Wavelengths with Brendon Bigley

It's January of 2025 which means it's a perfect time to look back at the best games of 2024*. * In my opinion, obviously! Games are art, and while ranking art is inherently silly it's great to reflect on how it impacted you individually. Objectivity is a myth! These lists are as subjective as it gets, baby. --- Feel free to follow me elsewhere! Threads: https://www.threads.net/@brendonbigley Mastodon: https://idlethumbs.social/@brendon Blog: https://wavelengths.online Backloggd: https://www.backloggd.com/u/brendonbigley --- Chapters: 0:00 - Welcome to Wavelengths 50 1:59 - 50 through 41 11:15 - 40 through 31 20:30 - 30 through 21 36:27 - 20 through 11 50:42 - The Top 10 Games of 2024 --- ⏆

The Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket is out for iOS and Android, and now that I've played it I'm here to answer what everyone in the boardroom of The Pokémon Company was probably asking themselves: Is it the next Pokémon GO? Does it have a shot at captivating the world in the same way? Does it say anything at all about the future of the franchise? Sure! --- Feel free to follow me elsewhere! Threads: https://www.threads.net/@brendonbigley Mastodon: https://idlethumbs.social/@brendon Blog: https://wavelengths.online --- Chapters: 0:00 - Where did this thing come from? 6:26 - Is the Pokemon Trading Card Game Pocket Good? 9:16 - How Battling Works 12:21 - One Million Currencies 14:08 - The Future of The Pokemon Company --- ⏆

I've become a big Dragon Quest fan over the past few years, having played huge swaths of a whole bunch of them, and having finished a couple as well. Unfortunately, Dragon Quest X eludes everyone outside of Japan and has since its release on the Wii in 2012. Finally, thanks to the collective efforts of a bunch of very generous people online, you can play Dragon Quest X in English with the help of a few tools. Today's episode of Wavelengths is all about using your sickness-infused boredom to figure out how to play Dragon Quest X AND Dragon Quest X Offline. Was it worth the effort? Come along and find out, won't you? Important links: Adventurer's Abbey for DQX: https://dqxabbey.com/pages/getting_started.html NexusMods for DQX Offline: https://www.nexusmods.com/dragonquestxoffline/mods/2?tab=files --- Feel free to follow me elsewhere! Threads: https://www.threads.net/@brendonbigley Mastodon: https://idlethumbs.social/@brendon Blog: https://wavelengths.online --- Chapters: 0:00 - You Should Play Dragon Quest 4:40 - Dragon Quest X is the Missing Link 11:05 - How to Play Dragon Quest X (The MMO) 18:19 - The Dragon Quest X Offline English Mod 24:26 - Bye!--- ⏆

Shin-Chan: Shiro and the Coal Town is a new, deeply chill game that is one part Boku no Natsuyasumi and one part Humungous Entertainment game. It launched this week on Nintendo Switch and Steam, and I played it primarily on the Steam Deck. I don't talk about performance at all in the video so I'll just say it here: It runs just fine on the Deck. No issues at all! Also worth mentioning that I received code for this game from the publisher, but hopefully you know me well enough to know that wouldn't influence my review of the game at all. --- Feel free to follow me elsewhere! Threads: https://www.threads.net/@brendonbigley Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/brendonbigley.bsky.social Mastodon: https://idlethumbs.social/@brendon Blog: https://wavelengths.online --- Chapters: 0:00 - The Boku No Natsuyasumi Connection 4:13 - It’s Shiro and the Coal Town Review Time 11:39 - Getting Earnest on Main 14:59 - Thanks for Watching 😘 —- ⏆

The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom manages to feel like a classic Zelda game, but the main methods of interacting with the environment are completely new. With a loosely open-ended structure, free reign to explore Hyrule at your heart's content, and an unbelievable number of quality side quests, it feels like a miracle the game was made in the first place — much like Tears of the Kingdom before it. --- Feel free to follow me elsewhere! Threads: https://www.threads.net/@brendonbigley Mastodon: https://idlethumbs.social/@brendon Blog: https://wavelengths.online --- Chapters: 0:00 - They announced this in JUNE 2:25 - It's Zelda's World, We're Just Playing It 4:58 - All About Echoes (of Wisdom) 11:25 - Another Link Between Worlds 17:32 - Let's Talk About That Combat 20:56 - The Slumber Dojo, Side Quests, and Doing Everything 24:22 - The Game is a Miracle --- ⏆

