about DST and how we should just not “fall back” and then the US Senate unanimously approves a bill to make DST the permanent time. This man’s words have power! 😲
I've seen some of those "dangerous" food hacks. I thought it was obviously supposed to be a magic trick. Similarly with the gross food hacks. I thought it was obviously a joke.
Sorry, but this episode was a huge miss for me. I agree its wrong to exploit children, but there's really little difference in this than kid beauty pageants, extremely competitive youth sports leagues, child acting, etc. All this hand wringing like family vlogging the worst thing in the world just has me rolling my eyes. However, what makes this episode feel disingenuous and click-baity is the lack of balance. A few terrible examples are held up without acknowledgement that there is a healthy way to have kids/family vlogs. Also, what research is done into how many of these family vlogs are exploitive? Are we looking at a few outliers or is this representative of most family vlogs?
The whole thing smacks of someone who saw a thing that got her upset and then decided to turn it into a long winded, self righteous rant that will get a lot of people to agree with her, but lacking in real substance. I'm not there for it.
This reaction video along with Nextlander's really highlighted how the old guard at Giantbomb is just out of touch. The assumption that EVERYONE must've seen the Mario + Rabbids leak followed by the immediate disregard for Avatar without acknowledging that this decade old movie is the highest grossing movie of all time stood out as proof that perhaps these guys aren't relevant anymore. The cynical take and constant insults was grating and pushed me to seek out other content.
I'm guessing (hoping) that the situation is that they weren't offered favorable compensation after the CBS sale, so they're going to start a Twitch or YouTube channel together and become fully independent with Jeff joining as soon as his contract is up.
I knew it! Well, I guess I was just pointing out the obvious. I think I'm wrong about Jeff joining them, though.
I'm guessing (hoping) that the situation is that they weren't offered favorable compensation after the CBS sale, so they're going to start a Twitch or YouTube channel together and become fully independent with Jeff joining as soon as his contract is up.
I have a PS5 through a friend who got caught up in the thrill of buying PS5s. He doesn't even play videogames. At first, he did it to get one for his nephews, then he started getting them for friends, and eventually to scalp. It led to him looking into other collectibles and discovering that these sneakers he hung onto that his H.S. girlfriend gave him in 1985 were really valuable - those sneakers being the first Air Jordans.
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