Nintendo released an alarm clock yesterday called Alarmo, proving yet again that they're a chaotic company who completely disregards every logical move and instead focuses on what they think is the most fun idea they can bring to life. This has its pros and cons, obviously, as for every Wii you get a Wii U, but on the whole it keeps things delightfully weird. --- Chapters: 0:00 - Nintendo is Unpredictable 3:14 - What is Alarmo? 4:22 - My Experience With Alarmo So Far 9:16 - Nintendo's History of Chaos 12:21 - The Switch 2 is a Grill, Actually 14:20 - Why Nintendo Always Wins 18:26 - Subscribe, baby.

UFO 50 is the new game by Mossmouth and a group of six all-timer indie developers who worked for around a decade on making fifty fully-fledged games that collectively are a huge homage to the 80s. It is a masterpiece. Also: I've never done a review like this before! As I mention at the top, I have another in the works but I just needed to get my thoughts out about this thing, so I hope you like it. Let me know if you're interested in more. --- Feel free to follow me elsewhere! Threads: https://www.threads.net/@brendonbigley Mastodon: https://idlethumbs.social/@brendon Blog: https://wavelengths.online --- --- Chapters: 0:00 - Welcome to the Wavelengths review of UFO 50 2:32 - The Gateway to the NES 7:02 - UFO 50, Barbuta, and Lessons Learned 17:16 - Into the Aether 22:40 - Camouflage, Mooncat, and Takeaways 27:25 - How to Play UFO 50 30:35 - Masterpiece Status --- ⏆

Apparently there are some leaked renders of the Nintendo Switch 2 floating around online today, and I have a few gut-reactions to the specs and feature's we've seen. Leak: https://www.reddit.com/r/GamingLeaksAndRumours/comments/1fjp352/photos_of_switch_2_factory_prototypes_have_leaked/ More thoughts: https://wavelengths.online/posts/the-switch-2-may-have-leaked-already --- Chapters: 0:00 - Grains of Salt hours activated 1:35 - Why two USB-C ports? 3:24 - 12GB of RAM / PS4 Comparison 6:17 - A microphone! lmao! 7:39 - BIG boy!! ⏆

Sony announced the PS5 Pro earlier this week, and it had me asking a lot of questions about how it fits into the overall PlayStation strategy. Mark Cerny used his "big three" to talk about the device, so I implemented my own "big three" to talk about why I think the Pro might not be the thing Sony should be focusing on releasing right now. I also forgot to mention it doesn't have a disc drive!! --- Feel free to follow me elsewhere! Threads: https://www.threads.net/@brendonbigley Mastodon: https://idlethumbs.social/@brendon Blog: https://wavelengths.online --- Chapters: 0:00 - Speedrunning the PS5 Pro Announcement 2:32 - Compulsion: Who is this thing for? 9:07 - Context: Why this is a weird thing to release right now 20:45 - Legacy: The real issue is the games 24:03 - Wrapping up --- ⏆

The Nintendo Switch 2 is rumored to be getting announced as soon as this month, which means this is my final shot at throwing a bunch of predictions and wishes at the wall before we learn more form Nintendo themselves. This is a longer one because as much as I love the Switch, there is SO much I would love to see changed in the next iteration. --- Feel free to follow me elsewhere! Threads: https://www.threads.net/@brendonbigley Mastodon: https://idlethumbs.social/@brendon Blog: https://wavelengths.online --- Chapters: 0:00 - Nintendo Switch 2 Prediction Time 1:39 - What will the name be? 12:35 - Will the Switch 2 be backwards compatible? 15:34 - Performance Improvements 22:25 - Bring themes back! Make it fun! 27:23 - Please fix the eShop 33:37 - Ergonomics and so much about the Joy-Cons 40:25 - Thank you SO much for listening! --- ⏆